Operation Benevolent Prospector - Oil Drums

Pastria has a number of colonial territories in the polar region.

One area of concern has been the uninvited deployment of two Ayeland Marine Reconnaissance Regiments to one of Pastria's polar territories, a large island rumoured to have extensive and untapped mineral and oil resources.

As a polar region, there is snow, so this small piece of scatter terrain is my first attempt at modelling snow.

Four Debris of War Oil Drums were pinned (using plastic rod) to a Products for Wargamers MDF scatter base (the edges were chamferred using a file). The rod visible between the oil drums is to take a marker stick - it snows a lot and tall red and white post is secured in the centre of any stores left outside so it can be found if the snow buries them.

The drums were then held in place by Milliput as the drifted snow.

The edges of the base were painted with PVA glue and Woodland Scenics fine ash ballast added on top.

Once dry the whole thing was undercoated with Citadel Corax White spray.

The gravelly bits were then painted with Vallejo Black Grey paint.

The oil drums were painted with Humbrol 155 Olive acrylic, dry brushed with Citadel Nurgling Green and washed with Citadel Athonian Camoshade.

Spilled fuel was simulated with Citadel Drakenhof Nightshade.

Snow was built up using Citadel Valhallan Blizzard Technical.

An Ayeland Marine guarding the fuel store.

Frostgrave Scatter Terrain

 Frostgrave needs lots of scatter terrain otherwise magic and ranged weapons do not lead to a fun experience.

A Goblin emerges from behind the barrels.

They are Debris of War Large Barrels.

They have been painted as if they have been under the ice that buried Feldstadt. The wood is dark and grey and the metalwork is rusted.

Various shades of grey dry brushed over a Citadel Chaos Black spray undercoat.

The iron hoops were painted with a mix of Army Painter Black, Army Painter Chaotic Red and Vallejo Black Grey.

Citadel Ryza Rust was then applied.

The whole thing was then washed with Citadel Nuln Oil.

Debris of War Command Tent

At SELWG I bought a Command Tent from Debris of War. It is on a Products For Wargamers small terrain base.

After chamfering the edges of the base, the tent was held in place while holes were drilled in from the bottom through the base into the tent. These holes were then used to pin the tent to the base, the whole lot being glued together with superglue. Woodland Scenics fine cinder ballast was applied with PVA glue on the ground surface.

The underside of the base and the top surface were undercoated with Halfords Grey primer. The top was painted with Colour Forge Trench Brown. The ground surface was then given a coat of Humbrol Dark Earth 29.

The pegs were painted with Army Painter Skeleton Bone, then dry brushed with Citadel Tyrant Bone.

The ties were painted with Citadel Karak Stone. The whole thing was washed with Citadel Agrax Earthshade.

It is going to be used as a command tent for A War Transformed, however it is suitably generic and can be used in a number of periods.

Points Of Interest markers

 As mentioned previously, I am using the Points Of Interest concept from the Zona Alfa expansion for solo gaming in Vietnam. The Points of Interest need markers on the board, and I thought that single fuel drums would be suitably subtle.

The drums are a mix of Debris of War (as used previously here), Crooked Dice and Tamiya 1/48 scale (you might be able to identify the Tamiya one from the the lettering on the lid).

To make them stand out a bit, they have numbers though in general use the numbers are not significant (POI events are generally drawn randomly from a card stack). Warlord German White turret numbers were of a suitable size.

This US Marine will have an eventful life being within three inches of a number of POIs (POIs should be at least six inches apart).

The Sniper! event card was drawn.

Even more things to trip over...

Some more scatter terrain.

This piece of terrain comprises three Debris of War barrels and a Debris of War wheel.

They are on a Renedra 40mm base.

Oil Barrels

Another piece of terrain. A barrier made from Debris of War barrels.

Based on another Products for Wargamers MDF base.

 Again undercoated with Citadel Chaos Black followed by Citadel Death Guard Green.

What a load of rubbish!

Debris of War do an interesting range of 28mm urban debris.
At Colours I bought a number of packs including piles of black bin bags. They also do a pack of bin bags, wheelie bins and a three piece suite.

The question then was, how to base them.

Traditional round bases would be fine if they were in the middle of an alley, but traditionally they are piled up against a wall.

So I took one 30mm and one 40mm Renedra bases and positioned the block of bags so that they left a part of the base clear. I then used a razor saw to cut part of the base away.

After smoothing off the edges, I glued the piles of bin bags to the bases. I added some Woodland Scenics fine ballast around the edges to get them to fit in.

They were then sprayed with Citadel Chaos Black. The ground cover was painted with Vallejo Burnt Umber.

The bags were dry brushed with Army Painter black mixed with increasing amounts of Citadel Mechanicum Grey and Army Painter Stone Golem. The rubbish was picked out with spots of various paints.

The whole thing was then washed with Citadel Nuln Oil.

The flat edge means they can be pushed up against a wall

Which is great for filling alleyways with  cover and obstacles.

Colours 2019

So once again it is time for the journey to Newbury Racecourse for Colours.

First port of call was Empress Miniatures, they had just received the castings for the Ontos so I wanted to buy one before they sold out. I only just made it. There was also the M113 ACAV, the rest of the Vietnam USMC and the current NVA figures. I also bought a T1E2 pre-war US tank.

I have to sort out the colours for the M113 and get the M50 Ontos book by Osprey book.

Crooked Dice had lots of new stuff, including this cute Giant Robot.

My stack of Rubicon kits does not seem to go down. Though I added this lot, so perhaps there is an explanation.

For the first time in 20 years or so I bought some 1/300 vehicles from Heroics and Ros.

 Some Russian vehicles (and a Warrior)

British vehicles.

 I also bought a box of Wargames Atlantic's SF infantry.

 They are likely to end up as Hydra troopers or something similar.

Gringo's 40 had their new 28mm Mule self propelled recoilless rifle.