UMS "Agram" : Making PIETY HILL < Articles < Hobby

Making PIETY HILL

Marko Paunović, 22nd August 2020

In this article, I'll be doing a centerpiece terrain for an old west type table. For a while now I've had an idea of doing a hilltop church with a small cemetary for my games of Malifaux and writing this article presented a perfect excuse for such a project.

Idea and planning

I always say when you start any larger project you should plan ahead first. Take your time and explore your options, design the terrain (in this case), decide what materials would be best, see if you have all the tools at hand and most important check if you have enough glue. There is no worse thing than running out of superglue on a saturday evening when you have a sunday's worth of working planned out.

The idea behind this terrain comes from a terrain I did for my gaming club in 2003. mainly for Mordheim and WHFB. It was done in the usual Vampire Counts style. The terrain exists to this day and has only minor damage and some small pieces missing as can be seen in the picture. However, as much as I love this terrain, it doesn't quite fit in the Malifaux world. And besides I wanted to see how differently I'd make this (more or less) same terrain 13 years later.

With the theme of the project decided, I know started to explore my design options. First thing I usually do is go for my home diorama/hobby library. Usually the first books I leaf through are from old masters Ray Anderson and late Sheperd Paine. The former has done some great Old west dioramas and his book The Art of the Diorama is a source of endless inspiration for me, the latter has done mostly military dioramas and his book How To Build Dioramas offers great advice and tips on building scenery and composition. For this project I decided to refer to Ray Anderson's diorama Piety Hill and thus have decided to name my project equally in hommage to this great artist.

So, with the style and theme decided upon, I began designing the outline of the terrain. It became apparent that the size of the terrain would greatly depend on the size of the church. Since I had an already existing terrain with church as a template I roughly copied the dimensions of the church. With the rough dimensions determined (13x10cm with 5cm high walls), I went ahead and started to draw the design of the wall elements. I wanted to build the model of this church as close to how a real wooden churches were built – by using wooden beams to construct the wall frame segments. Connect those segments and after they are errect, use wooden planks to make the walls. The design of the wall frame segments showed four different setups. One for the front side of the building (10x5cm) with holes for two narrow windows and a door, one for the back side of the building (two such frames would be needed as they are 5x5cm), one for the sides of the building with holes for the windows (four such frames needed as they are 5x5cm) and one for the side of the building and for the church belfry (8 needed – 2 for the sides and 6 for belfry, as they are 3x5cm). I would also need several wooden beam constructions/horns for the roof. When I had all this drawn in 1:1 scale on graph paper, I used a different paint marker (green) to mark how the moulding tool should look.

This sketch provided me with the lengths and ammount of material (tables in the drawing sketch) I'd need for the construction work.

For this project I will need the following materials:
- roughly 7 meters of 2x2mm linden slat
- roughly 1 meter of 5x5mm linden slat
- roughly half of a meterlong plank of 2mm balsa wood (they come in 10x100cm planks)
- 40x40cm of HD styrofoam
- superglue
- PVA glue
- gravel (three sizes)
- static grass
- pine trees (several)
- other vegetation
- sanding paper (2 sheets)
- foil for overhead projector
- thin card
- toothpicks
- one chain ring and two small hinges for jewlery boxes
- one bell from a Christmas decoration
- several tombstones

The tools needed are:
- scalpel blade
- scissors
- modelling saw
- pin vice (or an electric mini drill)
- brushes
– various sizes
– for painting/washing and for drybrushing
- pliers and pincers - icepick

Building the church

As I mentioned earlier, the size of the terrain and the layout of various elements greatly depends on the size of the church so it was only natural to start with the construction of the church first. Since I would need a lot of slats of various sizes which would require a lot of precise and repeated measuring, I decided to help myself and construct two tools that would be used to cut the slats into several desired lengths. Tool 1 would be used to cut planks 13, 30 and 50 mm long, whereas Tool 2 would cut planks 11, 20 and 46 mm long. The geometry of these simple tools would allow fast and precise cutting of the linden slats and true enough after only an hour I had cut almost 7 meters of linden slats into 181 differently sized would-be wooden beams. Using scotch tape I glued them all into groups so they wouldn't get mixed up.

