Through a looking glass ... what's in a paint palette?

I can remember as a child being fascinated that you could measure the age of a tree by counting the number of rings you saw through its trunk when it was cut down. It didn't take long to occur to me that to do so one had to ensure the demise of the tree. Not a bad realisation for a five year old. I was particularly fascinated by the very idea that in looking at those rings you were looking back in time, and later learning taught me that it is possible to read much about the tree's life and growth, and climatic events, from those rings. Similarly the geology of landforms and the strata that are evident when uplift or erosion occurs all tell a story about aeons long past. It was no wonder I was a Dr Who fan from that very first broadcast in Aotearoa NZ.

So yesterday I had just finished painting another batch of figures, and sat staring at my paint palette. It is (or was) a piece of glass maybe 10-15cm square that my father gave me when I started painting figures and models. I was probably around twelve years old. That piece of glass began at around 5mm thick. It was the thickness that held my gaze. I measured it .. it's now 25mm thick at its thickest. 

The current state of my paint palette

A paint pot next to the palette, for scale

It struck me that if I looked at the underside of the palette I was looking at paint that had been laid down over 55 years ago. I was looking back in time. There is blue, and yellow, and green, and white, and grey and....  I can't recall what I might have been painting. Maybe the blue was some Airfix French Napoleonic infantry? Maybe the green was an Airfix M3 Lee/Grant tank?

The underside of the palette

Again, for scale...

Interesting how the mind works, isn't it. Hopefully I have a few more years of painting left in me, although I doubt enough to add another 20mm to the thickness of the palette.

What we read as children ....

I've written several times before about those things from our childhood that might have inspired us in our hobby. The influences are many and varied. Without any doubt at all we can say that the things our parents do matter, even if they don't set out to have those influences on us. My Dad's model making mattered to me.

Similarly what we read as children matters. My parents weren't highly educated, but they understood that reading mattered, so there were always plenty of books around. As we cleared out our parents' house, and then reduced our own accumulation of 'stuff', we'd thinned out the book collections. I did keep several of my own childhood books, and this was one of them.

Looking for something to read the other evening, I grabbed this book from the shelves and read it. It was published in 1962, and this is a 1962 edition. The memories flooded back. The 'Fighting Four' were four tommies who had gone through Dunkirk, trained as commandoes, and been involved in several tight situations in that role. They are members of the LRDG operating in North Africa, and are asked to support the first SAS raid on a German airfield well behind Rommel's lines. Things don't quite go to plan, and the four are left to find their way back to British lines, taking their seriously wounded commanding officer with them. They capture an Italian fort (yes, just the four of them) kidnap an Italian doctor, get captured .. and so it goes on.

I did once also have a copy of the prequel by AR Channel, "The Fighting Four", but it must have been culled as I reduced book volumes. It was a story of a commando raid on a German heavy water plant in Norway. A little part of me wishes I'd kept it.

With books like this, and with my father's inspiring model making, it's little wonder that I became a wargamer with a deep interest in military history. I think this was an unintended consequence of their action. They were not fans of military history per se.

The book itself is a fun read, one of those inspiring reads for children. Despite its age and my years I enjoyed it. 

An 'aircraft carrier' for HotT.. one final naval element

Can you ever have too much of a good thing? Well maybe. There was a craze went around the 'modelling' web a year of two ago for building space ships from clothes pegs... it eventually went quiet, but not before folk had demonstrated some wonderful creativity.

Having created three 'naval' elements for my HotT armies, I had the bug, but realised this was not something that could go on forever. However I wanted to create just one more.. a matter of indulging the creativity, and the old fashioned model building, rather than any necessary desire to create elements for the games, simply because I had enjoyed the process and the challenges so much. After all we have not yet trialled the 'naval' rules, so have no guarantee that this will actually work.

That said, as friend Jon and I have discussed, this is a hobby of multiple dimensions, one is the gaming, and another is the modelling. So .. given that in our 'mind's eyes' these naval elements are likened to airboats, it did seem reasonable that one of the elements should be some sort of 'VSF aircraft carrier'. Aren't airboats about projecting airpower? This is it.

