Heading to the Hills - 5

I got a modicum more work done on the hills. The paint worked well, so much so I don't think it needs another coat. One problem that did arise was due to the presence of a number of shallow cuts on the top surfaces of the foam, leftovers from the manufacturing process. I thought a coat of paint would conceal these, but instead it only enhanced them. A coat of diluted glue scattered with sand fixed the problem.

On to the next stage then, creating the groundwork on the talus slope.

I used diluted Aileen's glue scattered with sand to get the effect of small stones/gravel/chippings that had fallen from the cliff faces. The larger 'stones' are coffee grounds glued in place next once the first had dried. I placed these on the lower parts of the slopes where heavier stones would roll naturally. The glue should hold the stuff in place, but I'll give it a wash of paint to seal it all down.

I'm now thinking in terms of giving the lot a good wash with a diluted darker shade of brown then picking out different earthen colours by dry-brushing. We'll see what works.

Heading to the Hills - 4

The brutish construction work on the hills is complete. I'd originally intended for the slopes up to the plateaux to be suggestive of points of access rather than pieces figures can stand on. After a bit of thought I decided to go with functional slopes after all as they'd add to the effect during gaming. The bases are corrugated card as I can't find a source of thin MDF/Masonite around here. Once I do get hold of some I'll fix the hills to it, but until then card will have to do.

I cut the bases to leave plenty of wriggle room for me to fix the talus slopes in place. Once I'd got these how I liked them I trimmed the card down to reduce the footprint for each hill. It's a bright if cool afternoon today, so I took advantage of it to slap the first coat of paint on the pieces.

The paint I used is a rather thin watery variety of latex satin paint. As a household paint it's definitely under par, but it works just fine for getting into the cracks and crevices. I'll leave the hills to dry thoroughly overnight before the next coat goes on tomorrow. After that I'll work on ways to vary the colours and shading to get an effect something like the rocky terrain of Wadi Rumm, Jordan, although not quite as severe weathering.

This spectacular landscape was where Lawrence of Arabia campaigned, and the historical location was used by David Lean to film the movie. Now, I have the movie out on library loan at the moment, and I am also reading a great deal about the campaigns in the Middle East in the Great War and the years up to 1924. There's a lot of potential for gaming the period, and these hills will suit the terrain. It's too tempting for words...

More photos of the work in progress to follow.

Heading to the Hills - 3

Time for another go at the hills, with the beginnings of the talus slopes at the foot of the cliffs.

The first stage is to hot-glue a row of triangular pieces of corrugated card to form the general shape of the slope. Apart from the odd wince when I accidentally touched molten glue spots, this stage passed without damage to life and limb. 

The next stage is to glue strips of paper onto the triangles. I aim to glue two layers overall using Aileen's tacky glue to get resilience without too much weight. It's a bit time-consuming. Aileen's is a type of PVA but it lacks something of its water-solubility. Given my druthers I would prefer PVA for this job as it soaks into paper that much better.

Next up will be the painting stage. I intend to make a watery mix of ordinary household latex beige paint and daub it all over the pieces to try and fill as many gaps, cracks and divots as possible. It will also stiffen the paper as well. It's inevitable that some bubbles will stop the paint from sticking in the deeper parts, so the job will require two or three goes-around before the pieces are entirely covered. Luckily the weather here in NW Ohio is lovely right now, so the painting can be done outdoors where it'll also dry quicker.

Heading to the Hills - 2

A bit more progress on the new hills today...

I'm making them in the form of stepped hills with the type of heavy stratification found in some part of Earth...

...and, for Victorian SF games, Mars!

The photo below shows the kind of look I'm going for. The ramps on these two pieces probably won't take a figure, but they're really intended to give the impression the upper surface is accessible. Hot glue worked just fine for fixing these in place, so it went quicker and easier than expected.

The next stage is to make the layers of stratification. One way is to use a Stanley knife, but I got good results with a stiff wire brush. Top - knife, bottom - brush.

I'm toying with the idea of gluing pieces of thin corrugated card on the tops of the uppermost levels to represent eroded layers of rock. It'll break up the uniformly flat surfaces without being too much of a hindrance to standing figures on. Another feature will be the talus slope at the foot of the cliffs. Obviously I don't want to make these pieces with too large a footprint, but I feel representing this debris will make the whole look better. I've got a couple of ideas in mind, and will experiment to see which works best.

Heading to the Hills - 1

I see it's been a while since I last posted here. Work, weather, gardening and politics tend to interfere with the best-laid plans. Eventually one fine afternoon comes along when I can turn my attention to a project I've had in mind for a while - hills. Specifically hills for Darkest Africa gaming.