Next up, it was time to construct the moulding tools to simplify the production of wooden frames and ensure the right angles of the beam connections (as much as possible). For this, I used one sheet of transparent plastic foil. I simply placed it over the sketch and glued the 5x5mm linden slats over the green marked areas on the sketch. Inside I put the linden slats of according sizes (I had previously written the sizes in red on the sketch for easier assembly) and put just a dab of superglue making sure it didn't run onto the plastic foil or the thicker linden slats of the moulding tool. A great advice is to use Rapid Cure. This is a chemical of sorts that instantly cures the superglue the moment it comes into contact with it. However it leaves some white marks which in this case won't matter as everything will get painted in the end.

Once I had all the wooden frames for the bottom part of the church I glued them onto a balsa wood base. I now had the outline of my would-be church. It was time to construct the belfry and the roof. Using the same method, I made the roof horns – basicly a set of triangles glued to gether. To make those, I used only one mould tool as all I really needed was to construct the right angle between the horizontal and perpendicular beams. Once they are fixed, I just connected the hypothenuse of the triangle that would hold the roof. I made several sizes of the roof horn in order to have an appearance of a wobbly roof. When the roof construction was done, I glued 2mm balsa wood over it that would hold the roof tiles. (Note: I didn't glue the roof construction to the wall frames so the roof will be removable) With the roof construction done, I proceeded to make the belfry using 6 smaller wall frames and some roof triangles.

It was time to fill the walls with planks. Using 2mm thick balsa wood I cut strips about 30cm long and 5mm wide using an icepick. The shape of the icepick enables the bevelled look of the plank in one stroke (both cutting and bevelling at the same time). If I had used the scalpel blade, I would have to chamfer the sides which would prolong the process. Afterwards, I again resorted to my makeshift tools for cutting planks and made a bunch of 20, 30 and 50mm planks out of the balsa strips. These I then glued to the floor, making sure I followed a certain pattern. It does not matter which pattern you use, but you need to follow it to the end. In the case of my floor, I used the following pattern: 40mm-50mm; 20mm-50mm-20mm; 50mm-40mm; 20mm-50mm-20mm and repeat. I used a similar method for all the walls. Where the length of the plank protruded from the wall frame, I had cut the excess material only after the glue had set (which is best seen on the roof part). Once both parts of the church were done (roof and building) I glued them on a stick to make the undercoating with a black sprey easier and to prevent spreying over my hands.

Making the base

With the church done, I could now make the base for the terrain. Same as in the original from 2003, I opted to make it from HD Styrofoam. Although these days I opt for the more sturdier materials for the base (like MDF), I went for the styrofoam because I wanted the extra height that 3cm thick styrofoam provides. First, I drew the church outline with a marker and then arranged all the elements according to their position to the church. Once I had all the elements in place, I drew the outline of the top side of the base and around it the bottom side. Using a scalpel blade I cut the base along the outmost line. In several steps I cut the base until I reached the inner outline of the base adding more angle to the blade with each step. Once the cutting part was done, I sanded everything using sanding paper. I also made a couple of stone boulders from leftover pieces of styrofoam and glued them to the base using PVA glue and toothpicks as pins.

5x5mm linden slat was used to make the gate to the church graveyard. Using my electric mini drill (which can be replaced by a hand-held pin vice) I pinned all the pieces together and to the base again using toothpicks as pins. Once the gate was done, I made the wobbly wooden fence from toothpicks and balsa wood planks left over from church construction. Before adding texture it was time to dryfit the two pieces together. Upon inspection I discovered several damaged places on the styrofoam that needed fixing. Had I more time, I would probably have filled those with DAS airdrying clay. However, several strips of masking tape provided a perfect quick fix.

Texturing

At this point, I was nearing the end of the construction and all that had to be done before the painting was to add texture to the base. Before doing this, take a look at the picture of the old piece taken in 2016. You will see that there is a damage to the road just on the rim of the base. I'm not sure what happened or how it got torn off, but my best guess is that the styrofoam base was not fully protected before undercoating with a sprey so it damaged the undersurface of the base and during time the stress broke off this piece. In order to prevent this (as much as possible) I decided to cover about 5mm around the edge of the underside with PVA and thus protect it from damage. While it was drying, I took out all the gravel I was to use on this project:
- chinchilla sand – smallest grain
- GF9 medium basing grit
- chinchilla sand – largest grain

Once the PVA protection was dry, I smeared more wattered-down PVA on the surface that would become the road/yard. I first sprinkled over some largest grain gravel, next I sprinkeld some GF9 Medium Basing Grit and to finish I poured over the smallest grain chinchilla sand. If you sprinkle gently and with care you can end up with nice variations in texture – for instance the middle of the dirt road usually has some larger stones as opposed to the sides of it. When the road was dry, I repeated the process with the rest of the base, sprinkling the two largest grains over the ground part and smallest grain over the boulders and graves.

