Most of this weekend's wargaming time has been spent on painting and modelling. With the French Indian War campaign moves recently competed by Jonathan (see
Palouse Wargaming Journal). I found one of the games will involve an attack on a Seneca settlement. So I needed some scenery quickly so I will be able to play out the games during the week (all being well).
A quick search on Google gave me the imaged upon which to base my Seneca camp settlement. The next question was how to model the camp, which leads into one of the difficulties of grid-based wargaming. Fitting the scenery into the square grid with the units. I remember a while back reading on
Wargaming Miscellany about how to deal with this issue for built up areas. Not that a settlement camp is necessarily a built up area, but it does present the same problem of having a unit which a 3x4 inch base fit into a 6 inch square with some scenery.
So taking the same approach I have made a couple of semi-flat scenery items to represent the camp...
Here is how they fit into the square grid quite comfortably without making it a squeeze...
And here is how they are made...
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| 3mm MDF is cut out and sanded. The rectangle is the base. |
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The bits are stuck together with one of the smaller triangles stuck to each side of the larger triangle to give teh impression of depth to the model.
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| Painters masking tape is then applied to smooth out the sharp edges. |
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| PVA glue is then applied. |
...and painted...
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| Once the glue is dry the painting begins with the base coats. |
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| Watered down paint is applied to give some depth and apply detail. Once this is dry the base coat is applied again with a hatched painting technique. |
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| A coat of green on the base before applying flock. |
Finally, another English Civil War Foot unit gets completed.
Those are cool, Peter!
ReplyDeleteThank you. They will be a useful terrain addition to the French Indian War collection.
DeleteNicely thought out and your application of shading never fails to get a superb result.
ReplyDeleteThank you kindly. The loose application of watered down colour seems to work best for me, and can be easily wiped off if it does not look quite right.
DeletePeter- Nice work there on the 'T-pees'...very Artistic and most suitable results for your games. Good to see your ECW Troops in progress- well done indeed. Cheers. KEV.
ReplyDeleteHi KEV - I am plodding away at the ECW and am about halfway to having sufficient for a one-hour wargames game. The tepees turned out better than expected. Thanks Peter
DeleteYour simple Tepees are an elegant and toy soldierly solution to your problem.
ReplyDeleteThank you. They were quick to make, taking one evening to paint and the bases flocked the following day.
DeleteGreat looking scenery and ECW, I really like the idea of the flat scenery. At the risk of playing the button counter, Teepees are a western plains feature only - they require Buffalo hide and a lack of trees. Eastern nations used wigwams or similar made of wood and birch bark etc.
ReplyDeleteOh good!These are great so I was biting my tongue (or typing finger) on the plains teepee thing. Luckily, similar usually domed, but sometimes conical, bark covered or occasionally deerskin clad, esp if travelling structures were used for temporary camps in the East so these will actually work as wigwams for the Iroquois and Algonquins. A weak surrounding stockade would not be out of place for a permanent village.
DeleteIn any case they are very attractive and practical. I've long been tempted to try semi-flat scenery but just can't get my head around how and keep chickening out.
Thanks Peter and Ross for clearing up the naming and providing background to the building methods. Much appreciated. I now need to get them on to the tabletop for the next instalment of the collaborative French Indian War campaign.
DeleteVery nice idea well executed. You can't ask for better than that!
ReplyDeleteThank you.
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