Diorama - Building the Base

Just some quick pictures of how the base for the first diorama is coming along. I'm using basswood to build this base. Basswood is my wood of choice for things like this, light, durable and easy to work with.

Here is the original mockup, its actually turning out to be too small.

Here is the inside of the building. This is going to go away on the final version so there is least to deal with.

Here is the new base ready to be cut out.

A lot of cutting and gluing happened to get to this point. I did a bit of sanding on the sides to smooth things out.

Here is the building just sitting in place. I'm not quite sure how tall I want or need to make the walls. There will be two windows on the street side.

A few Christmas gifts

Here are two of the presents that I'm most thrilled about. A portable lightbox from my brother and sister in law, and a small TableWar carrying case for my minis. This particular design is sized to fit underneath an airline seat. Its very sturdy and should be perfect for travel.

A portable light box with everything you need in one convenient package. On the left and right side are the compartments for the lights and the small tripod goes in the middle.

This "tripod" had no problem handling my heavy  Nikon D50 with one of my heaviest lenses, my 28-200 zoom.

Everything set up for pictures. I probably wouldn't use my big Nikon with this booth or at least not on this tripod. A smaller point and shoot would be more appropriate.

The smallest case from TableWar. Designed to fit under you airline seat. I opted for the solid front version, but you can get the front in Plexiglas as well.

Some serious hardware on this bad boy

The interior without options. Comes with the draw (which is removable and can be left behind) and two shelves. Slots on the left and right allow you to set the shelf height.

The top also opens up.

These are a few of the options for the trays that fit on the shelves in the box. On the left is a tray designed for minis on 25mm stands, Just add rare earth magnets to the bottoms of your bases and you are ready to go. The plain sheets allow you to bring almost anything along that you can put a magnet on.

And this is how they fit on the shelves and in the case.

Quite a bit of space. I'll be using mine mostly for transporting competition pieces. But small armies would easily fit in here as well. The drawer can hold a chunk of your gaming stuff, or you can leave it behind so there is more space for minis!

Kickstarter Loot - Crocodile Games Wargods of Olympus - Amazons

So this one is a bit delayed, about two months so not bad in the grand scheme of things. The Amazons, along with the Automatons, are part 3 of Wave 1. Still to come are the Athenians (sculpted by Fitz) and the Corinthians (sculpted by Todd Harris) which come sometime early in 2015. Then the rule book which requires all the sculpts to be finished will follow and complete Wave 1. Wave 2 consists of the rest of the Trojans followed by the rest of the Amazons. Still looking at not being fully delivered till late 2015 is my guess. I might see if I can still jump in on the Amazon cavalry that's part of Wave 2.

Excerpt from the update in the Croc Kickstarter:
"The Amazons and Automatons are BY FAR the largest single release that Crocodile Games has ever done - with over 50 individual production molds, thousands of miniatures to cast, sort and pack, and over 200 pounds of metal used thus far! But the work is not yet over, as we still need to get these to our backers. Indeed, it is a bit like Santa's Workshop around here, and we are trying to get as many rewards shipped before Christmas!"
I received my shipment notice on Sunday (12/21). I anxiously started tracking the shipment figuring that even though it was being sent via 2 Day Priority Mail that it wouldn't make it till Friday. It was picked up by USPS on Monday, arrived sometime early, early this morning in Aurora and was out for delivery around 7am. I kept doing the F5 dance on the keyboard until it showed up as delivered on the doorstep at 12:15. This was confirmed by the youngest spawn.

Since I'm in Ft Collins this week they brought it up for the family Christmas Eve celebration at my parents' house.  I found a quite place to do the now traditional Kickstarter loot un-boxing pictures. I maybe re-considering some of my painting entries for Genghis Con and ReaperCon. The quality of the casting and the sculpting is awesome, mold lines are light to non-existent and the number of poses is great. This kickstarter was well worth backing. I'm extremely pleased.

Helen of Troy, Titan Hunter, Oracle of Delphi, Bronze Owl

The command set

One of three Amazon Hoplite units that I received. My pledge came with one and I ordered two more

Front and middle rankers depending on which arm you use.

Rear rankers, I love the variety in the poses

An Amazon Hero, Champion and a casualty

Archers

Archer captain on the right

Peltasts or light infantry armed with javelins

That's the captain with the sword

I also ordered two sets of front/middle/rear rank hoplites to increase the size of my units

And a couple of things I decided to tack on

A Sobeki from Wargods of Aegyptus that I didn't have and the demigoddess of Athena

The sculpting is stunning.

Another Round of Boxcars - Weathering (and finished)

This wraps up my RGS boxcar. My weathering process is never quite the same twice and this particular car gave me difficulties. At one point I decided that I had over weathered it and it was looking decidedly splotchy. Once I was back at my workbench I wiped it down and started over, more or less. Since I used alcohol the initial coat of soot was pretty well fastened down. I tried to keep it a bit lighter the next go around. I'm happier with the outcome but it could be better, but its time to set it aside for now, I might come back to it later but its "good enough" for now.

I'm looking forward to a new product coming out from Fast Tracks for freight car storage and transport. These green Bachmann boxes take a lot of room. Fast Tracks is introducing something they call Freightcrates. They are currently available in HO and N so hopefully they will have On3/30 versions out soon!

Fast Tracks

And now a little photo lineup.

Made quick work of the trucks

Clan slate

Soot down the car side, got a little heavy

Soot on the roof, not quite enough but maybe its always farther back on the train.

Adding some dirt

Adding way to much dirt

These are better, not perfect but better.