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

Monday 21 October 2019

Sudan Bits

I surprised myself this week by making as much progress on my Sudan project, especially as I took a day off anything hobby-related, due to illness, however as the week went on I found myself getting a lot more done than I'd anticipated.
As  the title of this post hints at, I accomplished nothing major, but I am happy with the results.
The pictures on the right shows all the bots, sacks and bowls I've scratch-built (taking advantage of a single day without rain to spray-undercoat!
I was so pleased with the results that I'm  now looking at doing a lot more.
Here's some close ups
Three grain sacks (or some other yellowish stuff)
A couple of pots and a bowl of red stuff (spice ?)
A variety of larger pots (they look a lot bigger than they really are)
More pots (Bored yet ?)
Even more pots ! (Who'd have thought ?)
All the pots etc. were made from what I had available; some very old FIMO; 20-year old, unused  green stuff; and beads!
A bag of 200 assorted beads cost £1.99 (from the Range iirc)
The FIMO stuff
Once undercoated, it's hard to tell their origin imho.
I tend to work on several different things at once for many reasons, boredom, light,  changing posture and awaiting items to dry or glue to set etc., so I also finished off the mass-door production gluing and cutting them all out:
Notice tags on doors for securing into foamboard and the arched door is for the Souk
My recently bought felt cloth was also laid out, enabling me to iron it, removing the very prominent central crease and the four lateral creases, from the need to fold and pack it for delivery.
Before (top half) and after ironing (bottom half)
Damp kitchen cloth used )less washed out photograph)

The Iron (weighing about half a ton imo) - normally used on a Snooker table !
A beautifully smoothed out surface (on yet another 'washed out' photograph)
As I ironed the cloth out, it was rolled onto a length of tube that I had retained just for this purpose, thus retaining its crease-less state. I'm pleased I cut the tube a little longer than six feet (the purported width of the cloth) as I found the cloth to have about a very pleasing,  extra four inches to the width !
This whole ironing , rolling, weight-lifting cloth dampening and awaiting iron to heat up, took place in two sessions over the weekend as once more I succumbed to failing energy levels.
I did however finished gunking up all the foamboard buildings I've recently made (though not Gordon's pad) and save for the larger Souk, sanded them down into a more presentable format.
comparing them to the photographs in the last post, it can be seen that I've also added some extra areas of fallen plaster.

A gunged up wall, half unsanded (left) and half sanded (right)
Sanded and some detail added
Reverse view of above building
The unplanned 'scrap' building
Reverse view showing a second door ! (I may also add rooms at a later stage)
One of my favourite buildings (and probably the smallest)
Reverse view of above. The figure (Al Hahdin- or Al for short, is from Redoubt)
Another very small building, but imho, beautifully formed
Reverse view of building
 I'm very pleased with how these have turned out and will hopefully be adding doors and roofs over the next week (though you may have heard that before). I do think though that I need at least two and maybe up to another six small buildings, all as yet unplanned. I do also however intend to make two larger structures, a barracks building and a larger terraced building. The latter building will be an experimental attempt to use up bits of scrap plastic I've kept for years, because "they're interesting and  could come in handy" and not for any intended purpose (Ed. Read: Confession:"My name is Joe and I'm a hoarder...")


That's then for this week, one in which I think I've been busy and productive over the last week and I hope you've found something of interest.
As always your comments and critiques are always welcomed and truly appreciated


30 comments:

  1. Bloody talented and bloody impressive!

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    1. Thanks you AL, (what you hear is the sound of me blushing).

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  2. Fantastic work on your pots and sacks, buildings are progressing nicely to

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    1. Thanks Dave, I'll be adding tothe pots, now that I'm a lot more confident and probaly a few more other items made from Fimo as I've still got three packs of it left too.

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  3. Great stuff Joe - I like the buildings with exposed stonework. Very nice.

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    1. Thanks MJT, I always thought it a bit of an affectation with gamer/modellers but having seen the real thing using Google I thought it almost a 'must', but there probably won;t be any on Gordon;s Pad !

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  4. Nice work. The Scratchbuilt pots do the job.

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    1. Thanks Simon, I do wonder why I haven't tried this before, definetly a money saver and I found it quite fun too !

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  5. Inspirational stuff Joe, I am particularly impressed by the scratch built pots.

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    1. Thank you Michael, though I'm pretty sure it's not an original method and easy enough for anyone to do.

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  6. Splendid stuff, Joe. Your time spent putting this post together is very much appreciated :-)

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    1. Thanks Blaxx,I cropped and photoshopped all the photos on Sunday and todays post just about wrote itself - one of my quicker efforts at about 3hrs !

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  7. Fantastic work sir! You're talented!

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    1. Thank you so much Muchal, though I doubt that many would agree with you !

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  8. This is looking very good. Your work on the bead/pots is a great idea. I have a bunch of beads for this very same purpose but I've not progressed them because they didn't look right. Putting that lip of greenstuff on the top changes it from a bead to a pot. Great idea, hope I can remember it.
    The buildings are progressing well.

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    1. Thanks Vagabond, beads to pots is probably the simplest conversion I've ever done, making them with FIMO from scratch was a little more difficult.
      I'm trying very hard to get the smaller buildings done and dusted this week, but there are a lot of factors agoing against me !

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  9. Absolutely brilliant stuff Joe! Continuously amazed at your scratch work :)

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    1. Thanks Ivor, great compliments indeed, but it's nothing that others can do and have done.

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    2. Thats very modest of you Joe

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  10. Great work all round Joe, you've really got the bit between your teeth at the moment :)

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    1. Thanks Frank but my levels of enthusiasm and energy are being quickly drained as real-life raises its ugly head to once more put a spanner in the works.

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  11. Stunning job, beautiful and atmospheric terrain!

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    1. Thanks Phil, I'll resere judgement until it's all finished !

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  12. Love the beads idea. That works do well!

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    1. Thanks Ray, as ever, I'm a complete cheapskate !

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  13. Bead pots are a great idea and very effective! Your Adobe city is moving along at a fair lick! I'm glad I'm not the only one who retains junk because it might be useful and who is a touch megalomaniac about terrain projects, you'll know what I mean when I eventually (if!) finish it!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks Iain, I know exactlywhat you mean. I was looking for some suitable tubing for the columns and 'came across' a length of 1cm dowel that I happened to have. Similarly I have boxes and drawers of things " I might need or may use' someday !

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  14. Really great looking models, useful from Sudan to Tatoonie.

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    1. Thanks Phil, you're absolutely right though I'd never thought of an out of this world location.

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