Some painting, terrain, and a second hand find

This week I managed to finish painting a unit of Highlanders for my Anglo-Zulu War project. These figures, other than the officer, are nicely converted old Airfix Napoleonic Highlanders and have had an interesting journey before finally reaching my painting table.

Converted Airfix Highlanders that were recently gifted and are now painted and based. The officer is from a HaT kit. I could not resist adding the bagpipes.

A view from the front.

The figures originally belonged to John of the "Wargame Hermit: Solo Wargaming" blog before being passed on to James of the "Solo Slow Wargaming" and "The Chauvinistic Blog" blogs. James had been unable to find a use for these, along with a selection of other Colonial miniatures, so very kindly passed them on to me. I wrote about this unexpected gift a couple of posts ago (here). They have now been repainted and based, and make a very useful addition to my growing British force.

A couple of weeks ago I placed a bid on what appeared to be some Peter Laing 15mm American War of Independence (AWI) figures judging by the photo. Fortunately, they turned out to be exactly that and some 60 figures. The Peter Laing range has been unavailable for many years and are difficult to find.

The Peter Laing AWI figures. Alas only one cavalry figure, I could do with another 4 to make a unit.

I originally bought my Peter Laing AWI collection back in 1978, although it remained unpainted until around 2015 when I returned to historical wargaming after reading "One-Hour Wargames" by Neil Thomas. These newly acquired figures will be a very useful addition to the collection and should allow me to add a few more units.

Finally, on to terrain, or more specifically - sci-fi terrain. I am always on the lookout for inexpensive items that can be repurposed for the tabletop, and during a visit to our local $2 shop I spotted some plastic flowers whose heads looked as though they might make some interesting alien plants.

Plastic flowers purchased for sci-fi terrain.

The flowers are removed from the stem and the connector at the bottom clipped off so the flower can sit flat on the tabletop.

Some nice colourful alien terrain.

For around $5 I decided they were worth a buy. Once home, I removed the flower heads from their stems and found that, with clipping off the base that attached them to the stems and a little bending, they sat nicely on the tabletop. I think they look best arranged in clusters of two or three adding some distinctive colours to the tabletop.

Waste not, want not, terrain and a Starfighter

In my last post I made some alien-looking plants using seed pods from a Banksia tree which I found on a walk on Christmas day. While making the terrain (see previous post for details), I cut the bottom off each of the seed pods. These offcuts still looked interesting, so I decided not to throw them away.

More alien plants added as scatter terrain.

A day or so later, while sorting through my stash of various plastic plants I have collected over the years, but never fully used. I found some sprouting flower pieces that looked like they could be attached to the Banksia offcuts to create a few more alien-looking plants. With that in mind, I drilled holes to attach the flowers and then painted the pieces.

The following is a quick overview of the steps involved in making the plants.

The off cuts of the Banksia seed pods.

Some unused plastic pieces of plant not used with sprouting flowers.

Holes were drilled into the off cuts to hold the flowers.

The off cuts were given a green wash, dry-brushed with a light green, and finally dabs of yellow added. 

The finished plants on the tabletop.

I think I have now done my dash with creating alien-looking plants for the moment. Keeping with the Sci-Fi theme, a recent addition to my Star Wars Legion collection is a 1/72 scale X-Wing Starfighter for the Rebel forces. I already have a TIE Fighter for the Imperial forces. Although the 1/72 scale models are smaller than Star Wars Legion figures, which stand at around 30 mm tall, the fighters do not look out of place and appear suitably proportioned when mounted on sticks so they stand about 12 inches above the tabletop. With this addition, both forces now have access to air support, and the X-Wing will be used in the same way as the TIE Fighter, providing scenario-driven air support.

The latest addition to my Star Wars collection.

The X-Wing and TIE fighter.

That’s all for 2025…

A find on a walk adds to the sci-fi terrain collection

Christmas Day and Boxing Day have turned out to be quite productive on the hobby front. While out walking on Christmas Day, I came across a Banksia tree and was able to collect a few of its seed pods with the idea of turning them into sci-fi terrain. The pods have a wonderful alien look. I decided to paint them with a yellow and dark pink colour scheme and added them to the other seed pods I have already been using to create colourful and interesting looking terrain features.

In addition, I painted up two Imperial officers that were a small Christmas present to myself.

The latest alien terrain additions.

Two imperial officers.

Here are a series of photos showing the steps I used to create the terrain features:

One end of the seed pod is sawn off so they can stand freely (avoiding the need to base them and saving both time and effort).

Once cleaned up and given a flat base, the seed pods were covered with a yellow wash.

After the yellow wash had dried, the seed pods were dry-brushed with yellow to help highlight the texture.

Finally, a dark pink wash was applied to the openings in the seed pods to add contrast to their alien look.

With these new terrain pieces finished, they will soon find their way onto the tabletop for a Star Wars game.

Gaul Warband, Robots, and Sci-Fi Terrain

Most of my available wargaming time this past week was spent getting some painting done and scratch-building simple Sci-Fi terrain. I had prepared and undercoated a 48-figure 20mm plastic Gaul Warband at the start of the week, but in an effort to delay tackling them I decided to first painted a couple of Spider Robots for my Star Wars Legion forces. One was the official kit, which came with some spare legs and guns. This gave me the opportunity to build a second robot using a scratch-built body assembled from whatever suitable parts I could find in the spares box (mostly unused bits from old Warhammer 40K kits).

The completed Spider Robots. The closest one uses the spare legs with a scratch-built body.

The Spider Robots from the front. Official kit on the left.

With the Spider Robots finished, there was no avoiding the Gauls. Once I got started painting them, I quickly found my rhythm and completed the unit over a couple of days. My approach to painting Ancient armies is deliberately simple. Basic block colours over a mid-brown base coat, which helps hide any missed areas. A final coat of PVA glue gives the figures a durable and glossy finish which I like.

The complete Gaul Warband made of 4 bases.

A view from the front. The figures are mainly 20mm HAT miniatures with a few Italeri Gauls added in.

Finally, while tidying up the storage in my wargames room, I came across some plumbing items picked up at the hardware store that I must have bought with scenery in mind. These were quickly mounted onto some MDF offcuts left over from last week's container construction to create a set of vents for my Star Wars terrain. I will use them either as scatter terrain, or added to the roofs of block buildings to make them look like a factory (and a suitable scenario objective to be destroyed). 

The vents used as scatter terrain.

The vents on a factory building roof. They add a bit of colour to the buildings.

Roman Fort Scratch Built

After a few Napoleonic naval games earlier in the week testing out some rules, the Punic Wars armies returned to the tabletop. The scenario I was planning required a Roman marching camp. Rather than build a new one from scratch, I decided to try and repurpose the walls from a French and Indian War fort I had made back in 2017 (see link). To give the fort more of a Roman feel, I decided to add some simple tents and watchtowers. As with most of my terrain, I like to keep things straightforward, MDF and blocks of wood, as everything ends up thrown into storage tubs after games and therefore needs to be sturdy.

The Roman fort in use on the tabletop.

The rest of this post is a quick step by step for the making of the tents and watchtowers.

1. Cutting the shapes

The basic wooden shapes were cut out first. A mitre saw makes this much easier and keeps angles clean.

The wooden shapes are cut out. 

2. Priming

Both the tower blocks and tents received a coat of gesso to seal and prime the surfaces, which can be quite rough even after sanding.

Watchtowers and tents get a primed with Gesso.

3. Base colours

The base colours were added next. Bone colour for the tents and light-brown of the towers.

The base colour is painted on. The wooden towers look a lot darker in the photo than that actually are.

4. Tent details

A few loose lines were painted on the tents to suggest folds and stretch lines. I am not aiming for accurate details, just enough detail to give the impression of material.

Some of the folds and stretch lines are painted on the tents.

5. Softening the highlights

Using the original tent colour lightened with white and watered down, I brushed over the tents to soften the lines and add some colour variation.

