Terrain For Hippos

Ishoo Forty For: Crashed Spaceship

2012-01-28T16:33:00.005+11:00

Greetings hippo fans! One of the iconic images of Sci Fi is the spaceship, and when you have enormous weapons if deadly death going off, you're sure to end up with crashed spaceships! A ship wreck is always a great centre piece for the table, and makes a fine objective. What's more, it's not exactly hard to build one either!

Take it away, Grot!

And there you have it, Hippo Fans! Of course, this is only a part of the ship, you can easily use the same techniques to built other parts - like the missing front end, or possibly some cargo pods!

Well, that about wraps it up for Post Apocalypse Month - our next ishoo will be going back to Fantasy.

Tournaments For Hippos

2012-01-26T07:48:00.004+11:00

It's Cancon this weekend, and practically all of my club mates are making the annual pilgrimage to Canberra to participate. Not only are they going to play, but somehow they've wound up organising it. How does a Melbourne club end up running a tournament in Canberra?

Anyway, I thought I'd better take this opportunity to wish them all luck, and present a few tips on how to win tournaments. For hippos.

And now you know why I never win tournaments! Good luck and may the dice gods smile upon you!

HeroQuest Figures

2012-01-24T20:34:00.002+11:00

Well, there they are, the figures from the HeroQuest set which I found at an opshop in Wonthaggi for $3.

This is the complete set, all mugging furiously for their group photo.

Here are all four heroes. Although they are all painted in very different colours, I ensured that they all had some grey on them as a way of linking them.

The wise and powerful wizard duels with the sinster and trecherous chaos mage (who seems to spend a lot of time in the quest book being proxied in as every other character who doesn't have a figure)

The magnificent muscles of the barbarian are more than a match for these scrofulous skeletons.

The Dwarf's enormous nose is so magnificent the Goblins fear to even approach it!

The foul and flatulent fimir suprises the Elf in the library...

Further photographs of all the figures can be found at the Gentlemens Wargames Parlour.

This is why we go to the Op Shop.

2012-01-21T14:59:00.002+11:00

Yes, that is HeroQuest. Yes it is complete, except for one of the cardboard surrounds for a piece of furniture, and some damage to the Orcs and Goblins. Yes it is from the Op Shop. Yes it cost $3.

And now you know why we go to the Op Shops.

PA month: Ishoo Forty-Free: Derelict Statue

2012-01-19T21:22:00.003+11:00

Statues always make great terrain, and they make a wonderful way of getting rid of old toys - or in this case, a shampoo bottle(!) What better feature of your post apocalyptic wasteland than a giant statue covered in scrawled slogans, and worshipped as an idol by the wastelanders? And it's dead easy as well!

And there you have it!

If you want to replicate the 'statue of liberty' colours on The Stig, the exact shades used were Vallejo Model Colour Green Sky and Pale Blue.

Don't forget to vote on the reader's choice poll for the next ishoo! Until then hippo fans, stay frosty!

DVD Special Features: Terrain For Hippos UNCUT!

2012-01-18T15:50:00.003+11:00

It seems like every time you wander into a DVD shop or video library you are assaulted by uncut versions of movies. Well, never one to lose out on a trick, Terrain For Hippos presents: 15mm Fortnight Shuttle: The UNCUT version!

(Terrain For Hippos wishes to advise parents that the images below may not be suitable for children. Or sentient life forms for that matter.)

Reader's Gallery opens!

2012-01-18T09:08:00.003+11:00

At last there's a place for all you hippo fans to show off your work! I've decided to add a reader's gallery page (there's a link at the top of the blog, next to the one for the compometition page). If you've got any pics of completed projects based on TFH ishoos, or just using techniques from TFH, send them in and you can bask in the spotlight of public adoration!

PA Month Freebie: Printable Billboards

2012-01-17T17:05:00.003+11:00

For those of you without the skill or inclination or time to design your own billboards, Terrain For Hippos is proud to present this set of downloadable billboards and signs. Just print them out, cut them out and stick them down!

