Tag: Scarecrow Girl

Several upcoming wargame conventions are looming on my horizon, so I needed to get going on adding some new terrain and game markers for my Wars of Ozz  games. I will be posting about these three parts for ease of reading. I have been (as you will see) very engaged with multiple terrain projects. Luckily, I was able to get all of them completed in early January after finishing my brigade of Pollywomps. At Christmas, I received several cool gifts that would be useful to convert or build as terrain pieces. This post will cover the first one I finished, a Scarecrow Girl statue.

My wife Lynn saw a 3″ tall resin figurine of a scarecrow girl at the Dollar Store – and got it for me. It was factory-painted. When I saw it, ideas in my brain began to churn. I thought with the statue’s size she would make a nice centerpiece as a statue. I’ll share how I worked on it and then some shots of the finished product.

WIP Shots of the Project

My plan was to build the terrain piece as a metal statue on a granite plinth. I had various plastic bases that I had not been using – and I selected one that was not originally even designed as a base for figures. It was probably came from something household-like that I assembled years ago and came as an extra piece. I saved it as I thought someday I could use it. I sanded off its shiny surface for better primer adhesion. Also, I had saved a plastic lid from a Tropicana orange juice bottle that had a nice shapes on its outside surface. Lastly, I added a heavy large steel fender washer underneath the plastic base for stability and adhesion to a magnetic sheet in a storage box.

The steel washer was glued to the underside of the plastic base. I primed the lid and base all black, except where I was to glue the lid to the base, and let that cure. Then I affixed the lid to the base with PVA and let that set up.

For the figure, I just overlaid the factory paint with gold paint in a dry-brushing fashion. Then I built out the Scarecrow Girl’s base with enough green stuff that it would cover the “Tropicana” logo. to do that, I had cut a piece of card stock to determine the size and shape that I would need to obscure the logo. After gluing that card stock to the statue, it was a lot easier to shape the green stuff perfectly.

I washed the statue down with a metal wash to give better definition. and added another dry-brush application of gold.

Then, I started to dry-bush the plinth to look like stone, but I saw that it had a small gap underneath. The steel washer was just thick enough to make the plinth seem to hover over the ground. I visited Michael’s store for inspiration, and saw a rope for decorative hobby projects – and voila – solution!

I cut the rope such that it would be the same circumference as the plinth. I then massively saturated the rope and where it touched the plinth with PVA glue. I drove the ends of the rope together where they met with a combination of toothpicks and small-gauge steel needles, and let it dry – hoping that approach would work.

It worked well as you can see below. All I needed to do was remove the needles and clip off the toothpicks flush with the rope.

I had also tried to use toothpicks underneath as “bridges” to hold the rope ends together. PVA is great here as the rope and toothpicks are porous enough to make great bonds.

Then I glued the statue to the plinth. Having previously applied the card stock that the green stuff rested on to the underside of the statue – I got a great bond to the plinth with PVA.

I used a different (darker) metallic gold color on the rope to simulate it as part of the entire work, then applied a dark wash. Lastly, I decided that there would be a “garden of guardian mushrooms” protecting here around the plinth. I did not paint them as this would allow me to treat the little guys as either carved or anthropomorphic!

I of course had to show my lovely bride how much I appreciated her gift and what I had done with it! I think she liked it.

Eye Candy and a Video

And the video:

And here is the Instagram version:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mark Morin (@markamorin84)

In the video I mention that I did not have a game for it – well, I decided that she will be the centerpiece on the tabletop for my “Wars of Ozz – Battle for the Magic Mushrooms & the Ancient Crystals of Power” game, described as follows:

The world of Ozz is nothing if not magical – and there are many talismans & powerful weapons that spring up everywhere.  In a remote section of Ozz, a wonderful magical find of a field of Magic Mushrooms near some rare Crystals of Power – has led to an Ozzian “Gold Rush”.  Here, several Ozzian nations are scrambling to take seize & control of them.  Factions have teamed up & are ready to fight to get these valuable resources and deny their capture by their enemies, but what will happen? 

Here is the flyer for that game – and you can see some game markers that will be fully shared in part 3 of this series.

Thanks for looking – this was a fun change of pace. It also qualifies for Dave Stone’s annual “Paint What You Got Challenge”. It’s a fun and global challenge to paint up figures between Christmas and the end of February, check it out!

I’d be interested in hearing your feedback on this – thanks in advance for any sharing!

And part 2 in this series will be coming soon…

Final Note

While this figure is NOT official, if you do want to check out the excellent Wars of Ozz figures’ range – there are two places to get them and to get the rules (and I make no money from this). The game rules and the figures are available from the next two places:

In the US Old Glory has a site – Wars of Ozz Miniatures.

In the UK go to Sally 4th.

And the new Wars of Ozz Supplement is available as a PDF download from the following two websites:

• Drive thru Cards
• Wargame Vault

Below you’ll see the list of paints and the like that I used on these – and they are more useful for me when I need to recreate a color scheme in the future than maybe you – but in any case that’s why I post them.

Miscellaneous details and references for those interested in that sort of thing:

For all of my earlier posts on Wars of Ozz games, figures, units, and other related projects – please see this page.

PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON THIS SCARECROW GIRL STATUE:

1. Ashland “Scarecrow Girl Mini Decoration” statue
2. Black plastic disk
3. Plastic Tropicana Orange Juice lid
4. 2″ Square War Games Accessories Steel Bases (21)
5. PVA Glue
6. Card stock
7. Green stuff
8. Ashland 7mm Rope Cord
9. Vallejo Surface Primer “German Panzer Grey”
10. Citadel “Liberator Gold”
11. Citadel “Retributor Armour”
12. Citadel “Cryptek Armourshade” (wash)
13. Americana “Slate Gray”
14. Toothpicks
15. Secret Weapon Washes “Stone”
16. Citadel “Slaneesh Grey”
17. AK Terrains Diorama Series “Muddy Ground” (texture/basing paste)
18. Mini Mushrooms from GDZRDFLH