Monster Fight Club Bushes Completed!

 

This is a bit of an imperfect presentation because of the uncorrected lighting - however, you could get a sense of what things could look like using different colors in for the highlights. 

In a previous entry I mentioned that I had purchased three sets of these at HMGS cons. These unpainted versions come in a nice dark green plastic. I didn't wash or prime any of these but I will seal them once the weather warms up. Over all three sets I drybrushed Apple Barrel's Green Leaf.

 

The first set I mixed in some white to the Leaf Green, followed by another layer with even more white.

These shots have already appeared in an earlier post.

For the lower set here I added in a pure cadmium yellow a pair of times instead of white - more in line with how MFC's pre-painted bushes come.

For the third set (foreground), I added in a light tan a pair of times and honestly it looks lighter than the white did! If I have a tendency that persists to varying degrees is I get scared of highlighting too brightly leaving models tidy, but sometimes too flat. I'm better than I used to be but I probably should do another layer of whiter highlights on the first set (rear) - but I won't.

The yellow is pretty clearly a standout and is quite warm.

In this light - I honestly am not sure if this is the tan set or the white set! I think it's the former.

Monstrous werewolf for scale - that's a Cigar Box "Just Fields" battle mat under it all.

Here's the two cooler toned sets in play

And here are all three sets with the yellow one easily discernible at right. I'm not sold on these acting as hedgerows - more as random scatter or for small enclosure.

I also have a small set of unpainted fallen trees from Monster Fight Club and I bought more of their rocky terrain pieces - both of which will feature in the coming months.

Thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged! I'm doing more and more on Facebook so follow my page there too! https://www.facebook.com/One-of-My-Men-Became-Restless-100659928063858

25/28mm Armorcast - Terraform - Quarried Stone Walls

Yes, yet another entry of stone walls - You know you like it! 

The literary minded, or one bent like an amateur psychoanalyst, will conclude these walls stand in for my inability to paint actual soldiers - they are both a literal and figurative barrier to accomplishing something that could enable the occurrence of an actual game. It'd be a stretch, but I can see how you could get there.

I tell this story all the time. One Historicon many years ago, one of the clerks at this Armorcast booth, plucked one of their buildings out of my hand and threw it to the floor. He beamed as he picked it up to show me they were virtually indestructible. Sold! And I remain attached to those turn of the century prices. These are really great products that are now, I believe, OOP. (please be wrong)

Tan primed, then wet-brushed with Vallejo Stone. Then I picked out odd colored stones for variety.

Over this I added a new wash with no green, and very little black - just shades of brown inks. Still too dark though for my tastes. I wish I had another set that read tan or sandstone instead of this gray stone they become.

Couple progressively light stages of dry-brushing and la! Finished walls.

Cigar Box - European Fields (no roads) seen underneath.

As always, thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged! I'm doing more and more on Facebook so follow my page there too! https://www.facebook.com/One-of-My-Men-Became-Restless-100659928063858

25/28mm Acheson Creations - Stone Walls

These came out well - and this was after a disastrous start! I really hate scrapping a project and starting it all over and it is a very rare occurrence, but this was the worst large scale modeling disaster I've ever had. Read on!

 

Started well enough. Gray prime with a lighter zenithal - maybe heavier than I had imagined. In retrospect, I didn't use primer but paint (I think). I think I drybrushed the top in another layer of white acrylic in a pre-hilighting experiment - you can see it to better effect in the Citadel walls and fence in the background there.

After a long session of picking out  the odd colored stones, decided to apply my trusty ink/medium/flow improver/water wash I had used to good effect on the other walls seen here. And right off the bat - a big fail! For some reason I have not 100% divined, the wash was repelled. Either the paint served as a repellent or there was residual soap? in the crevasses? Or as I idiotically imagined, the material itself being a form of resin, was unpaintable,

Maybe it was just one - oil from the fingertips? And, no. I tried three of four and the problem persisted on each. What on earth? I put 'em aside dreading to have to redo them and monked around with other stuff til I thought I would just wash them again with brush and soap figuring the paint that was there might come off leaving a flaky mess behind. But try as I might, the paint there remained, but something was clearly interfering with the adhesion. Since they held up well under scrubbing I gave in and painted them in a black spray primer instead of the gray paint.

So here we go again with the coloring applied by hand this time. For these lengths I leave a spot to hold onto then, next session, I reverse and hold the cured end to get the rest.

After this heavy dry brush of tan, I picked out individual stones again. Followed by another drybrush of something else.

That very same wash that didn't work before, worked perfectly unchanged this time. Big sigh of relief. At left are the washed/stained ones, with the right side on deck. My daughter thought they resembled teeth. Indeed. They are a bit unusual; the rounded edges imply old river stones. I don't love the large divots the tops have but, I spose rain and dirt accumulate in them so I left it --keeping the toothy impression.

More drybrushing, painted up the wood in ways I will not repeat again (a Mahogany Ink and Vallejo Old Wood make for a inharmonious marriage), and some flocking where required and, La!

At the end they came out just fine and will do much to help set the scene for the Colonial Horror project I dip into here from time to time. The mat is from Cigar Box, and the Pumpkins are from Reaper.

Believe it nor not, yet more walls and linear obstacles coming up!

 As always, thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged! I'm doing more and more on Facebook so follow my page there too! https://www.facebook.com/One-of-My-Men-Became-Restless-100659928063858