Rock Outcroppings

 I decided that if I am going to play a Greek Andartes army then I could probably use some rocky terrain. I haven't made any rocky terrain in a good number of years and thought I would give it a try again using rigid foam insulation. I know a lot of people use tree bark to make rocks, but I don't like the look of it all that much. Thus the reason I tried the foam insulation. I don't think it turned out to bad. I tried to vary the size quite a bit and so the outcroppings vary in size from slightly larger than man sized up to around 12 inches or more.

The center piece is made from a single slab of foam and is supposed to be two rock outcroppings with a small saddle between them.

This is actually one of my favorites, though I think that it could use a little rock debris on the ledges to break up the straight lines, and perhaps a little work on the overhanging bits in the first picture.

Again, another one with multiple rocks outcropping. 

The two smaller rocks.

The biggest one of the bunch with a few boulders laying on top of the large exposed rock shelf. Below are a few overview shots of all of the pieces together. A pretty good spread across the table though I would like to do a few more to get a really rock strewn table.

I just bought the Citadel gaming mat as well. I scored it at a local hobby store that doesn't specialize in miniatures, and so I found it on the clearance shelf for half price. A pretty good deal at $15.00 considering these things are out of production now. Though, I am now kinda partial to my $8.00 green blanket from Target.

Mediterranean Barn

Well, it's been one of those months. I worked on quite a bit of stuff done and actually got some of it done. Though it never seems like I dig myself out from under the pile of projects in the works. That's probably because I keep starting things, and never finishing them. So this post is dedicated to a project that I was totally excited about, jumped into without any planing and managed to get everything done, except flocking the base in a couple of days. Then I promptly set it on the shelf where it has sat since that day in early November. There were a few more things I had originally planned, like adding a broken down wagon to the dung pile behind the barn, paint the pigs a little better, but things can always be done later if I get in the mood. Right now, I am going to pronounce this done, even if it kinda isn't really...

Fritz takes a peak around the corner spotting the Greek Andartes who are guarding the tsipuro still.

Mediterranean Houses

This is one of my most recent house projects. I built these for a friend who wanted some houses to use in a WW2 Italian campaign as well as something that wouldn't look totally out of place in a Napoleonic game set in Southern France or Spain.

Both buildings are made out of insulation foam and layers of single sided cardboard.

I did a little experimenting with the arch. Originally I had thought to have two buildings with the archway in the middle, but the whole thing turned out to be heavy. So instead I made it so that the archway could just sit up against another building, in the end making it much more versatile.

  

For the windows I used some plastic HO scale bits that I found at a flea market last year. I didn't catch the paint on the window sill until after the picture was painted, but I have painted over that. I really like the stucco texture on this one, and discovered it quite by accident just before I was set paint the whole thing.

This is a shot from the other side to show the stone portion of the building and the shingle roof.



This is the second building, which turned out okay. It was built using the same methods as the other building with the exception of the windows. The windows an this one are shutter made out of foam.

Here is the back side of the building. The small shed is there mostly to provide added stability as the model was pretty weak without it. It is made out of cardboard with small strips of foam added on for the planks.

The loading area is supposed to be concrete, and after taking this picture decided it was way to bright so I toned it down with a wash of dark gray.