These are basically 28mm scale, but you can easily use them in smaller scales by simply shrinking the image when you print!

Don't forget the reader's choice poll - there's still time!

(unless you're reading this after it's over, in which case you should have read it earlier, shouldn't you?)

PA Month: Ishoo Forty-Too: Billboards

2012-01-15T17:54:00.004+11:00

I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but the fact remains. The lack of advertising billboards and posters in most SF terrain collections never feels right to me. They are everywhere in the modern world, so why do they always disappear when we make our SF terrain? Is it a question of difficulty? Let's see...

Well, there you go! The hardest part of the whole build is making the billboard images. You can easily find some to download, or, if like Grot and I, you are good with graphics, you can easily make some up. I always like to make them relevant to the setting or the group of players (hence the billboard advertising HCG!)

Not up to making your own signs? Well, this is your lucky day, because we've got some you can download!

See you next time Hippo Fans - and don't forget to vote on the latest reader's poll!

PA Month: Ishoo Forty-Wun: Rubble Heaps

2012-01-10T19:33:00.005+11:00

One thing you notice about any post apocalyptic setting is all the rubble piled around; from a wrecked cars in Mad Max and the collapsed buildings in Fallout to the teetering towers of rubbish in Judge Dredd's Cursed Earth, rubble is everywhere. It's not hard to make rubble, as long as you've got a good supply of interesting junk...

Simple eh? The real trick is to find plenty of good, quality junk. Here are a few ideas:

Old broken toys - if you don't have any, try the local opshops (or charity shops or thrift shops if you live somewhere they insist on using the wrong terminology)
Cheap new toys from $2 shops or your local equivalent
The insides of anything mechanical and broken.
Spare model it parts (I'm very lucky to have a huge stash of surplus 1/35 junk a mate offloaded on me when he decided he wasn't cut out for modelling.)
Plastic rods, beams etc. from Plastruct or similar suppliers of plastic heavy engineering looking stuff.
Any interesting little things you spot really!

DVD Special Features: The Making of Terrain For Hippos.

2012-01-09T09:38:00.005+11:00

See Modelling World.

See Fritzi.

PA Month: Modelling For Hippos Ishoo Fiv: MCA accessories.

2012-01-08T20:20:00.005+11:00

Welcome back to Post Apocalypse Month irradiated hippo fans! In our last ishoo we looked at preparing some combat cars for Muscle Car Apocalypse. This ishoo, we're going to look at some interchangeable magnetic accessories for the fronts of those cars. MCA allows for extra armour, ram bars, ram spikes and dozer blades (at the moment!) so let's have a look at making a magnetic version of each of those shall we?

Part One: Ram Spike.

Part Two: Extra Armour plate

Part Three: Ram Bar

Part Four: Dozer blade

And there you are hippo fans! Now you can easily change the equipment on your cars and try out some different configurations!

Come back next time when we'll be looking at making smoking wreckage and rubble!

PA MONTH: MFH Ishoo For: Muscle Car Apocalypse Cars

2012-01-05T08:53:00.007+11:00

Welcome to the first instalment of Post Apocalypse Month hippo fans! It this ishoo we'll be looking at how to build your first Muscle Car Apocalypse cars (next ishoo we'll be looking at making some interchangeable magnetised option parts for them!). For this you'll need some 1:32 or close toy cars, plasticard, plastic tubes, rods and girders, and some weapons (ours come from a Tamiya WW2 weapons set). We'll be looking at making two cars, one very simple and the other a bit more adventurous. Take it away Grot!

Part One: Coupe with tuned engine (Ford Mustang Mach 1)

Part Two: Roadster with Souped-Up Engine, Extra Armour and Mounted MG (Mercedes-Benz SLK)

And there you are hippo fans! Making MCA cars is really very easy, it's just a matter of sticking things on in a fairly haphazard way, and seeing what sticks!

