The Push - Part II

This last weekend was spent finishing up the last of the figures for my game at Cangames

On the Painting Table

I while back, I had ordered up a pair of Whitworth 12 pounder Rifles to reinforce the Martians. They will count as rod guns but being breech loaders will have an improved rate of fire of 1 and will be able to fire shell. Their back story is that they are American Civil War ex-CSA surplus sold on to the natives by unscrupulous Yankee traders. To support this, I decided to paint them up some what accurately. The included instructions said the carriages were painted "olive" a somewhat vague description. I went on-line and poked around various historical and re-enactor sites then mixed up a batch of something fairly close. The whole process took a bit of time but I felt it was worth it. Later in the day, I was rummaging around in the paints box and came up with a pot of GW Catachan green - an almost  identical match for what I had mixed up. Live and learn.

After painting was complete it was into the dip for everyone. I really like the block paint and dip method. It doesn't always do justice to the sculptors' art but then neither does my level of painting skill.  What the dip does do is encase every model in a hard wearing shell that is unfortunately glossy. I am cheap so my dip is Future floor polish with a healthy dose of brown paint. To kill that gloss the next step is:

Form up for Dullcote!

I use Krylon Matte Finish rather than Testors Dullcote mostly because it is what I have. For me, painting is something to get out of the way so I can play the game. For others, painting and basing is central to their enjoyment. This is one of the things I like about the hobby, there are many ways to enjoy it.

Onward to the play aids!

The Push - Part 1

As mentioned previously, I will be running an 1889 game at Cangames this year. With school work out of the way and things at work calming down a bit, I was able to get going on terrain this past weekend.

Dollar Store Goodies

An earlier trip to the Dollar Store gave me some of the materials to work with. Woodlands Scenics it isn't but the price can't be beat. One note: try to buy all you need of a certain item in one go - you may never see the exact same item in stock again.    

Red Weed

Plastic plants are always useful. As you can see above, most are made up of smaller sprigs that can be separated out. Be sure to wash all plastics well to remove any mould release agent especially if you will be painting or dry brushing later.

Stacked up ready to go

My rifles still needed some touch ups and I had purchased some guns to even the odds for the Martians. Saturday was pretty grey wet out so painting was the order of the day.

The bird houses were slated to become a Martian swamp village. Weapon ranges are rather long so the Martians need all the cover they can get. The first step was to give them a good coat of gesso.

Doors

The next step was to add some doors cut out of recycled three ring binder cover card and cereal boxes.

Garish....

 The back story material for Space 1889 talks about the Martians ability to fuse sand to create their canals. I thought that the same technology would be used in house construction. Canada is now, or rather was home to a rather ugly form of pottery known as Blue Mountain. I used that as a inspiration for my swamp Martian huts.  While Blue Mountain primarily used a subdued dark green, I went with brighter colours. I am going to rationalize this by saying that Space 1889 can quickly devolve into "North West Frontier in Space".  I wanted to mix some "strange" into it so that the players know this is not just India on another planet. 

Ready to move in.

Sunday was bright and sunny so construction moved outside. The various bits of plastic greenery were cut down, reconfigured and applied as thatching to the huts to produce the rather fetching trio above. Bits of ceramic fruit and silk flowers were used to add a feminine touch.... not sure why exactly but there you go.

Hedges

Other bits of  greenery were hot glued onto more recycled binder card to produce a series of hedges for the Martians to hide behind.

Cheap Walls

A final project for the day was to make up a series of broken walls out of recycled Styrofoam scrounged by a friend on garbage day. I used the beaded variety because it was what I had and the beads give a rubble like texture to the breaks. It is not particularly robust so for longer term use I would look for insulation board and possibly even add an MDF base for strength.

Next up will probably be the temple complex. Work is also ongoing on the unit cards and quick reference sheets.  When does a hobby turn into more work than your actual work?