The core of the ship based on a couple of shapes carved from core board.

The core is 'clad' in light card. I wanted some sort of pseudo- carrier/dreadnought (a bit of a cliche, I guess), so it needed gun turrets down each side

A flight deck is added

A bit of a superstructure, and three funnels

Based, and the water texturing added to the base

Basic painting, some flight deck markings, and a base deep green applied to the 'water'

Lighter blue water and white foam added around the ship

I wanted some sort of 'flyer' on the flight deck, and it took four failed attempts before this came out .. a sort of gyrocopter.. far from perfect, but at arms length it looks okay, just don't peer too closely

The finished product

The final products, from left to right an orc ship, two VSF ships, and a VSF submarine

This has been one of those projects that hasn't necessarily been 'gaming focussed, but a lot of fun. The project engaged some good old fashioned imagination, and model making skills, using spares, scraps, and recycled materials.. the sort of thing I love most. I am pleased with the final products, and am looking forward to seeing some of these on the table. Now I just hope we can generate some 'naval' rules that work. Watch this space.

Returning to the painting table ... finally

I've in many ways been MIA 'missing in action' for a while now, partly the pressures of work (I've now stepped back from my role as a secondary school Principal) and partly as my vision has been problematic. A cataract operation a week ago brings to an end (I hope) a four year journey with incredible eye surgeries, and has already yielded huge dividends, and I have been able to get back to the painting table, starting with something larger .. necessary at this stage as I need to wait for the eye to settle so I can get a new lens prescription that gives me the best quality vision I can. 

I have had the bits for this piece of fantasy/sci-fi terrain sitting on the table for a year ... one of those projects in which I try to indulge my creativity and see what I can make from those odd bits. The terrain is intended for use with my HotT (Hordes of th Things) armies.

Here I was playing with bits, moving them around, looking for inspiration. The small cardboard 'tubes are the centres for dog 'poop' bags... with two Border Collies, we have plenty of these

More bits arrived, and I tried this ..

Before settling on this

It is intended to look something like a possible science and industrial complex. I didhave to do a quick photo shoot of this new piece alongside another copuple that I have created, and a couple of bases from the HotT Undead army.

This isn't about acquiring quality scenery. Chances are I could have downloaded a 3D print file and got friend Andrew to print something for me (maybe). This is about indulging ones creativity, about re-using what otherwise might be simply 'waste'. It's about the heart of our hobby, I think, and I love it.

Turkish stronghold unveiled

The final step to complete this Big Battle HotT army .. the stronghold. I wanted something that reflected the minaret look, yet was small enough for the gaming table. I had two more of the old curtain rail ends, and had an idea of what I might do... minarets against an 'old world' wall setting for a simple stronghold.

The two curtain rail ends

Amongst my Dad's tools is this awesome device. A series of sliding pins, looking much like a comb. Push the pins against the shape you want to replicate to copy the shape. Ideal for cutting angular pieces to go against a more complex conic shape.

The base with a backboard.

A doorway for the back wall

Doorway construction completed using card

and attached to the backboard

I painted the camp back and base to look slightly decayed.. brown, layered with a beige/bone colour, then given a brown wash.

I then painted an area to look as if stucco had fallen away to reveal coloured bricks beneath.

The floor tiles were scribed with a sharp point, then given a black and a brown wash along the lines

 I painted the minarets wiht blues and gold, and then decided that I really needed to add a little more, so a dormer window was added. he card abutting the minaret was cut using the magical pin device to first get the shape.

I added a gable front, again made from heavy card

The completed minarets attached to the base, wiht a 'stained glass' effect painted on the front, and leadlight window look (black bars and plain glass) on the sides.

Finally (and always a part of the plan - I'd drilled holes in the top of the minarets to accomodate flag poles) .. the minarets with flags on top. These in particular were intended to reinforce the aesthetic coherence of the army.