0

  

As a prelude to an intensive painting session of 3 King Tigers (which I must make presentable enough to play within 5 days as we intend to photoshoot our next AAR this weekend) I decided to tidy my entire assembled chaos of figures, paints and, well everything in that department.

My tidying method is unorthodox.

I tend to pile everything up in a huge mass, and then work diligently through it. It was interesting to see the ‘pile’ one accumulates over the course of the year from a base of zero – because one year ago I didn’t know Flames of War even existed, and had barely even heard of any other gaming genre as I had left it entirely in my past.

The only brushes I had were ones to paint life sized walls with. Ones you didn’t really have to squint at for hours.

So As an homage to Big Lee’s popular blog with his Big Picture I took a snapshot for the Model Dads blog.

2 hours later and its all in one shelf

0

  

Wargamers are a distinctive looking bunch.

The moment I stepped out at Canning Town en route to the Excel Centre, I knew I was on the right platform. Beards, bellys and and the odd leather trenchcoat.  We compared unfavourably with those svelt athletic types coincidentally registering for the London Marathon at the same venue.  But whilst we may not have had the same grace or poise, we did have The Force and this was to tide us over as we wound our way more or less patiently into Hall 10.  I’d arrived at Salute 2011!

Cluching my goodie bag (which incidentally contained a free waterproof cover for my KR multicases – very generous!), camera bag and map, I negotiated my way through the throng to embark upon a 5 hour wargaming odyssey -  here are my edited highlights.

I’ll start with a particpation game.  Naturally enough, I shyed away from Flames of War , preferring instead to make my way over to the Warlord Games stand.  Warlord Games were running a  participation game of Operation Squad – a 28mm WW2 skirmish game and I wanted to see what all the alleged fuss was about:

A few minutes later and I was down in the trenches, a squad leader in the 101st Airborne outflanking some SS and regular Whermacht whilst, incongrously, some early War French lounged around in the opposite corner edge waiting for orders.  I had great fun and really enjoyed skirmishing with individual figures rather than whole platoons.  A noteworthy enhancement to the already impressive tablewas the flickering Firepower lights on the burnt out AFVs, a wonderful touch. I was sorely tempted by Operation Squad, but at £18 for a 46 page soft-bound book and with an untried copy of NUTS at home, I saved my pennies for the silfor tufts over at Antenociti’s Workshop which were shifting like hot cakes.

Making my way past the incredible 1/35th scale (1/35th!) Oosterbeek Cauldron game, I came across the mindblowing Fall of Budapest demo game by Loughton Strike Force.  My photos can only give you a glimpse of how inspirational this 20mm game looked:

The attention to detail was superb.  If you want see see more, check out this chap’s better photos of the same game at the Cavalier Show.

Suitably impressed, I moved off to my next participation game, Combat 48 by Baueda…

0

  

Just  got back from Salute 2011.  Great show.  Just about managed to restrain myself.  Some fantastic boards.  Enjoyable particpation games.  Will write more later in the week…

0

  

There’s been a fair bit of interest in the eBENK soft lighting studio I mentioned in my last blog entry, so I thought I’d do a quick piece which I hope will answer most of the questions people have asked.  Remember, I’m no photopgrapher and what follows is very much the outcome of selective field trials over 2 nights so bear with me

Lets kick off with some stats.  The eBENK soft lighting studio flat packs to enable easy storage, measuring 403w x 402h x 25d mm (when flat, 403mm high when erect – ooer missus).  There’s a handle on the top should you want to carry it around:

Peeling back the flap reveals 3 nylon diffuser screens that velcro together.  Under these is a reversible background, blue on one side and grey on the other.  It only takes a few minutes to assmeble the studio but, as the measurements suggests, you do need quite abit of space to set up in.  This is the studio setup on its back with the reversible background attached:

 You will need at least 2 light sources.  I use 2 x 22W fluorescent daylight magnifier lamps.  These are spring balanced with locking knobs that allow each lamp to be secured in an appropriate position around the studio to shed the best possible light on the subject.  The nylon diffuser screens create ‘soft lighting’ which eliminates harsh shadows, balances colour and improves definition:

I’ve found that because space is at a premium, I often have to angle my terrain pieces to ensure I only get the blue background in shot.  This requires a good depth of field and necessitates me using the A Mode: Aperture Priortity setting on my ageing Nikon D40 DSLR.  Unfortunately, this means that if I jog the camera even by the slightest amount the resultant image will be blurred.  To get around this, I use a Manfrotto 709B mini-tripod: 

It’s an expensive, but very useful piece of kit, that enables you to get really low and take photos like these of the remaining Fieldwork’s urban terrain I’ve been painting up but have yet to finish:

As a novice, I really like the kind of ‘professional’ effect the soft lighting studio gives.  In terms of availability and cost, it would be rude of me to pry as mine was a present.  However, I note that Maplin sell what they call a eBay photo studio kit for around £40 or a simpler portable soft lighting studio for around £15. 

Recommended.

0

  

One of my friends thoughfully gave me a eBENK portable Soft Lighting Studio for my birthday this weekend and I thought I’d give it an outing this evening as I share my angst over 1 of the Fieldworks buildings I painted up on Sunday.

The piece in question, F24 Blitzed Retail Building, consists of 3 generic shops with 2 – 3 floor inserts and 3 roof sections.  Compared to the Decors buildings that arrived from France on Friday (video review to follow – these have got to be seen to be believed!), this piece is relatively poor, particularly the quality of the resin, but ruins is ruins is ruins.  Don’t get me wrong, the range is wide and very affordable with many cast on large urban bases that include lanes or gardens that occupy alot of table space very nicely.

I used Harvey’s excellent guide on how to paint these buildings.  I diligently acquired the relevant acryllics, but I think my Bark Brown is much more red-brown than the chocolate brown Harvey mentions.  Still, my problem isn’t with the guide, it’s with the final look.  Perhaps it’s just a case of too long looking, but something’s not quite right.  Some folk paint the inside of their ruined buildings white, but I don’t think this will make much of a difference here.  Perhaps in it’s the casting.  I just don’t know.

Anyway, I’m open to suggestions on a postcard: