Victoriana, Edward station

Hi, finally I've managed to scratchbuild another building for my Victorian wargame table! This time I decided to build a train station which also can be used a some sort of warehouse or trading station with a loading dock. The building was build by constructing a cartonboard structure and then I glued some different sorts of textured wall paper on it representing brickwork. The windows and doors were made by using bits of cartonboard and wood. The building only took some hours to construct and the painting took about half an hour!

The building was based upon an old of hardboard wood that I had found earlier this week! I've also added a signboard which could be removed as it's attached with some cheap magnets. I'm really pleased with the building and I'm looking forward to build some more houses which can be used for some Victorian wargames and VBCW wargames!

I hope you enjoyed this post!

Greets,

Zulu impi assembled!

Hi, here's some more progress on my Wargames Factory Zulu's. Not as much as I wanted but all the Zulu's are finally assembled and based on five eurocent pieces. With all these steps done I can now give them a black basecoat all by hand! I hope to finish them this long weekend as I have ordered a box of Perry Miniatures Ansar which will probably arrive monday or tuesday. As soon as they arrive expect a full review of these beautiful miniatures!

The loot of this years crisis will also appear as soon as I finished this bunch of Zulu's. But here's a small list of things you can expect to see within several days. First of all two boxes of Airfix Bofor guns and their tow trucks, two Airfix Scorpion kits, two Hät guns, some small Black Cat Bases items, Foundry Victorian police, European and African civilians and some other bits!

So stay tuned for more miniature madness!

Greets,

Even more natives!

Hi, Finally there will be a new and steady flow of new blog posts! As I'm trying to finish my unassembled and unpainted Zulu warriors. As I've heard the news that Warlord Games will release their new plastic Zulu's within two weeks! Motivated to finish my Zulu's before I buy some new ones! I've managed to base eight warriors and I have assembled another eight! I hope to finish them before Crisis, fingers crossed. When I finish of these last warriors my Zulu or native army will count 50 warriors! I'm aiming to build my Mbuij Mayian army with some more additionnal Warlord Games Zulu's and some Perry Miniatures Ansars which could also be used as generic Muslim warriors or Barbary pirates!

In the meanwhile I even managed to assemble 16 Victrix Imperial Guard units, well they were just grenadiers from the flank companies but I will use them as a small elite unit! Assembling this unit made me almost mad as the plastic bits are way to fragile for my hands. in progress of assembling a 12-men unit I've managed to break two rifles and one banner pole! Therefor I've decided to make my own banner pole made out of rather strong plastic!

I hope you enjoyed this update and stay tuned for a bunch of purchases within several days!

Greets,

More natives

Hi, I've finally managed to write a new post for the blog! I've been painting a lot recently so you will probably see some painted miniatures and terrain the coming weeks! The first miniatures I've started to paint are some more native warriors for my ongoing VSF project. And when I was painting some new reinforcements, I decided to partially repaint the older natives as their shields were quite boring! So I've added some black and brown patches to represent a cow's hide. First of all the partially repainted miniatures.

And secondly some reinforcement which will be used as elite unit as they wear rings in their hair. The units contains nine warriors equipped with assegais, spears and knobkerries, the chieftain is equipped with a knobkerrie and wears a ring decorated with feathers.

A close up of the elite warriors, I've decorated their shields in the same way I did with the older natives.

I hope you enjoyed this small update!

Greets,

Victoriana, 1891

Hi, here's a set-up I've made to see if I have enough terrain to fill up my table for a big game! The town I've created in the pictures is Victoriana, the main British colony in Mbuij Mayi located at the Lake of Mburi. In an attempt to fill up the table I've used all sorts of buidings and even started some more! In the future I hope to use the table to recreate the large game "Revenge of the Idol" in which the Mbuij Mayians try to regain their idols which were stolen by the British Colonial Army. The game would involve some hundred(s) natives and about 70 British and civilians. But it's another project which will take forever ...

In the first picture you can see the port of the colony which is overlooked by Fort Edward. The docks and warehouses are still under construction but you can see the intention.

In this picture you can see the corner of the table which is situated right of the harbor. This place will be probably used as an objective in which the natives must free some tribal leaders from the redoubt/ prison. The redoubt is made by stacking crates which are homemade. In this picture you can also see one of the larger square huts of which 4 were made and one smaller circular hut.

Another view of the harbor, with in the left corner a small beach with a smugglers/merchant hut. You can also see one of the idols which must be retrieved by the native rebel army. the pontoons on the photo were actually built for my Sealion Invasion force in 20mm and still need some finishing touches.

