“If Edison Had A Needle To Find In A Haystack…”

“…He would proceed at once with the diligence of the bee to examine straw after straw ."

These two 6mm scale resin Haystacks are produced by “TimeCast” and can be bought from the company’s Scenic Accessories range as Code 37/001 Traditional Style Hay Stacks. Described as being 20mm wide and 15mm tall, the models actually come in packs of ten. However, as I wanted to use them to denote areas of difficult or impassable terrain, I simply super-glued two of them onto a “Citadel” 75mm oval base.

The Haystacks were primed with two coats of “Vallejo” Heavy Ochre, washed with plenty of “Citadel” Agrax Earthshade, and dry-brushed using (more) “Vallejo” Heavy Ochre. I then took a rough brush pigmented with “Vallejo” Sun Yellow and lightly drew this across the miniatures in the hope of slightly brightening up the bales of drying grass.

“Corn is a greedy crop, as farmers will tell you.”

Alongside this somewhat diminutive entry into Dave Stone’s Season of Scenery Challenge, I have also finished off a smaller piece of terrain, this time containing a multitude of 6mm Corn Stooks. Like the Haystacks, these resin items are produced by “TimeCast” and are available as Code 37/012 from their Scenic Accessories range.

Being considerably smaller than the Haystacks, I managed to super-glue five of the ‘shocks’ onto a “Citadel” 60mm oval base and undercoated them using two layers of “Vallejo” Heavy Ochre. The sheaves of cut grain-stalks were subsequently shaded in “Citadel” Agrax Earthshade and dry-brushed with (more) “Vallejo” Heavy Ochre. As I wanted the Corn to appear more dried out than the Hay, I applied a light dry-brush of “Vallejo” Iraqi Sand to each Stook before varnishing them.

"They are the Blood Angels, and I say to you there are no more loyal or determined servants of the Emperor."

In addition to pottering about with some scenery, I have completed work on a second 15mm scale Grey Adder APC Battle Taxi Lifter by “Alternative Armies”. This hefty piece of single-cast resin can be purchased as Pack Code IAF036G from the company’s "The Ion Age" range, and is approximately 60mm long, 45mm wide and 25mm tall.

I aim to use this miniature as a proxy for a “Horus Heresy” era Blood Angels space marine Rhino, so having super-glued it to a large-sized plastic "Flames Of War" stand by “Battlefront Miniatures”, set about painting it using my usual combination of “Vallejo” Heavy Red and “Citadel” Carroburg Crimson. The vehicle’s weapon, thrusters and exhaust ports were all ‘picked out’ with “Vallejo” Gunmetal and “Citadel” Nuln Oil, whilst its front and rear-facing insignias were both taken from the Blood Angels Space Marines decals found inside the “Games Workshop” Warhammer 40k Indomitus boxed set.