ACW: Baccus 6mm all-arms Confederate force

As well as the 15mm ACW chaps, I've also been working on some of Peter Berry's 6mm lads. I decided to have a little test run of one of each kind of unit. The cavalry regiment here is twice the size of a normal one, because nine figures to me. So instead 18 men and horses are taking up more space than 28 infantry on the corresponding base. I feel it both looks more visually appealing and it indicates just how much space a horseman takes up compared to an infantryman. The bases here aren't finished, and I need to find out whether I have any Confederate flags for the infantry, but they're mostly done, so I can start rolling out some more units. I think I bought a divisional pack back in the day, so there's one more Union cavalry unit, but a wealth of Rebel and Union infantry and artillery.

X-Wing: repainted Micromachines

I finally got round to playing X-Wing the other week. Some friends and I played the simple starter version - no complicated gaming when booze is involved! It inspired me to dig out some of my old Micromachines and have a crack at repainting them. Not to toot my own horn, but they've come out most satisfactorily. The Empire is now strengthened by an Interceptor, a technological terror to augment their two TIEs. Perversely, the Rebel X-Wing is now supported by her design's predecessor, the Z-95 Headhunter. Paint-wise, they all received a dark grey undercoat before I began work. The Squint (as anyone who's read the X-Wing books will know the Interceptor) received progressively lighter drybrushes of grey, then some black on the cockpit windows and wing panels to finish them off.

The Z-95 (did they merit a nickname in the X-Wing books?) again had progressively lighter greys drybrushed on, but then I switched to shades of khaki instead. A few spots had a coat of orange, which I then painted scarlet over. I then washed the whole fighter with some Agrax Earthshade, after which I repainted the cockpit window black. Finally, there's a Skipray Blastboat, which, memory tells me, and the Star Wars Wiki confirms, could help either side out. Like the TIE she also had progressively lighter drybrushes, then a few carefully applied spot of green, some black for the windows, a few spots of white, and a wash of Agrax Earthshade all over, giving her something of an intermediate look. I'll have to sort out some stats and bases for these guys for the next time I have a game. Here they are for now with the original models for comparison.

Terrain: Spanning the earth with buildings

I have three on the go here. The large building I showed the other day, which has a Middle-Eastern-cum-North-African-cum-Middle-American vibe, and a pair I had been working on before: a woodsman's cottage, which would probably dwell in the North American continent, but could sit in Europe quite happily, and a longhouse. Both these last were inspired by the nice little farmhouse at Terrain for Hippos. Right, so I've plastered the large building and the longhouse, put a spot of sand on the bases, and then it's just securing that sand and I can move on to painting. Here's how they look right now.

Terrain: Building under construction

I had a busy weekend. A lot of garden furniture and whatnot had a coat of wood preserver. I only spent a couple of hours on the Saturday, but I was hard at it for nearly six on Sunday. That's what good weather's for, isn't it? As a result, I was a bit zonked out. I'm back at it now, anyway. I saw a few things last week which made me think I should have a go at a Middle Eastern house with a courtyard. One was this new Warlord kit. They do several nice buildings - if only there were more money in the world. Anyway, inspiration also struck in the form of the buildings in an AAR on Warseer by sigur. I'm sure there was a third one, but I can't seem to remember it now. Anyway, I decided to use a bit of plasticard for the base. I'd previously cut it out for another building, which is going to get a somewhat larger base to stand on. I sharpened a few matchsticks and used them to pin the walls together. I did a lot of dry-fitting, added a courtyard wall, and started work on a staircase. Then I decided to add a single-storey building in the courtyard to break up the staircase. I carved out a few doorways and windows, then hot-glued the whole together and to the base.

Here she is as she stands. I am going to apply some filler and sand to the outside of the building next. I don't want to muck up the windows I have waiting, so they'll be stuck on once the gloop has been applied and dried. Hence the roofs have yet to be applied to the main building and the courtyard extension. I've propped them in place for the second pair of photos to give some idea of how the building should look on completion.