6mm Terrain

Now that the boards are done I thought it might be time for some more terrain construction. So I made a wood of deciduous trees. Now these caused untold bl**dy problems in that the clumpy stuff only stuck to the cocktail sticks as long as nobody was looking. When touched it fell off at the slightest opportunity. I was that racked off my first thought was to use an oxy-acetalene torch to keep it together but after calming down a bit I went with my second option, contact adhesive. This seems to have worked because nothing further has moulted...yet. The consruction method is the same as all my other terrain pieces.



Next up is a view of my first ever solo game and playtest for my own 'wot I ave wrote' rules, The Fury of the Tartars (WIP).

The setting is this. A half tumen of Mongols under the command of Snoopy Bahadur is attacking isolated villages to deny them to the enemy. A larger Khwarizmian force, commanded by the rather inept Sultan Abn Ad-Dill is on his way to Samarkand, collecting up the militia of the various villages and towns on the way. The village of Masalim, on the far right of the picture, is his last village. He is blissfully unaware that any Mongols are in the area. The picture has been taken at the end of the second move one mingghan of Mongols has sprung the trap. More photos and an AAR in another post.



A closer picture of Masalim, with its militia ready to march. (This has been entered into the Angel Barracks current terrain making competition.)



Finally for this post a picture of a mingghan of Mongol Battle Cavalry in ambush position behind a small hill.

Started the marathon base repaint.

Now that I have my boards all the old bases need to be repainted to fit in. Made a start over the last few evenings and now have all 64 bases of 6mm Mongols finished. Next up will be the 6mm Sassanids because I can use them as Khwarizmians.

I had a rummage through my unpainted 6mm box and would you believe it, I don't possess a 6mm Chin/Song/Jurchen army. Got a generic Medieval European force (mostly unpainted) and others can be pulled in to make up any number of opponents but no Chin; so thats gone onto the Derby list of 'Things to get'. Plus, having a look on the Irregular website, I quite fancy at least one of their Chinese villages,(that's on the Derby list as well for at least a gander).

The first picture shows the 'before' base colour and the second gives you an idea of the 'after'. Personally, I think that the 'after' is much better as the light base shows off the figures nicely, (only about another 20 6mm armies to go!!??!!).

Why do we do this to ourselves, but at least it's just a repaint and not a rebase and repaint, that would drive me well beyond Batso!





Oh well, back to the grind.

Mick.

More terrain

(Two in the same day, whatever next, eh?)

This time it's a small wood. The base is a piece of thick card of which luckily I have s**tloads. Pieces of garden slate (not mine) and small strips of irregularly shaped lumps of polystyrene are stuck down to breakup the flatness. The whole thing is covered in PVA and sand mix before being painted in my usual base colours.

NB. I always make sure that I can lay my Yet-To-Be-Patented pieces of steel across the piece to prevent warping. In this case it was across the tops of the slate. this procedure is done as well when the base coat is painted on. It might take a little longer but hey, it's only time and what's the rush?

The trees are once again scourers and cocktail sticks although some of the larger trees have BBQ skewers as the trunks. Holes are drilled in the base and a drip of PVA in each hole will secure the tree. Other bits of foliage are added but not too much as I wanted to leave some gaps for figures. I suppose to thicken it up some lichen can be put in the gaps.



The second picture gives you an idea of scale with the Warrior model.


Now that I have my boards I'm going to need a lot more terrain, especially for WW II and more recent. I know, I'll start tomorrow.

Mick S.

Loft face-lift Part I

Trust me to pick one of the hottest days of the year to date to start on the loft. I must have lost several pounds just moving stuff around and I tell you, my knees will never walk again...carpet tiles are not the best thing to be kneeling on.

But there is an up side to this. I have managed to get most of my unpainted lead mountain into one and a half office storage boxes apart from the 6mm stuff which fills a plastic carrying box that is 9" x 9" x 15" on its own aaannnddd I found another load of 10mm Mongols and Chin, at first guess about 3 units of each and including another couple of rockets. Also found the 15mm ACW artillery I was looking for earlier but still no sign of the infantry et al; more 15mm Prussian Napoleonics; 15mm Mongols including the unit of keshik I had on my list to buy at Derby this year; 15mm German WWII infantry, support weapons by FOW and vehicles from an eclectic mix of manufacturers, and finally, all my unpainted WSS stuff.

The-what-I-thought-was-the-last-of-the-10mm-Mongols-and-Chin are coming along nicely. All the cavalry have been done and once I finish this post I shall start on the Chin Xbows, then the rest of the recently discovered 10mm figures. I intend to have a go at getting one of the rockets being in the air.

Mick.

Finally, the boards are done

Yesterday was a nice day so I though I'd take the bull by the horns and go for it.

Here are a couple of the sheets used. The sheets were bought from Wickes's a few months ago in readiness for the summer.


First things first, give the boards a protective cover on the sides. Now here I had my first hiccup. Being me I didn't look and the height measurement and assumed that it was 50mm but it wasn't it was 52mm! So I had to give the edges two pieces of adhesive tape to cover the whole thing. Hiccup two,I had only bought one roll of tape, well you would if you thought that the total length to be covered was 10.2m and you had bought a 15m roll. So I had to troll off to the shop to get another roll.


Then all three boards were given a coat of PVA using a roller (much quicker than a brush), and covered in beach sand still with bits of trilobite shell in it.



Following this they were given a coat of my base colour (Dulux shade 5010Y30R known as Eclipse Deleted). This was also rollered on with the occasional flick of the roller to remove bits of loose grit.


Then I learnt a new technique- new for me that is- dry-brusing with a roller. Now the rollers I was using were the cheap but eminently functional 4" foam from a local £1 shop -got 4 rollers, 1 handle and a tray for me money, bargain. First colour on was Homebase Warm Yellow followed by a lighter brushing of Summer Jasmine.


Finally, patches of flock were glued down and when dry, the whole thing was give a healthy spray of PVA and water to seal it. Job done. Three boards, half a days work in the sunshine even allowing for the paint to dry.


Just need more terrain pieces now...and the space to set it up. Note to self, sort the bl**dy loft out.