I have returned!- Perry Miniatures Medieval Cottage unboxing

After a year of incredible highs and stressful lows I am now a fully fledged primary school teacher!

Thanks to everyone thats checked out my stuff in the mean time, means a lot.

I've been hard at work collecting and building an expanding Saga collection and finally have a bit of time to show some of it off.

So lets get on with it.

Perry Miniatures Medieval Cottage

Easing back in gently I would like to show something that arrived on the doorstep a few days ago from my dear brother over at Famous Gaming and his fancy new site : www.famousgaming.co.uk

Check it out, hes doing custom terrain commissions at the moment and is making some lovely stuff. Tell him Mr Odinson sent you and expect a cheeky discount.

It's the Perry Minaitures 1300-1700 Medieval Cottage set. Yes thats a bit later than the Viking era but take a look, this could represent a Saxon homestead ripe for a ruddy good pillaging as long as you don't get all that caught up on medieval architecture and spend more time doing important things like rolling dice and killing Bretons. 

When i opened it up i was surprised to find something extra that I hadn't known was coming when I placed the order.

You get the building parts as expected: 2 gables, 2 sides, 2 roof parts,a door and an optional smoke hood for 1600 onwards, and even a little shelter for animals/ tools BUT you also receive a wattle fence sprue that is ideal for creating animal pens, makeshift defences or even just plain fencing to break up open expanses of fields.

First thing I did was cut off the sides and gable ends as these would obviously be the main frame of the building. The corners of the building have slight male and female parts which needed filing to join up but this wasn't any major stress. Hopefully you see what i mean here:

But within 2 mins all was sorted and they easily got to this stage:

Lovely.

The roof slots on and glues at the middle nice and easily, with the roof peak being sealed with one long thatched section. 

And in no time at all you reach this stage:

The doors were nice and easy to whack on. Each door has 2 parts- a frame and an actual door.

They glue on the inside of the building- perhaps would have been easier to do before constructing the main body but atleast now they can be hinged and move around during games to show occupation. 

The finished door.

Aaaaand the constructed building, along with some Gripping Beast raiders. And an unfortunate monk.

Awesome set,  nice and affordable, easy to construct and good to scale and suitable for a range of historical eras.

Will definiately be buying more!

Pegasus Hobby 28mm small stone cottage

Just wanted to share this awesome product that my bro over at Famous Gaming has now got in stock.

Its perfect 28mm scale and ideal for a dark ages houses and hovels.

It comes pre-painted in the box- grab a few of these and the slightly larger one and you're well on your way to having a dark ages town ready for a fierce game of Saga or WAB:shieldwall.

front view

rear view

They're made of resin and seem pretty hard wearing. The paintwork is applied well and from handling doesn't appear to be likley to flake off. I'd add a wash to the straw roof just to bring out some extra detailing but all in all well impressed with these buildings!

Thanks for checking out the post and head over to Famous Gaming to see their range of modelling supplies and scenery!

Progress on my 28mm Dark Ages Village Project - Part 2 PAINTED BUILDINGS

So this is an update on my ongoing dark ages village project. Looking for a Scandinavian theme pre 1066 so lots of bare wood and thatch. Ive painted a few of the buildings from part 1 but also added in a few more recent builds. Check them put :)

Two longhouses

Figs to scale

Thatch detailing- not bad for scourer pads, chopsticks and some cheap paint!

Grainstore on stilts- stops pesky vermin getting in and the harsh winters ruining your goods!

The first two buildings I made- chopstick free but look fine alongside the other buildings.

More to come as soon as I get round to painting the rest!

Viking Longhouse for 28mm Dark Ages Wargaming

After a birthday meal at Yo!sushi I have gained a tonne more chopsticks so thought I'd give another building a go.

You guessed it- I'm using chopsticks, foamboard, clippers, a craft knife, hot glue gun and some wire. And a cutting mat, always use this if your mum/ partner has a tablecloth. No matter how tacky it is.

Basing materials supplied by Famous Gaming, check them out!

The walls were made from some mis-cut bunker sides my brother made for his sets on Famous Gaming  Check it out, sells cheap modelling supplies! 

The walls were matched up, wired into place using pegs and then hot glued. Door was cut in 1 side, windows were left as they are.

Another angle.

The sides were covered as standard- chopsticks roughly cut for a rough hewn look. Added a snow shelter over the door from the tips of chopsticks and a foamboard offcut. The roof is again two mis-cut sheets, standard foamboard cut by you will work just as well.

A chimney was added using a foamboard offcut and some rectangular chopstick ends

Snow shelter added above each window

Other side

Scourer thatch was starded as per normal, see older posts for a detailed demo. Basically cut to length, split down the middle to thin them, rough them up and overlay them for a realistic look.

This continued all the way round, including the snow shelters.

Views from all angles. 

It was then glued to a base, sand was glued on (from famous gaming), undercoated black and left to dry.

All wooden parts then got coated in burnt umber

Had to give it a few coats to really sit well. A mix of burnt umber and burnt sienna was added as a final coat to give it a redder look. The roof got a heavy drybrush of country maple.

The roof then had a layer of golden brown applied.

This was then highlighted with a drybrush of tan. The side walls were also drybrushed in tan to give it depth and to give a worn look.

Side by side with another building.

Scales up perfectly!

Great build from scrap lying around my house :D

Any suggestions, comments or questions please ask, thanks for looking!

Building a Viking / Saxon Grainstore for 28mm Dark Ages Wargaming

This tutorial is how to make a Scandinavian grainstore- perfect for Vikings or Saxons!

The methods used on this build are very similar to previous builds so check them out for a more detailed explanation of certain techniques.

Basing materials supplied by Famous Gaming, check them out!

Part 1: Materials- Some foamboard, some plastic chopsticks, a craft knife, hot glue gun, ruler and pencil. A sheet of foamboard about A4 size should suffice, I used scraps but you'd have leftovers if you bought an A4 sheet from a shop.

The foamboard was cut to give a bevelled base and the 4 walls of the building

2 triangles were cut to be the triangular gable ends

This was all glued together and a floor was added- the floor on this build is 100% necessary!

I then cut a door from the odd shape left from cutting the two triangles and glued this on. Then I built a frame around the door and a ledge, using the rectangular chopstick ends. I also started to glue the upright chopsticks in place. These were cut into to give a rougher hewn appearance, see my older posts for more on this :)

This continued all the way around the building.

I then paired up 10 of the rectangular ends and glued them to the base. These provide the stilts that the building will stand on.

Tadah! I didnt glue the building on top so it is able to be moved for storage etc. Two beams were added to the roof for extra support and to look fancy. Coming along nicely.

The roof was made from strips of scouring pad cut and overlaid. Rough them up for a more authentic thatch look.

Splitting the pads will make the thatch much more realistic and also make it go much further. This isn't the building in the tutorial but around now was when my camera decided to hate life so there's a bit of a  jump.

After this point more steps were added using the rectangular ends and a chopstick beam frame was added under the building to stop it sliding when placed on the stilts.  Then it got undercoated in black spray paint 

The whole thing got painted in burnt umber brown acrylic paint- few coats for the chopsticks and light coats for the roof.

The roof then got further coats of country maple acrylic to add some highlights.

It then got a pretty thick brushing of golden brown acrylic- but not completely covering the previous 2 brown layers.

To finish it off the roof got a final highlight of tan acrylic paint, its a sandy colour that works well with the golden brown to create a thatched look.

The base was painted in a similar way- sprayed black, painted with burnt umber, dry brushed with country maple and tan.

As the pic above shows it works out nicely for scale and is a pretty unusual model- not many people seem to make grainstores for their 28mm. All in all very happy with this build :)

Any suggestions, questions or comments ask away!