Blackstone Buildings #2 - Village Pub

Fancy a drink?

"Welcome to the Lord Castellan's Head!"

Once the focal point of the limited social lives of the residents of Blackstone (and those wandering through), the traditional greeting of the publican can no longer be heard. This public house is now just a shell of its former self. No laughter can be heard within the blackened walls, and the once-admired floor paneling now lies dirty, stained and rubble strewn...

Following part #1 of the Blackstone building series, where I looked at the simple hovel, in this post we will look at a more grandiose structure, the village pub. This was actually the first building I made, but as it was more challenging than the hovel I've decided to put it as the second post in this series. It is distinguished from the hovel by having 2 storeys, ornate windows and doors, more floor space and...actual floors! 

For this building, the standard equipment is required (black polystyrene board, box cutter, PVA glue) as well as a roll of floor repair/ covering tape (or any tape that looks like wooden flooring). I got all these things from the dollar store.

Here are some more photos. Bear in mind that the goal was to have buildings to put on a gaming table at very low cost, in a short period of time, and with little to no painting!

Side wall, showing damaged window frames, rubble, and cracked plaster.

Front door, with brickwork.

Making your village pub.

++Before we start, the traditional important public service message++

Please note that these buildings are not "true" scale or carefully designed to match the scale of GW or other 28mm games systems building. True to this being "quick and dirty terrain" I put them together by just literally "eyeballing" a 28mm model and taking it from there! They are going to look bigger and rougher!"

++Thanks for your attention++

Step 1: Marking out and cutting

The pub walls are 15cm in length, 12.0cm in height total. You need to:

• Gently score and cut out a rectangle 45cm x 12.0cm high in your polystrene.
• Score a solid vertical line every 15cm, so the rectangle is divided into three.
• Cut out a doorspace on the left wall (4cm wide x 5cm tall).
• Cut out a window 3.0 cm wide x 2 cm tall on both sides of the door. 
• Cut out x4, 3.0 x2.0 windows in the center panel (2 on each storey) equidistant apart.
• Cut out x1 or x2 windows on the right panel (see image below)
• Cut away part of the far right wall so it looks like it has been destroyed or collapsed.
• Cut out a base, either to fit exactly under the walls, or that extends slightly beyond each wall.
• Glue the walls to the base.
• I don't add an extensive ceiling, as I want the inside to be accessible.

Although not drawn to scale, this will hopefully give you the general idea if looking from the front:

Step 2: Interior

Once you have your basic pub shape on the base, you need to think about the interior and second floor. As I want to keep things simple, I'm not going to worry about stairs. I just want a fairly solid place to put models or treasure. 

Mine ended up looking like this:

You can see a support pillar holding up the second floor, but what you can't see is the supports I glue horizontally around the walls at the 2nd storey levels. These supports make the second floor sturdier so I can place more models or treasure on there.

Here is a drawing showing these supports from an internal perspective.

For the flooring, I found some sticky-backed wood pattern tape. This is used to cover damage to wood panels in your home (at least in Japan). It comes in various patterns, colours and sizes. The roll I found in my local dollar store was 2 cm wide and comes in a roll several meters long.

Wood pattern tape (not sure what the official name is!)

Measure this out into the number of strips you need to cover the floors, and then stick it down. It looks bright, but I think that I can later glue piles of rubble and fallen beams onto the floor to break it up, or possible dull the colour down through paints or washes.

Step 3: Detailing.

After you have the walls on the base, and a second floor, you have a structure that you can already throw on the table, but adding some details not only looks good but is also satisfying.
This is very easy to do and literally only takes a few minutes for each wall. As a general rule, you are trying to avoid having too many straight edges or flat areas.
This can be adding rubble, showing plaster damage, or having simple cracks coming out of key areas.

Rubble: Strew the same bricks that you made previously for windows or doors around the base.

Plaster damage: Starting from an accessible wall edge, with a box cutter mark out the area you want as damage, cutting no further than 1/3 to 1/2 way though the wall. The carefully cut behind this, and lift off the damaged area. Keep the surface layer that you just cut away, and glue this to the base below the damaged area where it would fall to the ground (not shown above)

Cracks: Starting from a point where a crack might naturally occur, such as a joint around a window, score a lightning pattern extending away from the join.

Wall damage: Using a box cutter, carefully dig into the wall, and using a circular motion, gouge out some polystyrene.

Optional steps:
Depending on what you have in your Bitz box, you could glue shields to the internal walls, add a pub sign hanging outside over the main door, or add wooden beams to the exterior walls all the way around where the first and second storeys meet. For me though, I'll leave it there!