The base colour is lightened and watered down, then roughly applied to the tents.

6. Painting the towers

The wall section came from the original French and Indian War fort, so I had used it to match colours. The openings were painted with a slightly watered-down black, helping to give a slight variation of colour, rather than a flat, solid colour.

 The openings are painted with a watered down black so it is not a flat black and has some variations.

7. Timber effect on towers

Using a mid-brown, I brushed on stripes to represent the wooden timbers, not being particularly precise. A darker brown was then added in places to break up the pattern and add variation. Finally, a watered-down light brown (which used as the base colour) was used to tidy up areas where the stripes overlapped too heavily. I also added a thin line around the black openings for definition.

Mid-brown paint strips a roughly painted to represent timber.

Adding a few strips of dark-brown strips over the existing strips. In the photograph this is not that obvious, but the tower on the right has had the darker brown applied.

Using the base light-brown paint again, a few more stripes are added to tidy up areas where the previously painted strips have overlapped too much.

8. Upper tower structure

The upper superstructure of the towers was painted in dark-brown, then a light-brown was brushed onto the tops of crossbeams to give a sense of thickness and highlighting.

The upper tower superstructure is painted using the dark-brown colour.

Light-brown is painted on the top of the cross beams to indicate some depth.

9. Finishing off the openings

A watered down mid-brown wash was applied over some of the black areas to break up the uniform colour.

The watered down mid-brown painted on parts of the black break up its solid appearance.

10. Sealing

Once all the paint had dried, everything received a final coat of PVA glue to seal and protect it.

Once all the paint is dry, a final coat of PVA glue is used to seal it all and give it a glossy look that I like.

All up, the tents and towers took just under two hours of actual work (not including drying time) to make. Everything was finished in a single day and was ready for use on the tabletop that evening. While simple, they meet the wargaming tabletop three-foot rule, giving a clear of tents and towers, providing you do not look too closely. Also, I will be able to mix and match for other periods and I do not have to worry about them getting damaged when they are thrown into storage tubs with the rest of my terrain.

Another setup of the fort.

Making some Sci-Fi Terrain

This week’s modelling has focused on scratch-building and kit-bashing additions for my Star Wars collection. Earlier in the week I kit-bashed a dinosaur from the discount shop with a mounted figure from my spare parts box (see previous post).  While I had been rummaging through my spares collection, I came across a collection of old seedpods I had collected years ago on one of my walks. I am always on the lookout for items that could be used as terrain. So it seemed timely to add to my Sci-Fi terrain collection.

Additional terrain made from seedpods.

At first, I planned to simply trim the bases so they would sit flat on the tabletop, but they looked a bit dull and boring. To give them more character, and to better match my retro-style sci-fi terrain, I decided to apply some washes and use some dry brushing to highlight their shapes.

The seedpod brown colour was uninspiring and boring.

I cut the bases off the seedpods to make them sit flat.

For the washes, I used watered-down craft acrylics applied liberally with a brush. Once dry, I then dry brushed them with my regular model paints. There were two types of seedpods to work with. One set was washed in blue, dry brushed in light blue, and finished with touches of dark red around the openings to give them a look of a carnivorous plant. The second set was washed in red and dry brushed with yellow, producing a spiky cactus look.

The blue carnivorous plant life.

The red looking cactus.

These new pieces will add some more colour to the tabletop and can double as dangerous terrain when a scenario calls for it. I will most likely be using the blue, carnivorous-looking plants for that particular role.

I couldn’t resist getting these new additions on to the tabletop and play a few solo Star Wars games using the Squad Hammer Core rules from Nordic Weasel Games.

Sci-Fi Squad Hammer games, rule additions, and terrain

It has been quite some time since I last had any of my Warhammer 40K collections on the tabletop for a game. In recent months, my Star Wars Legion forces have been my focus for my sci-fi gaming, they are the new and shiny project at the moment. For my Star Wars games, I have been using the Squad Hammer Core rules. These provide an enjoyable and flexible set of rules for my solo sci-fi wargaming, and I thought I would give the rules a go with my Warhammer 40K forces.