In the following picture you see the upper left corner of the table which houses the governors house which is partially walled.

In the last picture another overview of the colonial under construction, maybe I will set a bigger table in my wargame room of 2,5m x 1,5m! So I will probably need more buildings and other small bits!

Greets

Improvised British colonial rocket unit

Hi, here's another picture of one of my finished British units for Mbuij Mayi. This time a homemade rocket and three Foundry crew members. These rockets will not be very effective but they will certainly scare off native hordes!

I hope you like this small unit!

Greets,

15th Ironclad regiment

Hi, here's a photo of one of my units for my British colonial expedition force! This time, the 15th Ironclad regiment of which two companies are stationned at Fort Henry in Mbuij Mayi. The miniatures are made by Ironclad Miniatures and were again fully painted with GW paints.

The background story of the 15th Ironclad regiment can be found here in the Mbuij Mayi Journal!

Greets,

Kapiti warriors

Hi, here are some pictures of my Kapiti warriors for my Mbuij Mayi setting! The miniatures are wargame Factory zulu's but can be used for a whole array of native warriors as they are so generic as possible. The miniatures were painted with GW paint and based on 5 Eurocent pieces as it gives them some weight. They will probably get another coat of paint on the bases and will be varnished somewhere in the near future.

First of all my native gladiator and two spearmen.

Another bunch of natives armed with knobkerries and spears.

Second batch of native warriors again armed with spear and knobkerrie.

And the last batch!

Greets,

British landship "HMS Behemoth"

Hi, here's some progress I've made on my British landship the "HMS Behemoth" during the last month. This time, I've added the first deck of the tank which I completly made out of a wood and cartonboard superstructure covered with plastic card. After I had finished the deck, I decided to add the Airfix coastal gun which really fits the massive machine and while searching for the guns I also found a piece of an old plastic airport that I will use as a the upper balcony. The landship will really terrorise the natives as it is huge and will probably be able to kill hundreds of natives (if the steam engines don't blow up!)

I hope to finish this massive machine during the upcomming summer holiday!

I hope you enjoyed this small update, greets.

Colonial British gun crew

Hi, here are some recently finished British for my ongoing VSF project. The miniatures are made by Wargame Foundry and entirely painted with GW paints, the only things they know need is some basing and a gun to man!

I hope you like them, greets,

African convoy

Hi, here's the picture which I entered in the first round of the LAF forum painting competition. The convoy exists out of 3 Dixon Miniatures' porters from their excellent Dahomey range. The other 2 miniatures are from Foundry Miniatures' Darkest Africa range which I bought individually at bargain prices.

The Dixon Miniatures were shown before on this blog but I decided to partially repaint them to match the rest of the African civilian figures (10).

I hope you like them!

Greets,

Colonial houses

Hi, here's finally a new and decent post with some picture of my new terrain for my ongoing VSF-project. This time, two colonial houses which will be used as part of my British colonisation plans of Mbuij Mayi! These buildings were made as generic as possible and with materials which you can find in every household.

The houses some months ago:

The buildings are made out of cartonboard and based on soft hardboard textured with sand and PVA.

The houses some minutes ago:

The first house with a small shed, I really like the vines on the side which were made by attaching clumps of foliage with hotglue. The bases are decorated with the usual mix of flock and aquarium plants.

The front of the second house, the windows were made out of some sort of plastic material (really don't know the name even not in dutch) and were framed with pieces of used matches.

The two houses together, I've tried to imitate some sort of rusty tiled roof. In real the roofs are looking a bit better than in the pictures.

The mission post, will it be able to resist native attacks or will the post be overrun?

Greets,

More jungle bits

Well, I entended to stop building jungle terrain but I couldn't resist. This time I made four small vegetation bases and two large obstacles which will be used by natives to protect their villages against large predators or simply to block British railroads.

Maybe I will add more jungle. As I can be used for both 28mm and 20mm with a bit of imagination. But first of all I need to paint some miniatures!

The four small vegetation bases made with the same materials as my other jungle pieces.

The rear of the two rather large barricades, how large are those Mbuij Mayian predators?

The front of the barricades, the obstacles are made by using all sorts of twigs from my stashpile.

Obstacle 1, decorated with the usual mix of aquarium plants.

Obstacle 2, ready to hold of some predators or british supply trains!

Greets,

Outpost Henry finished!

