A typical day in Manchuria.....

Another bank holiday over and a whole days painting.....
2 Weeks before OML3 and time to finish up a couple of extra pieces for the all dayer.

What every village needs - a few locals milling about these are from Black Hat Miniatures and will be perfect for both the RJW and the Sung Dynasty Projects.

I had some spare walling left over from John Jenkins and 4 Ground just enough to create a further compound for the day.

I added in several squares of door matting to give the impression of crops, with spacing through the centre and outskirts of the field to allow troops to line the fence.

With the combination of walling and fencing it allows me to mix up the terrain to extend the current compound or create narrow walk ways between the buildings, I am really happy with how these have turned out and now itching to get these on the table.

I picked a couple of aquarium items up from the pet shop several years ago for the Boxer Rebellion Project, slightly to large for the 15mm collection, with a little bit of spucing up they will be perfect for OML3 and complete the look for the village.

Just need to work through the scenario now.......

Chinese Village - Part 5

Having pulled an all nighter on Election night the final building for the Chinese village is complete.

The walling and stable is from John Jenkins Designs and are full of detail perfect for the run down look I was looking for.

The front of the house allows me to add the building to any main street, but can be used as a stand alone farm. The main house is from the guys @ Curtney's miniatures and is interchangable depending on scenario's. 

The compound is large enough to house a couple of sections with an open enterance at the front and small door at the rear.

After much deliberation I opted for straw scatter in the barn, I figured it brought the piece to life a little better matching it to the painted base of the compound. 

 

The rear of the compund contains a small door and 3 firing ports, which should make for some fun encounters.

The side of the compound with two small windows, better guard these or enemy troops might sneak in, I moved the building aside so you can see how easily the different buildings can be swapped around.

I also finished a couple of packs of carts from 4 Ground from their Samurai range I finished them off with the same straw effect, these can be used as scatter or barricades in the village.

I have a scenario in mind for the Lardie Day all dayer in June which will bring into play the full village and barricades so things are finally coming together. 

Chinese Village in 28mm

Having cleared the Spanish from the paint table time to turn to one of the long term projects sitting on the drawing board.

Much of my gaming over the past few years seems to have a Chinese feel to it, Boxer Rebellion, Russo-Japanese War, the terrain in use has been adaquate but I wanted to give it more of an obvious Oriental feel to the table top and onlooker.

The photo above was one of the first images that inspired me to re-fight the RJW period the farm in the background seemed perfect for what a typical rural hamlet might look like in 1905 Manchuria.

With a planned all dayer game in June at the Wyvern Wargames - Lardy Day. It seemed like it was time to put the plans in motion.

There is plenty of Samurai type buildings on the market, but the Chinese architecture is very different, several hours on the web delivered some very suitable pieces sourced from Curtney Miniatures and John Jenkin Designs.

Curtneys excellent resin buildings are designed for Ancient China they are well cast, light weight and with detactable roofs and bases gives me the most flexability between playability and style.

 

John Jenkins Designs have some wonderfully detailed buildings in 28mm, but are largely focused on the Japan and are near impossible to obtain in the UK, now appearing to focus mostly on 54mm figures, I was able to pick up some stone walling and a stable which will be useful for the rural compound sadly everything else is out of stock.

The 4 Ground fences from their Samuari range took longer than anticapted to construct with each section coming in a several sections all of which needed to be constructed in order and allowed to set before the next piece is added, but they are perfect for the walling each building and some small enclosures.

I figured mounting the buildings on boards would make them a little more durable and allow me to add some finer detail such as static grass and smaller terrain items, besides some of the fences pieces are only 2" across and were likely to fall over on the table during game play.

Securing the building bases to boards also gave me the flexibility to swap buildings around but also gives me the options to create "toppers" which can replace buildings if needs be with say ornamental gardens or vegatable patches...

Plenty more to do....