Preparation while waiting

While I was waiting for the texture to dry, I made the roof tiles from finest grain sanding paper. It has nice texture when painted. I also put metal pins to the pine trees I was going to use on this terrain. The easies method of pinning metal pins to the plastic trunks of the trees is to heat the metal pin using a candle and just stick it into the trunk. The heat will melt the plastic locally. As the pin goes into the trunk it gives over heat (to the trunk that melts) and once the pin is cool it will become lodged into the trunk without any need to glue it.

Painting the base

After the texture had set, I undercoated the base using black sprey and it was time to paint the terrain. Unlike my minis, I like to use minimal/limited pallette when painting my scenery. These are the paints used during this whole project (manufacturer: Pebeo Deco):
- White (41)
- Antique White (69)
- Ash (70)
- Ochre (51)
- Brown (29)
- Grey (54)
- Black (55)

On all my scenery I use Pebeo Deco colours as I find they have just the consistency needed for quickly painting the terrain. They are quite rubbish for painting minis, mind you, as they are too thick. For terrain, however, they are perfect and their price of 3USD per 45ml bottle is well worth it. When the undercoat was dry, I painted brown all over the yard/road/graves area and just drybrushed the rest of the base. Using drybrush method (without cleaning my brush from previous paint) I applied ochre over the entire base. On the road part I added a final highlight of a mixture of ochre and antique white. Once that was done, I used black paint to pick out all the details – fence, stones, gate and when this layer was dry, I drybrushed them all with a mixture of black and grey. I highlighted it with pure grey. Now all my grey surfaces were the same, both wooden and stone. To make variation to them, I put a final highlight of pure white on the stone surfaces (stones and gravestones). I also added a highlight of ash to both the ground part of the base (without the road/yard) and the wooden parts. To end this part of painting process I decided to make hommages to two works of art very dear to me. First is the sign on the church gate that says Piety Hill in reference to Ray Anderson's work and the other is the two tombstones – one marked Arch Stanton the other marked Unmarked in reference to one of my favourite movies of all time. This being a terrain for Malifaux, I figured a reference to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly couldn't miss. All three signs I wrote using my 0,05mm micron marker (you can get those from Ebay for quite a reasonable price, and they come in several colours if you need them).

Vegetation

When I was done with painting, I glued the four pine trees to the base using PVA glue and assmbled all the vegetation I would use: tufts of flowers (found on Ebay), extra long static grass/fibres (Noch), Poison Ivy (ArmyPainter), and a wide assortment of tufts of various colours, sizes and lengths (Gamer's Grass). All these I would use on the base to hopefully get that prairie feel to the piece. Starting with the longest fibres and going to the shortest length tufts I glued each using PVA glue. In the end I added some flowers to the graves. With all the tufts glued, I still had some awkward empty places on the base so I decided to mix some static grass and glue it. I used green, pure yellow, ash and almost black green stuff to get the mixture of the right colour. When I was happy with the shade, I glued it using PVA glue once again.

Painting the church

While the flock was drying, I painted the church. I decided to go for the brownish interior and grey exterior. Inside was painted using brown, ash and antique white. Outside was painted using a mixture of black and grey, then grey and pure white as the final highlight. While this was drying I added some poison ivy to the base and proceeded to paint the bell. This element was the only one painted with paints I normally use for painting minis. Scalecolor Dwarven and Viking Gold and Vallejo Sepia Shade. When everything was painted, I added the roof to the belfry and glued the church to the base.

Adding the door that can be opened

During my build of the Malifaux modular gaming board for Figure Painter Magazine, I discovered a nifty little way to make doors that can open. Apart from a couple of linden slats and some balsa, it requires smallest (that you can find) hinges for jewlery boxes. The process of making is really easy, but you need to make sure the hinge is fixed between two plates both on the door side and on the frame side. This way, there is no (or little) chance of the door falling off during opening. Once it was done, I painted it following the process described above and when the paint was dry, I glued the whole thing to the church and the base.

