Battlescale buildings, barricades and hedges

You may recall me posting about the scenery I ordered specifically for this project from Battlescale - I'm happy to be able to say that it is all painted and ready for gaming with!

First up the buildings - you may have followed the journey on Twitter of my painting these.  I eventually settled on a recipe for both the brick work and the thatch, which I'm recording here for my future reference!

Stone - GW Mechanicus Standard Grey, AP Strong Tone, GW Mechanicus Standard Grey (drybrush), AP Field Grey (drybrush), GW Administratum Grey Grey (drybrush)

Thatch - Vallejo Iraqi Sand, AP Military Shader, GW Ogryn Flesh, Vallejo Iraqi Sand drybrush.

Now that's done - here they are!

Starting with the pair of crofts (the one on the right shows the rear of the croft):

Next the Barn and Cattle Byre:

As you can see the Barn is a larger piece - the Byre has the additional detail of the trough which is a nice touch.

Finally for the buildings I have the Pig Pen - complete with a Pendraken pig. She's called Cailín by the way!

I've given the mud in the pen a coat of gloss varnish to make it look somewhat wet.  I really like this piece and think it'll add a very fun element to the gaming table.

Next we have the Hasty Earthworks pack.  I kept these really simple - as they are useful for a range of settings I went with my standard non-desert base colour:

Finally we have a selection of hedges (Vallejo Extra Dark Green, AP Strong Tone, GW Death World Forest drybrush):

Here's a close-up too:

I really enjoyed painting all of these pieces - I'll certainly be picking up more from Battlescale for a few 10mm projects!

Berry Bushes

I'd picked up some 'berry' clump foliage from Serious-Play with an intention to make some scatter terrain bushes, primarily for Burrows & Badgers (but I think they'll see wider use!).

I used pill style bases - to some I added small pieces of slate to break them up a bit, then they all got the ADHS sand dip treatment.  I painted them, washed them and neatened the base edges before having a go with the clump foliage... I'd got two packs of purple and one of red - the two purple packs were a little different from each other; one seemed to have more berries (or flowers!) than the other.  So I decided to make up three of each purple and four of red.

First up the less-purple of the purple:

and the more-purple of the purple:

finally, the red:

I took a quick snap with a Burrows & Badgers mole warrioress to give a sense of size (went with a fairly 'standard' type size for that range - not dormouse or bulldog!!):

I think these look the part and provide a bit of colourful cover!

Fences and Water Tower

I knew I wanted some fencing suitable for the various games that will use our Bethany, Nevada scenery collection - I picked up the Renedra Palisade Fencing pack.

As you can see the pack includes 8 fence lengths but only 5 posts.  I've tried to put them together in a way that will be somewhat flexible.  What would have been good is if the posts (or at least some of them) had been designed to allow for right angled corners - a missed opportunity I feel.

Also, I finally assembled the Water Tower from Frontline - this was really tricky to assemble, mostly because the Frontline resin seems to take forever to bond with superglue (unlike most resin which I've found tends to glue really quickly).

It's not perfect, but it'll do - I don't intend to buy another one, let's put it that way!!

Makeshift Barricades

I picked up a couple of Warlord resin pieces of scenery from one of my go-to guys - these are from Warlord's Anglo-Zulu War range.  I got these with an eye to using them in games set in America - so Dracula's America, Dead Man's Hand and Rebels and Patriots.

First up, a versatile barricade/supply pile made up of boxes and bags:

That will work either as a makeshift barricade, or even just as some scatter next to a general store or the like.

Secondly a rather impressive piece - the wagon barricade.  Obviously, this is a bit more for special scenarios rather than every day shootouts in our little town of Bethany, Nevada but I couldn't resist buying one as it's just too cool!

A cool feature is that it is designed to hold some miniatures - from testing it seems designed more for smaller base sizes, I could only fit one 25mm based chap on it but it's still a nice option.

There was a lot of paper-thin flashing on the wagon barricade piece, but easy to clean up.  The boxes and bags barricade required only minimal work.

They are nice pieces that will add some much needed cover for our outlaws and lawmen!

