Time rolls On....

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Easter came and went, lets just say it was, quiet.

I bet yours was too.

The last two weeks were very weird from a work standpoint, as well as a living position.  But the lack of a commute and the extra free time as a result did mean I got a lot of hobby time done.

So in no particular order:

Stan for Scale

Well over a Kilo

 So first up is a Grand Manner Church; another generous donation from James S.  Well worth the effort this hefty model needed.  This model is as far as I can tell, no longer in production, but the painted replacement currently sells for £180!!

Next are some additions to the Imagi-Nations 15mm project:

Hussar!

 Another unit of Hussars, and a light Horse Limber; all from Warrior Miniatures of course.  The limber is from their Gallia 19th century range but it will suffice at a pass, at the less than a pound that it cost.

Next some fantasy:

Reaper miniatures

 These are newer Kobolds from the Bones range, to add variety to my Dragon Rampant army, enough for a single unit themselves, I think they will be best blended in.  The details are finer but the models softer too.  I think I like the older models more, but these are still great additions.

Back to terrain:

  

I've picked up some OO/HO railway pieces for use in WW2 games mainly.  The most important bit to get done was the track.  Here are just over 6 feet of track.  I toyed with using ballast as railway modellers would, but in the end, I opted for painted texture instead.  I think this actually looks really good.

Not bad for super quick.... 

So I cut strips of 5mm foamcore and then shaped them to a gentle embankment.  Each piece was then painted with a thin (creamy consistency) layer of filler.  When this dried, a thicker layer was applied to the banks and textured.  The rail lines - which are standard fixed sections (from Peco I think) with the connectors removed - were then glued to the foamcore with PVA and weighted down overnight.

Once that was done I sprayed the whole black, and then drybrushed the ballast up with brownish greys, forcing an old, big, brush between the sleepers.  After that the surface of the sleepers got a drybrushing of browns.  Finally the tracks themselves got a pretty sloppy coat of gunmetal, and a surface highlight of steely-silver.  Real rails tend to have shiny surfaces, but are pretty grubby where the wheels don't touch, so it doesn't require too much care.

I have to say I'm really happy with the result. 

Finally for today, a random giveaway miniature from the Conan game bemused me for a while, until I realised there was a perfect use for it....

 

Atop  couple of painted garden rocks, he makes an excellent Spartan General, probably most suited to being the leader in the fantasy variant of my army, but he can do duty as a historical character if required.

Not bad for a couple of weeks.

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