Final product

The fitting of the door marked the end of the project and all that was left was for me to take it to the club to take a picture of it with it's older brother.

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We visited: Kontrast Miniature Painting Festival

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This year, our member Ivan Knezović and his brothers, Petar and Filip, (popularly called the Knezović Clan) visited the Kontrast international miniature painting competition in Poland. And this is his report.

One of the largest miniature painting competitions in the world has been taking place in Warsaw since 2021. The Knezović clan visited Kontrast for the first time in 2023. The event was great and we enjoyed almost 1500 works, many of which were made by masters at the highest artistic level. We decided to visit Warsaw again in 2025, after completing enough works to justify the 12-hour drive one way.

We came to Kontrast as a kind of UMS Agram emissaries, and we handed out flyers for Black Queen 2026 and met a number of other enthusiasts, and we hope that some of them will visit Zagreb. We also brought home the Best of Show medal for the work that impressed us the most. We awarded the UMS Agram Best of Show to Dimosthenis Xylas, a miniaturist from Athens, for his dwarf. The work impressed us with its phenomenal atmosphere, smooth transitions, the play of multiple light sources, the level of quality on each individual element, and the convincing textures of the metal. Also, we simply love dwarfs.

The number of phenomenal works was large, because in 2025 more than 1700 works were exhibited in 2 classes - Standard for beginners and hobbyists and Master for professionals and those who have already proven themselves at international competitions (everyone who won gold in Standard will compete in Master in the future).

Petar won silver in the Master in 2023 and exhibited his works in the Master in 2025, while Filip and I did not have such good results and entered our works in the Standard.

One of the works that particularly stood out was Captain Titus from the game Space Marine 2 in a huge scale, it seems to me to be 1/4. It may not be the best, but it is a work that all visitors noticed.

One of the works that impressed us was a truly enormous diorama of Khorne Chaos Space Marines vs. Ultramarines. The diorama is huge, but each model is painted to a very high standard and contains about 30 models in various sizes. It is an imitation of a famous painting depicting a battle in Warhammer 40k.

Going through every work that impressed us would make this article too long, and words convey much less than photographs. Luckily, Filip came with a very good camera, so I leave some pictures for the readers to enjoy.

Our results were beyond expectations. Petar did not return with a medal, because during the 2 years he worked mostly on orders. He painted more than 400 models, but almost all of them were orders. In 3 days he painted the Durgin Paint Forge Orca. The model is really excellent, but the competition was great. With a few more days of work he would definitely be in the running for a medal. I think he can be satisfied with his work and next time aim for a medal with 6 days of painting.

Jure Cukar, for whom we carried 3 models, won 1 silver in the Standard class.Filip won 2 silvers in the Standard class for his lizards (dioramas) and for his ambient soldier (single model up to 54 mm).

I came to Kontrast with 5 exhibits. I came back with results that I did not expect even in my most optimistic dreams, because this is a truly huge competition with numerous top artists. I entered all my works in the Standard class.

For my Midori bust, I won gold in the Standard Historical and Realism category and an award from Alternity Miniatures, the company whose bust it is a product.

For my cat Albert, I won silver in the Standard Storytelling category.

For Dwarf Lord, I won gold in the Standard category for models larger than 54 millimeters.

For my dwarf adventurers, I won gold in the Standard Diorama category, a medal from Verko's Vault (miniature museum in Las Vegas) and what I really didn't expect, Best of Standard – the award for the best work of all works in the Standard category.

Finally, and this is perhaps the greatest recognition for my work, I won silver in the Master category for my Infinity regiment. Namely, all competitors submitted their works in only one class, either Standard or Master. However, the judges reserved the possibility of moving the model from Standard to Master.

All in all, Kontrast is a great experience. I hope we will visit Warsaw again, if not in 2026 then in 2027. In the meantime, I hope our Black Queen will also visit some of the new people we met in Poland.

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Ove godine naš član Ivan Knezović je sa svojom braćom, Petrom i Filipom, (popularno nazvanima Klan Knezović) posjetio međunarodno natjecanje u bojanju minijatura Kontrast u Poljskoj. A ovo je njegov izvještaj!