More OSHIRO buildings!

I've added some more OSHIRO buildings from their 15mm range to the collection for games of Sengoku Monster Hunter.  First up, the Odou with Ornate Roof - I figured for supernatural-themed games a shrine was a must!

This is a two piece kit - the roof section is separate from the main building and just needs gluing in place.

Another item I knew I needed was a Yadoya (Inn) - the Alternative Armies range includes an Innkeeper miniature after all so I figured he needed an establishment to manage!

I also opted for a two-storey shop to increase the variety of building types in the collection:

Finally I added a Large Townhouse, again to increase the variety in the dwellings:

As with other OSHIRO pieces I just filled any small air holes with Vallejo Plastic Putty to get them ready for priming (when weather permits!)

I'm sure I'll get more from OSHIRO - perhaps some walls.  If they are able/choose to make some of the 28mm additions range in 15mm I'd definitely get some (the sake display, lanterns, graves, gorintō and the like).

Terrain Freaks - Coffins

I've acquired a few more buildings for Bethany, Nevada - that will double-duty for both Dracula's America and Dead Man's Hand, as well as see use in Malifaux (more on that in due course here on the blog).  One of these is an Undertakers - well, I knew I wanted some decent coffins to go with it as some thematic scatter.  I looked around and came across Terrain Freaks - which has a small range of resin terrain and bases - and ordered a pack of Wooden Coffins.  The pack contains 6 coffins of various designs, including one with a separate lid:

I'm really happy with how these look - if, like me, you have a need for some small coffins, then I can definitely recommend Terrain Freaks!  The wooden coffins in particular have some nice texture to the wood, which should reward even basic painting techniques.

The SMH scenery collection expands!

The Sengoku Monster Hunter scenery collection has expanded thanks to OSHIRO - you may remember we already have the basis for a nice sized village (see my previous post), but it's always good to have some variety to be able to create all sorts of layouts.

First up, a small town house - marked out a little from the other dwellings in the collection by its tiled roof:

And a two-storey merchant's house that'll stand out nicely from the other dwellings:

As you can make out there was some damage to the first storey tiles. Nothing unnatural looking though so I filled any air bubbles with Vallejo Plastic Putty and called it done.

Finally on the dwellings front - the rather impressive samurai house.  Unlike the above pieces, this came as two parts that required gluing together.

The final piece to join the collection is the kajiya (blacksmith).  This comes as two pieces of resin (the main structure and the roof extension) and a couple of matchsticks to make the wooden supports over the outside workshop area.  The supports were a bit tricky, but certainly not impossible:

I definitely want to add more OSHIRO stuff to the collection - the two-storey shop and the Odou are musts I think!

Horde of Buildings 15mm 'Human' Buildings

Another Christmas acquisition - the 15mm Horde of Buildings 'Human' building set.  Now, as longer-term readers of the blog will know, my United Nations of Orcs and Related Peoples are not the typical greenskin - they are the ones living in houses, cottages, towns and cities rather than the ramshackle huts of crude forts that most settings lumber the poor Orcs and Goblins with.  So, whilst Alternative Armies markets them (quite sensibly) as Human Buildings, for me they are perfect for UNORP!

I was lucky enough to receive the full set of five buildings - which are available singly or as a pack with a saving attached.

So, before I run through the different buildings, my first impressions: very clean casts, lots of texture on the thatch, tiles, wood and stones and only very minor air holes that required filling (in fact only one of the buildings had these - and that was right at the ground level and easily filled).  The buildings all have a nice substantial feel to them too.  They all have lots of character and charm - these aren't cookie cutter straight line boxes.

So, first up the Small Hovel - a nice thatched timbered cottage:

And a matching Large Hovel - same kind of vibe, just longer sides!

Moving onto the brick buildings now - first the Small House:

Just look at that roof - the tiles, the characterful shape!

Next - the appropriately named Tall House:

You might be able to make out the small area of white at the bottom - that was where a small number of holes needed just a touch of filler (Vallejo Plastic Putty was my choice).