In part #3, I'll look at the three storey watchtower with battlements.

Cheers,

Blackstone Buildings #1 Peasant Hovel

In a previous post, I introduced the village of Blackstone to the world, while noting that I would post a series on how I put it together. In the next few posts, I will look at the process for each building type in more detail, with some hints on how I made the item, and some lessons I learned the hard way! Before we start though, let me say that these aren't 100% finished, as I could add more interior detail and I know that in "real life" these couldn't possibly work as living spaces, but I reckon these are good enough for a wargaming table now!

The Hovel

First of all, let's look at the hovel, the standard abode of the common fantasy wargaming underling. I made x3 of these, with one tiled roof. I recommend a minimum of x3, as that gives you lots of options to combine them into different buildings, some of which you will see below. Your imagination is the limit. Add scatter terrain like barrels, bodies and skeletons for more atmosphere! If you want to go crazy, make 6, make 12. Here are some possible combinations using using x3 hovels.

Option 1: The hovel.
This run down  derelict living space suits a small family, usually has one door and 3- 4 walls. It might also have once had a simple roof, but no more...

Option 2: The Long House.
For your better class of town-folk, this combination makes for a nice long space...

...put a third unit in, and it becomes even more spacious, with doors connecting each unit.

Option 3: The Merchant's store.
Combine x3 hovels, using one of them as a second floor, and you can represent a two storey building with an alley, perhaps I lead to a central courtyard. Perhaps the lower units are the shopfront, and the family lives upstairs. This could also function as a town gate.

Option 4: The "Wealthy Bastard".
Put x2 or x3 hovels on top of each other, add a roof, and boom!, you lord it over your neighbours. They hate you, but you don't care - the air is (marginally) cleaner up here after all. The lower floor could be the reception area, 2nd floor a kitchen, and the top floor is for you and your family.

So, how to make a simple hovel? Pretty simple.

Making your hovel.

In my opening post, I mentioned materials, so now all you need is a ruler, pencil and desire to measure, cut and glue. I find a box cutter to be best, but exercise extreme caution when working with this.

++Before we start, an important public service message++

Please note that these buildings are not "true" scale or carefully designed to match the scale of GW or other 28mm games systems building. True to this being "quick and dirty terrain" I put them together by just literally "eyeballing" a 28mm model and taking it from there! They are going to look bigger and rougher!"

++Thanks for your attention++

Step 1: Marking out.

Each hovel is 10cm on each side, 6.5cm in height, and has a base. You need to:

• Gently score a rectangle 30cm x 6.0cm in your polystrene.
• Score a solid vertical line every 10cm, so the rectangle is divided into three.
• Mark out a doorspace on the center wall (3cm wide x 4cm tall - but think about making it less! 4 cm tall can look really big...)
• Mark out a window to right or left of the door. (Option: mark out other windows on the other walls.)
• Cut out a base, either to fit exactly under the walls, or that extends slightly beyond each wall.
• I don't add any kind of ceiling, as I want the inside to be accessible.

They say a picture paints a thousand words, so:

Tips:

1. Have a model from your army close by to check the scale of the building. As you mark it out, does it "feel" right to you? I realized later that I made the doors too big on most of my buildings!

2. Do you prefer to have the hovel with walls all the way around? I kept mine open on one side to allow easy access for models and movement options in addition to always using the front door. In you want 4 walls, don't forget to factor that in!
3. Keep those off-cuts, they will come in later! e.g. When you cut out a door, keep it! Then, using your box-cutter, score some lines down the front to look like wood planks. Finally you can glue that to the floor inside your hovel, so it looks like someone busted down the door.

Step 2: Details.

You probably now have a beautiful hovel with smooth walls and unblemished surfaces, but what I want is a run-down, at best shabby or at worst abandoned vibe! The way to get this is detailing and adding some wear and tear. Detailing really adds a lot of character to the overall look. The good news is all you need is a craft knife and some PVA.
Here are some detailing options that I think add a lot to the model.

• Bricks. Add decorative bricks around the tops of the door. Using your craft knife, cut out 5mm x5mm x10 cm pieces of foam strips, then cut these down to small bricks. Using PVA, glue these stategically over the doors, and in the gaps between the walls.
• Window details. Add window sills, definitely outside, but also on the inside of the window if you have time.
• Wall damage: Using your craft knife, cut out wall damage, carving out uneven chunks of the wall from the ceiling to the floor. You can be as aggressive as you want, depending on your goals. You can see here that one of my huts is missing whole sections of wall. This not only looks better (IMHO) but it gives models more tactical options (FLEE through the nearest gap!)
• Missing plaster. First things first - to do this, you will never cut right through the board! To make missing plaster, first use your blade to outline an area, making sure you can access it from one of the edges. Cut NO deeper than halfway into the board. Then, slide your cutter into the board from the wall edge, slowly slicing through the board where the plaster will be missing. Finally, lift away the top half of the board. You should not have an area that looks like it was under the plaster.
• Cracks. Using your craft knife, starting from any wall, score some cracks into the wall.

