Having a blast.

Bank Holiday weekend. Rain, rain, rain. Oh well, better find something to do.

Chris K has made some really nice looking blast/bombardment markers to use with NQM, made from pipe cleaners. You can see them in this picture from the last game we played.

I've used something to mark bombardments for my SCW and RCW rules for several years, but being me with limited modelling skills I made them from card printed on by a graphics package. Chris has made something more 3D, and I thought I'd have a go at replicating them as I have a packet of black pipe cleaners in the bits drawer.

The pipe cleaners I've got I bought from a craft stall at a local market. It was the first time I'd seen a packet that was completely black. Ordinarily they're multi coloured. I got them to make hedges for 6mm figures. They look okay once you dry brush them with green. Chris made his from white ones and spray painted them black.

Any how, they're about 30cm long, and I cut them into unequal lengths of 12cm, 10cm & 8cm. You then fold them not exactly half way into a V shape and hook them round each other one at a time, twisting one of them round to keep them in place.

You end up with something that looks like a big spider having a bad hair day. Then you plug in your hot melt gun and wait for it to warm up.

For bases I went for the ever useful penny. The alternative was GW plastic bases, but they don't provide any weight, and besides they're more expensive.

A really large blob of hot glue secures the spiders to their pennies.

A bit of household filler applied with my trusty modelling knife and a quick dip in the sand box finishes off the base, ready for painting.

Bases painted green and heavily brown dry brushed. I tried to paint in some red and yellow on the "strands" but the paint has soaked in and lost its colour.