World war 2 Terrain

 Its been an interested month.  I've half-painted about 30 figures and assembled some french cavalry but I've been Pretty unmotivated about actually finishing anything. this past weekend I was looking in a box and I found a 4Ground Polish Rural Dwelling model, and a pack of 4Ground Yard Panel fencing with Gates.  both of these will work well for eastern front terrain so i decided to get them assembled and based up. I also had a pack of Wizkids Deep Cuts log piles, that I tossed into the pile to work on.

4Ground Polish Rural Dwelling with
scratch-built fence

I built a wooden fence using 2 types of balsa wood(posts and planks) and  matchsticks(crossbeams).  i used a steel wire brush to accentuate the wood texture.  the building kit came with fur for thethatch roof.  I soaked it in PVA to harden it and then I highlighted it with light cream colour. i then applied patches of GW Agrax Earthshade wash(brown) and Athonian Camoshade( green-brown) wash to mottle the colour a bit.  I also added a pile of stacked wood from the deep cuts pack to one of the walls on the opposite side of the base from the fence, and added a trio of matchsticks to the peak of the roof to cover up the seam of where the teddy bear fur pieces meet. Otherwise the building is unmodified, other then some Scenic Express  Super Turf  texture foliage around the base to make it look less like a building glued to a piece of HDF.

4Ground Polish Rural Dwelling internal detail.

 this kit is well designed and is much nicer looking then some of 4Grounds early, more simplistic looking buildings. the interior has a nice stove/fireplace and the front door opens and closes. it also comes with matte board blue shudders.

Wizkids Deep Cuts Wood Piles(3). I fixed the
stacked woodpile to the building.

I left the remaining 2 wood piles lose so they can be placed as needed. they aren't big enough to affect anything so they are just around to add some character to tables. still they are nice and not hugely oversized like some end up being. the Wizkids Deep Cuts line is as always wonderful. 

4Ground Yard Panel fences with Gates.

 

The Yard Panel fencing is nice looking and easy to put together, but badly designed.  They have the fence panels situated along one edge of the base, with no overlapping bit to improve stability. As a result if left unmodified, they fall over if you breath a little too heavily.

lower angle of 4ground fences for height comparison

As you can see below, I added some pebbles I have kicking around to help counterbalance them. this makes the fence sections much more stable. the fences are tall enough to lock infantry LOS, and give concealment to even large-ish tanks. I didn't check but it may actually completely block a 1/56th BT-7 or T-26.

Rear view to display rocks needed for stability.

If anyone is interested in what makes the models i used for size comparison, the tank is an Army Group North Miniatures T-28 medium tank, the infantry in front of the panel fences are Crusader Miniatures  Soviets, and the soviet infantry inside the fences are 1 each of The Assault Group and Black Tree designs.  the AT gun on the building base is a 47mm at gun I got from AGNMiniatures (old force of arms model?) with crew from Warlord Games and Black Tree Designs.

Given my fickleness with painting, I'm now aiming to have at least one new post a month. if I'm in the painting mood, I'll post more often. when the mood strikes me I paint a ton, so I'm sure I will end up with a good deal more then 12 posts in 2021. But i think otherwise that is a more reasonable way to ensure I get some progress done on something regularly.

Pandmic Projects 4: Terrain Making and Casting

 I've had a few terrain projects dangling near-finished for a while, but I lacked the motivation to get the over the finish line.  some like gun position has been sitting around needing to be grassed for 9 months. others like the walls have only been sitting idle for 2 or 3 months. then there is the bridge, which I bought at HotLead(I think?) in Ontario 6 years ago, before i moved to Edmonton.either way i decided i needed to get some  finished.


The bridge was a great find.  I bought it at the HotLead fleamarket 6 or 7 years ago, broken in two.  I knew I could pin it and fix it, and more importantly, it fits 50x50mm bases perfectly! it also happens to fit my river system well.  it also painted up really nice.

It had broken right at the middle point to the side of the central arch stone. I pined it in 4 places for extra strength.

Side shot of bridge

 

50x50mm bases fit perfectly!

 Next is gun position. I built this a year ago as a test bed for some techniques in making wood texture. it was a general success. I used Renedra wattle fencing and gabions, but I intent to make my own for future projects.  in the future I'll probably also make the walls higher. they came out a little lower then I'd want.

