All my previous bases are made by Fenris, and whilst the quality is great they are getting quite expensive when you shop around, at £4.50 for 12.

So I did a little hunt on eBay and came up with a reasonable alternative. They’re from a seller called startledhedgehog and can be seen here.

As you can tell they’re a little larger at 30mm rather than 25mm, but for skirmish games like Mordheim I don’t think that’s an issue. Plus my barbarians I’m currently acquiring are likely to be quite hefy and will benefit from the greater space. They cost £2.50 for ten and I’m rather happy with the result. Simple things but I begrudge paying more for what is essentially the same product.

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I’ll get some photos of the warbands up, the orcs and the Reiklanders are complete now. I’m also doing an interior for the church, and am about to cut the brewery board to pieces and rebuild it.

Looking into the Sartosa setting by StyrofoamKing, which is looking likely to lead to a human pirate warband too. Will work nicely with the orcs I reckon.

Various things on the go, will post pictures as they come to fruition, starting with a nice overview of how the board looks as it stands. Be back soon.

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The boards at the front are the newest. Now I’ve sorted out the fluff and location for this place, I can say with some certainty that that’s the river Aver. Right there, at the front. Looking a little black and brown. Hrm.

Left front board, the canal mouth, doesn’t need a huge amount more work. The plank of balsa wood is obviously going to be replaced with a proper foot bridge.

The right front board is being worked on at the moment. It’s getting a small stall in the first gap in the tiles, the other side will be a small merchants house. Then between the two will be a tower with a small courtyard. Then steps down in the gap and at the front a quay. It’s all planned. Just not, you know, happening all that fast.

I’ve also decided I need to do an interior for the church, otherwise it’s just a big obstacle. Fortunately the roof is removable anyway so it just needs a floor, a few pews and a paintjob. Then I’ll finally get all the stained glass windows in!

Amazing how just playing a game changes your perception of the build, which bits are useful and what needs work. The brewery yard definitely needs a second entrance for instance, otherwise unless you start in there or the scenario requires building searches why would you ever use it?

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The Reiklanders I’m still waiting for my empire militia to arrive. Have been decidedly let down by the Internet in the last two weeks, orders are taking forever. Perhaps there’s a postal strike I don’t know about?

However I’ve got a parcel to collect tomorrow, I think that’s my Mordheim boxed set. Just the rules and the minis, no scenery (which obviously I’m providing my own!). So those guys should fill up my Reiklanders and the new militia will go to my second human warband.

The Orc Pirates are greenstuffed, or pro-created anyway, and have been primed. They’re currently on the kitchen floor drying. I’ll try and get the first one painted tomorrow and pics online.

The Possessed I’m waiting on all my orders except for the Magister, who put everyone else to shame arriving two days after purchase. Very cool character, was concerned it might not be tall enough but he’s as large as my biggest Reiklander so it’ll work fine. I’ve just chopped off the horrid premoulded base and severed his hand ready for the sword.

They’re coming along well all in all. Printed out Empire in Flames yesterday and am reading through that slowly. Hence getting inspired about the Carnival of Chaos too!

Also tonight I put together my five WIP terrain boards to see how they looked. Very exciting! Hope to get another one started at the weekend and give me enough scenery to have a dabble at learning the rules. Feel like a big kid again

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Really struggling with my limited hirst arts moulds collection. Need to buy the round turret mould I think to make stuff like this easier.

The first will have a statue, I’m tempted to try for it spraying water but get the feeling that might be running before I can sit upright.

Not sure about the owls on the second, they’re just balanced at the moment. It ties into the whole owl theme of the church, and the goddess Verena. With a texture they might work, the fact they’re very low detailed lego pieces could work for partially eroded stone. Dunno..

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Bought some depron, which I’m using for the ground floor of the tavern, that’s going quite well. Also learned how to mould/cast stuff, so trying to sort out my own windows later.

Couple of new purchases arrived today. From Renedra I bought a couple of sets of barrels. Big ones are about 15mm high, little ones about 10mm. Seem very well scaled for 28mm models so I’ll be scattering these around.

Then from TerraScenic I bought a set of Modelling Mates moulds. Basically a cheaper version of Hirst Arts moulds. Made from EVA foam (the stuff you get on fishing rod and exercise bike handles), they lack the detail and quality of the HA stuff. However for 2/3 the price of a single HA mould you get THREE of these. Plus they’re a lot larger, the basic block one has 28 individual blocks.

I’m casting up my second batch now, once I have enough to build something I’ll show it. They’re a little larger than HA bricks but should work well to give variety to my town.

Finally I’m working on the canal section. The warehouse is almost up to roof line and I’m building a small cargo barge to go under the crane.

Photos coming.

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So last night I downloaded SketchUp. Not used it before, but figured how hard could it be? Turns out it’s the easiest packaging for visualisations I’ve ever used. It genuinely IS like sketching in 3d. A few things are clunky but perhaps when you get to that point you should be using a bigger package (Maya is my preference). Anyway, I digress.

This is Stadtheim! Not sparta, nor indeed frothers. The town has changed a bit from the map on the right. Whilst ostensibly this is modular terrain, since it won’t be played on much if at all I’m desigining it to be put together in a certain way.

The new blocks on the front left edge are the coast. Too tempted by the awesome pirate models out there to not do this. I may even extend one block further out so I can put in a harbour wall, but for now it’ll stop there. The far edge will become a cliff, the near a small dock with jetties.

Of all the blocks shown I now have 5 on the go, the latest being the mouth of the river. The far corner is a plan I have based on the rather spectacular town of Rothenburg. There will be three bridges in total. The one shown, and another wide one the other side of the watch house. Finally a small footbridge will go over the river mouth.

Too many ideas. This could easily end up being a city..

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The owl I found in an old box of stuff. I’d love the say I painted the patina like that, but actually it’s just because it’s spent many years in a slightly damp loft.

Anyway, I think it’ll work nicely as a subtle statue to Verena, although if I find a 54mm roman goddess miniature I may change my mind.

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Unwrapped and put in this box to dry out, sitting in the sun yesterday has done that so they’re ready to go.

I bought two types of floor slabs, 1 1/2″ square each. There are basic rough textured slabs, then a mixed bag of bricks, herringbone and concentric. All look great and will be awesome in my town square as my chess board.

Speaking of the chess board, I’m going to go for dwarfs vs chaos dwarfs. Should be great, though I’ll have to convert my own CDs since the old plastics go for a fortune on ebay, and the new ones are rumoured to be FW only. Hardly a cheap solution. Chaos Dwarf Online has lots of guides for converting and I’m not bad with greenstuff, so I’m sure I’ll manage.

Just wish I had more time to work on this, work is batshit insane at the moment and taking up a big chunk of my free time. Still, when I’m retired by 35 I’ll have plenty of time to work on my models. hehe.

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