Pre-Challenge: 15mm Terrain

Hello hello all!

While the gaming blogosphere has been abuzz with clearing the decks before the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge starts, things have been a bit quiet here. It hasn't been the most productive few weeks, but I have been pootling away and kept up with a game every week or so.

With Chain of Command as the ruleset of choice and 15mm the most popular scale, I felt it would be good to sort out some terrain before the challenge starts. Years of hoarding meant I had plenty of supplies for a few hedges:



And a few more....

...and more:

A total of 7 feet of hedge using Woodland Scenics clump foliage and under bushes and small scale in various shades with some small tree armatures. All based on giant craft lolly sticks built up with wood filler. Plus a foot or so of 10mm dry stone walling from Hovels.

But wait, that's not it! I also based up some 'Hallmark' low walls from Timecast. Really nice prepainted pieces at a fair price, though a bit unstable to use out of the box. So they went on lolly sticks too, got a wash or two to tie them closer to the farmhouse and got some groundwork to finish them off.

The farmhouse itself is from 4Ground. I'll go back at some point to tidy up the burnt edges and grubby it up a little. I've also got the threshing barn and stables built and ready for the table.

Some good fortune with the size of the giant lolly sticks plus a bit of head scratching meant I managed to get them to fit snugly either straight or at right angles by clipping the ends to a 90 degree (ish) corner.

All in all, a fairly good start at the terrain, I can also borrow a few bits from the 28mm collection. But realistically, I could probably do with two or three times the length of hedge for a 6'x4' board, including some of the dreaded bocage. But that can wait until spring now.

The other recent focus has been on preparing for the Challenge, which started this morning. This weighty sack of lead that turned up the other week from Empress' SCW range certainly kept me busy. In the end, I only managed to prep  a third of it!



Oh, one more thing - my brother Gharak has picked up the brushes again after an 18 month hiatus. Welcome back bro! Check out his blog if you're interested in Pulpy stuff - he's rather a good painter. 

A Terrain Distraction: 4Ground Tree Bases Review

I recently picked up some of 4Ground's laser cut wood 'Tree Bases'. I thought they looked really useful, were well priced at around £1 each and while restricted to the shapes they sell, would save an age cutting my own out. I hoped them being two layers of wood would mean they wouldn't warp when sanded and flocked. I do like that the base inserts can be pulled out if you wanted to put more miniatures in, particularly when using formed units. Also, different terrain could be switched in and out by building a variety of the 60mm inserts so I bought an extra pack of 60mm bases to do so.

Image from the 4Ground site

Happy to say these were a smashing success! I made half up as trees, using Noch ones I had in stock. These trees are a tad small for 28mm, so I'd like to get a few bigger trees to mix in. The woods are also a bit sparse for thick woodland, I was reluctant to glue any trees to the base to make them as adaptable as possible, though I did liberally apply rocks, hedges and tufts. I might add a few trees to 2ps which I can drop on top. Of could these and the inserts could also be used as scatter terrain without the bases.

I also made some as simple 'rough ground', for Sudan or Spain. These were a doddle, I just used rocks and bits that I had in stock. One thing I did to each bases was sand the sides down at an angle and apply some wood filler, to avoid having a 'stepped' look. This is optional but I'd recommend it to make them look their best, while it took a bit longer, it was still less than making the whole base from scratch.



Pros
-tough and durable, no warping at all.
-adaptable, both in terms of different terrain types and removing pieces in-game to accommodate miniatures.
-inserts can still be used as scatter terrain
-for smaller scales, I think a bit of work could be make them into pretty decent hills.
-really well priced at 90p or £1.20, can't argue with that!

Cons
-I felt the needed some time sanding and filling to make them look their best.
-only two shapes available
-larger sizes would be good for 28mm scale gaming

I'd like to make up some trees on 2ps, larger trees on 60mm inserts as well as some tall rock structures to get a bit more height and make more 'blocking' terrain. I think I could do a few more adventurous things too, perhaps overgrown ruins, or something in an archway shape which connects two of the inserts. I also want to apply hacksaw and imagination, discard the inserts and make them into a pond or marshy ground.

More Weird World War Two (not a Challenge entry)

I had a few Weird War British to paint before Christmas, which was my last effort before the Challenge starts proper. Unfortunately I've been really busy recently, so I didn't get these infantry finished until a day into the challenge.

The miniatures are from West Wind's Secrets of the Third Reich range. I converted one to have a long-barrelled Bren when I first bought them many moons ago. I particularly like the officer miniature.

I've found the main 'Weird War' providers are a bit lacking in inspiration for the British and found I haven't been able to do much better. While Nazis usually get all sorts of weird science and occult offerings, the British are a bit of a mish-mash of science and the mythological with no solid theme. I might go down a quasi-religious route with mine, you'll see why I mean when my first challenge entry is done.

With their more Stompy suits offering support. 

I've also knocked these barbed wire barricades up, courtesy of 4Ground. Really quick paint job on these - just some brown ink to make the wood more uniform.

Finall, I received my bloggers Secret Santa this week. Two packages - how exciting! After a good poke and shake, I've identified that one rattles a bit but isn't Lego (longstanding family joke). I think I know what might be inside each but must leave it wrapped for now!