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I haven't been up to a ton of stuff of late. Work is keeping me pretty busy, then with some travel/camping I haven't been super motivated to work on a ton of stuff. I do have a few things to share though.

First, I've finally taken the plunge and started building a 3D Settlers of Catan board. It's been good practice for using the hot wire foam cutter, as well as experimenting with how to make wheat fields.

Below is the board, still in progress.





The wheat is extremely slow. I bought a static grass applicator, which works, but isn't dense enough to make the wheat fields. So it's an entirely by hand process. Using brushes and hot glue didn't yield good results either. So a think mat of glue, then tuft by tuft of loose bristle material. It looks nice, but is no fun. I will have to rethink the overall fields, as I think I won't cover the whole surface. Maybe some barns or silos... I do have some farmers threshing to put down on them.



Also, the clay will get a few layers of dry brushing, and the some flocking. Then I have some sheep to distribute on the fields. The deer are a nice touch, I think anyways.



Later today I will try and get some photos of progress on the 10mm Landsknechts. Slow, but I finished up a unit of Arquebus (Kirkheim unter Teck) and a unit of pike (Esslingen).

Very cool. I love that game, and playing on your pieces would really add to the experience.

Thanks Syro. I finished up the clay, and once I finish the wheat I will post some more pictures. I need to see if I can find some small scale boats to put on the harbors when I get around to making sea hexes.

As promised, some Landsknechts. First, here is my working coat of arms map for the various units:



I've painted Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Esslingen, and Kirkheim, Heidelberg, and started on a few others. This year we did not go to Kirkheim unter Teck, but I went there as a kid when my Dad was stationed in Germany. In the foreground is the Esslingen pike. The main colors on the flag are red/green, and the shield with the eagle is centered between the two halves (split vertical as on the shield). I did the same, with the black and yellow of the shield for the head wear.



Kirkheim I've gone with Blue/White as the primary color, with yellow accent feathers.



Next up will be Filderstadt, Duchy of Wurtemburg, Schiltach, or Meersburg.

With the exception of flocking on one rock tile, Catan is done:



Close up of a rock tile:



Close up of a forest/lumber tile:



Close up of sheep tile:



Close up of a wheat tile:



I feel like the desert tiles are lacking something. Maybe a cactus or two, a small cow skull? What do you think might be something small/easy to spruce them up?

wow those sheep and people are such a small scale. Where did you get them, model railroad? The tiles look great, and look like a lot of time and work went into them. As for the desert, I don't think cacti or cow skulls are necessary unless you want them. I'd try making the desert tiles more 3D like your other tiles by making sand dunes.

Sand dunes are a great idea.

The figures are n scale model railroad figures for the deer/sheep/farmers. I got the idea from a 3D Catan blog.

They look fantastic as they are, love the little touches with the sheep etc. Providing it doesn't interfere with game play, on the desert tiles you could add small cairns of "rocks", and to blend them into the other tiles maybe a few dry tufts of grass. Have to say though agree with Syro, don't realistically think they need anything.

This is fantastic! I was following your thread very closely for a long time, but allowed myself to get distracted by other things, so I've missed all this board development. I agree with Cam and Syro, I think your work is excellent as it stands now.

Cool Project! I find Catan traumatic, but I'd like it better on that board. I think a cow skull would be perfect, given the role of the tile in the game.

Meersburg Pike ended up being next. Burg Meersburg is the oldest continuously inhabited castle in Germany. On the North shore of The Bodensee, it sits atop a large outcrop of rock. You drive pretty close to it, and then down a winding street to a parking lot at the bottom of the hill, only to then have to hike back up the steep grade to reach the castle. It had a nice collection of tournament helmets on display, and although besieged several times it was never successfully taken. In part due to several wells and a tunnel down to the Bodensee which enabled resupply by water.

It was my son’s favorite castle, due to the armory.

3D Catan looks amazing! You deserve a lot of respect for this project, thanks for sharing it!

