Welcome to my blog, the story of my continuing journey into the World of Zombie Wargames.

Monday 30 January 2017

Boxes, Barrels and Bushes

I've taken a break from the Stoetzel's Federal building build, suffice to say I could have added boobs to the already salacious sounding title (just think of the hits!).
Now that I have three each of the pirate ship's boxes and barrels, I'd have a quick attempt at tarting them up..
Undercoated with a matt grey from Poundlandbargainworld (and yes I forgot to wash the soft plastic first) then various browns and sandy colours later I came up with what you see in the photograph, although I have picked out the rope around the barrels since taking the photo.
As a reminder, here's how they look straight from the box:
The barrels in their original form...
And a couple of photographs of how they painted up:
One of the most obvious things to me (other then the cheapness of the models themselves, is the lack of barrel hoops - something I could probably rectify if I could be bothered (I'm not)
Barrels sans rope painting
...and the boxes (obviously)
Also this week Boxes painted up
Also this week in a visit to my favourite shop "Poundlandworldbargainbuy", I came across this little ball of wargaming goodness:
A £1 ball of foliage - with purply-blue bits!
The B&M ball
 By chance, I also stopped by my local B&M tore and in their sale they had a similar, but larger ball for the princely sum of £2.49.
I immediately went to work pulling all the individual bits from each ball.
There are about 40 'plants' in the £1 ball and about 60 in half of the pricier one (but alas no purpley-blue bits!). 
 Each piece has four a leaf'-stems attached to a central ring (that in turn had been attached to a stud on the frame of the original ball.



Half the big ball's 'bits'
'Heart-shaped leaves'
In a further burst of greenery my last two packages of Chinese plasicky, shrubbery goodness also arrived this week.
Both packs are more or less the same, with minor differences .
One pack has "heart-shaped" leaves, whilst the other has more fan-shaped leaves.
There are 50 pieces (I think) in each pack and they were less the £2  (including postage) iirc.
As can be seen on the photographs, they're quite large (about the size of a 28mm figure) and have a 'stud' for basing.



Boring close up
Equally boring fan-shaped leafy bushes
Obligatory boring close up
Finally, you  may have noticed, in the background of the first photograph can be seen some bush-like material. This has resurfaced after many years due to building work affecting my outside shed. It's some form of bedding or potting material that I bought about 15 years ago to use a foliage for a twisted wire tree that never came to fruition  (hence the staining). It has the consistency of coarse string (what I would refer to as "Post Office parcel string) and I've an idea or two as to what uses I can make of it (other than the obvious one of thatching) - so watch this space.!

I won't be telling you of the boob I made cutting out a foamboard wall with two printed walls hidden on the reverse side, so that's it then for this week and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

27 comments:

  1. the barrels and boxes have come out well, the hooping is easily sorted, like you i'm not sure i'd bother. The plants look fine and what a price, I would dip them in a brown/yellow ink wash just to dull the plastic look down a bit but other than that they are good to go.

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    1. Thanks dGG, I doubt the hooping will ever be done tbf and you're right about colouring, like the palms they do need something and some yellows and browns are certainly on the list.

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  2. That's a lot of useful bits and pieces you've got there. Definitely like the look of all that plastic vegetation, and it'll work brilliantly to provide significant line of sight issues and hidden movement.

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    1. Thanks Roy, the vegetation build etc will take priority and willbegin as soo as I get my wargames room back "up and running" - atm it's imminent,

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  3. The crates and barrels look really good. You did a great job on them. I wish I could find topiary balls here in the stores, I have a distinct lack of foliage for my gaming needs and if I could find something like that here, then I'd be set.

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    1. Thanks Maj, Diz, I doubt I'll now need any more foliage but it's useful to know where to look. I'd try ebay too if you're really after the topiary balls.

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  4. You certainly have an eye for a bargain Joe, great job Sir.

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    1. Thanks Michael, mostly they all come from necessity!

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    1. Thank you Michal, but I'll reserve judgement until I get some based up/

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  6. The barrels and boxes look very useful. They have painted very well indeed.
    I will have to also search Poundland and see if I can acquire the foliage.

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    1. Thanks Clint, I was quite impressed with the way yjr boxes and barrels turned out, but they do need a coat of varnish too I think.
      I think the topiary ball was in the Gardening section, but don't hold me to it!

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    2. I may check tomorrow (weather Permitting)

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    3. I ended up checking before closing time and I have a ball of jungle foliage to help my SCi Fi and Vietnam projects. Cheers mate.

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    4. Hehe, I knew I was good for something

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  7. Great work on the barrels and boxes Joe. They look super, with the first picture momentarily having me think you'd gone out and nought some resin ones.

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    1. Thanks Blaxx, I was asked the same thing from someone seeing them first-hand though they also asked the price!

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  8. I can only imagine how much lead the barrels and boxes will absorb when the powder starts to burn! Nice score, Zab.

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    1. I'm guessing they'll be equal to the task of proving cover as well as the more expensive ones!

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  9. The boxes and barrels looks great Z

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  10. Great looking barrels and boxes, I also thought they were resin, foliage looks good too, I'll have to go the works and look for ships!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks Caveadsum even though the detail on them in minimum they do look OK (and a bit resin-ish).
      Good luck finding any of the ships at "The Works" currently, they seem not to be in stock. The same model on ebay I've seen for anything from £8.75 to £12

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  11. This works well. I have some lying in a box somewhere too. Sigh...All these projects....Looking good Joe

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    1. Thanks LS, trying now to make space to continue with the shrubbery. I'm also hoping for a whole lot of barrels, crates and other scatter for both Pirates and Zeds! (Don't tell anyone, but I'm also starting yet another mini project - more info at a later date)

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