A few things to keep in mind:

Bending plastic is always a bit tricky since it snaps if you go to far. Be gentle, and be gradual.

The pastel dust weathering trick looks great, but it can be messy. Don't be tempted to varnish over it, the varnish washes the dust away! The dust is quite capable of sticking to the model on it's own.

When installing armour over wheel wells, make sure the wheels still fit!

Well, that's it for now. Next ishoo we'll look at making some things to magnetise to the fronts. You can see a Ram Spike and an imporvised Dozer on the cars in the pic above, but there's more to come!

Post Apocalypse Month schedule

2012-01-04T09:32:00.004+11:00

Just a tentative schedule of what to expect during Post Apocalypse Month on TFH. A lot of this will probably vary, change, mutate or move around depending on motivation and materials. We'll mostly be looking at setting yourself up to play Muscle Car Apocalypse, a set of rules I wrote about this time last year, and intend to introduce to LSCWC (my school lunchtime games club) this year. At some point I'll also try to get Apocalypso! done and uploaded (this is a set of rules I wrote in 2006 - I'm trying to update them and design paper models so the system can be printed and played quickly)

Anyways, here's a rough schedule-ish thingee.

Building Muscle Car Apocalypse Cars
Building magnetic MCA accessories
MCA terrain, including wrecks, smoke etc.
Building an MCA semi trailer (one of the scenarios needs one)
Building MCA figures (you don't always need figures since most action takes place iside the cars, but they can be useful)
Generic SF/PA ruins
Retro Hoverbike (This will not be a step-by-step article, it's too complex, but I intend to use it for MCA, so it may as well be showcased here.)

After that lot, we might have a look at radioactive waste pools and things of that ilk, plus of course, Apocalypso!

House cleaning and Auctions

2012-01-02T17:29:00.002+11:00

I am currently engaged in a frenzied cleaning of my house, which, although it prevents progress of PA month, has revealed a number of things which I do not want and which are too good for the op shop. So I'm auctioning them off on ebay. Mostly books and audio books, the odd miniature. Comics and military history mostly.

You should go and buy some. This hippo ain't cheap to feed.

Post Apocalypse Month: Coming soon!

2011-12-31T08:58:00.003+11:00

Next month is Post Apocalypse Month on TFH and we'll be looking at all sorts of post-nuclear goodies. Mostly we'll concentrate on Muscle Car Apocalypse, which I am hoping to get running at my school wargames club next year. For this reason, you will need a few special materials, so I thought I'd put up a shopping list before we start.

1/32 (or close) cars. MCA is a 1/32 scale game, but anything from 1/30 o 1/38 will do. Since most toy cars are made on standardised chassis they tend to fudge the bodies to fit. For our purposes, this is really not a big problem. 1/32 scale diecast toy cars are widely available, I usually get them from eBay for about $10aud each. Sometimes you will find things at op shops, so keep an eye out! (I got a New Ray 1/32 Peterbilt tanker truck for $1.50!)
1/32 or 1/35 weapons. 1/35 is the most common military modelling scale, so there is no problem finding lots of weapons and goodies to fit to your cars. Several companies make sets of plastic weapons for customising their kits or building dioramas, invest in a few of these and you're laughing.
1/32 or 1/35 figures. Again, there are tons of these available. The plastic ones are quite affordable, and you usually get quite a few in each set, so a single box will often give you a whole gang.
Plasticard, plastic rod, girders etc. You'll want plenty of these things to add armour, rams, bulldozers etc. to your vehicles. Get different sizes and shapes of everything.

Well, that's the major stuff. It's generally fairly cheap and readily available, although I have found some car types harder to find than others (SUV, Jeeps and other 4wd types have been rather thin on the ground for some reason). Most toy cars depict the more glamorous and interesting models, so expect to find two doors rather than four. Although this technically makes the car a Coupe, I tend to fudge things a bit and call it a Sedan if it's big enough and obviously has a back seat. Number of doors don't count for anything in the rules, number of seats do.

