Marching Fort wall section (part 3)

Here we have the project so far with the glue dried.

The reason I glued the cross beam on at this early stage was so I could remove the log wall for texturing and painting.

So far so good. One of my foam cuts was not so square though. And it happened to be on one of the sides that will need to butt up to another fort section. I trimmed a little shim of pink foam and glued it in place to try to true it up.

And then a thin layer of lightweight spackling to seal the deal.

I'm going to let this dry and resume tomorrow.

Marching Fort wall section (part 2)

And now for something completely tedious. Pointing the bamboo BBQ skewer 'logs.'

Actually it wasn't so bad once I got into a groove. It was kind of meditative actually.

A couple of pointers (no pun intended):

• I wanted to use the pencil sharpener to make the points, but because of the grain of the bamboo it tended to splinter the skewer. Whittling with the X-Acto worked better.

• Point the stake before cutting to length. Because when whittling, as Maury the Mohel says, "sometimes a little extra comes off the top."

Another issue with the bamboo skewers is that they each seem to have a dark and light side (don't we all!). The dark side was quite a bit tougher than the light side. This tended to make my points lean in one direction. I don't think that will be noticeable when all is said and done though.

Once they were shoved about a quarter inch into a slot I carved into the pink foam with  the X-Acto, the next step was to glue a cross beam across the top of the fence. The picture shows two beams, but the lower is just there to make sure the binder clips had a good purchase.

Marching Fort wall section

So here I've gotten down to the first terrain project. Pink foam cut and glued to a plywood base with Gorilla glue. I used a very fine hacksaw I found amongst my wife's jewelry making kit. Not sure if it was the best choice but hopefully it will lend an 'earthy' texture to the cuts.

Clever planning!

Tools of the trade

First time using Gorilla glue

Gluing on the wee berm

Had to trim off a little excess glue

Finished step one!

Terrain Project(s)

The question I proposed last night had a little bit of a twist. I actually have two terrain projects in mind. The first is indeed, as some guessed, wattle fencing. I'm going to try to mimic Tony Hardwood's tutorial:

The second project is something I found on eBay, a modular Roman marching fort:

I was tempted to buy it, but the overseas shipping is a real deal killer. Guess the resin stuff is a might heavy. Anyhow, I bought some wood for basing both projects from LITKO. I was pleasantly surprised to find out it's actual plywood (not MDF). Although, I probably should read the product descriptions of the things I buy more carefully...  =]

Head-to-Head (rematch!)

When I finished the first three-color figure, some of you asked to see a comparison on the table. So I figured with a few more levy done I should have a rematch. This time the odds are even! Sorry the focus is a little soft on some of the photos:

Now that I have a whopping six (6) figures completed, I figured it's time to take a well deserved break and work on something different. Below is a hint. Any guesses?

Finally, I'd just like to point out that this is post number fifty! Thanks to all those along for the ride...

Three Color method (2 & 3 finished)

It's been a long time since my last update. We had a creeping funk around here and every single one of us got sick in sequence. That ate up the better part of three weeks. At least we didn't all get sick at once...

Pretty much the same technique as last time. The main difference is that I've given up on the Testor's Dullcote - it's just too humid here in Florida for anything save a skunk to spray outdoors. I've opted instead for a soluble acrylic matte varnish.

Without further ado, here are the second and third Scots levy painted with the three color method:

As you may have noticed, I've plussed up the basing vegetation a bit. I was inspired by Christopher of Bunker Hill's amazingly bushy grassy bases.

The other benefit of the bushy basing is that it covered up the "cankle" on my one-footed javelin hurler that needed repair.

Said repair proved problematic. I pulled his base off again while painting him and had to redo the repair. I think I didn't sink the pin far enough into the foot the first go around.

I'm very happy with the new brush on matte varnish. I only had one issue: it pooled in Old Footy's armpit and I didn't notice it until the next day. I probably should have just left it be, but I decided to try to poke it out with a wooden toothpick.

I managed to get the bit of varnish out, but cracked his foot repair again. This time I choose not to re-repair as the painting was nearly finished. I just dabbed on some super glue and then matte varnished over the crack when the glue was dry. All the more reason for more bushes!

I also toned down the wood grain on the spears. My first three color levy looked like he was toting a piece of zebrawood. Hope you like them!