Saturday 4 December 2010

ROBIN HOOD (Barzo)

Bought this set of 1/32nd scale bods called "Robin Hoods Men "  (Outlaws of Sherwood forest) last sunday for my daughter...she´s mad about this story and as she is showing an interest in painting so maybe the bigger bods will encourage her more :-D
Of course, I had to see wether it would  actually be possible to paint one of them first  ;-)

"av at ye, blaggard!!!!"

Gabions and Wattle fences

To make wattle fences and gabions (for gun emplacements) I´ve come up with this little method. I stick normal pins in a piece of cork.Note for the Gabion that I have used a round piece of wood to get the spacing right. For the Gabion I use an uneven number of pins, an even number will mean that when threaded, the threading will always come out behind/infront of the same pin, and that looks daft.

The material I use to do the threading is normal copper wire. I use two different thicknesses and weave them in alternate layers. Using just One thickness ends up looking a bit too neat.




The pinheads I leave on as I am doing the weaving...this saves scratches to my tender paws :-) All I do for the fence is start at one side and weave the wire behind and front, behind and front of the pins...easy eh?
Same with the Gabion but a continious wire can be used. Once in a while the layers need pressing down on top of each other to close gaps up.




Once the gabion is half full I press a bit of modelling clay into it to help hold the form.





When the desired  height is reached, cut of the head of the pins at different heights (looks more natural) and then I smear woodglue over the whole thing.
When the glue is dry I cover the lot in dark brown paint liberally splatted on with a brush. Shade and whatever to taste. The Fence or gabion can be pulled out of the cork and placed in a dio etc.