Quick and Easy 1/72 Ancient Chinese Han Dynasty Buildings

After a long period of time and many modelling projects of varying degrees of completion later I thought that is was time to make another post. I've noticed a deficiency of Chinese scale buildings and decided to finally make my own.

With many joyous memories of the 'Three Kindgoms Fate of the Dragon' PC game from my childhood I've built a small building using fairly easy to get parts.

I've based it upon the Han Dynasty ceramic houses above which provide a very good start. The particular house I've based it on is from the Asian Art Museum page: http://education.asianart.org/explore-resources/background-information/introduction-han-dynasty 

The parts used: 

1 Wills SS 35 Pagoda Building; 1 Wills SS 46 Building Details Pack A; 1 Wills SSMP 214 Cement Rendering 

Paints: GW Eshin Grey; GW Mechanicus Standard Grey; GW Doombull Brown; GW Khorne Red; GW Evil Sunz Scarlet; Vallejo 0.950 Black; GW Squig Orange; GW Ushabti Bone; GW Rakarth Flesh

For the fence:

1/72 Hasegawa 31132 Field Camp Equipment

TP model tree? with a Woodland Scenics base

The roof which is used for the building is from Wills Kits Pagoda Building SS 35 from their line of Railway Buildings. The kit is of a corrugated iron shelter, but with a bit of paint- painting on Grey tiles and puttying finials.

I used the sides  of the pagoda building as a template for the building walls on the cement rendering sheets. Following the Eastern Han ceramic model I moved the door off to the right with two rectangular windows that I cut out on the left and one on the right. I also added another rectangular window to the building's left sidewall. 

After I glued the walls to the base of the roof (taking care to inset them further than the original kit walls by reducing the length of the walls by a couple of mm and moreso the sidewalls) I then attached the wooden framework. This was made from the 3 strips of the Building Accesories A sprue and the inset ridge strip. (Note that the strip next to the chimney pot parts is a mm wider than the other two!) I removed them from the sprues and cut lengths to size with the wall ends which I then glued on. 

The advantage of using the Wills building accessories sprue is that the pieces are already the correct colour and don't need to be painted - same with the beige concrete rendering. Nonetheless I recommend painting the roof to hide the sculpted finials and add the tiled look. I then cut more vertical lengths  for the centre of the rendered walls- one each for the front and sides and three for the back. I then cut horizontal lengths which I added mid-way across the walls to add to the red painted half-timbered effect. I recommend deciding whether the thicker strips will be used for the horizontal or vertical timbers.

The doorway was made using the thick inset ridge strip of which I cut two lengths for either side of the doorhole. The sign was made using a reversed piece of this strip cut to size with three Archaic Chinese characters painted on it with black paint. (Search for 'Archaic Chinese Characters' on the web for ideas). The door was made by using a reversed piece of the original corrugated sidewall placed upside down and glued on the back of the doorway. 

The windows were made with leftover pieces of thin strip in groups of three glued to the inside of the windows. (This is my interpretation of the windows on the Eastern Han ceramic house- although notably on the model there are two wooden slats/bars as opposed to three.) 

To remove the plastic effect and shiny glue stains I painted the rendering with GW Ushabti bone and the GW Rakarth Flesh for the stains on the stucco. The wooden framing was touched up using GW squig orange.

The roof was painted  (GW Eshin Grey on top of Vallejo Black using GW Mechanicus Standard Grey for highlights) and green stuffing/puttying roof finials it looks quite different. I did this green stuffing by adding cylindrical tile ends to the corners of the roof and the finials at the top of the roof ridge and sculpting the blobs of green stuff into shape with fingers then wet ends of the sculpting tools. (A GW sculpting tool is more than adequate- use the flat sides of the knife- shaped end to flatten the ends and the curved end to smooth and round the tiles). For the top finials I removed the ends of the separate top ridge piece form the Wills kit and adding upstanding curved finials.

The advantage of the Wills Pagoda building roof is that you could buy two or more, carefully cut them apart and glue them together for a longer roof. This is much easier than trying to scratchbuild symmetrical curved roof shapes. The roof could also be used for a gatehouse building or the top floor of a tower as in one of the top ceramic buildings. That said this is not the only style of tiled roof as straight rooves appear to be common as well as well as gabled rooves. Thatch would also not look out of place. That said I am not an archaeologist. 

The fence is made of the two pieces from the Hasegawa 1/72 Field Accessories set that I cut one of the pieces' ends into shape to attach to the pole of the other piece to make a corner. I used the house corner as a right angle to set the fence into position with. I then painted the fence with a GW Doombull Brown basecoat and with GW Khorne red coat. For a brighter fence GW Evil Sunz Scarlet could be used for delicate highlights to the red fence. 

