Before I was rudely interrupted by Undead Pirates I was showing you some pictures of the games and the goodies at the Foundry ACW Open Day. Today I’ve got some other pictures for you.

As well as cheap goodies and fun games, the Foundry guys had some terrain boards being built to show the techniques they use to get the boards being used in the demos.

Look closely and you can see all sorts. The near three 2×2 boards on the left are part of an ever-increasing coastline that Matt is making for his favourite Napoleonic battle of Quiberon. No, I hadn’t heard of it before either. In the background you can see the Google Maps printout with the boards drawn on. Wouldn’t want any inaccuracy to creep in now, would we? The photos at the front are of the same place. On-site spies as well as orbital surveillance. Now that’s dedication for you!

What’s instructive here is the amount of random rubbish that gets incorporated into the underpinnings of the nice finish. These boards include wooden battens, bits of old ceiling tile, polystyrene packaging, stapled down cardboard, hardboard, blue foam and more. And that’s before he even starts on the ground level or the water.

On the far side of the table are two boards that make up a gorge, partly painted in dark grey as a base coat. Here’s another picture to give you a better view.

It looks like it’ll be a fun piece of rough ground for a skirmish when it’s done. This is where they mean when they say “head them off at the pass”.

Another fun thing you can see if you visit Foundry is their cabinets.

Great photo, eh? Didn’t think so. Mirrored back, all artificial light and an idiot driving the camera do not combine for world class results. Still, there’s intriguing stuff in these cabinets, because that’s where the staff usually put things when they come back from the painters. That is when they come back painted, but before they’re released, so you never know what you’ll find.

Which brings me to a really good point about Foundry. We all know the frustration of looking on an online store and finding just a listing for a model. Is it good? Is it bad? How would we know? Well Foundry don’t like this and are pretty close to their aim of having a picture of everything they make online, and they aren’t content with putting any old photo on either: they want one of every model painted. Everyone should aim for this. At least, everyone should aim to have at least a photograph of all their models on their website. And size of range is not an excuse. Go and look at Foundry’s range: it’s absolutely enormous, and lots bigger then most other companies out there. If they can do it…

I did get a couple more vaguely usable photos of the cabinet, mostly fantasy stuff as it’s my current theme.

The trolls sploshing out of the water are conversions they did for a participation game at the last open day a couple of months ago. Goblins and Trolls were storming up a beach at fortifications held by Dwarfs. Trolls were throwing Goblins about on hang gliders like paper darts. It was all very silly, and an amusing change from the usual. The shelf above seems to be mostly populated by Dwarfs, though Ramesses’ chariot has snuck in there too. The shelves are often mixed like this as there is no way of knowing when individual figure painters are going to send finished work in.

More varied shelves below. Again, apologies for the rubbish quality. Slightly confusing if you look closely, as the lower shelf with the Trolls on has been moved between the photos above and below. They were sticking more models out as I was there. Lots of Dwarfs, hippos, Skeleton cavalry, and the bottom shelf full of unreleased (I think) Italian Wars mercenaries for an upcoming game.

I could go on, but you get my drift. They do these open days pretty frequently, so you just need to keep an eye out or (for the lazy) sign up to their newsletter and they’ll remind you. That’s what I do. In these days of the internet it’s easier to order everything online, but I’m old fashioned and like to rattle a blister before I buy when I can. It’s a dying art.

Finally, just for elromanozo, here’s a photo of the paints I picked up, carefully inverted so you can see the colours.

The pack on the right and the ones above it are some of the many skin shades Foundry makes. The rest are WWII colours. See what I mean about nicely muted browns and greens? Like I said, these are being discontinued, but the flesh tones all remain as do loads more.