Blotz River Barge

 Blotz do a River Barge, which is a suitable size to take one unit of Oathmark infantry, here shown with a 5x4 sabot stand of Human Archers.

As can be seen, the kit is made from MDF.

The kit contains two full size MDF panels and a smaller panel.

There are two dowels, one foe a mast, the other for a gaff, a boom or a crosspiece depending upon the period being modelled. There are fittings for a boom or a cross piece.

Assembly is simple, though it is worth checking the online instructions.

The MDF construction is very obvious with gaps between the panels.

Under Oathmark rules, this would be classified as a small ship, capable of carrying one full size (20 figure) unit. The foredeck is quite spacious and I would be tempted to add a light artillery piece (and crew) with the additional two ship crew to upgrade it to a large ship.

It will happily take a Renedra 5x4 rank sabot base.

Wrecked Starship

 First shot of a piece of Blotz Crashed Starship terrain on my new sectional base board.

Blotz Spawning Pool in the Frozen City

 The previous build of the Blotz Spawning Pool was for Ghost Archipelago. This one is for Frostgrave.

Skeletons move past the crumbling ceremonial pool, not caring what might have dislodged the stones...

The Blotz 28mm Spawning Pool comes as one medium sized sheet of MDF. It has gone up £1.00 since I bought the last one, also at SELWG.

I decided this should have a story to it. I decided that it would still be full of frozen water, perhaps with broken ice indicating Something had emerged from the inky depths.

To do that, before assembling the pieces, I used a razor saw to cut one corner off of the cap stones piece  that make up the top of the walls, separating the two stones. I also cut away some of the stones that would have been beneath the capstones.

This time I had less difficulty assembling the inner and outer walls, I cannot see any difference in the layout, maybe I was paying more attention.

The edges of the cap stones were bevelled with a file to show age and wear.

Once the main part was assembled, I took a suitably sized Products for Wargamers Scatter MDF base and  bevelled the edges with a file (a round file makes a more natural looking slope). The body of the pool was then glued on top, with sufficient surrounding space to add some additional flag stone fragments made from bits of MDF. The pieces of MDF removed from the walls was then added on top, together with the two separate cap stones.

Oathmark skeletons move past the pool, their unlike not disturbing any lurkers.

Detail of the stones, was it the movement of the ice within, or has something escaped the frozen pool?

Oathmark Goblin explores the ruins.

Top view of the pool.

Between the flagstones and on the other parts of the exposed base, Woodland Scenics cinder ballast was sprinkled over PVA glue.

The whole thing was first sprayed with Halford's Grey Primer, followed by Citadel Chaos Black spray. The whole thing was then brush painted with watered down Army Painter black paint to seal the PVA and fill in where the spray might have missed.

The stones were dry brushed first with a mix of Vallejo Black Grey and Army painter Black, followed by lighter dry brushing of Black Grey, then Black Grey mixed with Vallejo London grey and finally a dry brush of Citadel terminates Stone.

It was then washed with Citadel Nuln Oil.

The pool itself has still to be painted.

Blotz Jolly Boat

 The Blotz Jolly Boat is an laser cut MDF model of a Jolly Boat, a type of small boat often used to ferry crews and passengers between ships or to shore.

The kit comprises two small panels.

Three layers on top of a base plate comprise the hull, here stacked one on top of each other.

The boat will take nine figures based on 25mm diameter bases.

This is the assembled model.

The model was undercoated with Halfors grey spray primer. The visible surface was then sprayed with Army Painter Leather brown. The deck was painted with Vallejo Old Wood and the keel, inner frames, tiller and rudder with Army Painter Oak Brown.  

The rowlocks were painted with Vallejo Black. The whole boat was dry brushed with Citadel Terminatus Stone. The boat was washed with Citadel Seraphim Shade.

For Carlos

As is shown here, the boat will only take nine figures, which is a bit unfortunate as it will not officially take a two ranks for Oathmark.

Gustav wos 'ere

At Warfare I bought a number of item from Blotz, including one of their Statue Bases.

As you can see, it is a nice simple kit (the price might have gone up 50p).

It could do with some alignment pegs through the base, as I did not quite align the base pieces, which required some minor filling and work with a file.

I did fill the joints using Milliput, and filed and distressed the surface.

As this was to go in Gustav's Square, I drilled the former mounting point holes for the missing state and plaque.

The visible surface was first sprayed with Rustoleum Rust Effect spray to give it some texture. It was then sprayed with Humbrol Desert Tan.

The base was then washed with Citadel Nuln Oil and verdigris added with Citadel Coelia Greenshade. It was then dry brushed with Citadel Terminatus Stone.

It is a very versatile piece of scenery, it is just as useful in Vietnam games, games set in Cornwall or anywhere from the 19 Century onwards.

 Empress US Marines use the base as cover.

German Telephone Box - the model

As mentioned in the previous post, I had been looking at using a Blotz Phone Box #1  as a West German telephone box. You need to download the instructions from the Blotz site, but as you can see, the model is very simple.

I initially assembled it with the roof, interior and door separate. I undercoated it with Halfords Grey Spray Primer. The plan was then to underoat the main body, roof and door with white spray followed by a yellow spray. Unfortunately I had run out of white, and the two cans of yellow had dumped their gas over the years since I bought them. So it was out with the brush.

The box from the previous post was identified as a TelH78 box. It has a rounded roof and round cornered windows. The roof piece was glued in place (having checked I could get the interior in and out) and sanded to shape. In the photograph they look rather rough, I might have a go at sanding them again. When I have another go at one of these, I will use Milliput to get a better curve.

There was nothing I could do to change the window shape, though I might ask Blotz if they want to do Telephone Boxes of the World.

A couple of Soviet Troops (Underfire with Empress head and an Empress Chechen Russian) for scale with a Sarissa Small Terraced House.

A simple piece of street furniture that gives a time and place (okay early 'eighties Germany onward).