You can see that I like my hovels to look abandoned!

That's it! Quite simple, but a good place to start. Let me know if you have any questions.
:-)

In part #2, we will look at a larger building - the village pub!

Cheers!

Two Hour Terrain - The Village of Blackstone

Welcome to Blackstone!

A popular stop on the road to civilization (for fast-moving Marauder hordes, Orc warbands and herds of the shambling undead - who take a little longer to move on through), Blackstone residents spend much of their short, brutish lives rebuilding their burned-out, ruined hovels.

Still, if you are ever lucky enough to visit this little cluster of buildings on the dusty road to places far more worthy of pillaging, you'll learn the following from your (slightly-singed, recovered from-a-muddy-track) tourist scroll:

Why is Blackstone called Blackstone?
Well, every time the village is sacked, ruined and pillaged, the plucky (remaining few) residents pick up the blackened bricks and timber and rebuild. For this reason the whole village has taken on a perpetually soot-blackened, "Destroyed" (or "fashionably aged") look.

What can I enjoy during my visit?
Well, not much...
...but you might be interested in the following adventurer-friendly activities.

• Try a night in "The Lord Castellan's Head", our friendly pub. As it is only half-wrecked, there are still a few corners and rubble that any self-respecting adventurer can hunker down and shelter in (or behind). Guests will also enjoy the welcoming "Open Fire in the Rubble"*, over which warm meals can be mixed (and bandages boiled and cleaned).
• Climb the "Wailing Watchtower" (or "The old tall, haunted place" as Old Dave - recently deceased, used to call it). This three story defensive tower was built in better times (long ago). Locals attribute the fact that it remains standing to the screaming spirit said to haunt the tower, ironically said to be the lost soul of the landowner who sponsored it's creation....
• Enjoy a "Live like a Local" night. Choose an overnight stay at any of the three semi-dilapidated hovels on offer. Each offers limited shelter from the elements (available on three sides), and attractive rustic-style peasant brickwork. To round out your cold, damp evening, enjoy the pleasant views onto the main road offered via the crudely-created, solitary window and various cracks in the walls. (Human companionship optional)

*weather permitting. Note that in the interests of safety this activity may also be cancelled due to roving warbands or undead. In times of plague, meager supplies will be left out in advance.

Your friendly local "The Lord Castellan's Head"

The Wailing Watchtower

Peasant hovel (1 of 3)

What is the fascinating architectural story behind this village of wonders?

Well, as you asked...

***

...I'll be posting a series of posts looking at the different building that I made, but for today, let's lay out the basics.

First of all, I'm not under the illusion that this looks anywhere near as good as any of the building kits that are out there, or many of the scratch-builds that I have found online. I just wanted to get something that I can throw on the table without painting (but that could come later.)

This was my first attempt at scratch-building a few semi-modular buildings out of cheap polystyrene board. My goal was to start to put together enough building terrain to populate a 4' x 4' gaming board for a skirmish game of Frostgrave, and to do so in a short time, at low cost. Skirmish games usually require more terrain than a traditional battleground where you want to allow large units space to maneuver.

Time required: 10-15 hours if you have never done this before (a few evenings, but this is an estimate!) On average, I'd say it took about 2-3 hours for each building set to measure, cut, glue and add a basic level of detail (brickwork etc.)

Cost: 2-5 dollars for the whole lot if using materials from the 1 Pound/ Dollar store/ 100 Yen shop (200-500 yen)

Materials required:

1. Cheap polystyrene board, (x1 sheet maybe 4' x 3' or 4' x 4'). I went with black, which actually works well as I see less need to paint it than if it was white card.
2. x1 Cutter knife
3. x1 bottle of PVA glue
4. x1-2 pieces of thin cardboard (could be from an Amazon box or even better a cereal box.)
5. x 1-2 sheets of brown scrapbook paper.

What did I manage to get out of that board?

x3 small hovels, x1 roof, a two storey pub and a three storey watch tower.

Did I save time over buying professional pieces that I would paint? Overall probably, although the measuring, cutting and gluing takes a long time!

Did I save money? Definitely.

