20mm Buildings

This module represents a small village in 20mm scale. I find that laying out the buildings with walls and the odd tree breaks up the line of sight and looks more interesting than several buildings on separate bases - more integrated if you like. As usual, the buildings are made from 3mm MDF, with internal floors and removable roofs. The roofs are Wills plastic tiling, which is fine for this scale, although hand tiling is better for 28mm buildings.

The second module represents a fortified farm/small chateau, typical of France and the Low Countries. This is a more substantial structure, comprising a solid 3 storey house and large barn. The statue pictured in the final 2 photos is an optional extra!! The 20mm Britannia panzer grenadiers give an idea of scale. The 3 storey house has a removable 2nd floor, to allow access to the first floor and, of course removable roofs. The roofs in this module are done by hand.

The village comes in at £175.00, the chateau at £195.00 (plus £20.00 for the statue). Let me know if you are interested, or would like something specific making.

*****SOLD*****

There are other projects well on the way to completion and I will post details as soon as I have them.

Bocage

 

This is a bit of an interim post to prove that I have had my nose to the grindstone!!

The picture above is of a 30" x 15" "half board" that I completed today. The bocage is made from a base of 10mm Styrofoam, textured with tile grout. The hedging is made from that old favourite, rubberised horsehair, sprayed black and liberally coated in PVA before being finished with a blended flock and finally sealed with matt varnish. I must admit I was quite pleased with it, although the picture isn't brilliant.

The 2nd shot is of a full size 30" x 30" board. This is a more detailed piece with a partly sunken road running down the centre and with a more intricate bocage network. It still needs flocking and varnishing. This will hopefully get done over the next week.

So far I have also complete a full hill board and a full plain board with a half board with road to go with the half board of bocage at the top. I am currently working on a "T" junction with small hill and two "detailed" half boards. Although my terrain will have to do duty for all my wargaming needs, I do want to make a few specials for my 20mm WWII collection. These boards will be more detailed with built in features such as walls, hedges etc.

Over the next couple of weeks I hope to complete enough boards to lay out a full size battlefield. When I do, I will post some pics and more details. Hopefully this brief post will whet your appetite for what is to come.

I have also been pretty busy on the buildings front and should have a few things to show before long.

Right, back to work!!

A New Start!!

All I can say is that I have been busy. A feeble excuse for such a long break in posting, but I have not, I promise, been idle. Apart from the day to day work of fulfilling painting commissions for customers, I have been working on the terrain side of things as well.

The picture above shows the undercoated terrain boards that I will be working on over the next couple of weeks as I look to replace the old TM Terrain boards I had previously. I have thought long and hard about the format that I wanted for my terrain. It had to be multi functional - suitable for all the periods that I game from the Italian Wars to WWII, but with enough "period detail" to make it different. In the end I decided to go with the old but tried and tested 18mm chipboard, cut at a nearby B&Q into 30 inch squares for the main boards and 30 x 15 inch "half boards", which I will use mainly for terrain specials that will make the overall layout more visually interesting. I have a dozen of each size - enough to make a couple of good size tables, with a few boards left over - certainly enough to be going on with. Each board has been given a couple of generous coats of paint (chocolate brown) on each side to combat warping; that done, they are ready for the real work to begin. Why 30 inches, rather than 2 feet square? Mainly becasue a modest increase in the length gives a more than 50% increase in surface area over a 2 foot square board (900 square inches, rather that 576). This is particularly useful when making hills and ridges as the slopes can be extended further and made more gentle. It also allows for a more natural look for linear features such as roads and rivers.

One of my main periods is WWII and I want some of the terrain pieces to be more detailed than the more "general" boards that will be in use for all my gaming. So I am going to start with a half board containing some integral walling that will, combined with additional drop on pieces such as buildings and trees, make an attractive farm. I will also work on 2 or 3 large boards with the beginnings of a road network and that all important high ground. As I progress, I will keep you posted on how things are going and a few of the techniques I will be using - nothing particularly new, but hopefully of some interest. When some of the terrain boards are done, I will add some of the buildings that I have been working on. I am also hoping to make a full layout for a demo game, which will hopefully get a run out at PARTIZAN II in September. This is still in the planning stage at the moment but will probably be an Eastern Front theme - either set around the Seelowe Heights near Berlin or a game based on  the naval evacuation of one of the Baltic ports, with a harbour and defended town.

I also have a lot of recently painted figures to post, including Italian Wars Swiss and Spanish and some of the lovely Warfare Miniatures Grand Alliance cavalry.

I will make a real effort to keep the posts coming a little more regularly and hopefully you will find something to interest you.

Scratch built terrain

Those of you that have been following my blog for a while, will have noticed a number of references to terrain making, especially buildings. After a lot of planning and preparation, I finally have something to show for my efforts. As a wargamer of many years standing, one of the most important aspects of the hobby for me is the visual. As well as good company and an enjoyable scrap, I like the table to look good and have always been pretty fussy about terrain. One of the things that has often surprised me wandering around the shows, is how unconcerned some gamers are about putting beautifully painted miniatures, that must have taken hundreds (if not thousands) of hours to paint onto a very plain table. There is no arguing with taste and to some, the game is all that matters, but I hope to offer, over the coming months and years, a service providing not only terrain boards, but the buildings and other items that sit upon them.

