Sunday 30 September 2012

Ishoo Sixty-Free: Village Square (La Place Des Pommes-Frites)


Welcome back to a further instalment in World War Two for Hippos! This time we're looking at making a village square for our little corner of Normandy, the village of Ouffettes Des Frite. In this ishoo, we're building the square itself, but the really important part of any French village square is not the cobblestone part in the middle - it's the cafes and shops around the outside! We'll be tackling those in Ishoo Sixty-Fiv (Sixty-For is a people's choice ishoo, and you have a day left to influence the outcome of the vote!)
Anyway, here's Herr Schmurtzige Hippoptomus to explain things...

PART ONE: La Place Des Pommes-Frites.

PART TWO: Dirt to cobble stone road adaptor pieces.





And there you are!
By this point I suspect a fair few of you are wondering why the village square is called 'The Place of French Fries.' There is a good reason. Really. Originally, the statue was to be a 15mm napoleonic or something, but much to my surprise Eureka Miniatures was closed when I went there on Friday. But I had a 15mm dog... One of my favourite crime novels is 'Monsieur Pommplemousse' (I have almost certainly spelled that wrong) by Michael Bond. The redoutable Aristide Pommplemousse is ably assisted in his offical job of resteraunt guide writer and his side-line of amateur detection by his ex-police blood hound, Pommes-frites. So naturally, if there was to be a statue of a noble hound in the village square, it was to be of Pommes-Frites! Never mind that the books all take place post war...

Anyway, you've got mere hours left to vote in the readers choice poll and enter the terrain compometition, so naturally, you should do both!

Ishoo Sixty-Too: Normandy Ruins



Welcome back to WW2 For Hippos! This ishoo we'll be looking at making some buildings to go with the bocage riddled roads from last ishoo. When you have panzers, dive bombers and bazookas going off in close proximity, you tend to end up with ruined houses. Which is just what we'll be looking at this ishoo. It's fairly easy to adapt the techniques shown to make intact houses as well (and in the near future, we'll be looking at making Normandy shops which will also help you with ideas and what Grot would call 'tekineeks')
Take it away, l'hippopotame minable!












And there you have it! Proof that there are some languages Grot speaks even worse than English! Also a nice ruin.

And if you hang around for about twenty minutes, you'll be just in time for Ishoo Sixty-Free: Le Place Des Pommes-Frite!

Thursday 27 September 2012

15mm worldwar two plans

Okay, time to let you allin on the plans for the 15mm world war two terrain set.
The picturesque (all french villages are picturesque by law) village of Ouefette Des Frites, Normandy includes
- several bombed out farm houses
- several not so bombed out farm houses by way of cotrast...
- bocage riddled roads
- a town square with the usual cafes and shops, some of which are bombed out
- fields of crops of various sorts
- freshly blasted smoking craters

And will also possibly include (depending on your votes!)
- golden sandy beaches
- bombed out church
- bombed roads
- Bunkers

Remember to keep those votes rolling in, along with entries to the terrain compomeition! Hell, the 15 mm roads are pretty quick, you could start following along with l'hippopotame minable and enter your first couple of projects before the deadline!

And rembember, the village of Oeufette Des Frite can be used in other historical conflicts such as the Naploeonic wars! Vive Le France! Vive l'hippopotame Minable!

Wednesday 26 September 2012

Ishoo Sixty-Wun: WW2 For Hippos Part One: Roads.


Welcome to World War Two For Hippos!
Now you may well be looking at the title and thinking "have years of gloo fumes finally taken their toll? Surely TFH has handled roads before?" And you would be right, TFH has handled roads before, but not this sort of roads! This time we are looking at the sort of country roads with hedges on either side which were such a feature of the allied invasion of Normandy. Yes hippo fans, WW2 For Hippos is all about building up a nice table worth of Normandy style scenery so you can liberate france. Obviously you'll be needing roads and hedges if you are going to do this properly, which is where Sergeant Grot comes in handy! Take it away, Sarge!













You see? Very different from the last time we tackled roads! There's a poll up to decide on the next people's choice ishoo, and all that remains to be said is stay tuned for the next installment of WW2 For Hippos where it's time to work on ruins!