Do I have enough terrain now for a built-up area? No, but I'm a lot closer!

In my next few posts I'll look at the creation process for each of the kinds of buildings made. I hope you'll join me again.

Cheers,

Games Workshop Crusade Case

After some years getting back into the hobby, I've been finding the urge to tidy up my tiny workspace and better organize my armies for storage or battle. 

As mentioned before, I have a variety of storage options, from GW (the old, flat cases) to Battlefoam (Pack 1520 - no longer in production) to recently throwing together some homebrew solutions (plastic boxes stacked and transported in a suitcase). 

For a previous storage wars post, I asked people to share how they store their miniatures. Here is the updated information as of the other day:

After 187 votes the results, in order of popularity:

1. DIY/ Made it myself: 36%
2. Games Workshop: 27%
3. KR Multicase: 16%
4. Battlefoam: 15%
5. Sabol Designs: 6%

This Christmas, I decided to try out the new GW cases. The army I have wanted to tidy up has to be my Black Templars. They have a good mix of infantry, bikes and larger models (x2 landraiders, air support, speeders, Predator tanks and Rhinos/ Whirlwind launchers). To date, I have kept the infantry in a smaller GW case, and vehicles in cardboard boxes.

The size of the army meant that if I was looking at GW as an option, it had to the Crusader case. This was the largest. 

So what do I think after one month of trying to fit stuff into it?

Overall Build Quality:

Good. 

The plastic feels tough, the ribs serve to strengthen the case, and strap feels solid, with metal clips. The clasps could be bigger and chunkier, but so far I have no reason to think they are going to break or flip open unexpectedly (although the old GW cases had larger, tougher-looking clasps)

A nice touch is the little depressions around the case that help to make the unit stackable with other crusade cases.

The "Channel Foam" itself is of a good quality, but like some other foams it can rip and tear, or have parts gouged out of it.

Storage:

My first impression was that the case is a bit...small! 

That could just be compared to the Battlefoam 1520, but I was surprised at the relatively compact size. 
Width: 19" (48.5cm)
Height: 9" (23cm)
Depth: 12.5" (32cm) including the lid pins

That isn't necessarily a bad thing - for the vast majority of players a 1,500-2000 point game is probably the norm, and I think that this case should carry that number of points without any trouble. I'm not embarrassed to lug this around town on the train.

However, if your primary goal is to store large numbers of large vehicles AND infantry, a Crusade case alone may not meet you needs.

In my case (geddit?), I was able to get the following in, in varying combinations:

Top Trays: 94 models

Left: x48 infantry

• x16 Sternguard
• x1 Chaplain Grimaldus and x4 servitors with relics (all prone)
• x1 Helbrecht (prone) 
• x8 Assault marines
• x18 Tactical Marines

Right: x46 infantry

• x1 Chapter Master
• x1 Standard Bearer
• x1 Emperor's Champion
• x10 Neophytes (Scouts)
• x33 assorted infantry (Sword Brethren, Initiates)

Middle Trays:
Left:

• x1 Predator (with separate turret)
• x6 Terminators (including Chaplain)
• x8 Bikes with separate

Right: (Airwing)

Black Templars airwing

• x1 Stormtalon (with separate base)
• x1 Dreadnaught
• x4 Landspeeders with separate bases

Bottom Trays:

x2 Landraiders

OR

x1 Landraider and x2 Drop pods

(Tip: you will be better served by this case if don't glue vehicle turrets in place. I have a couple of Predators with fixed turrets and commanders. This seriously impacts the storage as the layers above won't fit on top of the lower layer properly)

x2 Landraiders

x2 Drop pods

Foam Quality

The "Channel foam" as GW calls it definitely has some pros and cons. 

The Landraider at right shows just how much this foam will flex!

On the positive side:

+ You get a LOT of flexibility, both literally and figuratively (see what I did there?). The foam is very flexible, and deforms a lot without tearing or ripping. It will mould itself neatly around your models, compress them, and keep them snug.

+ This foam takes the worry out of trying to plan and get custom foam and all the hassle that can be on vendor's websites. I have spent literally hours and hours on sites like KR Multicase and Battlefoam trying to work out what trays I need, and invariably I gave up. (NOTE: this is not always a problem with those sites - I just don't have the patience)

However, be aware that there are negatives:

For infantry in particular, you have to play around a LOT to get stuff in the way you want it. What do I mean?

- For maximum numbers of models (e.g. you want to store everything) some of them will rub against each other if you pack them in. Remember, each individual model is not completely walled-in (as you might find with custom foam or compartments.) This is especially true for infantry. 

