Pulp Alley urban boards

 

 Finally I have gotten around to addressing my woefully inadequate urban/tarmac gaming surface. Good old Dave of Pulp Alley keeps talking about 18" x 18" tiles as a good gaming surface. Well, while he seems to be able to walk into a home store in the US and readily find these tiles it seems to be a bit more of a challenge here in Canada. Even if you can find them they are sold by the case which is not so economical to me. However I did find some tiles on Amazon and then figured out a way to make them double sided, sort of like what Dave does.

Painting stuff; Vallejo Xpress & paint brushes plus a dollar store silicon 'painting well'

 

So, a few updates on the painting front, not so much any finished figures, although I have quite a fair number on the verge of completion, rather a talk about paint and equipment.

 

Time cast terrain

 

So, a relatively recent purchase (last 3-4 months) that I thought I should get around to painting up. These are from TIME CAST and are a brown silicon/rubber material. They are very flexible, have a reasonable amount of detail and take paint well. They come in a variety of sizes and textures; rough terrain, marshes, fields and patty fields. These ones are technically scaled for 15mm/20mm figures and while I will use them for those scales they will also see service in a variety of other scales. I bought a four item mix pack of each type of terrain. So far I have completed all of them save for the marshes.

Final few posts of AHPC 14

 

From post 14

From post 15

So, the challenge has come to an end. Once again I had fun participating in the challenge and I feel that I have had a much more successful winter painting time than I would have without the challenge. I certainly had a more laid back approach to the challenge and I did not get caught up in any self induced competition to get the most points, or to paint the most items. I did leverage the weekly posting schedule and the point target that I had selected to drive myself to paint stuff when I might just as easily have sloughed off doing any painting. In fact I found it interesting that near the end of the challenge I really thought to myself that I was done for the year and then with only a couple of days left I suddenly turned it around and managed to produce a 513 point entry, my largest post this year.

Post 14 HERE

Post 15 HERE

The good/bad thing about this years challenge for me was the slow start that I had and the fact that it took me so long to get into the groove fro producing stuff. The good thing about peaking so late is that the painting urge still remains even though the challenge is over. So far I have managed to pick up (and use) a paint brush every day since the start of spring! (with the exception of the weekend away at Hotlead) So the inspiration continues, I may even try to track my weekly or monthly output although right now I am working on some petty dull stuff, crates, always need cover.

AHPC XIV posts 10-13

 

So I wound up doing multiple posts this past week as it seemed easier to split up things and create posts as I completed stuff.

AHPC XIV posts 8 and 9

So more 15mm Sci-fi vehicles, some that should have been in a previous post, and some newly painted Fast wheeled vehicles.

First up are the troop transport vehicles that had a wee trouble with being primed.

 These are a new grouping of vehicles, 22 in all.

Post 8 is HERE while post 9 can be found HERE

With these entries I am now at 1466 points for the challenge on a target of 2000 points. 

AHPC XIV - this weeks possible postings...

So, I am looking at going a little crazy this week and see if I can get a lot of stuff done in one week and to see how many points and squirrels I can get. With so much planned it behooves me to jot down some of my ideas.

The path

1. History
2. Fantasy
3. Romance
4. Statue
5. DIY
6. Literature.
7. Travel
8. Manga?
9. Sci fi
10. CART
    
11. True Crime
    

AHPC XIV Posts 6 and 7 Rats and 15mm Sci-fi

 

 So, I did two posts to the challenge this past week, my usual (at least the usual this challenge) 15mm sci fi vehicles and some 28mm Pulp stuff. I only got 13 vehicles done this week (see the link to find out why) As for the 28mm stuff, well the rats have needed to be done for quite some time, as had the scarabs, still have more scarabs to do. The robot got done only because sudden inspiration grabbed hold of me and allowed me to finish off a figure that has been languishing for a year or two in my to be done pile.

Rats can be found HERE while the vehicle post is HERE

AHPC XIV - post #5 15mm hover vehicles for the NSL [233 points]

 

Another assortment of 15mm sci-fi vehicles. These 31 vehicles are destined for the New Swabian League. Once again you can see the full painting challenge post HERE

I am at a loss to understand why I have been so 'focused' on my 15mm collection. They have sat primed on a shell for quite a few years and there is no likelihood that they will be used in a game any time soon. I have even purchased more just before Christmas, so I guess it is a good thing that I am working on them.

