Halfway there;

 Whooooaaa It's halfway there      

whoooaaa-ooh, terrain on a prayer!

Glue gun in hand, it'll stick I swear,

whooaa-oh! terrain on a prayer! 

Quar House Progress 

Good progress of the Quar house / barn, my first time ever scratch building anything.  

Let's rapid fire pics to get through the assorted bits quickly in order to get to the big payoff.

First, create a little staircase out of foam:

tadaa!

then for the roof, cutout two triangles out of foam that will make the upper portion house.  Cover these with planks made out of coffee stirs to create a wooden effect.

Protip, when you cut the first triangle out of foam you can just slice that triangle in half,
so the you'll have two the exact same. 

For the actual roof, I used a jig also bought form shifting lands.

the idea being that it helps you cut consistent shingle shapes like so...

and after repeating the process several, several, SEVERAL times you have enough shingle strips to glue on appropriately size roof sheets..

little roof

Big roof

I decided that it'll be easier to paint if all put together.  But before that I had to cover the windows so that they wouldn't just look inside the ugly interior.  I took some plastic from a blister and some card tock and layered them inside.  The plastic down first and then the card stock, to create a glass effect and light coming from inside...

not the best picture.  Here is the inside

and the outside.  
still not the best picture and I'm not sure that makes the effect.
But it gets the job done.

Now it's time to glue all the separate pieces together...

All the separate pieces laid out.  

using a hot glue gun on the low setting, I glued it all together.  

 Somehow somewhere along the way I mis-measured,
as I didn't plan for the ramp to butt up right against the house.
I thought there would be some space in between.

it's pretty big.  I did not appreciate how big until I saw it all together. 

For a reference, here it is next to the Sarissa MDF barn..

Since 28mm buildings aren't in scale anyway, I don't think the larger house will be an issue other than the large footprint on the table.  Though the whole point of the terrain is that it's sits in the corner and looks pretty.  But there it is, in all of its scratch build glory.  

This gives me about 2 weeks to paint the thing.  Should be good as long as I don't waste any time.

Time Wasters:

The kids went back to school.  It's glorious.  but they brought back with them germs.  And of course, the sickness has transferred to me.  Got all the symptoms. 

The other big-time waster is our newfound video game addiction 

My son is big into Minecraft, and I thought that I would try it out just to see what it was and have an understanding of what it is, and now I'm all into it too.  It's a nice way to spend time together.  But there have been a few nights where after he goes to bed...and I still play it.  I have history with video games.  There was a time when I could play Word of Warcraft OR finish my dissertation for grad school....but not both.  

Not Time Waster

I went over to my friend's Mr. PC professional wargaming shed for a game of Dead Man's Hand.

Table set up

Game play picture.

I really liked the game of Dead Man's Hand.  It's got good play and easy mechanics.  Which is good because I have a whole pile of terrain for it around here.... somewhere. 

Extra Credit

I finished the extra credit assignment that I gave myself.  

Tadaa!

28mm 

Just a fancy cup holder really.  A place to put in game resource tokens.  

Thanks for reading.

Double thanks for writing a comment.

Till Next time.

Scratch build: Quar House (Part 1)

1 house in 1 month.  A singular task for this distinctive blog.  

The one-month deadline comes with Pacificon at the end August where I am putting on several Quar games.  I have enough adequately painted figures, so any cool terrain items I can add in the meantime will only enhance the games.  Because everyone knows, it's the terrain that really makes the presentation pop.

Also falls nicely with Dave Stone's Terrain Challenge that ends at the same time. 

Evolution 

I've never scratch built a house before.  That makes me the PERFECT person to follow along in this process as I flail around and try out things I saw on the internet,  like a teenager on his first date.  

Some people want to get seriously good at miniature painting and are constantly working on pushing their skill set further.  I have no desire to get better at miniature painting.  But I get it, in their perverse little minds that's a fun aspect of the hobby.  I have a desire to improve my terrain making, because in my saintly mind that's a fun aspect of the hobby.  Moving up to Scratch Building seems like a natural step in my evolution.   And since it's my first time I'm gonna get all chatty about it, like virgins with wedding night jitters.

