Blog Action Day 2010

Hi, today I'm posting about the new Blog Action Day! Many of you now think what is Blog Action Day? Well, it's an annual event that unites the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue on a particular day. The aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion about an important issue that impacts us all! If you have an own blog, please join this noble initiative!

Link to the site for more information and eventual signup:

http://blogactionday.change.org/

On the right side of this post you can see a gadget that you can place on your blog if you're interested and you should be! If you click on the gadget you can sign a UN petition about the lack of clean water for everyone.

So stay tuned on the 15th of October for a post about the issue "water"

Greets,

How to: Easy Pontoon Bridge

Today I'm presenting to you a pontoon bridge tutorial which could be used for all scales and all periods. Such as all my terrain, this pontoon bridge is made as cheap and generic as possible. However I intentioned to build a pontoon bridge, the pontoon pieces could also be used to represent rafts and barges, ideal for Operation Sealion and the Russian flotilla on the Wolga. Further you can also use this to create jetties for your harbor terrain.

Step by step

First of all the bridge that I intend to build is made out 4 individual pontoon pieces or rafts. The basic construction of a pontoon piece is a cartonboard square. Due to the lack of any thick cartonboard I used 3 thin squares and hotglued them upon each other.

After the previous step you can now tape the sides and reinforce the weak corners with some extra tape. This way you create a sturdy workable surface and it also makes the painting easier. You can also undercoat this piece in dark brown to avoid visible gaps of cartonboard when you have added the planking.

Now you need to remove the round sides of the wooden sticks with a plier or scissor. For my pontoon pieces I used 12 sticks a piece. In this stage I also placed two push pins to represent bollards. On the photo you can see my pontoon piece with a 20mm  Airfix Opel Blitz ready to disembark upon the English shoreline during the fictional Operation Sealion

In the next stage I coated the piece twice with a dark brown color similiar to GW's scorced brown. But please use craft paints of the same color instead of the rather expensive Games Workshop colors for terrain making. Large tubes of craft paints go for almost the same price as these paints and are more suited for this kind of work.

The next step is to drybrush the piece with a mix of the dark brown and some off-white. To do so you use a stiff flat brush and add some paint then you remove the paint on a piece of paper or fabric tissue untill there's almost no paint left. Then you carefully brush this over the details to highlight these parts with the lighter tone.

After this step we have finished one part of the pontoon bridge to cross a river the size of the rhine you will need a couple more of these pieces but for most wargame rivers four to seven pieces will be sufficient. As you can see the pieces look quite good and are easy to make. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and make sure to check out the other useful tutorials of Wargame News and Terrain.

More tutorials can be found here

My flock stock

Hi, it has been a while since I posted some news due to school! But today I want to share with you my basing materials mostly flock and static grass. The basing material is of all sorts of manufacturers such as Noch, Busch, Faller and has been gathered from different shops throught out France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg. My flock supply is stored in a cabinet with 3 shelves in my wargame room next to my working desk.

Here's a picture of the first shelf which contains moss, pieces of slate, wood-bases brown flock and swamp grass. I mostly use the swamp grass to create an unique sort of mixture to base my junglepieces but I also used it to base my Spanish windmills.

The second shelf contains almost all sorts of flock stored in coffee jars so it's easy to use them. You can also see 2 sorts of large flock pieces which I use to make trees and to decorate terrain and miniature bases.

The last shelf contains: Kornfeld flock, really nice chunky pieces of flock and 2 sorts of flock. The kornfeld flock will be probably used to decorate voltigeur bases and the nice chunky pieces will be used allround.

I hope you liked this post about the more logistical side of wargaming!

Greets,

Lots of Wargames Factory on the paintingdesk!

Hi, here are some pictures of the miniatures I managed to paint last week. I was really astonished by the amount of 28mm miniatures I have painted that single week they almost outnumber 6 months of painting! Enough talking now some pictures!

First of all 9 25mm Hinchcliffe highlanders, these miniatures aren't part of any project but were a motivation to actually start painting my napoleonic French. The miniatures aren't based for any ruleset, so I decided to base them in groups of 3. That way it was possible to use all the miniatures I had. I really like the painting on these command figures especially the officer and drummer.

All the stands together, ready to be based and stored. Note the fixed bayonet on the second highlander from the right, second row.

Next are my generic native horde which will be used in every possible setting! These miniatures have been waiting on my paintingdesk for months but now they have finally recived their final brushwork. up to the basing and varnish!