Hi, here's my finished British outpost Henry! I started the build in June 2010, can believe it took my so long to finish the fort. The fort finally received his corrugated roof and foliage and is now ready to be used in some games (still need to finish off some porters, British and African warriors though!)

Some other post about the build:

Phase 1: http://wargameterrain.blogspot.com/2010/06/some-terrain.html

Phase 2: http://wargameterrain.blogspot.com/2010/12/outpost-henry-near-completion.html

I also plan to add a flagpole (thanks to Paul for the tip, I completly forgot that!) and some furniture for the inside of the fort such as field beds, weapon rack, supplies, a stove, ... when I have some good ideas and I'm in a terrain building mood

In this picture you can see a converted 28mm Wargames Factory British officer for scale purposes. He's located at the most fortified side of the fort which is enwalled with large tree trunks. This side of the fort also has a doorway which leads to the enwalled yard.

Here's you can see the front of the fort with the same 28mm figure.

On this picture you can clearly see the corrugated roof which I painted with a variety of grey colors and than added a Devlan Mud wash to represent rain marks.

Another shot of the fort, the foliage used to decorate the base was a homemade mix "woodfoliage", some ordinary green static grass and clumps of foliage. Before I decorated the base with flock I added some plastic plants to make the fort fit with my massive collection of jungle terrain.

And to finish, the fort with his removable rooftop.

Greets,

African porters and villagers

Hi, here are some pictures of my porters on the workbench! The group actually consists out of six porters, African woman carrying, African woman with walking stick, young boy and an European lady which's holding a cup of tea! All the miniatures are made by Foundry except for the four partially repainted Dixon Miniatures porters.

All of the flesh of these miniatures are painted and some of them also have painted clothes and jewelry.

The first six of the bunch. Next to the rear African woman you can see the European lady with a flesh basecoat of Bestial Brown.

Another four.

Some close up shots of the African lady.

Another close up of the painting on the clothes, really like to paint blue shades!

Greets,

Outpost Henry near completion!

Hi, here are some pictures of my outpost I'm building for my 1880 British! The fort is now basecoated, drybrushed but is waiting for a small corrugated roof and some additional drybrushing, foliage and flock. I really like the look of the fort but I'm dissapointed with the removable roof as the cartonboard has warped a bit!

The fort which will be used as an outpost for the British expedition force in Mbuij Mayi.

The inside of the fort, this room will probably be furnished with fieldbeds, a fire and maybe a weapon rack.

Greets,

British landship "HMS Behemoth"

Hi, here are some photo's of my landship "HMS Behemoth". The landship is made out of an old schoolwork vehicle and some wooden circles I found in my bitzbox(es). The tracks of this landship are made out of sturdy plastic strips which are covered with other plied bits of plastic.

I've now finished both tracks but hold the further design as I haven't found the right structural design to put upon the massive tracks. I'm sure the landship will be armed with several small turrets and a larger one. When finished the landship will be used by my British colonials during the conquest of the African Kingdom of Mbuij Mayi.

The tracks before I added the other plastic squares.

The tracks of the application of the plastic squares.

An overview of how the track looks.

More progress will follow but I ain't sure when!

Greets,

British navy gun crew

Hi, here's the third post about my VSF project! This time I'm showing to you my Foundry gun crew I've bought on Crisis 2010 and guess. Yes, on the Dave Thomas stand! Really liked the idea of boxes filled with loose Foundry figures of all sorts and era's at bargain prices! And on those bargains another discount!

Greets! I hope I can paint them all up fast before they disappear in the cabinet!

Porters and civilians

Hi, here yet another new post about recent purchases done to expand my VSF project. This time I'm showing you some African porters and a victorian lady complete with mule! All the figures are made by Foundry and were bought on the Dave Thomas stand during Crisis 2010. With special thanks to Dave Thomas for the discount!

The victorian lady and her bagage mule.

The porters and African civilians

The unpainted Foundry porter compared with a Dixon Miniatures porter

I hope enjoyed the post,

Greets,

Aeronef boarding party

Hi, here's another post about my ongoing VSF project set during the conquest of the African kingdom of Mbuij Mayi. This time I'm showing you one of my recent purchases the Ironclad miniatures: Boarding party.

I really love these figures because of their really cool body plates and modern pistols! These figures will be used as part of my Wargames Factory navy contigent as a boarding party which will enable the British to attack enemy aeronef crews in close combat.

I hope you enjoyed this small post about an almost forgotten project!

Greets,