The texture on hte wood planks was created by "scrubbing" the wood with a wire brush. The wood used was basswood.

Position occupied by Napoleonic British guns

Lower angle to show the height of the position walls.

Reverse angle. Note the texture on the planks.

 

This wall project started both because I wanted some more walls, but also because I wanted to try my hand at casting in 2-part self-skinning polyurethane expanding foam.  i started by making some dry stone walls. I had to modify how i cast them, but they ended up working ok.  there are some bubbles because I don't have a vacuum chamber I can't really do much about it. Note on the drystone walls the moss/vines on the walls furthest from the camera. I did that to cover up places where walls were damaged coming out of the mold the first few times. the skin would separate from the foam. I managed to solve the issue after a few castings.  Each wall section is 6 inches long. for this set, i have a single straight wall, one with a gate, and one with a corner on the end like the old GW stone walls.

the 3 unique lengths of wall.

A three sided paddock defended by the Buffs

From a lower angle so you can see the height

 

The second set of walls is more of an attempt to replace my old GW fantasy stone walls. you can't get them anymore, and they are slowly breaking.  I built these out of individual styrofoam blocks textured with a foil ball. the blocks are on average under half the size of the massive 200lb blocks the GW ones are apparently made out of. I also varied the block size a bit more. So there are some that are very small and some that are almost the size of the GW ones, near the bottom usually.  I built two unique straight sections, one section with a corner, and one with a gateway/opening. I've seen these style of opening in several pictures of similar style old stone walls.

These cast nicer then the dry stone walls. I thin there are less extreme changes in topograghy for air to get stuck in. there are still air bubbles but they are generally less noticeable.

the four unique sections of wall

Three of the master walls shown with a GW
Fantasy stone wall for comparison

From a lower angle so you can see the height

And finally, a well I bought on Friday this well is from the Wizkids "Deep Cuts" line of scatter terrain and accessories.  They are cheap ($6.95 CDN, or about $5 USD) and are full of detail. This one came with a little water insert that pops out easily.  good 28mm wells aren't easy to find so I'm glad I got this one for really cheap.

Deep Cuts well with water insert out

Well with water insert in

As some of you might have noticed, I'm trying to update once every week or two now. we'll see how long that lasts.  being unemployed certainly makes finding the time a bit easier.  Its also nice to have some Motivation to paint. The lack of historical gamers in Edmonton combined with lack of gaming during the pandemic had certainly taken its toll.

Cheers!

Making a Mat Part 2

So today I knocked the flock off the mat.  I decided I should really spray down the mat with Dollar store Extra Hold hair spray.  It's a fairly common cheap way of keeping the grass on a large scenic base or, in this case, mat.  The down side is that 2 hours after spraying the entire thing down, my basement still smells of hairspray...

Anyway, so here are the picks taken after I banged off the flock and sprayed it down with cheap hairspray.

Close up of a denser area of Grass

Close up of a Sparser area of Grass

 Then I set up a bit of a table for Napoleonics, to see how it looks. I think it turned out pretty well. here are some pics.

I'm satisfied with out it turned out.

 Someone on commenting yesterday's post mentioned ironing the cloth before hand. I wish I had thought of that before  beginning, as either are 1 or 2 places where the sheet was folded  that are visible.

In the future if I make another one, I think I'll stay away from the drop cloths. they have thick seams tunning down the middle where they joined 2 pieces.  these were a bit hard to hide.  I figure that if I time it right I can get a piece of 5 foot wide canvas (or similar material) that has no seams and requires no ironing for maybe $10-ish  more.

so that is one more project out of the way. I look forward to getting a few guys over for a game!

Making a Terrain Mat

Since I moved to Edmonton last fall, I haven't done much Historical gaming.  Part of this is the group that is here, but part of it was also a combination of my looking to do something different.  However, my favourite period is Napoleonics, and I like big games.  I had the table space but  I did not have a larege enough game mat to  play a big Napoleonic game.