Some painting equipment ideas

 

So, a couple of ideas that I have picked up from Youtube. 

AHPC XIV - post #4 15mm Armour for the Hanuman 'alien' natives

 

So, another week another post to the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. This time it is the armour units that will be confronting the Fifth Foreign Legion troops. They are lower tech than the Legion but will be fielding more vehicles in any given scenario. So far I have painted up all 28 vehicles that I have. In a game I would recycle these vehicles and not recycle the Legion vehicles just to give the Legion a real challenge.

These were primed black and base coated with a craft paint called candy bar, a dark brown/red colour. Then layers of lighter red including Vallejo German red brown primer. The penultimate colour was a craft paprika colour and the final  highlight was a yellow/orange craft Raw Sienna. I also applied a wash of GW Reikland flesh wash.

Anyways HERE is the link to the post over on the AHPC site.

My new favorite product

 

So, under the gun with limited time to waste on making my own stuff, I went out and bought this stuff today. Great purchase, a fine balance between thick and liquid, it is easy to apply and turns out great. I used it to mud up some Sci-fi tanks treads and to add some slash dirt on the front, back and sides of the vehicles. I have used Vallejo before but not always happy with the colour or texture. This stuff does the trick!

I will be giving it a real test when I apply it to some 15mm troop bases next week. I also picked up some AK cracked earth to try an add a different look to some of the bases, we shall see next week.

The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge XIV

 

So, here is the map for this years challenge, it has taken me a while to study it and to make it more legible (some of the labels were a bit faint for my eyes. Once again, it is a nicely done event with plenty of choices and a few areas that pose a problem for me. The big problem areas for me are local history, art and a statue of a famous person. There are a few other challenging locations...

So far I have been kind of fixated on 15mm sci-fi so I have yet to branch out. My next entry will stick with that theme and therefor I will continue to stay at the front desk.

My plans for the various areas:

• Front desk                 Already done a grav ambulance
  
• History                      WWII Geemans
  
• Overdues & returns  15mm Sci-fi tanks from decades ago
  
• Fantasy                     Animated Terracotta warriors
  
• Children's books       The pied piper of Hamelin
  
• Maritime                   28mm sailing ship or gun boat
  
• True crime                28mm Jack the Ripper
  
• Cookery                    GW Halfling Hot pot artillery
  
• Nature                       28mm animals
• Sci-fi                          plenty of choices
• Manga                        28mm freebie figure from Alternative armies 
• Travel                        London-Victorian
  
• DIY                           Shuttlecrafts
  
• Literature                  Sherlock Holmes
  
• Art                             Director and film crew
  
• Oversize books
• Cafe/shop
• Local History            Native American (Pulp Figures figure)
  
• Self help                     Cat lady and cats
  
• Romance                    Knight defending a lady against a Dragon
  
• Famous person          Queen Victoria
  
• Rare/antique books    This will be the final challenge picked by the head librarian

Now, I do not need to do all of them they are meant to inspire me to do old stuff that has been hanging around. I am tempted to not bother collecting any bonus points, as really this challenge is about painting not seeing how many points you get. But I do kind of like points, but if I do get points I will try to keep them separate from the painting points.

AHPC XIV post #3 - 91 x 15mm Ikwen from Alternative Armies [182 points]

 

So a total of 91 figures painted this past week and posted to the challenge on Saturday. These are worth 192 points bringing my total to 400 points. This is just the start of the Ikwen force, already another 40 have arrived with maybe another 72 soon to be ordered. They are low tech fighters with no vehicle to speak of and only scavenged weapons to fight the invader.

The full post can be found HERE

 

AHPC XIV post #2, 20 x 15mm Hammers Slammers vehicles plus 15 crew [190 points]

 

For my second post I went with some sci-fi blower tanks made my Brigade Models. The main tanks are big, very big, bigger than any 20mm tanks. I went with the colour scheme pictured on Brigade Models web site, natural metal on top and painted metal skirts around the bottom.

 So my second post cane be found HERE

AHPC XIV first entry for 2023-2024, a 15mm APC ambulance - [28 points] includes bonus

 

 So, a small entry size and point value wise, a 15mm grav ambulance from Brigade Models.

HERE is the link to the post over on the AHPC site.