A few weeks ago I came across three nice pieces of pink foam at our local Habitat for Humanity store. They're a useful size to make a number of hills out of, and I marked them out with a Sharpie to get an idea of how large the hills could be and which shape would suit.

 

A few minutes' work with a carving knife bought from a local charity shop later... 

 

 

For the sake of domestic harmony it's best to do this outside where the mess won't matter. Needless to say I didn't inform my wife I was going to cut these. She hasn't trusted me with sharp and/or pointed objects since I cut a chunk out of my thumb a few weeks ago. Mind you, that happened while washing-up. Men, take note - Washing-up is dangerous! Don't do it! ;)

I had a number of off-cuts from this part of the process which will be put to use in the next stage. I'll glue them to the blank faces of the hill sides to give a more irregular appearance. A combination of hot glue to hold them in place and Aileen's tacky glue for strength will see these stuck firm enough to work with while the Aileen's is drying.

 

What I am aiming at is something not a million miles away from the wonderful result displayed by Rob Hawkins on his blog.

Dug in

A coat of paint, a spot of dry-brushing and the two trench sections are finished.

The beastly boys of the BUF man the trenches, ready to defend the position to the last man and the last bullet - or teatime, whichever comes first.

BUF command hunkers down in the trench where it's safe-ish.

Digging in

Right, it's been a busy week, but I've shaken off the cold and taken a break from work for a while to crack on with some wargames terrain pieces.

I intend to fight the final battle of the VBCW Bury St. Edmunds campaign, and looked over the army lists for this hypothetical period. One option defenders may chose are trenches for a team or section. They can be deployed as part of the scenario set-up or chosen as a support option from the lists. Either way, I realized I didn't have any trench pieces for this (or any other) scale - so I had jolly well better make some!

I began with a basic shallow box made from craft sticks and 'tongue depressors.' Gluing them to a card base, I made a series of triangular pieces from corrugated card and glued them close together to form the foundations for the sloping sides of the earthwork. Lengths of cartridge paper glued along this made the slope itself. I used craft glue for the most part, holding it in place with blobs of hot glue to save having to pin them whilst they dried. The slopes were then smeared with spackle, allowed to dry then smeared with PVA and scattered with sand. The photos show this stage just before and after.

Pretty simple, but effective and light weight. The next stage will be to fit some slim upright pieces of card at intervals to represent bracing along the wooden trench sides, then apply the paint.

Hors de combat

My wife and I had a great time at Cleveland Concoction SF/fantasy convention last weekend. We met old friends and made new, and the several panels we were on or attended were excellent. The trouble is, someone amongst the large crowd had a cold and 'shared the wealth.' I've had a stinker of a head cold for the past four days.

So, since my streaming eyes and nose prevents me from doing any close-up modeling work, I might just turn to a game tomorrow, perhaps the last in the VBCW mini-campaign. I'll see how I feel.

Have a great weekend.

Victory Without Quarter trial run

Having a bit of spare time this afternoon, I decided to try out the Victory Without Quarter ECW rules in a solo game to see how they run with my Pendraken 10mm figures.

Because it's a try-out there's not much finesse involved here. It's a case of lining up both sides and having at it. Lacking casualty markers and such I used poker chips, blue being hits, red being casualties, and yellow appropriately enough marking shaken units. So, on with the action, where fervent Royalist Sir George Mountebank challenges Puritan General Temperance-and-Prudence Knott.

Both sides square up to each other in mirror formations

The Royalist cavalry advance, to be met with fire from the trotting Ironsides

Both regiments of infantry advance, masking their artillery. The Royalist cavalry suffer a casualty from severe pistolling

Casualties mount, the Malignants become Shaken, and the Ironsides attempt a charge...

...which connects!

Musketry from both sides. Montagu's Regiment takes more hits than their opponents but shrugs them off

Break! In a reversal of the normal pattern, the Ironsides send the Royalists packing

With the Ironsides merrily dispatching their foe, the foot of both sides come to push of pike. The Royalist general feels lucky in spite of a casualty...

...but his luck turns sour and the foot break, carrying him off with them.

On the whole I like these rules. They offer a quick and easy game without much record keeping. In this run-through I covered everything from cavalry charges and firing and melee, to infantry and artillery action. Once I get some more units, I'll move on to run a mini-campaign. The world has not heard the last of Sir George Mountebank and Temperance-and-Prudence Knott...

Prospect of a Game

Since my injured thumb is healing (with the occasional curse as it hits/gets hit by something), I'm thinking of playing a solo game this weekend - the first game of the year. I'll give Victory Without Quarter a run-through, and possibly play out the last game of my AVBCW campaign where the Anglican League are assaulting the BUF main defenses on the outskirts of Bury St. Edmunds.