Ishoo Forty: Dwarven Forge

2011-12-30T20:25:00.003+11:00

When Dwarves chose to live above ground, they often find gainful employment in the towns of humans as smiths and metal workers. For this reason, the distinctive Dwarven school of architecture is seen across the old world. Dwarves build entierely in stone and metal, dismissing wood as a mere fuel source. Although the Dwarves have a distinctive style of building, it is not a hard style to emulate. How hard? Well, here's one Grot prepared earlier...

And there you are, hippo fans! Peeling foam core can be a bit tedious, but the results are worth it. If you are using a thicker foamcore, say 5mm, there's no need for the inner and outer walls - the sheet is quite strong enough on it's own. It's important to paint the foam with PVA, this helps to protect it as it's a bit delicate. It's vital if you are going to be using spray paints.

Anyway, that's it for now, and that's it for this year. Make sure you come back next year for Post Apocalypse Month, which will run for the whole of January!

Warhammer Cookbook: Dwarves

2011-12-30T07:39:00.004+11:00

I've decided to gradually post the Warhammer cookbook on TFH, one page per month, so here's this month's page!

Dwarven Architecture

2011-12-27T20:47:00.002+11:00

I know I promised a Dwarven forge rather a long time ago... Well, I actually did start work on it, but I was not happy with the way it looked, so I pulled the plug on the project (a first for TFH - I do not like to admit defeat). A new version is coming very soon, I promise you. IN the mean time, here are some notes on Dwarven architecture.

Dwarves never use wood. The 7th edition Warhammer army book made this quite clear - wood is for burning, nothing else.
Most of the time, Dwarves live underground, so you don't have to make buildings for them anyway (of course, this is cheating!)
Dwarves revere their ancestors, and will usually carve their stone work into representations of them. Pillars will often take the form of huge stone warriors, and doors are often mouths.
Dwarves are short. This means lower doors. It also means windows are positioned closer to the ground. Getting this right is very important as it adds character and racial flavour to the model, BUT it must still be in proportion. They might be short, but they are also wide, so doors are proportionally wider than human doors.
Dwarves like stone. Lots and lots of stone.

And as a special treat, here are some old photos of Kazad Grunks, a dwarven hold army display board I built for a mate many years ago. When I had a crap camera. And always tended to scale the photos down so they were really small anyway. Sorry about that. You'll have to squint a bit.

Merry Orcsmas people!

2011-12-19T12:25:00.002+11:00

Tis Orcsmas, that strange mid-winter time when Orcs and Goblins feel a strong compulsion to dress in bright red, don fake beards, and give one another brightly wrapped packages, rather than the usual axe to the face. No one quite knows why they do it...

To help you celebrate this most unusual of festivals, the hippo and I have produced an orcsmas set, which you may print out and build at your leisure. It is indeed in 28mm scale, and fully compatible with the various other fantasy RPG tiles which infest my photobucket account.

The Warhammer Cook Book: Warpstone Cookies.

2011-11-30T16:16:00.005+11:00

I've been feeling a bit guilty about not posting anything for a while (I've had a Nurgle lord level cold, which, combined with the renovations to my nose, produced spectacular results), so here's something a little silly.

For my mate Pete's birthday earlier this year, I conspired with his brother to produce the Warhammer Cook Book to teach him some basic cooking skills... and TFH guest star Skveek put in an appearance. Check it out!

Actually, this is Skveek's second book appearance. His first ever appearance was in Baby's First Book Of Warhammer, which I made in collaboration with Pete for Greg's son. Later on I re-used him as a guest on TFH.

Well, there's a lot more of this stuff (one recipe for every official race, plus Araby and Halflings!) and it might find it's way online at some point if people are interested.

PS: I am working on Ishoo Forty. It's just going slowly.

Painting another man's chaos army...

2011-11-06T13:02:00.003+11:00

You might be wondering what has been going on and why there have been no posts in a while. Well, when Duelling Paintbrushes ended, my esteemed and skaven-sired opponent had a brilliant idea. HGC club member Ben is possessed of more chaos than sense. He is also possessed of no inclination to paint what ever, which means that he has owned some parts of his collection for as long as twenty years (probably more!) without painting them. Since I am possessed of relatively little chaos, but wish to be possessed of considerably more chaos, Greg suggested a cunning trade. I paint Ben's stuff, and in return, I get to keep some of Ben's stuff.

So far, I have completed a unit of 28 Tzeentch warriors, and 5 Slaanesh Dragon ogres (yes, I know Dragon Ogres can't be marked, I just painted them in the Slaanesh scheme). I've also made a fair sized dent in a unit of Slaanesh warriors. Yesterday, I took delivery of yet more models, which means I have the required minis for some big units of Knights, some Marauder Horsemen, and a plentitude of characters, along with an insane plan to convert some war altars.

One tremendous benefit of the arrangement is that Ben has so many wonderful old figures I would never be able to get hold of. I've been peppering the units I paint with these - many of which I have never seen before! Since Ben will not trade them to me (they are worth a lot after all!) I am painting as many of the really old things as I can so I can atleast have my fun with them.

Unfortunately, Ben has taken delivery, so I can only offer up some of the in-progress photos...

Here's the Tzeentch unit, complete apart from bases.

The old Warhammer Quest chaos warrior does duty as unit champion...

The first batch of Slaaneshi warriors

Duelling Paintbrushes: The end.

2011-10-23T10:26:00.003+11:00

October 23rd, the last day. Duelling Paintbrushes are laid down, the banjo music fades, and it's time to survey what has been done...

Well, most of it. I am staying with my parents while my sinuses recover from surgery, and I left the marauder unit and marauder horsemen unit behind. I also didn't bring sand or my camera, so bases are not finished, and I had to use my mother's camera. This is a strange experience - she has what is effectively my camera, but five years newer. It's superficially the same, but does almost everything differently and takes some getting used to. I cannot get decent photos out of it the way I can get them out of mine.

Sigh.

Anyway, I have now completed ten Nurgle marauders. These guys were converted from Flagalents back when the plastic ones first came out, and oyu cpuld (briefly) order them in a sensible box of twenty, rather than the traditional GW over priced box of ten. They are now painted. The other half of the regiment was half painted already, but I have not yet gone back to finish them off.

I have also painted my Jugger lord ay last, along with a Berserker champion from Reaper, who I intend to use as a hero in marauder units. Because he is very, very shouty.

I'll get better photos of everything involved in Duelling Paintbrushes when I get home next week.

Duelling Paintbrushes: The end is nigh.

2011-10-22T08:13:00.002+11:00

Well, duelling paintbrushes is almost over, and all I've done since the last post is half finish five more nurgle marauders. There is a very good reason for this.

On Wednesday, I entered the hallowed portals of the Alfred Hospital to have surgery performed on my notoriously dodgey sinuses and nasal system in general. On thursday I sat in a hospital bed all day waiting for the bleeding to stop (it's very hard to stop nasal bleeding - you can't exactly bandage the inside of your nose). On friday I was discharged and got back to my parents' place. I had a shot at painting, but the cocktail of pain killers, antibiotics and the inability to breath through a nose still full of blood and splints made it hard. I couldn't paint for long periods - I kept feeling dizzy and having difficulty focusing.

Which is why I have NOT painted twice as much as Greg yet. But I do intend to have another shot today, and I hope to get some Khorne characters completed.

Duelling Paintbrushes: Day Seven.