I set out to make myself a 12x5' game mat to host big napoleonics on.  my biggest hurdle was getting the scenic grass i wanted.  I Picked up a shaker of Scenic Express EX881 Summer Grass blend  "flock and Turf"  last spring while i was at Cold Wars .  the stuff is a mixture of coarseness's   of flock and turf  but the green is a nice bright green like the original GW Static grass.   it's really nice looking. 

the problem with scenic Express Products is they are not distributed in Canada, nor does scenic express apparently ship here either.  while searching the internet i found a website called Model Train Stuff  which sells scenic express Products.   I ordered 4 "Eco"bags of 48oz grass.  their estimated shipping time was 2+ weeks, but it arrived in less then 10 days!  The service was good, they let me know when it shipped and provided a tracking number.  I'll definitely consider buying stuff from them again.

anyway, I also bought myself a new Phone, which i used to take the pics of the mat making process. but before I began I wanted to test it's usefulness at taking pictures of miniatures, so i stepped over to my display case and took a single shot of my small ECW collection, and this was the result (of one try only). I was quite satisfied.

The earl of Essex and company. all Warlord Games figures.

anyway, on to hte mat making.  I decided to go with a process i have raed about of several blogs and post on The Miniatures Page.  you take a peice of cloth (in this case a Canvas Dropcloth form home Depot) and coat it with a combination of Acrylic Caulk with latex, Latex paint, and some sand.  then before it dries you cover it in teh flock/grass and pat it down.

Here is a lsit of everything i used:

4x48 oz  Scenic Express "Flock and Turf" Summer Grass Blend (plus shaker I had around, $60)
12x 300ml DAP Alex caulk( a contractor pack, $25)
1x 1 gallon of CIL flat brown paint( $30)
1x Everbilt 12x9' canvas Dropcloth($36)
1x 5 gallon orange Home Depot Bucket.($4)
4x handfuls of concrete sand
1x random piece of plastic from  window blinds i found in the back room(to stir, Free)


Total cost in Materials was $155 CDN.

I did not include the sand because i didn't use much (4 handfuls?)  and it's from a 10KG bag of concrete sand i bought like 8 years ago for another project.  but a bag of the sand will run you about 10-15 bucks.

I doubt you could by a 12x5 mat for that price.

Matierials

first i laid out the dropcloth on my table, and cut it down to a little over 5 feet wide.  the Cloth is actually  about 3 inches short of 12 feet.

Cloth laid out and cut to size

Next I grabbed my caulking Gun and squeezed all 12 caulking tubes into the bucket.

Empty caulking tubes(right) and their former contents(left)

I then added a little less tehn half a gallon of the Brown paint and started Mixing.  I added 4 hand fulls of sand, one at a time, after teh caulking and paint ad been thoroughly mixed.

Mixed caulking, paint and sand.

Using a pair of Latex Gloves, i  spread the mixture over the dropcloth by hand. if you put it on too thin you see the texture of the canvas.  but it doesn't need to be really thick either. the dropcloth had some seams in it is i made it thicker around those to help hid them.

Mat partially grassed.

I then began sprinkling the grass on the mat by hand.  I didn't want full coverage, but at the same time i don't want a lot of the caulk and sand to show through, since it won't be dry brushed or have any depth. but you still want some showing through.

the Mat fully grassed

the total time from laying out the cloth to finishing the grassing was about 2.5 hours.

I'm pretty pleased with the results so-far.  The mat is still drying as i write this, so I'll post again when the mat is dry and i can get some closeups of the final result.

A Spanish Treat

this past Sunday  our gaming group got together and enjoyed some Carlist wars using Field of Battle(unmodified).

I Scratch build all the terrain over the last few years, and Dave Hoyt supplied the marvelous Miniatures. Perry and Blaze Away miniatures are the manufacturers.

Dave ran the Carlist forces solo, while Jon and I ran the Isabelinos.   Jon had the 2nd and 4rd(cavalry) brigades on the right flank, and I had the 1st and 4th(international) brigade on the left flank, in the town.

the international brigade(British expedition plus french foreign legion) reinforced by a battalion of the  1st brigade secured the bulk of the town early.  one of the British battalions hastily rushed down the main street into an artillery  barrage and was routed, but quickly recovered.  they cleared the way to the British rifles to pin down the artillery and ultimately were responsible for its demise.