BLARG! I've finally finished two more units for my Landsknechts; Filderstadt (pike) and Schiltach (Halberds). You'd think painting this small would be quick, but it isn't. The tiny details are easy to screw up and a pain to go back through and fix. I cannot even imagine trying to paint them in a truly random style. That would take forever.



The army so far:



Still two units of pike, a unit of Arquebus, 3 units of skirmish arquebus/crossbow, two units of skirmish cav, two cannons, a unit of Gendarmes, and the general. Augh, what did I do to myself.

The army is looking good. What scale are these guys?

They are 10mm. The army is a mix of Pendraken and Warmonger. The Pendraken stuff is cheaper, but it shows. The War Monger stuff is beautiful. A better painter then I could do amazing stuff with it. The casts are top notch and the detail is amazing for something so tiny.

I think, if I knew then what I know now, everything would be War Monger. I'm a decent painter, but they models just look so much better. There is a lot more variety in the poses than Pendraken.

Impressive work, especially considering the scale.

Given the amount of stuff to finish by Christmas, I'm not sure I will finish up my LOER work, or at least not all of it. I have managed to finish up one light freighter and landing pad, a crashed escape pod, and done a fair bit on a second ship.

I think I might add some smoke to the rear of the pod, but I'm not sure yet.





I've tried to give the two ships a grime-y feel, like the original Star Wars films, but I'm not sure how well that's coming through with the lightning.

I also tried a variation on the salt weathering method using sugar crystals to weather the red, bounty hunter, ship. I'm not sure it worked great, but it is what it is now. Using actual sugar to make the model should count as brownie (ha ha) points right?

Nice looking crashed ship and ship on landing pad . I like the damage on the bounty hunter ship, looks like he really was in a scrap.

Is the bounty hunter ship based off of a tape measure?

Thanks. It is based on a tape measure. Works really well for 15mm or 10mm figures.

The ships look great, and I think you captured the grimy feel nicely. The right side of the bounty hunter ships definitely looks like it is suffering a serious rust problem, on the left it looks more like it was damaged by gun fire which they started rusting. I think both look well.

It is a nice design, having worked 17 years in home improvement retail I’m used to seeing tape measures and it just stood out to me.

I appreciate it guys. I had, what turned out to be, a fairly productive weekend. Got part of the way through a Christmas present (a diorama), the main coat on a castle for my sun, got the two ships done, and three units for Warmaster:

Singen Arquebus:


Stuttgart Dopplesoldaten:


Waldkirsch skirmishers:

The space ships are amazing bud, really fantastic imagination and work.

Great work on the little people, steady hands.

Our group played a large Hail Caesar game today, and I was inspired to finish these up. They have been mostly done for months, pending shield work. I should have some peltasts and a few more hoplites done over the break as well.





That will be enough for one Saga force, now should I expand into Hail Caesar!?

Nice work on the shields .

As for hail Caesar, I’m a little burnt out on Warlordgames stuff right now and have not gotten into Hail Caesar, but if you have a local group I’d say go for it. Being able to use the same figs in multiple game lines is always a plus.

I've never played Hail Caesar, but I did read over the rules a little over a year ago and it looked pretty cool. Did you play it with your group? What did you think? Hoplites look great btw

One of our members has painted up a slew of Successors and Republican Romans to play with. We have five players and he had stuff not on the table for at least two more. Gorgeous game, and a fun successor to Warmaster Ancients. Greeks would fit in well. At a minimum I could add a division as allied Italians or Mercenary Greek.

I like it overall, and could see building a force for it.

Those shields are great, really nice work.

Great work on the shields

If you have the group then I say go for it. It helps justify our painting little men when they get to make it onto a board.

Did you just sand the bases on those guys or do more than that? Looks nice and simple.

Getting to set your work on the table and spend time with others is more important than letting a game system dictate what you do, I think. Go for it, as long as you enjoy it.