The tree is from a TP pack of two (I can't remember what the tree was). TP which do a number of unusual trees. I cut the tree bottom to shape and then attached it to a woodland Scenics base from a tree kit set.

The figures are from Caesar Miniatures' Chi'in Army. These figures are unusually large for 1/72 and can be seen here: http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=796 

Back to Fallout

With the end of my second year at university nearly finished, I can now return to blogging. I have been working on various new Fallout figure and scenery projects.

As you can see I have managed to convert some Super Mutants out of Zvezda Ring of Rule Orcs which I got from: http://www.modelwarehouse.biz/catalog.php/modelwarehouse/dt81736/pd1918087/ZVE8808
The weapons are from Wargames Factory plastics Zulus and the new 'Post Apocalyptic Survivors: The Men' set.
The bushes are from Timberline Scenics which was one of these: http://timberlinescenery.com/home.php?cat=3 The office/factory ruins are from the Baggage rain, but have been converted adding extra floors and walls http://www.the-baggagetrain.co.uk/shop/article_DIS002/25_28mm-Destroyed-factory.html?sessid=o0LPv9d2dpwQ5OrgMrbAy0Emo69MrHOogevveQ3BsPJviaIBcT8vA7ICO2DHNGrj&shop_param=cid%3D40%26aid%3DDIS002%26
The roads I have built by myself out of foamboard painted various shades of dark grey and flocked. I might create a post showing how to make these roads later.







Below is a wasteland shack settlement I have been working on. The shack is built using corrugated plasticard and unscribed plank plasticard from Atenotici's Workshop: http://www.antenocitisworkshop.com/slaters-7mm-scale-corrugations-white-0-015-thick.html It still needs some finishing touches as regards painting. The round shacks are from Daemonscape. http://daemonscape.com/contents/en-uk/d3_01.html They do not come with an interior, but I built a basic interior for both using plasticard. The rubble piles are made from Javis Scenics wargames barricades with lots of green stuff sculpted around. Various tyres, plastic rods (planks) and pieces of foamboard (concrete) have been pressed in.  The ruined brick building is from the Combat Zone set, mounted on plasticard, with moulded green stuff bricks added. I got the card pieces from: http://www.em4miniatures.com/acatalog/Combat_Zone_products.html The trees are Woodland Scenics pines that have had branches cut off and have been mounted on a foamboard base. And now back to exams revision!

 

 

Fallout Wargame

following the last post I thought that it was time that I demonstrated how I have altered the speedy Combat Zone system, which can be found at: http://www.em4miniatures.com/acatalog/Combat_Zone.html

Combat Armour
As combat armour in Fallout does not restrict movement, the 4cm to 1 AP penalty has been removed. Now models wearing combat armour move 5cm per AP like everyone else.

Weapons
I have not designed all the weapons statistics yet, but here are the ones that I have:

Weapon            Rof    Dam     Point       Short       Long        Points

Plasma Rifle     2D6   3D8        3             15            50             25

Laser Pistol      2D6    3D4        3             15           50             10

Laser Rifle       2D6    5D4        3             20           80             20

Autopistols with incorporated grenade launchers are not available

I got the statistics of other additional weapons stats I used which I did not create from: http://combatzonechronicles.net/

Power Armour
I obtained the rules from http://combatzonechronicles.net/cozoxb/power.htm . I modified the stats of the power armour to represent some of the key models of it in the game

T-45d Power Armour 20 points
Armour Rating: 4
1AP to move 4cm
+1D4 Attack Modifier in Close Combat
+ 1 Wound Modifier in Close Combat
Dropping Down Requires 2AP

Enclave Power Armour 30 points
Armour Rating 5
+1D4 Attack Modifier in Close Combat
+1 Wound Modifier in Close Combat

These rules seem to have played well so far, but I have noticed that a lucky shot from a bolt-action rifle from http://combatzonechronicles.net/cozo6/weapons.htm can kill an Enclave Corporal in Enclave Power Amrour, which is strangely balancing.

I have been working on painting my miniatures and here are my Talon Company Mercs form EM4 http://www.em4miniatures.com/acatalog/Science_Fiction.html

Fallout Combat Zone Wargame

I have been devoted to all things Falloutn recently, most notably Fallout wargames. Although there is the Fallout tactics: Warfare and the Fallout Skirmish v.7 systems, I have been using the excellent Combat Zone rules with some new rules and adjustments for easy and fast play.

I have been building a diorama for my university wargames club stand at the Freshers' fair and here are some pictures. The Perry Miniatures Farhouse is lift off and I am currently painting the sculpted interior.

