Cardboard Buildings Repair

Around five or so years ago I picked up a Pireme Publishing Waterloo kit for around $10. I hastily made it without really thinking about its sturdiness and longevity. The completed item below in around 2011/2012.

5 years (ish) later I found them in the garage a few weeks ago in all sorts of states. Over time and poor storage they had warped and been damaged. So, as I am quite fond of them I started to repair them, firstly adding coffee stirrers in an attempt to strengthen them and also iron out the kinks. A good dose of glue gun and PVA also helped.

Le Belle Alliance  (below) was the first patient. What a world of difference the first few braces made and the piece is looking far better than it did, it also feels a lot sturdier.

So , onwards I continues bracing all the other kits as well as starting on Hougonmont kit that I had never touched.

 

I am currently basing them so I hope to have some completed pictures soon.

Happy New year !

Corgi Trucks

Hi,

During Archduke Piccilo and I's recent foray into Operation scale WWII games I needed to dramatically increase my logistics units for the Romanians.  As part of my Early War Desert Italian forces I was quite short on trucks so I went for the cheap version and simply press ganged several toy trucks into the fold.

Here in NZ, the Corgi Cadbury toy trucks are everywhere . I can usually pick up three for $5 so I managed to by around 12 of them about a  year ago. They are not 1/72, slightly larger but I don't mind as they are close enough.

A simply spray paint, wash and dry brush has provided me with a emergency backup if I need a lot of trucks at once.  Two of the eight are below:

After watching a terrain tutor youtube clip, I also thought I would experiment with basing vehicles but by using some old foamboard I had. I did not have 3mm board but thought I would try it anyway and am quite pleased with the results of my simple efforts.

I will add a final highlight to the trucks ( to tidy up a lot of the bad dry brushing) and some Italian unit markings but on the whole I am happy with the results.

Merry Christmas to you all !

Scratchbuilt Fantasy Building

I am currently in the process of repairing my 15mm Hougonmont and Le Haye Sainte which are Pireme Publishing card stock buildings. That shall be another post but it did spark my desire to complete several other projects that have long been on the back burner.


Marksman Gaming posted a tutorial some time ago on how he makes his Tudor Cottages. Seeing as I had nothing to do and wanted to practice\learn myself I decided to give one try. One small project I  have is to build some fantasy\medieval town buildings and my Zvedza fortress, as such I need buildings.

 The only building I have made before is the effort below some 10 years ago, not the prettiest thing I might add. Horrible actually but  I guess by 2037 I should be able to make something half decent.

The frames cut out per the recommendation.

Hey Presto - glue gun action, coffee stirrers. matchsticks and PVA glue later the frame is completed.

 I could knock this together in an evening so I was quite pleased with myself. I do want to make some more and all I had left was to paint it and see what it looked like in the light of day. A few glaring errors and improvements needed (Not sure why I used matchsticks) but cheap, recycled and easy to make. They will suit the purpose I want them for so that is good enough for me !

Of course I did try some other things too such as a 1/72 siege tower. I just needed something and this was better than anything else I had.

Italeri\Esci French Legere and Grenadiers.

So the project to rebuild the Army of Portugal continues !

Below are Esci French infantry painted as Legere (The bases need to be tidied as I have made a few mistakes as per usual).

These two stands are Brigade Solignac and Brigade Montmorand.

Esci Old Guard painted as the combined Grenadiers of Brigade Kellerman. I did these as I have 100 Old Guard Figures that I need to use up, so these will also be made into various Spanish\German units that I will need at some point.

Archduke and I also played an initial game of Operation Uranus , which he has posted about on his blog.

I was in Australia last week where it was hot, on return it was also hot in NZ so I have not painted anything. I find hot evenings not that enjoyable for painting so I tend to do basing and such as at least PVA glue dries very quickly. I shall post about my endeavors at a future time.......