Finally, the Large House:

It's a little difficult to see, but this building isn't a rectangular shape, but rather a corner.  It's really different and is a substantial piece - providing a nice centrepiece style item to the 15mm scenery collection.

I'll quite possibly pick up another Hovel or two - and I'm thinking about a second Small House to turn into a pub (if I can source a suitably sized sign of some sort!).  That should populate a nice small town to provide an objective to defend  (or attack in the case of Na Coiltte Dorcha or those pesky human barbarian tribes!).

I am very impressed with the quality of all of the buildings and can strongly recommend them to anyone looking for some 15mm fantasy scenery (of course, they could also work for some historical settings depending on if you like a slight fantastical/whimsical feel).

Tiny Crusades - Crusader Camp

So, having decided on the Arab (and natural) scenery I knew I needed some stuff for the Crusader half of the table - I opted for the Crusader Camp pack from Irregular's 6mm Scenics and Accessories range.

The description starts with Tents - so I was expecting a couple... got a few more though!!

A nice mix of sizes there - the only tricky bit is deciding which Military Order will get which tent(s) 🤔

The pack also included a selection of pack camels and camp attendants to give it some character and life:

The description also included horse traps - which I'm not sure I'll do anything with, but it's of course a sensible inclusion in the pack:

The pack also included a few pieces not mentioned in the listing - which is a shame as they are very characterful little details!  First, a couple of bases of supplies:

The photos don't really do these justice - there are sacks and crates and lots of detail there.

Finally, the pack includes some camp fires, a cooking station (with some roast beast) and some armour on a cross (now, I'm not sure if that is just the big boss' armour, some kind of Crusader tropaion or a grave marker - I guess I need to do my research!):

These little pieces will go a long way to making the camp feel like a living place rather than just tents - they were a very nice surprise in the pack!

I think this, with the Oasis and Copse I covered earlier will do for terrain - although I do want some rock formations or something to help break up the battlefield a bit more (I'm hoping if I'm careful with size they will also be useful for other games in different scales too).

Tiny Crusades - Oasis and more

I knew I needed (and wanted) some suitable scenery pieces for the Tiny Crusades project - so back to Irregular Miniatures it was!

For the Arab half of the project I opted for the Oasis from the 6mm Scenics and Accessories range - now, as usual with these kinds of things it seems the description was vague and didn't really confirm to me what I was going to be getting but I thought what the heck and went for it anyway; and I wasn't disappointed!

First, and rather obviously, the Oasis piece itself - a pool base with a selection of different palm trees to surround it:

The one lying down just needs its hole on the base cleaning up and it'll fit right in.  The ones with the spread out palms come as two pieces, the others are single piece.

The listing on Irregular also mentions 'flat topped house' - well it turns out the pack included three such buildings, each a different design too:

But that's not all the pack included - there was also what looks to be a little market scene and a tent:

Finally the pack also included some pack camels - two strips of sitting camels and one strip being led by a merchant perhaps:

It's a great pack - full of useful and characterful pieces that will really tie the table to the setting.

I also picked up the Copse of Palm Trees as an obstacle on the battlefield.  This pack includes a solid base plate and an assortment of palm trees (the same types as the Oasis):

I think it's a really useful piece for this project so I'm happy to have it in the collection.

The baseplate for the Copse needed a little bit of flattening but nothing too scary or difficult (flat surface and gentle pressure from my hand did the trick).

So, a nice little selection of pieces that can help populate a desert-y table for clashes between my Arabs and Crusaders!

Clara, Tulip and Minnie

Well to go along with the Red Vectors ranch-style fencing MDF set I figured we needed some cattle - I opted for Serious-Play's Cows - in 28mm of course (although they do their animal range in a few scales so do double-check you are ordering the size you want if you place an order!).

I based them up on MDF rounds, and have added my standard texture dip.  One of the cows had an air bubble show up when I was removing a little 'boil' - but easily filled with a dot of Vallejo Plastic Putty; certainly nothing too taxing!

So as you can see, three different poses on these ladies - who we'll call Clara, Tulip and Minnie (just not decided which will be which yet! 😅)