2011-10-16T20:38:00.002+11:00

Day Seven. The Khorne Marauders are completely complete, down to their bases. I've bought some chain, but not yet added it to the dog's collars or connected them up to the dog handler's hands.

They've also had their baptism of fire in a game against Greg yesterday. I took 2500 points of chaos, all of which was Nurgle apart from the marauders. I also took several illegal items because I've only played about five games of 8th edition, and just didn't realise. Greg took 2500 points of empire, and used the Kislevites as a detachment of halbardiers because he didn't have enough of them to use them as anything else.

The Marauders were the last of my units to be destroyed, and my Chaos lord has earned the new name 'Lord McWailsondetachment' for his continued efforts to singlehandedly remove every Kislevite model from the game (he didn't quite make it - three fled off the table without being killed!)

I also took a box of half finished chaos conversions, which Greg looked into, which resulted in him demanding I finish the Marauder horsemen I'd converted and started many moons ago. This is what they looked like this morning:

And this is them this evening, now finished (although I think I forgot the corpse's hair, and I must replace the missing back-banner).

I've also spent some time with the Jugger Lord. His jugger now sports spiffing collars, and will soon sport a spiffing, throne style saddle.

Duelling Paintbrushes: PFH Ishoo For: Khorne Marauders

2011-10-13T17:58:00.004+11:00

Sometimes you just NEED a horde sized unit and you need it now. Painting a unit that size can be a very daunting task, but it needn't be! With a few speed painting techniques and a good run up, you can burn through regiments faster than you think! Is it quick you ask? Well, it's Day Four of Duelling Paintbrushes, and I am almost finished painting the whole 32 man unit. How hard you ask? Hippo level.

They won't win any prizes, but they will win battles, and they will win them fast. Well, they would if it was anyone but me using them. As it is, they'll be crushed ignominiously everytime I use them...

Duelling Paintbrushes: Day Three

2011-10-12T21:21:00.003+11:00

Day three, and another rank of Khornrauders completed. I was bored of just painting rank and file, so I threw in a unit filler doggy this time round.

Duelling Paintbrushes: Day Two.

2011-10-11T21:10:00.003+11:00

Day Two. 21:10. My eyes are going. I've been painting non-stop for about two hours. I've remembered why I never finished the unit when I first started painting them several months ago. Khorne are boring to paint. But there are another seven of them completed. Just two more batches, and one of those includes the unit fillers, which are much more interesting to paint.

I've taken photos for a PFH ishoo on these guys, but I honestly cannot be bothered posting it now. Maybe tommorow.

Duelling Paintbrushes: Day One

2011-10-10T20:54:00.002+11:00

Day one. Despite my opponent's cheating (he failed calendar reading 101 and started yesterday) I remain confident. Mostly because all he managed to do in that day was undercoat and base his stuff. In my first day I have completed the first batch of Khornrauders, apart from basing which I always do at the end. So, seven down, twenty-five to go. Also I have started to convert up a Khorne lord on Juggernaut, using the Avatars Of War Netherhound (a sort of Chaos Cerberus). He'll do double duty as Arbaal the Undefeated, who is not very impressive, but will add colour to the mighty Gates of Kislev battle.

Here's the first batch of Khornrauders:

In keeping with the Nurgle part of my Chaos army, I'm using somewhat more 'muted' colours than the usual Chaos schemes. I'm also using an odd skin tone since these guys are half-beastman due to their fanatical worship of their blood-thirsty god.

And here's the Jugger Lord. There'll need to be a bit more work on him, especially the shield, and the saddle.

In the next thrilling instalment of Duelling Paintbrushes, I intend to provide a full Painting For Hippos write up of the Khornrauder technique. It's not quite as much fun as painting Nurgle, but it's fairly quick.

