Armageddon Wellington 2015

I was thinking about going to Armageddon again this year but did not find someone to go with. A few days before the event my boss rang me and asked what this show was all about? Turned out we were supplying a printer, which the organisers were going to use to print out some character cards for the Cosplayers. They would then use these to swap with each other and would need updating during the event. I was asked if I wanted to be on call in case of breakdowns and was given a free pass for the event. I am happy to say that things worked well and that I did not get called out.

I spent a few hours on Sunday afternoon looking around and taking photos. The Cosplayers spend an awful amount of time on these costumes, but there seemed to be no area set aside for displaying the Cosplayers for the public to photograph other than the competition at the end. Unless I am blind and missed it? I am not as forward as some people so just took photos when the opportunity presented itself. I'd have liked to take a photo in particular of a lady in a Judge Dread outfit but she hurried past me about three times. Everyone was happy to oblige in having their photo taken though.

I bumped into a friend from Wellington Warlords who complemented me on my Blog Posts, in particular my Aircraft stands. Its pleasing for me to know that people are reading even though I don't know who exactly it is reading my Blog.

I have an old Sisters of Battle Army so took lots of photos of this Cosplayer. I think I have seen photos of her in other events overseas.

I had to buy this Tee shirt.

US Sniper, Tunnel Rat and third section second platoon finished.

I am happy to report that I have finished my second platoon. I also managed to paint a Sniper, Tunnel Rat and a couple of Critical Wound markers. These are a mix of TAG and FOA figures.

Now I have to turn my attention to doing some VC and a Freedom Fighter.

Making trees 3

I sometimes wonder if I am lurching from one disaster to another or am happily experimenting with making these trees? I suspect that I am somewhere in the middle at the moment.

Since the flock has failed to hold together in clumps like I wanted. I have had to come up with a way to attach the small bits to the trees which have no branches, only trunks. Remembering that I had some left over wire mesh from the games room building project. I cut and folded this up and then sprayed brown to make a framework to hold the flock. I then hot glued this to the trunks and started to attach the flock. Well I first tried to put some glue on the frames and dropped them into the flock for ten minutes using what I thought was fast acting PVA. It was supposed to set quickly but actually failed to hold about 80% of the flock! I then used UHU glue to attach to the mesh but it took so long to do I have had to put them aside to have a rethink.

I think a closer mesh or weaving suitable coloured pipe cleaners into the mesh would allow me to use PVA with a large brush. This would be much easier to do and faster. I can then add bits with UHU where needed.

I am quite happy with the look as these would be good for Sherwood Forrest or triple canopy jungle. I may end up using my spray brush to highlight the colour but that is buried in my garage at the moment.

I am happy to report that my Woodland Scenics trees have come out quite nicely. The tree in the centre front is actually an off cut from the same bush that I am using in the photos above.

Making trees 2

Well since I am still waiting for the foam to dry I have gone to work on my Woodland Scenics trees. I moved the wet foam to my conservatory to dry as its winter here. It may have been a bad idea to start making this when the weather had its 4th coldest temperature recorded for June in New Zealand. I still think the foam looks a bit too lumpy and may need another go in the blender.

I made a few packets of the smaller trees for my FOW terrain years ago so am familiar with the process.  I first sprayed the trees with a black under coat, then a brown gloss spray and then finally a matt varnish. I wish I could still buy the brown undercoat that used to be available as then it would have taken one coat of spray.

I use Uhu Glue POR type  for sticking on the foliage. Meant for Expanded Polystyrene foam, It takes a few minutes to go off so you end up with sticky fingers which can get quite annoying. Especially if your partner is trying to give you a cuddle at the same time.

 I used two of the colours that came with the trees but used some old foam when I ran low. I did not use the really dark green foam and will use that for another project. The foam that came with the trees did not clump well together so something else was needed to hold it together. Once the glue had dried on the trees I sprayed them with Artists Varnish. So far the trees look good but I still need to flock the bases.

Helicopter Pilots and US second section, second platoon.

Just finished some more US figures for my Vietnam project.

Four Helicopter Pilots/Crew and a section of Infantry. The figures are all from Westwind except for the prone M60 team who are from FOA.