Quar Barn - House Scratch Build

This is for Quar games, and while there is opportunity here to go really crazy with the design I feel like I'm unprepared for that.  What I want is a house / barn looking building that would be recognizable as a building but still have some quirky elements.  

First step I drew out some plans on graph paper to get a sense of how things will shape up. and then ignored them. This will create issues later on.  I'm gonna build this out of foam because I have a lot of it because somewhere along the road I've become an EPS foam hoarder, and I have a hotwire cutter.  

And if I end up hating the whole thing I can just throw it away with minimum loss of materials.  

I know I want a little stone foundation, little stonework border to run along the bottom of the walls.  to wit, I purchased a little textured roller: 

Which failed utterly.

While it did make a nice brick pattern in the foam what it didn't do was make that pattern deep enough.  I noticed it and thought, "I bet you won't see that pattern with paint on it" and tried an experiment on some foam that you can see below the roller in the picture above.  You see the brick / stone pattern in that foam?  No you don't.  Even if I push REALLY hard on the roller into the foam with as much force as my girly arms could do, the pattern is just not deep enough.  

So I scraped the roller and just drew / gouged some stone work with a pencil.

The experience made me look askance as the other things I bought for the project.

These little windows should be alright..

But the etching on these doors probably isn't deep enough.
But still, the doors are door shaped which is the main reason I bought them.
So we'll see how they work out.

After the stonework, I cut out the basic shapes of the walls, and used balsa square dowels for the framing, and cut some holes for the windows.  This is the WIP result

looks like something!

The walls are 5" high.  The short ends are also 5" wide, and the long ends are 7".  

The Quar-ky / whimsical element of the build is gonna be a walkaway that leads up the upper floor. The walkway is gonna be 3" high and wraps around the building.   To make a 3" high ramp out of 1" foam sheets I made template...

and cut out 3 identical(ish) shapes 1" high. 

 

and then stacked them on top of each other and then shaped the walkway to roughly drop one inch for every 3" in length.

kinda like that.  still needs some smoothing out
but you get the basic idea.

Then cover the walkway with planks and dirt texture.

Kinda looks like ramp now.

Back the walls, I then added some watered down wall filler to the blank spaces to mimic the walls having plaster...

Which I am unsure about as I think I missed a step somewhere.  I think the idea is to add some texture to the bare foam to mimic plaster but I think the same thing could be of been achieved by just texturing the foam.  Plus, it kept getting on the wooden planks try as I might to not do that and clean it up.  I gave up in the end.  I told myself no one is gonna look that closely as it.  

But since I was adding a layer on top of the foam I took the opportunity to leave some areas exposed and scrap in a small brick pattern.  The idea being that in places the plaster has fallen away you would see the bare bricks beneath.  Though I don't think I sold the effect too well.  

Well, now that I have 4 reasonably detailed walls and a ramp, I decide its time to get this more house shaped.  I cut out a base from foam, and using a hot glue gun on the low setting glued the house together.  I then added stone pillars to each corner (carved out of foam naturally) to hit the ends.

Like so.  House shaped.

or course, it's not that simple.  I can tell with my critical eye where lines were not cut quite straight and measurements were just slightly off, and these little mistakes seem to compound the further along you go.

But it's a experiment.  It's a learning process.  It's gonna be a big beautiful building.  I do feel a little rushed though, with my self-imposed deadline to have this done by the end of the month.  Who am I, congress?  

Extra Credit

I've given myself extra work.  Because I was always a good student.  Clash of Rhyfles has an in-game resource called Pluck, usually represented by some tokens.  The problem is: a player will keep their unspent pluck in a little pile over here, and when they spend it they'll move a token to a little pile over there.  Then 20 mins will go by and the player will go "what's this pile of pluck doing over there? When I keep my pluck over here and then move it back.  It's a mess.  

So this is basically a fun way to organize Pluck, spent Pluck goes inside a cup, henceforth called a chalice. 

The dark ages Quar hero statue I got at a Quar event awhile ago and has just been sitting on my desk.  This seems like a fun use for it.  

 

Trench Hills Finished and Blog Birthday

 

The blog turns 8years old this month.  Time flies when you're having fun, which is why the last year dragged on and on and on...

