Details - Explosivo!

Now for something completely different! haivng so many tanks in one army, I'd be a fool to expect them to all live too long! That's why I've started making some explosion markers! So far these look pretty impressive and in the fullness of time I will likely add some red and yellow tone at the base to give the impression of a fire on the go.

They are surprisingly easy to put together. I simply unwound a giant paper clip and glued and green stuffed this to a small base.

I grabbed some clump foliage (as available from Woodland Scenics) and superglued bits of it around this wire armature. Where there was too much, you just pick some off, where there was not enough, you add some tufts! Applying some superglue around the thing at the end helps to stop smaller bits dropping off.

Then, it was outside for a heavy coat of black undercoat. You really have to go at it in order to make sure you can't see the green. After this you can turn them whatever which way and add some white spray to towards the bottom. To be honest, I'm not sure if I should have done it the other way around - and gone in with the white spray first... let me know what you think!

These make great explosion markers - and I can see myself using some to help bring buildings to life too!

Armies - Chimera chip details

Okay, so I have been working and practicing further with the Chimera. Having sponged Charadon Granite onto the model (concentrating on open corners and moving areas), and given the model an overall wash, I had to go back over and highlight the paint chip effect. This gives the impression of depth... as if the paint literally has chipped and flaked away leaving the base colour or metal showing a few milimetres behind it. Of course, highlighting every chip and scratch would be too laborious, so I concentrating in certain areas and made sure to highlight the lower edge (because light comes from above!) See what you think.

Review - Dungeon Casting Brain Pump

Over the week I received a well taped package, my brain pump had arrived! Not to be confused with other pumps on the market, this had come from Dungeon Casting and was bought through their ebay store.

I opened the box, to find another box! Holy Crap! look how many pieces there are!? Along with it were 2 A4 sheets of instructions too, though the questionable quality of the printing was matched only by my inability to match the 70 odd parts to their assigned code! I decided that this was futile, and proceeded straight onto the first diagram - which, to be fair was the first in a series of quite easy to follow pictures.

You may lambast me for actually following instructions, but an hour or so later and I had finished the pump, with some minor artistic deviation to suit myself of course.

Dungeon Casting produce all their stuff by casting Herculite into moulds. Basically, this stuff is plaster and the pieces went together surprisingly easily using a tub of GW super glue. Most of the parts were pretty well cast though there were a fair amount of air bubbles. These would be easy enough to fill, but I decided that the bubbles and defects would fit well when this thing was put into a part ruined building.

Overall, I'm quite happy with the result, the kit is quite easy to build, the material is easy to work with and the scaling seems just right.

You can view more of their stuff at www.dungeoncastings.co.uk and be sure to check out their ebay store.