To start with I want to feature some 20mm buildings, intended for WWII wargaming. Without doubt the doyen of this art was Mick Sewell, who, over a period of years made buildings of excellent quality for wargamers all around the world, including me. Much of what I have learned, comes from him - if I get anywhere near his standard, I will be very satisfied indeed.

To start with, here are a few of the more basic building blocks. Each of these buildings is constructed separately and can be used "unbased" to create the streets shown above. The advantage of this system is flexibility, as the relative positions of the buildings can be varied from game to game.

An alternative, is to place the buildings on a base with extra features such as boundary walling, hedging, fencing etc and other enhancements such as trees and bushes. Below are some examples of this more integrated approach. Visually it does offer more, but of course lacks the flexibility of individual, unbased structures.

Scratch building is, of necessity fairly time consuming. One of the main areas for reducing the amount of time spent on a model, is the tiling. Hand tiling gives a more irregular and to my eye, better look. The roofs on the buildings shown above, which are removable of course, are done using Wills railway modellers plastic sections cut to size over a card and MDF frame. Either method can be provided, according to preference.

If you are interested in having something made, please let me know, providing a rough outline of your requirements. I will get back to you with a quote.

Over the following few weeks I will post more pictures of different styles of buildings - next up will be a couple of small chateaux and some battle damaged modules.

Regiment La Marck

As promised here are a few pics of my latest Grand Alliance French (actually German) battalion. This regiment fought in Italy and Flanders during the war. It also served at 3 of the big 4 Marlburian battles: Ramillies, Oudenaarde and Malplaquet. I was attracted by the uniform - light blue faced yellow - a nice contrast to the more common white/light grey - as well as the flag; beautifully done by GMB

The figures are my usual blend of Dixon and Warfare Miniatures. Phase 1 of this collection is nearly complete, with only 2 x 36 English battalions and an 18 figure regiment of French horse to paint. Phase 2, which I hope to start in 2013, will include French household troops (foot and horse), Gensdarmes and a Danish contingent for the allied cause. The rest of my painting time this year will be taken up with Napoleonics, Italian Wars and 20mm WWII.

If you fancy a unit or two for your own collection, please let me know as I am now taking on new commissions.

En Avant les Cuirassiers!

In my attempts to get my Grand Alliance armies on the table, my Napoleonic collection has rather taken a back seat recently. Although my Russian army contains a respectable 12 battalions (with 4 more part painted) and 4 regiments of cavalry, my French have lagged behind, with only 7 battalions of infantry completed so far. I thought it was about time I added some cavalry to the Napoleonic ranks and what better than a brigade of cuirassiers. I suppose chasseurs a cheval would have been a more logical starting point, as the real work horses of the mounted arm, but the Perry cuirassier figures are some of the nicest in the range in my view and I just couldn't help myself. Rather than paint a single regiment, I thought I would tackle an entire brigade (2 regiments of 16 figures each) - hard work at the time, but a solid addition to the collection at the end of it all. I have painted both with yellow distinctions, which allows me to mix them up if needed - 2 regiments of 16, or 20 and 12, or a single regiment of up to 30 (leaving out the extra command base).

Next up is another 30 man French  battalion for my Grand Alliance collection. Strictly speaking they are German mercenaries of the La Marck regiment - light blue with yellow cuffs and typically pretty flags. They should hopefully be done in the next week or so. This is the perennial problem of having several periods on the go at once - variety of painting, but it takes an age to get them to the table!

The buildings are also coming along well, although I am delaying posting pictures of them until I have done a reasonable number. At the moment I am working on a couple of rather nice chateaux. More anon.....

Dulce et decorum est

With so many figures to paint (and so little time!!), it is all too easy to overlook those  extras that make a game look that little bit special.  For me, the visual appeal of any wargame is, along with the enjoyabilty of the game itself, the most important thing. Terrain obviously plays a vital role here and I try to put a lot of effort into that area. Next up, is obviously the quality of the units on the table - I prefer fewer big units personally - a line of 36 British infantry clad in scarlet takes some beating. Another good way of tarting up a battlefield is by adding the occasional piece of redundant eye candy. I say redundant as they usually have no function in the game, other than to look pretty, but what is life without a little whimsy every now and then?

The man with the spade is a Dixon miniature from their Grand Alliance pioneer group. The attendant cleric is a Foundry figure. The subject is, it is true a little ghoulish, but a common enough sight over the centuries.

In truth, this post is a bit of a filler - it has been a while since my last one and I have been busy with some bigger jobs. I am just putting the finishing touches to a brigade of Napoleonic French cuirassiers and should be able to post them shortly. I am also working hard on a range of scratch built 20mm buildings for WWII, which are looking quite nice; again more to follow. Until then happy gaming.