28mm warehouse and industrial scene

This project is a bit different from the usual as it is all made up of bought resin pieces.
Skytrex Ltd are heavily involved in O gauge railway and they do an extensive range of buildings that fit around railways. They are also suitable for gaming from the mid 19th century in the UK so lots of scope to use them.
O gauge is a little bigger than regular 28mm so the buildings are perfect for skirmishing where the scenario and feel of the game is very important. Crooked Dice and their 7TV rule set is a very good example of that sort of game. I know both companies well so I thought it was an ideal opportunity to build something and get it along to Salute and see what other gamers thought.

The board is 2 foot x 2 foot and everything on it except for the roof on the smaller building comes straight from the Skytrex catalogue.It all comes flat packed and unpainted. You can get basic sets and then add accessories to them to fit the look you are after. The results are pretty good as the following shots show

I was very pleased with how it all came together. Crooked Dice will be running a 'geezer' type game on it at Salute so if you are there go and take a look or join in.
Click here to go to the Skytrex site and see what they have. It is well worth trying them out.
There will be more news about Salute as we get closer as I will be very busy on the day as I have a few layouts there I want to be around.

Watermill in 28mm

I have had this project made and delivered for a few weeks now but haven't got round to posting pics etc.
Dave Imrie saw the English Civil Wargame that I had done the terrain for at Salute 2011 and he liked the mill I had done there. A couple of months later he officially commissioned me to make one for him along with  4x4ft terrain boards. I finished it just after Salute this year so the whole process took just about a year!
Here is the overall board:

The 4 boards are my usual 595mm x 595mm size and 50mm thick. They are made from a frame of mdf and a base of hardboard. I then fill them with polystyrene and then add what I need to make the landscape that has been ordered. The whole thing is very robust and give very clean tough edges- there is more chance of the boards damaging you than you damaging the boards. This job saw me finish off with my usual mix of green flock- 3 shades with the first layer being dark green followed by a lighter shade, finishing off with a highlight of very light green. I then soak it all in watered down PVA glue to keep the flock in place. I always paint the earth before I flock so overtime if some flock is lost the earth showing through still gives it a good look.

The river is just painted polyfilla which is then varnished. I do use clear resins for water effects but only for small areas. I find if you get the colouring right then a good paint job makes a very effective river.

The mill itself is stone finished so I covered the foam board skeleton of the building with Daz Pronto (air dried clay). Once it was dry I was able to carve the stone pattern into it. It takes ages but is worth the effort. The sandstone colour is achieved with a yellow ochre base coat, washed with a raw umber and then dry brushed with a couple of shades of cream. The final touch is a bit of weathering with some raw umber- water streaks, splash marks- that sort of thing.

The outhouses were brick and I used brick embossed plasticard for them.
Some quick notes on some of the details
the courtyard tiles are from a dolls house supplier and they are sold as kitchen tiles. They are small pieces of real brick so the texture on them is wonderful.
Guttering from Skytrex and their railway range
windows are my own resin bits.
A small kitchen garden made from a kit that I can't remember the details of now.

Just to finish off with a few more pictures

That is it for this one. Dave is planning to use this for ECW gaming I think but I have made it as generic as possible so can be used for all sorts of periods.

Industrial buildings part 2

I said last week that I would have more photos of the factories including an even bigger one. I have finally got round to the photography (I photograph outside using natural light and it has been a bit of a challenge to find a gap in the rain to do the camera work).
I thought I would also add a bit more detail on the models.
There are three in total so far, two of which have already been photographed but I thought I would show them again just for continuity.
The smallest one is the one story white factory unit:

This model has a footprint of 20" long and 8" wide and is 7" high at the roof apex.
The smaller of the red brick factories:

This factory has a similar footprint to the white building- 20"x9" but is 10" high to the top of the vent on the roof and the chimney is just over 12" tall.

The third factory is the biggest with an area covering 21"x 18" and is over 12" at its highest point.

The windows are all resin but I think when I do it again I will get them laser cut. The crane in at the rear of the factory comes from Skytrex's range of O gauge railway. They do a number of different ones and are well worth the money- it adds that special bit of detail that you would be very tricky to scratch build.
The rest of it was built in a similar way to the other units. The walls are embossed plasticard stuck onto a framework made from foam board. The roof is also embossed plasticard, to look like corrugated iron sheets.
The brickwork was painted using a raw sienna base and then washed in burnt umber followed by another wash of black. More washes may be needed after this depending on the look you are after. I then dry brush with a cream just to highlight the bricks and blend everything together. The final touch is to add water streaks and damp patches using raw umber and black if you are looking for a less subtle effect.

I have also taken a few shots of the buildings together. I was very short of space so not the greatest but they give you an idea of how they look together.

That is it for this project for a few weeks. I do still have quite a few more buildings to make but these are the biggest. There will be more updates when I have built a few more.

28mm Industrial units

These two industrial units are the first of a series of buildings that are designed to be used for any 20th Century and near future conflict. The final commission will see about a dozen buildings of all sizes so when they are all together they will make quite a sight.
I used three photos as inspiration. These were supplied by the customer to give a feel of what he was looking for.

The last two photos are of the same building but from a different angle. These photos gave me the ideas I needed to help me make the models. They needed to be substantial buildings and made from brick. I liked the multiple stories of the large building along with its tall chimney, roof vents and large entry doors. The white building looked interesting because it was white but I liked the wire running round the outside of the walls as well as the small roofs over a couple of doors.
This is what I came up with:

Both buildings are brick built. I use plastic sheets from South Eastern Fine cast. They make a good range of sheets but importantly they come in big sheets so you don't have to worry about joins as often. They are also made from white plastic which gives you lots of options for painting. The roofs are both corrugated iron sheets. I use Slater's plasticard for this. Their sheets are smaller than the South Eastern Fine cast sheets but I cut them into smaller panels anyway so, in this instance, size doesn't matter.
All the other details come from the railway modelling O gauge ranges. Railway companies are great sources of industrial model details and I strongly recommend you hunt them out.
Once I had built the models (the usual foam board heavily braced and then clad in the plasticard). I painted them. The white building is straight forward with a white base coat, washed in raw umber and then highlighted in white again. The brick coloured building starts with a base of raw sienna. When that is dry I give it a coat of burnt umber (to give it a red shade) followed by a wash of black. In this case I still felt it was a bit light so gave it another wash of burnt umber. The washes give lots of colour and shade variations which make a potentially dull brick wall far more interesting and eye catching. The final coat is a dry brush of deep cream colour. This adds even more variation and lifts all the colour a little.

The roof was painted with a base coat of grey followed by a couple of washes of raw umber and then dry brushed in a couple of lighter shades of grey followed by a final dry brush of cream.
All the other details were painted various colours and then the final touch was the weathering with lots of water and rust marks all over the walls and roof. I generally use raw umber but can also use black if I need a heavier effect.
That is them done. I have a larger factory just about done so will photograph that and try to get some group shots and post that later this week.