Hitting the Ground Running

Just taking a break from making a variety of 20mm scale wooden and corrugated shacks, barns and lean-tos for Alcovia. May call it a night as it's 10.30pm and I've been at it most of today.

These buildings are inspired by the ultra-nationalist missions in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately for gaming Alcovia, my xBox360 decided to die this week, so I've had to fallback on the old noggin.

The boat house is therefore an approximation of the one in Mission 3: Blackout from memory. Given the riverine nature of Alcovia, I thought it would come in handy for more than one scenario. I've completed the frame and raised decking but have decided I want batten roofing so will need to get a pack of OO scale moulded plastic sheets from Wills Kits.

The first shack was made almost completely from Wills Kits wood planking moulded sheets - boy was that tough!  The plastic is 2.5mm thick and it was time consuming scoring out the windows and doors without damaging the moulded plastic around the aperature.

In all honesty I gave up on using the moulded plastic for the main structures after the first shack and instead, broke into my store of empty Whiskas cardboard cat food boxes that had been squirrelled away for a rainy day. The cardboard is slightly ribbed and appropriately painted can be used horizontally for wood planking and vertically for corrugated iron.

I decided early on NOT to over elaborate the detail these first buildings. Get them built, painted and on the table is my creed. That gives me some appropriate terrain to fight over and incentive to get the figures done. Momentum will take care of the rest. I can always construct new ones to replace them and then sell the originals on Ebay at a later date.

This is especially as I want to make some mix and match marshy/reed filled terrain and I'd rather spend the time here. One of the most challenging missions in the original Ghost Recon was M09 Swamp, and it would be fun to replay in an Alcovian setting.

I know a lot of people swear by Woodland Scenics Water Effect, but I have successfully and much more cheaply used PVA to achieve sstisfactory results, adding depth and colour with inks or washes between each coat. Afterall, your figures and their bases will be standing on the surface of the 'water', not wading through it.

Will photograph the buildings once painted. Am going to coat in PVA first to make them stronger, act as a basecoat and reduce any possibility of warping later on.

That's it, I am going to call it a day, but it's been a productive one.

Cheers

Mark