I have also been wargaming as well, where I have been making terrain for it, as you can see below. I will mention the figures later. The hill I 'carved' from foamboard. The bushes are dyed white lichen (dark brown). The card ruined buildings are from the Combat Zone set. The white telegraph poloe is from the Tamiya 1/48 WW2 Diorama accessories set. The dead trees are 'hacked' Woodland Scenics pine tree armatures.

 

More Mini Campaigns!

For 28mm Fantsay I have been preparing 2 fantasy campaigns, one being an Orc conflict, 'The Fourth Orc War' and the other being a war against the undead, 'The 12th Holy War'. I have been building the armies for both sides as well as the terrain and so far so good. The last game from the Orc Campaign 'The Orc Raid' did not work well, but I have now supplemented it with the 'Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game' Rules, while using different stats for the figures to represent my generic fantasy wargames world. The great thing about this ruleset is that it can do skirmishes as well as large battles, along with the potential of house fighting using the Siege Rules in the 'Advanced Rules Section'. All I need to do now is find some way of making those characters throw/move tables and chairs...

On the hobby/ not typing side of things I have manged to scratch build a 15th Century cannon based of an illustration. As you can see the wheels are solid, as opposed to spoked, but this is due to the complexity of building spoked wheels without the aid of a drill. Nonetheless I remember seeing a solid 2 part wheeled cannon in a period illustration. Next to it is a Mantic skeleton crewman whom I have added a bit more flesh to. I have also been painting several figures form the Mantic/Perry Miniatures range for the campaigns, as you see below.

As regards next week at club, I do not know if I will be there to run a campaign, as I seem to have a very nasty cold.

Fantasy Mini-Campiagn

I haven't posted for a while now, as I have been so busy preparing for university, which is where I shall be going to on the 18th of September. As a result I have only 3 more sessions of club before I go :(.

Well, this week I will be running a mini-campaign for 28mm fantasy for anyone wishing to play. It will be set around the events of an Orc incursion and have at least 3 scenarios, where the events of one scenario effect the next like Neil's WW2 D-day campaign idea (with only 3 sessions left I doubt that I will have time to run the D-day game this Summer). One side will be a bunch of Mantic Orcs (and Orclings!), while the other will be a collection of 15th C. Holy Roman Empire style humans from the Perry Miniatures plastics range. I will be using the King and Captains ruleset with some adaptions for house fighting. There will be some brand-new card building designs used (rural architecture, Western European style with red raised-tiled rooves) with interiors (I might write some instructions if I get the time). The campaign will include raids, sieges and field battles-I might even include artillery! I hope to post the campaign soon.

I have also been working on an ancient Greek 1/72 card farmhouse amongst other things. Here are some sheets that I made and decided to scan. The farmhouse is designed to be modular and this project as you can see is not complete!

D-Day Landing scenario Feedback

Recently, I ran a D-day landing scenario using our basic set of rules. The game went well, despite us only getting about half way through it. Nonetheless, it was only a play test for a potential D-day landings campaign. This produced a series of errors. It seems that there are many important components for a good d-day landing scenario:

• A lot of Allied infantry is needed- to little and they will just get wiped out- so re spawn rules generally will not work. As regards infantry be generous!
• Infantry need to be able to move quickly/ the board needs to be thin. Really, it has to be one or the other.
• Morale rules- the Allied infantry cannot go anywhere but forwards, while the Germans will be operating as normal.
• Don't forget the landing craft MGs! The landing craft machine guns provide vital supporting fire.
• Machine gun rules. Sustained fire rules, along with associated reload/barrel change. Also Light-Heavy Machine gun fire at buildings special rules regarding ricochets.
• Tanks- If the allies are to have tanks then, they must not have too many, or they would have to be balanced with a large enough anti tank element on the German's side. If tanks are to be fielded, then mine rules are recommended.
• Obviously, for this scenario you need a lot of landing craft. For this I recommend the Pegasus Hobbies LCVP Lading Craft With Crew and Soldiers. It comes with 15 American Infantrymen standing in groups of 3, 3 crewmen and a water base. You will also need rules for damaging/destroying these craft. How fast will they move?
• Off board bombardment. Will both sides have this ability? If so how many shots for how many turns and what calibre will the guns be? The off side bombardment will need special rules.
• Good obstacle rules. Rules for removing barbed wire.

All of the problems related to the rule set I will adjust. The rest will have to be resolved with the campaign co-ordinator. Hopefully, this, along with the bogged-down Bocage scenario will be able to resolve most of the rule set problems. I will also try and write a quick reference sheet, as well as cutting down the data for the unit equipment and organisation sheets. All-in-all I should be able to keep the ruleset still less than 15 pages.