About Me

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My name is Gavin McClements. I am a wargamer and family man, living in Los Gatos, which is a suburb of San Jose, CA. Building terrain is one of my favorite aspects of the wargaming hobby - in fact, lately I've become more interested in making my battlefields "pop" than in actually playing.

Monday, February 20, 2012

6mm Terrain makes a comeback

Ive been searching for the "next" game for some time now, and every time I do, I end up back where I started...


So, in preparation for a game this week, I decided to finish some pieces of terrain that I had started a while back but hadnt completed (in other words, status quo).  I am a good painter but I take a miserably long time because I am foolishly fixated on detail. Oh well. I like the results.

First up, a village:

I try to have things look as good as I can get them without sacrificing playability. That is a HARD combination to juggle...but I achieve it mainly by putting my trees on washers and placing small round magnetic sheet-cut circles where they are to go. The trees are then removable and can look good and be moved at the same time.



I like color on my battlefields as well. Too many games have unfinished models and terrain (my own included!) or cityscapes painted in blacks and greys, so I try to splash in what I can. In reality, I mix fall and summer colors, but hey, maybe on some alien world thats what it really looks like! I have Woodland Scenics flowers sprinkled about, and the trees are using WS turf. The trees' color is bigger and grainier, but I realized as I was adding it that the flower mixture would be perfect! Mixing the colors with some green flock would be awesome for 6mm ground cover. I love discovering.


Its my wife's favorite color of the houses, and Im super proud of the fence, so hey, a close up is in order.

Notice also that the yards have a greener color than the roundabout. I tried to replicate the color of lawn, so I got the "Green Grass" flocking from WS....twice. Yea...I forgot that I had thought about this before, so Friday when I ran down to get some, I opened the new jar ($10 USD) before checking my flocking selection. Oh well. I have grass for days now :)

The Church is designed to go near the village, maybe on some soon-to-be-built (LOL who am I kidding...) road system.



Its a little hard to tell from these angles, but the church is slightly elevated, and the path winds up to it from the front. The gravemarkers were obnoxious to do, and superglue isnt the best method of gluing things to MDF board.  Its ok...the glue from the sand and flocking should keep them in.


The Devlan Mud wash on all the buildings turned out great, but I am especially pleased with the church.

So thats it for now. One of these days I'll start assembling my Death Korp of Krieg list that I mostly own, and maybe work more on my city scape (combinations of 4"x4" 2mm squares of plasticard to make a city grid).  I have also to play Strike Legion, but for now, its on to Epic Armageddon!

NOTE: I had a request for the manufacturer of the buildings. I dont know...but they might be  Hovels and Principles (I have no link but got a lead a few years ago, unconfirmed).

As for scale:


Rhino and a stand of Exodus Wars infantry and autocannon:

Whirlwind and a stand of Sisters of Battle Seraphim proxies I got from a blue werewolf's brother...

And NO, the bases on the vehicles arent done, so no comments mentioning them :P

Saturday, February 4, 2012

STORAGE rage!

For the love of pete!

I've got about a dozen buildings from JRM Miniatures made from some type of fragile clay-like substance, and Im at a loss on how to store these beauties!

See how those offending bastards are taking up my table space?  So selfish, so thoughtless...them and the other fifty projects I have started and not finished :)

I have SOME ideas on storage. I did THIS (well, "started", not finished, as you can see) to my 6mm buildings:

It actually works fairly well, but damn, its a lot of work, and the box from JoAnn Fabric cost $10...

Im not sure I want to have to do all that for my 15mm buildings, and the small, flat ones deserve more of a smaller tray.

Anyway, Im just throwing a minor temper tantrum on this Saturday, because crafting storage is one of the last things I want to be doing...

How do you store your buildings, at any scale?