Jedno od najvećih natjecanja u bojenju minijatura na svijetu odvija se u Varšavi od 2021. godine. Klan Knezović je posjetio Kontrast prvi puta 2023. godine. Događaj je bio sjajan te smo uživali u gotovo 1500 radova, od kojih su mnogi rađeni od strane majstora na najvišoj umjetničkoj razini. Odlučili smo i 2025., nakon što smo dovršili dovoljno radova da opravdamo vožnju od 12 sati u jednom smijeru ponovno posjetiti Varšavu.

Na Kontrast smo došli kao svojevrsni izaslanici UMS Agrama te smo podijelili letke za Black Queen 2026. te upoznali veći broj drugih entuzijasta te se nadamo da će neki posjetiti Zagreb. Donijeli smo i Best of Show medalju za rad koji nas se najviše dojmio. UMS Agram Best of Show dodijelili smo Dimosthenisu Xylasu, minijaturistu iz Atene za njegovog patuljka. Rad nas je dojmio fenomenalnom atmosferom, glatkim prijelazima, igrom više izvora svjetla, razinom kvalitete na svakom pojedinom elementu i uvjerljivim teksturama metala. Također, jednostavno volimo patuljke.

Broj fenomenalnih radova bio je velik, jer je 2025. bilo izloženo više od 1700 radova u 2 klase - Standard za početnike i hobiste te Master za profesionalce i one koji su se već iskazali na međunarodnim natjecanjima (svi koji su u Standardu osvojili zlato ubuduće se natječu u Masteru).

Petar je 2023. osvojio srebro u Masteru te je i 2025. izlagao radove u Masteru, a ja i Filip nismo imali tako dobre rezultate te smo svoje radove prijavili u Standard.

Od radova koji su se posebno isticali bio je kapetan Titus iz igre Space Marine 2 u ogromnoj skali, od oka čini mi se da je 1/4. Možda nije najbolji, ali je rad koji su svi posjetitelji primijetili.

Jedan od radova koji nas se dojmio je i zbilja ogromna diorama Khorne Chaos Space Marinaca protiv Ultramarinaca. Diorama je ogromna, ali svaki model pobojen je na vrlo visokoj razini te sadrži oko 30 modela u različitim veličinama. Imitacija je poznatog slikarskog prikaza bitki u Warhammeru 40k.

Proći svaki rad koji nas se dojmio oduljilo bi ovaj članak, a riječi prenose puno manje nego fotografije. Srećom, Filip je došao s vrlo dobrim foto aparatom te ostavljam neke slike za uživanje čitateljima.

Naši rezultati bili su iznad očekivanja. Petar se nije vratio s medaljom, jer je kroz 2 godine radio većinom na narudžbama. Pobojio je više od 400 modela, ali gotovo sve su bile narudžbe. U 3 dana pobojio je Durgin Paint Forge orka. Model je zbilja izvrstan, ali konkurencija je bila velika. S još nekoliko dana rada zasigurno bi ušao u konkurenciju za medalju. Mislim da može biti zadovoljan samim radom i sljedeći put ciljati na medalju sa 6 dana bojenja.

Jure Cukar, za koga smo nosili 3 modela osvojio je 1 srebro u Standard klasi. Filip je osvojio 2 srebra u Standard klasi za svoje guštere (diorama) i za svojeg ambientalnog vojnika (single model do 54 mm).

Ja sam na Kontrast došao s 5 izložaka. Vratio sam s rezultatima koje nisam očekivao niti u najoptimističnijim snovima, jer se radi o zbilja ogromnom natjecanju s brojnim vrhunskim umjetnicima. Sve svoje radove prijavio sam u Standard klasu.

Za svoju Midori bistu osvojio sam zlato u Standard Historical and Realism kategoriji te nagradu Alternity Miniaturesa, tvrtke čija je bista proizvod.

Za svojeg mačka Alberta osvojio sam srebro u Standard Storytelling kategoriji.

Za Dwarf Lorda osvojio sam zlato u Standard kategoriji za modele veće od 54 milimetra.

Za svoje patuljke avanturiste osvojio sam zlato u Standard Diorama kategoriji, medalju Verko's Vaulta (muzej minijatura u Las Vegasu) te ono što stvarno nisam očekivao, Best of Standard – nagradu za najbolji rad od svih radova u Standard kategoriji.

Na kraju, a ovo je možda najveće priznanje za moje radove, osvojio sam srebro u Master kategoriji za svoj Infinity regiment. Naime, svi natjecatelji svoje radove prijavljivali su samo u jednu klasu, ili Standard ili Master. No, suci su pridržali mogućnost pomicanja modela iz Stanarda u Master.

Sve u svemu Kontrast je sjajno iskustvo. Nadam se da ćemo ponovno posjetiti Varšavu, ako ne 2026. onda 2027. U međuvremenu, nadam se da će i naš Black Queen posjetiti i neki od novih ljudi koje smo upoznali u Poljskoj.

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Marko Paunović, 5th June 2025

Dalibor's Trip Tip: Plzen and Prag

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	A quick report because I literally had 10-15 minutes to look at this model, take pictures of it and listen to some details about the city it represents. So, if your trip brings you to Plzeň in western Bohemia, I recommend you look for this beautiful model of the old city center in a scale of 1:200. The model is approximately 2x2 meters in size and is located on the ground floor of the city hall, which is located on the main square opposite the Cathedral of St. Bartholomew.

	  

	  

	  

	Regarding our hobby, and while you're here, I believe it's also worth visiting the General Patton Museum, the Puppet Museum, and the Colors of Warriors hobby shop. Unfortunately, due to work and previously scheduled obligations, I wasn't able to see them, and therefore didn't get to take any pictures. But at least, besides the excellent beer, I have an additional reason to visit this beautiful Czech city again. So here are some more photos of the model of Plzen.

	  

	  

	And if you happen to be in Prague, be sure to visit the toy store Hračky u Zlatého lva. Yes, toys, I know. But you will enjoy classic wooden toys, dolls and metal model cars. Although it is not large by some general standards, the store is spread over 2 floors with a small note: if you are looking for transformers, WH 40k, minions and other modern wonders there, you will be quite disappointed. I was not.

	  

	  

	  

	  
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	Jedan brzinski izvještaj jer sam imao doslovno 10-15 minuta pogledati ovu maketu, poslikati ju i poslušati neke detalje o gradu kojeg predstavlja. Dakle, ako vas put dovede u Plzeň u zapadnoj Češkoj, preporučam da potražite ovi prekrasnu maketu stare gradske jezgre u mjerilu 1:200. Maketa je otprilike veličine 2x2 metra i nalazi se u prizemlju gradske uprave, a koja se nalazi na glavnom trgu nasuprot katedrale Sv. Bartolomeja.

	  

	  

	  

	Vezano uz naš hobi, a dok ste ovdje, vjerujem da se još isplati posjetiti Muzej generala Pattona, Muzej lutaka i hobby shop Colours of Warriors. Ja ih, nažalost, radi posla i ranije isplaniranih obaveza nisam uspio vidjeti, a samim time niti poslikati. Ali bar, osim izvrsnog piva, imam dodatni razlog opet posjetiti ovaj lijepi češki grad. Stoga još malo fotki makete Plzena.

	  

	  

	A ako vas put slučajno nanese u Prag, obavezno posjetiti trgovinu igračaka Hračky u Zlatého lva. Da, hrački, I know. Ali ćete zato uživati u klasičnim drvenim igračkama, lutkama i metalnim modelima autića. Iako nije velika za neke generalne pojmove trgovina se prostire na 2 etaže uz malu napomenu: ako ćete tamo tražiti transformerse, WH 40k, minione i ostala moderna čudesa prilično ćete se razočarati. Ja nisam.

	  

	  

	  

	  
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Dalibor Čavić, 4th June 2025

Miniature Painting Workshop - Kitbashing and Converting

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	U subotu i nedjelju, 17. i 18.5. održali smo novu vikend radionicu bojanja minijatura. Ovog puta tema je bilo konvertiranje i kitbashanje.

	Radionica se provodila kroz dva dana (cijeli vikend) i bila je fokusirana na izradu dvije (do tri) vlastite minijature od raznih dijelova (više različitih minijatura) uz dodatak modeliranja dijelova uz pomoć modelarskih masa (Green Stuff). Sastojala se od dva dijela, teorijskog i praktičnog dijela. Tijekom radionice polaznici su se upoznali s alatima, materijalima i tehnikama za izvođenje jednostavnih i kompleksnih konverzija, uključujući uporabu masa za modeliranje.

	

	

	

	Teorijski dio uključuje savjete za planiranje, nabavu dijelova i smisleno sklapanje personaliziranih minijatura da bi polaznici naučili izbjeći početničke greške i podigli svoje vještine na viši nivo.

	U praktičnom dijelu, uz pomoć voditelja primijenila su se stečena znanja na vlastitu konverziju.

	

	

	

	Praktični dio Radionice se odvijao na sljedeći način:

	Prvo, predavač sjedi za svojim stolom te objašnjava i demonstrira pojedini korak na svojem primjerku dok polaznici slušaju, gledaju, ali i postavljaju pitanja. Potom, polaznici sjedaju za svoje stolove i primjenjuju stečeno znanje. Predavač potom kruži između polaznika i provjerava kako svakom polazniku ide. Na taj način, može se prilagoditi svakom polazniku ponaosob.

	

	

	

	U nedjelju od 16:00 svi polaznici su dobili profesionalni feedback na urađene radove od Ane Polanšćak iz Gardens of Hecate.

	

	
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Marko Paunović, 18th May 2025

March to Hren28 week 7

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	Our team is preparing to perform at the Turnip28 tournament called H.R.E.N.28 in Slovenia in July. Ana, Mario, Domagoj, Seb and Antoni assemble their armies and paint, and we follow them on their way!

	  

	ANTONI: „As for my latest pair of Fodder models, one carries a flag and the other carries a nest on its shoulders. The flag is made from a thin piece of copper that is clamped around a brass rod, secured with superglue, and then bent to look like fabric in the wind.

	  

	The nest is made of a mixture of green stuff and milliput that I cut lines into. I put two chicken eggs from the Tamiya farm animal set inside and secured them with a drop of superglue. The other models have all sorts of new heads, from simple medieval helmets to gas cylinder caps. To make it easier to see what they are doing, most of them have candles on their caps. “

	  

	MARIO: „As an unexpected addition to my army, I found an old pipe in the apartment and decided to turn it into a cannon. I had the legs from some bird monsters on the sprue and they turned out great for the conversion. My other toadie (which is supposed to be for Brutes) is a small knight and I wanted to give him some creature to stand out on to compensate. I found a stork from Muller, added the head of the pterodactyl I found on the floor of the Sferakon, and redid the legs. There are more things on the bird coming soon, but I have to decide which ones.“

	  
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	Naša ekipa se sprema za nastup na Turnip28 turniru pod nazivom H.R.E.N.28 u Sloveniji u srpnju. Ana, Mario, Domagoj, Seb i Antoni slažu svoje vojske i farbaju, a mi ih pratimo na njihovom putu! 

	  

	ANTONI: „Što se tiče par najnovijih Fodder modela, jedan nosi zastavicu, a drugi nosi gnijezdo na ramenima. Zastavica je napravljena od tankog komada bakra koji je kliještima stisnut oko mjedenog štapića, učvršćen superljepilom te potom savijen da izgleda kao tkanina na vjetru.

	  

	Gnijezdo je napravljeno od mješavine green stuffa i milliputa u koju sam urezao crte. Unutra sam ubacio dva kokošja jaja iz Tamiya seta domaćih životinja i učvrstio ih kapljicom superljepila. Ostali su modeli dobili svakakve nove glave, od običnih srednjovjekovnih kaciga do poklopaca od plinskih boca. Kako bi bolje vidjeli što rade, većina ih ima svijeće na kapama. “

	  

	MARIO: „Kao neočekivani dodatak mojoj vojsci, našao sam staru lulu u stanu i odlučio pretvoriti ju u top. Imao sam noge od nekih ptičjih čudovišta na sprue-u i ispale su super za konverziju. Moj drugi toadie (koji bi trebao biti za Brutes) je mali vitez i želio sam mu dati neko biće na kojem će se istaknuti za kompenzaciju. Našao sam rodu iz Mullera, dodao glavu pterodaktila kojeg sam našao na podu Sferakona i prepravio noge. Uskoro dolazi još stvari na pticu, ali se moram odlučiti koje.“

	  
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Antoni Pastuović, 18th May 2025

Scratchbuilding Star Wars Crates

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	In this article I’ll explain how I scratchbuild crates for the Star Wars Universe, to use on bases or in dioramas. It’s pretty simple and fun, and the required tools and barrier to entry is really low. These are the tools and materials I have at my disposal when I start the build.