Meanwhile the right flank started out good for the Isabelinos, but quickly started to spiral out of control.  the other half of my 1st brigade was badly mauled. and Jon lost 2 of the 3 battalions in his infantry brigade, with only the guard remaining.  only the cavalry held their own.

fortunately while that happened, the international brigade finally broke through in the town, flanking the crack Carlist brigade and routing them. although it took rather more flank engagements then I was expecting to do so. one of Dave's crack battalions took 3 flank attacks before routing.

All in all a good game was had by all.  the game wrapped up in about 2.5-3 hours.

I also had my Warbases delivered  as well as an extension of  the current commission i'm working on.  expect to see some Fife and drum militia on the blog in the not so distant future.

ACW Buildings for Martin

At out last game day Martin gave me a pair of buildings to base up for him. It seems I have convinced him that buildings look good with bases.

 The church was painted presumably by martin(or possibly bought painted). the clap board manor was painted by me earlier in the year. both buildings are made by Hovels.

The fences, gravestones and raven/crow are all Renedra plastic offerings. trees are Woodland Scenics.

I had wanted to make the buildings easily removable for storage, but hovels are cast in one piece, and are either solid castings or hollow with extremely irregular inside edges making it hard to do so.  i may revisit them at a later date to see what else i can do.

Hotlead AAR and New goodies

Hotlead wrapped up last Sunday.  it was a good con this year. according the the Con Chairman's AAR, the con saw a rise in games to 70, from about 55ish last year. the Bring and Buy did around 18000 in sales, which means the Con's cut of 1800 will be donated to charities(Scouts and cadet groups in the con's region.).  Sunday as especially surprising.  I've never seen a convention so busy  on a Sunday!  here is a link for Jame's Manto's AAR for more detailed breakdown and pics!

Martin making a deal while i give James(behind the camera)
2 thumbs up!

  I went up with J&M miniatures and helped out at the booth most of the weekend.  they also had a good weekend from the looks of it.   James and Martin attribute it to being present all 3 days, and having a better selection of merchandise.

Overhead view of my Con Game: The battle of Kulm.

My napoleonic game went quite well.  despite the previous table users taking up about half my setup period taking down there, and the resulting late start. we finished the game in 2.5 hours.  pretty good, considering the game involved 600 infantry 128 cavalry and 27 guns on the table with 8 players.  the Russians/Austrians won but just barely. i was a little bit worried initially as the french took a beating initially, but they came back to almost even up the army morale chits before finally succumbing to the allied onslaught.  Thanks go out to Mike Garner and Jon Holmes for helping me GM the game. the pics below are courtesy of Mike Garner, as I completely forgot to take pictures(as usual)

 

finally my favourite part, the spoils.  as seen below i picked up a great deal of terrain as the majority of  purchases over the weekend(all 28mm where aplicable). I bought  from 4ground an ECW/renaissance Cottage and shop, a Saxon/Medieval dwelling, a water cart, and 3 packs of walls. I also picked up anther box of Perry Napoleonic Russians(still need one more to finish off the 26th division)  a box of Wargames factory Viking Huscarls, and a copy of Dux Britnarium.  I also picked up a broken resin bridge for really cheap, and finally took delivery of an army group north KV with 3 turrets to make KV1/40, /42, and KV2.  this was bought 3 years ago, but has been sitting in our friends basement ever since.  There is also a bag of loose GW LOTR miniatures. 5 metal war riders including Sharku, and 25 odd metal dwarf warriors and bowman. Not pictured are the Xwing purchases of the  Imperial aces box, an Awing, a TIE advanced, and a HWK-290.

 the 4ground walls seem like they are expensive, but these 3 packs got me enough walls to do an 18x18" walled area with 2 gates, and even  destroyed wall ends if I so choose.  I paid 40 dollars for them, and the closest comparable product is something like Acheson Creations wattle and timber set which is a 12x9 area for the same price. and they are rather nice walls too.

close up of 4ground wall corners which are really nice.

Incidentally, I have some 28mm TAG Iraqis for sale that I did not sell at Hotlead.  there are 4 groups of 8 iraqi regulars, 2 groups of 8 republican guard(in the 3 tone camo)1 group of 4 snipers and command,  and 4 groups of 8 fedayeen. I'm selling these at $40USD per group of 8 + shipping. if you are  interested  email me at crucible_orc*AT*sympatico*DOT*ca