- Packing and unpacking can be a long and finicky process. You might think it would be faster with foam that works with everything, but as you don't have a special size slot for a model working out where it will go actually takes longer!

- For maximum protection, be aware that models may still move around a fair bit. You will need to spend time making sure you get things just the way you want them to protect certain special models.

Cost performance

The Crusade case is 75.00 Pounds on the GW website (14,500 Yen or approx 80 GBP in Japan). You will find them at online retailers for around 65 GBP if you look. 

Should you buy this case? 
If you are in the market for a hard plastic case and don't want to make your own, then I think this is a reasonable price for what you are getting and seems competitive with other manufacturers. The quality is fine for everyday use, the foam works well and it will store quite a large number of figures. Other manufacturers have many more case styles and options to suit all budgets, but I don't think you can go far wrong with this.

Cheers,

Frostgrave for February?

Please visit: https://ospreypublishing.com/frostgrave 

Recently a friend mentioned a 28mm miniatures skirmish game called Frostgrave, and asked if anyone would be willing to give it a go. Generally I don't get involved in trying new systems - I so rarely get a game in that when I get to the gaming table I usually want to just play 40K or Warhammer Fantasy.

In this case though, he mentioned two things that peaked my interest...
"...low model count..."
and
"...existing models..."
Now when your two current systems generally require somewhere between 40-200 models to play (especially if you plan to play as Skaven) those are almost MAGIC phrases !

Intrigued, I visited the Osprey website to learn more.

Reasonable Price and Simple Setup

The rules are reasonably priced. 11.99 GBP (1,999 yen) for a 136 page rulebook in digital format. Yes, I know Age of Sigmar rules are completely free (and short), but bear in mind that over here a 40K rulebook or supplement costs 60~70 GBP. I'm NOT complaining about the price (Warhammer is a luxury hobby, and I find the materials to be of an excellent quality) but by comparison, Frostgrave seemed reasonable.

I gladly laid out for a digital edition and I'm happy to report that the rules are comprehensive, generally clear and well-written, and beautifully illustrated. Osprey is a publisher who I knew well in my youth. I obsessively collected their "Men at Arms" range, and spent many happy hours absorbing every detail of the beautiful artwork and research that went into them ("The Roman Army from Caesar to Trajan" was a particular favourite, although it must have been updated by now!)

Please visit Osprey for more information about this
excellent book! 

As a complete newcomer to skirmish games (I never played Mordheim) I was happy that the rules and objectives are easy to pick up. You form a warband and search an abandoned city for treasure and magic items, all the while fending off other warbands (players) and wandering monsters.

Things stay simple throughout:

Choose a wizard from one of 10 different types.
Choose a limited number of spells from different disciplines.
Pick and provision a warband with up to a further 9 men/ women using a starting budget of 500 Gold Crowns. (Each henchman has a different cost)
Different models can carry different amounts of treasure off the board.
If playing a campaign, your wizard levels up between games, depending on how many experience points he accrued during the game (for successfully completing various actions.)

In terms of mechanics:

• Everything uses D20
• Statlines are basic, with only 6 stats
• There are 4 phases each turn
• Players roll-off to see who starts the turn

So far, so good! It looks as though you could play a game in a hour or 90 minutes once you know the rules. 

There is one fly in the ointment however, and that is the issue of terrain. It looks like the game will play best if you use lots of terrain on your table. This replicates hunting through a ruined city, but also sets up exciting encounters in cluttered, narrow streets. If you are WFB player like me, you might have a couple of houses and hills but I'll need to create a LOT more urban terrain to get this to work. Of course you can use books, cardboard boxes etc, but that won't look too good! MAKING terrain is great fun, but can also be time consuming.

Warband

The Frostgrave rulebook doesn't discuss races (all the models appear to be human) but there is no reason you can't use existing models (although Osprey has partnered with Northstar Military figures to create a fine range of wizards, soldiers and others). I rummaged through my existing High Elf and Skaven armies to see what I had that I could use.

My High Elf warband might look something like this:

Wizard: (High Elf Arch Mage)

Apprentice: 200 gc (High Elf Mage)

Knight: 100 gc (WFB High Elf Prince Althran)

Man-at-arms: 80 gc (WFB High Elf Noble)

Archer: 50 gc (High Elf Archer) x2 (100 gc)

Total: 480 gc
With 20 gc remaining, to round out my group I could get x2 warhounds or a thug (or thief)...

Hopefully I'll get a game in soon and I can report back on how it goes. Before that though I have to work out how to get lots of cheap ruins made up!

Cheers,