But more on that later.  First, Trench Hills finished.  How exciting for everyone involved.  Which was just me as it was a solo project.  So, I'm excited and no one else.  

Trench Hills

If one wishes, one can see previous steps Here (Part 1) and Here (part 2).  Which are just the previous posts and not in the way back internet.  Kinda a quick project all in all, which is good because it fits my brain programmed by MTV, back when it showed actual Music Videos.  Which still gives me an edge in focus versus today's youth, which is programed by Youtube Shorts.  And in my opinion the whole... 

Lost focus there for a second.  Here are the completed hills.

taadaa!

Contruction notes following up from Part 2 are really basic and hardly worth covering.  So, I put in minimal effort to document it. 

1, Paint all the 'dirt' brown.  But don't get too concerned since it's all being covered in flock anyway.
2. paint all the wooden planks a different brown.  You do have a brown for dirt and a brown for wood right?  These can't possibly be the same brown right?
3. Coat the stairs in black paint + Modpodge.  because that's what crafters do to strengthen the foam.  I think.  I don't know, I see everyone on Youtube shorts do it.  
4. Paint individual stair stones different colors for variation.

That last step is wrong.  You should probably do that after you dry brush the gray for a stronger contrast. Don't be like me.

5. Afterward give everything a heavy drybrush in grey.
One grey for stone, and one for old wood.
You do have 2 different greys right?  Couldn't just use the same one.

When dry, give everything a black wash, and then flock away.  I wanted to ensure that these Hills matched my Quar trench table.  While creating the perfect flock mixture for the This Quar's War Trench terrain Board (Trade mark pending), Past Me made extra because he knew that Future Me wouldn't remember the mix.  Past Me stored it in a container and labeled it accordingly.

Way to Save the Day Past Me!!

Except that I used it all for this project which means that while Present Me is satisfied, Future Me will struggle with matching further projects and will blame Past me for not writing it down. So way to drop the ball Past Me.  

lastly, cut away any excess basing.
Leave just a little bit around the hill.

Now these are made for Quar gaming.  Quar being funny creatures with strange trenches..

Examples of Quar like trenches...

...which has a certain esthetic.  And I kinda, sorta, conceivably, probably, maybe, perhaps, absolutely NAILED IT.  

Especially when you stack em..

I think these came out rather nice.  Now to go do something else.  

but lastly, subject change.  

Blog Birthday

8 years is a long time.  Some of you have been following, reading, and more importantly commenting for several years now.  Thank you.  I mean it sincerely, Thanks a Bunches. 

There are other forms of media to consume besides blogs.  Namely these being Facebook, Discord, and YouTube.  These have their good points.  When you join a Facebook group or a Discord server they tend to focus on a topic / genre, like ACW gaming.  This way, all the posts are at least somewhat related to your interests.  This is an advantage over blogs as blogs tend to wander with whatever topic the author is doing or into.  Sometimes this can be beneficial, as it expands your awareness of what's out there. Maybe even leading to a new project of your own.  Though can also be boring if it's a topic that you already know you're not into.  A good example of the former is my talking about Quar, because everyone loves it and enjoys the breath of fresh air.  An example of the latter is when you blog about Warhammer or even worse, Naps.  Utter snoose.  Yawnstown, population you.  

But a big drawback to Facebook (besides all the AI slop) or Discord is what I will charitably label "the incomplete thought post' but accurately describe as "just noise posts.'   These are posts where someone puts together one 28mm miniature and takes a picture and posts "started!  I'm so excited!"  ... and that's it.  

And maybe I'm being a grouchy older guy, and I do understand the enthusiasm, but I just think "so what? what kind of Youtube short post is this?  Hit me back when you've done a unit or actually accomplished something."  

You tend not get these types of posts with blogs.  Or maybe it's self selection as I don't read blogs with that post in that style.  Blog posts tend to be 'complete thoughts' which I like better.

So with blogs you get Person focused content, and with groups you get Topic focused content.  YouTube has the same challenges and features.  Though YouTube channels tend to be Person focused rather than Topic focused.  Talking head YouTube videos (where the person looks at the camera and talks to you) aren't any better than blog posts really.   YouTube really only has an advantage when it comes to Terrain making, as seeing something done is waaaay better than a picture and a paragraph. 