	  

	My materials are two polystyrene sheets of different thicknesses. I choose the 1mm and the 0.25mm for this build, as well as square tubes of polystyrene 7.9mm X 7.9mm and a ruler. These are produced by Evergreen, and are widely available in hobby stores around the world. The tools I use are plastic cement (preferably with a brush), a hobby knife and a nail file.

	  

	I cut off a tip of the square tube, trying to make the length as equal to the width as possible, so 7.9mm. Now I have a cube.

	  

	Then I cut out smaller details for panels and parts (called greeblies in Star Wars lingo) from both the thinner and the thicker polystyrene sheets. Here I cut out as many as possible, to give myself options when assembling the crates.

	  

	An important aesthetic detail of the Star Wars universe is notches, and so I cut notches into several of my panels, like in this illustration.

	Another stylistic factor of SW is that very few things are symmetrical. So I chose to make all sides of my crates different, varying the panelling and details, using both thick and thin polystyrene for variation in depth. Here are some examples of different sides of my crates.

	  

	The larger crate is created only using the polystyrene sheets, and not from the square tube. So I measured and cut out five equal sides (the bottom is open) of the 1mm thick polystyrene and glued them together to form a cube. I used the thinner polystyrene to cut out and create lids for all my crates as well. Everything is glued together using plastic cement which creates a strong bond relatively fast by melting the plastics together. Because of this I now have sturdy crates that I can then use the nail file to polish and clean up - making sure all sides of the bigger crate are flush, that all crates are flat at the bottom, and file down all the hard corners of the crates into more rounded shapes.

	  

	I test out the placement of the crates on my base, and make sure the scale works, before I finish the base.

	  
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	U ovom ću članku objasniti kako izrađujem sanduke za Star Wars svemir, za korištenje na bazama ili u dioramama. Prilično je jednostavno i zabavno, a potrebni alati i prepreka za ulazak su stvarno niski. Ovo su alati i materijali koje imam na raspolaganju kada počnem graditi.

	  

	Moji materijali su dvije polistirenske ploče različitih debljina. Odabrao sam 1 mm i 0,25 mm za ovu konstrukciju, kao i kvadratne cijevi od polistirena 7,9 mm X 7,9 mm i ravnalo. Njih proizvodi Evergreen i dostupni su u hobi trgovinama diljem svijeta. Alati koje koristim su plastični cement (po mogućnosti s četkom), hobi nož i turpija za nokte.

	  

	Odrezao sam vrh četvrtaste cijevi, pokušavajući da duljina bude što jednaka širini, dakle 7,9 mm. Sada imam kocku.

	  

	Zatim sam izrezao manje detalje za panele i dijelove (koji se u žargonu Ratova zvijezda nazivaju greeblies) i od tanjih i od debljih polistirenskih ploča. Ovdje sam izrezao što je više moguće, kako bih imao mogućnosti pri sastavljanju sanduka.

	  

	Važan estetski detalj Star Wars svemira su urezi, pa sam izrezao ureze u nekoliko svojih ploča, kao na ovoj ilustraciji.

	Još jedan stilski faktor SW-a je da je vrlo malo stvari simetrično. Stoga sam odlučio napraviti različite strane svojih sanduka, mijenjajući obloge i detalje, koristeći debeli i tanki polistiren za varijacije u dubini. Evo nekoliko primjera različitih strana mojih sanduka.

	  

	Veći sanduk izrađen je samo od polistirenskih ploča, a ne od četvrtaste cijevi. Tako sam izmjerio i izrezao pet jednakih stranica (dno je otvoreno) polistirena debljine 1 mm i zalijepio ih da formiraju kocku. Koristio sam tanji polistiren za izrezivanje i izradu poklopaca za sve svoje sanduke. Sve je zalijepljeno plastičnim cementom koji relativno brzo stvara čvrstu vezu topljenjem plastike. Zbog toga sada imam čvrste sanduke koje zatim mogu upotrijebiti turpiju za poliranje i čišćenje - pazeći da su sve strane većeg sanduka u ravnini, da su sve sanduke ravne na dnu i isturpijam sve tvrde kutove sanduka u zaobljenije oblike.

	  

	Prije nego što dovršim bazu, testiram položaj sanduka na svojoj bazi i uvjeravam se da vaga radi.

	  
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Sebastian Søgård, 12nd May 2025

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