Also completed is my British navy contigent, ready to engage the natives!

The follow pictures are part of my ongoing napoleonic project which aims to rebuild Napoleon's grande armeé! (Need to paint a lot of these buggers!) The first miniature is a soldier from the line infantry or more specified the light infantry due to his blue trouser. But I ain't so picky so he could also be used as ordinary line infantry!

Another fusilier.

Yet another fusilier.

Perry French napoleonic standard bearer, this miniature I like the most!

And the last miniature I managed to paint is "Dulle Griet" the crisis give away 2009.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Greets,

My desk

Hi, I wanted to share the place where I paint miniatures and construct my terrain. Some of you may have seen my desk in a previous post that I posted when I finally moved to my new wargame dedicated room but thinks have changed! First of all a photo of my desk a week after I moved into the room. Spacious workingspace, lots of storage possibilities and tidy, almost sterile!

Now a photo of my desk, 6 months later! I finally settled and all the things have found their place, the storagespace is now filled but not crowded, the workingspace is full of stuff but I added some new cartonboard storageboxes which come in really handy for the storage of miniatures, bits and pieces and sprues. The cabinet is now also decorated with lovely artwork from miniature boxes. What's where?

Cartonboard storages: Sprues, blisters, bits and pieces for scratchbuilding, old secondhand metal miniatures.

Wooden boxes (above the cartonboard storages): Miniatures in different stages of completion from based to basecoated and from partially painted to painted.

First shelf of the cabinet: construction tools, my hardboard bases in all sizes.

Second shelf of the cabinet: Finished miniatures waiting for some varnish, 1/72 miniatures, 1/72 vehicles still on sprue, small terrain pieces waiting to be finished.

Top shelf of the cabinet: Miniature boxes for inspiration and guide during paintingsessions.

PS: check out my new project: the colonial house visible on the desk (second picture)

I hope you enjoyed this small post about my beloved workingspace!

Greets,

On the paintingtable!

Hi, currently I'm in a painting mood so I can finally finish some larger number of figures! motivated by the awesome napoleonic battalions I found when surfing the net I decided to paint up some of my Perry Miniature French of which I have 2 unpainted battalions of 42 figures each and a heavy cavalry unit of 14 horsemen. I also painted a small unit of 25mm Hinchcliffe highlanders which I got free in a deal on The Lead Adventure Forum. I've now also finished 15 generic natives or Zulu and some british to face them in a clash of numbers and technology!

So what did I painted and in which stage are they:

- 5 28mm Napoleonic French (need varnish)

- 15 28mm Zulu (need basing and varnish)

- 6 28mm British seamen (need basing and varnish)

- 9 25mm Highlanders (need basing and varnish)

Next are:

- More Napoleonic French

- Armed British merchant sailors

- 20mm late war German battalion so I finally have some axis!

More photo's will follow soon!

Greets,

American Marine Battalions

Hi, I've recently also finished my 2 fullsized marine battalions so they can hopefully be used in a small pacific campaign if I ever finish the Japanese! To finish the Japanese I'm desperatly searching for the Waterloo 1815 70mm gun box saw him last year at crisis but I didn't bought him! Now I can only find the kit too expensive or too far away so I must pay lots of postage.

But back to the 2 marine battalions each battalion exist:

- 1 commander (1 figure)

- 4 squads of 4 bases (32 figures)

I also made a moral marker depicting the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima (loosely based on)

Close up of a small part of the 2 battalions.

Close up of the moral marker ( I still need to print and attach the flag)

The 2 fullsized battalions ready to embark upon campaign!

I hope you like the new progress in my 20mm collection.

Greets,

American Airborne Battalion

Hi, here's my finished airborne battalion with additionnal support provided by some jeeps. The figures used are Airfix for the figures and Atlantic for the jeeps. However Atlantic jeeps aren't really worldwar 2 but who cares well I'm not! I'm actually happy I've finally finished another battalion, this time with support!

The battalion exist:

- 1 commander (1 figure)

- 4 squads of 4 bases (32 figures)

- 2 snipers (2 figures still need basing)

The support exist:

- 1 jeep with radio and 2 crew

- 1 jeep with radio and 1 driver

- 1 jeep with machinegun and 2 crew

The battalion with commander in front.

Close up of some of the soldiers.

The support existing out of 3 jeeps and crew.

Another shot of the support maybe I will add a trailer with needed supplies.

I hope you like the battalion and support!

Greets,