Space marines advance. One of the last factions I painted more than a decade ago.

For a number of years I collected Warhammer 40K and I have quite a few armies to choose from:

• Ultramarines
• Sons of the Sword Space Marines (a chapter of my own creation)
• Necrons
• Orks
• Tyranids
• Tau
• Chaos Space Marines
• Imperial Guard

For my game, I chose the Sons of the Sword Marines and Necrons. Playing on a 4' x 4' tabletop, I kept things small and manageable, with each side fielding around seven to nine units.

After the first game, I started thinking about how to bring more of a 40K narrative to the tabletop by incorporating some of the special rules that give each faction its character. My initial idea was to use chance cards, but I decided instead to create some army-specific tables to roll against.

A player could spend one of their orders to roll on their faction’s table. In the Squad Hammer Core rules, players get to roll two D6 and choose the higher result when determining how many units they may activate that turn. With forces of about seven to nine units per side, sacrificing one order to roll on a chance table felt like an interesting and hopefully balanced trade-off.

To capture the right feel and narrative for each army, I delved into my old Space Marines and Necron codexes. They are not the latest editions, I bought them more than fifteen years ago when I was collecting them and occasionally playing using the official 40K rules. They provided plenty of inspiration for some special rules and abilities I wanted to include.

Some of my old Codexes which still sitting on the book shelves. I particularly like the front cover of the Necron codex, very atmospheric.

Below are the initial special rule tables I used. If an order is used for a special rule, a player rolls a D6 and consults the table to determine which special rule will be used. The rules allow units in some cases to make an extra action in addition to any order they receive during the turn. A roll of 1 always results in a wasted order. 

Space Marine Special Rules Table:

1. Communications Disrupted – The order fails to get through.
2. Bolter Discipline, Brothers! – The Emperor steadies their aim. Add 1 to all target acquisition dice rolls.
3. Advance, Brothers! – One unit may make a free move or charge.
4. By Bolt and Blade! – One unit may make a free shot.
5. The Emperor Protects! – One unit of the player’s choice may remove 3 hits.
6. Storm from the Heavens! – A gunship screams overhead. Select one enemy unit within range of a friendly unit; it immediately takes D6 hits as strafing fire rakes its position.

Necron Special Rules Table:

1. Signal Interference – No special orders are issued.
2. Advance of the Deathless – The silent ranks glide forward without pause. All warrior units may make a free move, but cannot charge.
3. Resurrection – One unit of the player’s choice may remove 3 hits.
4. Disruption Field – Enemy units cannot return fire during this Necron player's turn.
5. Veil of Darkness – A unit within one bound of a Necron Lord or Monolith may deep strike anywhere on the tabletop. Use scatter dice to determine the exact position.
6. Death from the Skies – A Doom Scythe appears overhead, its death rays slicing through the air. Select one enemy unit within range of a friendly unit; it immediately takes D6 hits.

After a couple of games, I decided to add another twist to the special rules (which I had started to call Special Tactics). A player could now spend two orders instead of one to roll two dice and choose the special rule that best suited their situation. If doubles were rolled, they could be rerolled.

A game underway.

In addition to playing a few games, I took advantage of a very wet weekend to paint up some cheap Halloween skulls I had purchased a while ago for a couple of dollars. The intent was to use them as scenery pieces for my sci-fi or fantasy games. 

The original skulls sanded and gaps filled.

Painted grey, with a couple of washes added before they were dry brushed with a light grey and bone colour.

I did consider mounting the skulls on bases, but leaving them loose gives me far more flexibility in how they could be used. For example: singly with rocks piled around to block line of sight, grouped together as a larger terrain feature, or by carefully placing the rocks they can be used to create a vantage point for a unit.

Three skulls with rocks piled around to create a large feature.

Placed individually to create blocking terrain or objectives.

Additional rocks can be added to create a platform that can be used as a vantage point for snipers.

Next I will be adding some psychic rules as I hopefully get other W40K armies on to the tabletop.