And filming a game is often way better than a written AAR.  Just easier to follow and flows better.  Written AARs are hard to digest.  With written AARs I tend to just look at the pretty pictures and make some funny comment at the end.  No, not your AARs.  OBVIOUSLY, I mean everyone else's AARs.

In summary, as this has gone on long enough: If blogs tend to person focused, in that you're following the person's hobby throughout various topics, then I really appreciate the time you spend with me.

I do try to make it worth your while.  I try to make my blog posts have a beginning, middle, and an end.  I try to make them complete thoughts.  I try to make it that if the topic isn't to your liking, then at least it might illustrate how I did something or at the very least, have a chuckle. 

I reckon I got two more years until I think about the end, as 10 is a nice round number.  So, count on more blogs posts to come.  At the blistering pace of 2 or 3 a month.  Until then:

Thanks for Reading.
Double thanks for writing a comment.  Bigger thanks as it's my blog bday. You probably want to wish me a happy one.
Till next time.

Trench Hills part 2; further along the hills

 Whoa, an update so soon?  How did I manage that?  

It's due to the parent-kid ratio formula.  Observe:

When you have 1 Kid and have to watch 1 kid:

Feels like you're watching all the kids.

If you have 2 kids and have to watch 1 kid:

Feels like you're watching 1 Kid.

If you have 3 (or more) kids and have to watch 1 kid:

Feels like no kids.  

Parents will back me up on this.  So, when my 2 sons went to their grandparent's house for a few days, leaving me with just the wife and daughter, I got quite the uptick in free time.   Especially since the daughter is the oldest of the children and the most self-sufficient, as long as there are no spiders.  Especially since (strangely) the wife didn't have a long list of honey-do projects over that time.  Might be because I tied her up and put her in the garage...

More Hills

First I spent some time using The Choppa! to cut some more sticks and then glue them to the edges of the remaining hills.  Once dry, it was time to move the operation outside to do the ground cover...

The backyard operation.

Outside.  yuk.  my old enemy.  I hate the outside, all bright, sunny, and warm.  disgusting.

But this is likely to cause a mess so outside is a good choice.  Messes outside can be left outside, and the outside can clean itself.  

A simple process of painting on a layer of slightly watered down white glue..

Like so...

And dumping on the ground cover of your choice...

Action shot!

As per usual, my choice of ground cover is a big tub of cheap decaf coffee.  I just like the way it looks and it gives enough texture.  Plus, it's a public service because all the cheap decaf coffee I buy for terrain is coffee that someone can't be forced to drink.  No one should drink decaf. 

Take care to put a bead of glue along the bottom of the wood and the card shelf to stick on ground texture there as well.

The leave outside to dry while it's 90 degrees outside. 

And finally, brush off any loose coffee grounds with an unused paint brush and bring inside.

Ah, inside is SO much better,
When placed close together you can see the trench hill aspect more,
as several of these placed close together creates the illusion of a trench network.

Seems like I should of gotten more done.  Yet, a big step forward in trench hill development.

Bonus Works

While the trenches were drying and in-between steps; I took to the painting desk for some easy painting wins.  

Things!

Not everything in the Quar verse has a direct correlation to our world, but in this case there is.  These are called Huvi and are the Quar analogue to chickens.  Least I think so.  Anyway, they'll be added to the farm scenery, because what kind of farm wouldn't have chicken...things.

And some more markers.

Clash of Rhyfles is a great game but can be kinda marker heavy.  While I do have a bunch already made, a few more wouldn't hurt so I can accommodate more players.  

To satisfy your curiosity: The larger flower circles are for Prone status and the smaller ones with a bag are for Stunned Status.  

Because you were dying to know.  I know I know I know. 

And I thought: wow, this is the life.  So productive.  Maybe I could someone who blogs 3 times a week?  maybe I can be someone who paints 1000 figures a year?  Maybe I can get in great shape with home cooking and plenty of exercise?

The next day I went and picked up the boys, and the free time evaporated with cries of "DAAAAD!" and questions of "Will you play with me?' and "what's for dinner?"  "eww that's yucky can we have something else?"   "I don't know, ANYTHING!"  

Thanks for Reading.

Double thanks for writing a comment.

Till next time.