15mm Fortnight:TFH Ishoo Firty-Nin: Alien Monolith

2011-10-09T13:51:00.004+11:00

It's sunday afternoon, 15mm Fortnight is almost over, but there's just time for one more project. This time we're going to look at some Alien Architecture. It can be quite a challenge making something of obviously non-human origin. One favourite way is to use as many round or curved shapes as possible, because you rarely see those in our buildings. Curves can be very hard to produce. You could use round packaging, dessert tubs, plastic plates etc, but you often run into problems with getting paint and glue to stick to the slick plastic these things are made from. There must be an easier way... possibly one involving hippos...

There you have it hippos fans! The final instalment of 15mm Fortnight. I think we've proved that painting, modelling and terrain building in 15mm scale are so easy a hippo could do them quite conclusively, don't you?

Don't forget to vote in the latest People's Choice Poll, and stay tuned for Duelling Paintbrushes, which starts tomorrow. After that, we'll be back to our normal haphazard programming...

15mm Fortnight: Alien and AI figure showcase

2011-10-09T09:17:00.002+11:00

As promised, here are some higher quality pics of the Space Pirates, along with some of the drone and mech units for the Ghost Legion.

First up, here are the space pirates we painted up in PFH Ishoo Too. They are lead by the fearsome Zorn Deathfist, in his mighty suit of powered armour (a GZG Cyclops actually), and will eventually be accompanied by a squad of huge brutes (Eureka 18mm armoured trolls) and transported in a range of improvised drop ships built from toy cars.

Here are the Ghost Legion's AI controlled units; a pair of Mobile Autonomous Cannon and six spider droids, all from GZG. There are also some GZG Micro Grav drones in the works.

This is how I'm indicating the spider droid shields: disposable plastic shot glasses. Each pack only has five of any given colour, but I do have a second pack (I'm just not sure where...)

15mm Fortnight: Human Figure Showcase

2011-10-08T15:10:00.002+11:00

Now that I have my good camera back, it seemed a fine opportunity to take some better photos of the various painting projects involved in 15mm Fortnight, as well as some others which might help to inspire.

Today we'll look at the human faction figures I have painted, tommorow we'll look at the parts of my Space Pirates which are painted so far (they won't be based until tomorrow!)

First up, here are the stalwart men of the Radium Falls Militia; hard working colonists during time of peace, but ready to take up arms (any arms!) to defend their homes. Each member supplies his or her own equipment, so they are a fairly eclectic mix of various GZG ranges. They also make use of improvised transport, usually what ever trucks are involved in their day jobs!

Next are the Radium Falls Mining Co. Security Team. The RFMC owns Radium Falls, and is responsible for it's security. They employ a small force of professionals, and also provide the command structure and leadership for the militia in time of crisis. At present the force is fairly small, but they have a few new toys on the way. The models are Eureka Ventaurans.

Finally, the really serious boys, the Ghost Legion Mercenary Free Company. These are professional soldiers of fortune employed by the RFMC. They have better training and equipment, and the shiniest toys. The models are Critical Mass ARC fleet (it's the GruntZ starter army for that faction actually) along with a squad of GZG power amrmour. They've actually got some more toys on the bench, but they are not quite done yet - they will probably appear in tomorrow's update.

All of the figures seen here have been painted with a mix of Citadel, Tamiya and Vallejo paints, using the techniques shown in both of the Painting For Hippos ishoos featured in 15mm Fortnight.

15mm Fortnight: Painting For Hippos Ishoo Too: Space Pirates.

2011-10-06T21:09:00.002+11:00

Welcome to another thrilling instalment of 15mm Fortnight! In this ishoo, we're looking at how to paint non-human 15mm figures; specifically Ground Zero Games' Alien Mercs, which form the basis for my Space Pirate army. One of the main challenges with a non-human paint job is finding the right skin tone; you don't want them too look too human, but you don't want anything too outlandish either. After a bit of experimentation, I've found a system which looks just right, and which is so easy a hippo could do it!

And there you have it! A unit of obviously non-human origin, quickly and simply painted. Like the militia from our previous instalment, these guys were painted inside an hour.

Coming Soon: Duelling Paintbrushes.

2011-10-05T15:27:00.005+11:00

Greg of the Hoodling's Hole has challenged me to Duelling Paintbrushes!

The rules are fairly simple:

Start painting on October 10th.
Finish painting on October 23rd (the day of the Status Bellum Tournament)
You must paint a unit of 32 figures (or equivalent with unit fillers)- Greg will paint the Kislevites I converted for him, I will paint a unit of Khorne Marauders I built some time ago and never got round to painting.
Time permitting, you can model and paint any number of matching characters to go with the unit.

When he proposed the event, Greg assumed I would easily defeat him due to my much faster painting style, so we added the bit about characters. Then I found out I'd be going to hospital on the 19th, which might just even the playing field.

Needless to say, I will keep you all updated on the status of the challenge.

Annual Terrain Compometition: A Winner Is You!

2011-10-05T10:05:00.004+11:00

Results for the annual terrain compometition are now in!

Juniors: James Ellis.

James is one of my students, and built a small watch tower over two lunchtimes. He doesn't have internet access at home, so he gave me the model to photograph (hence the 15mm projects in the background!).

James has used a thick cardboard tube, foamcore base, and thin cardboard for tiles and stone work. The whole thing was a bit of a rush project, so hopefully he'll improve in future!

Seniors: Terry Mason.

Here's Terry's own description of his project:

"Here's a trio of Trollkin huts for warmachine made using techniques learned from your site. I was very enthused by the appearance of the towel as roofing, but overall I think I could have done better with the paint jobs. I used blue foam from local company Foamex, balsa wood for the doors (scored for the 'board' effect, and with balsa cross beams), and PVA glued towelling for the roof over a cardboard cone."

Terry is a very cunning man - he used a Warmachine area of effect template as a template for cutting out the three layers of blue foam used in the project.

Well done Terry and James! You've both won the fabulous and shiny prizes outlined in the rules! And remember Hippo fans, next year it could be you!

15mm Fortnight: Completed 15mm trucks.

2011-10-04T21:32:00.002+11:00

While I waited for the tissue paper tarp on the back of the second truck to dry, I ended up building a Grav Ambulance for my medic to hoon around in. The ambulance uses basically the same techniques as the normal truck, but obviously it's a different shape. The anti-grav pods are made from rectangular section plastruct tubes and 1mm plasticard, the flashing light is a small googly eye.

I intend to design and print decals for these vehicles, but I won't have access to a high quality colour printer until next week when I got back to work, so that'll have to wait.

Anyway, here are some pics of the three completed 15mm scratch built trucks. Paint is a mix of Vallejo, Citadel and Tamiya. Part of the plan is to have the trucks colour coded to their squads; Green Squad drives a green truck, red squad a red and so forth.

Why not have a go at building your own trucks? It's really not very hard, and it's terribly rewarding!

Next time, Hippo fans!

15mm Fortnight: Modelling For Hippos Ishoo Free: 15mm Trucks

2011-10-03T20:51:00.004+11:00

When I first posted some pics of my scratchbuilt 15mm trucks on various forums, a lot of people were amazed that I'd even consider scratchbuilding at that size. But sometimes you just have to scratchbuild to get the look you want, and really, it's not very hard! I will admit that this is a harder project than the 15mm shuttle we tackled last week, but it's not that much harder - in fact most of the increased difficulty comes from working on much smaller components.

I must apologise in advance for the quality of the photos - I left my camera at my parents' place by accident, so I had to use my old video camera's still mode, and it kept trying to die...

Anyway, here's Grot to take you through the basics of 15mm truck building!

And there you have it! It might be a touch fiddly to manipulate the small components, but it's really not very hard at all! Tommorow I'll post pics of the painted truck along with another I build using mostly the same components, but with a slightly different layout and finish.

Meanwhile, here are the plans: