Category: Scenery

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Scenery wargaming

Season of Scenery Challenge- part VIII – finale

A long while ago I had the desire to make some adobe buildings for cowboy skirmishes. However despite having the figures (admittedly only primed) and then my “what a tanker” playing partner getting “what a cowboy”, it still did not look good. Fortunately the challenge rolled up and provided the impetus I needed to get this project over the line – along with some more conventional items. Amazing where “cardboard packaging” can take you!

I have an old card table earmarked for skirmish play. The adobe buildings were just how they came out of the product boxes 😆 I then added some extra roofing with card and tissue paper plus pva. The two right hand regular buildings are from warbases basics range
You can’t beat Dixon 28mm cowboys for style
Lots of yellow ochre – the left hand building has received a dry brush. The packaging designer kindly included a base skirt which was decorated with pva and budgie grit.
Dry brush done and doors and windows (cornflake package) painted and dry brushed
Sunrise – the Mexican is at a disadvantage although he aimed first
Pistol high – who will bite the dust?
We may never know 🤠
A real New Mexico example in Santa Fe. For my quick build models I omitted the exposed logs – maybe next time.

So that’s it, 8 weeks of one hot dry summer and I have massively exceeded my expectations. I completed a lot of items and even though I started even more they are at least started and now have real homes rather than their sales boxes (thanks John the Varnish!)

For the analysts….. completions were

First module of my port,

two adobe buildings,

six earthen defences,

one artillery position

one aircraft base

flexible roads recoloured

two hills now also become a green defensible position

repaired damaged cardboard church

new self coloured HO Germanic church

two warbases Wild West buildings

two very old bellona low relief terraced houses

Two straight drainage ditch pieces

Finishing off stuff and even repairs/reworkings proved very satisfying.

The “starters” all happened to be kits and kicked off my challenge.

Blotz models Bronze Age fortress

Italeri French railway station building

Italeri north Italian church

warbases north German church

At least I have the measure of these pieces not least where and how to store them.

I probably have too many churches now……..

Funny that I did not finish the kits that I started the challenge with – given they were my absolute main targets – instead I started raking out cardboard and home building………

wargaming really is hilarious…..

Thanks Dave.

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Scenery wargaming

Season of scenery challenge part VII low relief housing and a ditch

Last year I started painting my Low relief housing. I bought two of these terraces back in the 1970’s and somehow these bellona pieces have not fractured into pieces. They are injection moulded and were the “resin prints” of their time.

One terrace in basic coats sat on my first port module
Low relief was popular railway modelling idea taken up by bellona

So I gave them a go and I must say the sculpture is brilliant. They were fun to paint. You can still buy injection moulded models – amera sell them via eBay in the uk. Alas I haven’t seen any terraced buildings.

Two terraces book ended by my hovels Dutch buildings with EWM latex roadways and then the ditch
Natural morning sunlight catches the detail well

In front of them are some early war miniatures road sections (flexible latex) last year I painted them but didn’t like the finish so they were back in the mix for a dry brush.

Finally there is the ditch. Basically more packaging fell into my eye line and I immediately thought – that’s useful. This is new packaging (not from the mountain!) and made the back end of the challenge displacing some other contenders.

They required no preparation.

Galena students burnt umber is rich and oily giving good coverage on this very dense cardboard
The ochre coating was necessary but not too obvious before the brandy cream which was a semi dry application
Very pleased with the low reliefs and also with the roadway while the ditch was an out of the blue late late entry which has exceeded my expectations

I gave the packaging a coat of burnt umber then one of yellow ochre and then brandy cream! dry brush before an autumn variety of Javis static grass. The ditch water was done with Paynes grey tube acrylic and then a shade of paynes grey with some ivory white added as a top coat.

Final shot which shows the early morning in colour somewhere in Rugia plus Mr Varnishes armour! (you know who you are 😊)

Last entry for the scenery challenge is next up

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Scenery wargaming

Season of scenery challenge part VI bits and bobs

First up is an Aircraft movement base. It was an unfinished piece from last year I think. Anyway it’s now got some scatter and is ready for some land planes – only trouble is I gave away my reconnaissance spitfire I did in AHPC14 https://thewargamingerratic.home.blog/tag/fantasy/and now have just my “scrap heap” rescued spotter float biplane.

Actually the base could pass for a seaweed covered rock……

I need to get some aeroplane production going……

Next up is a complimentary piece for my recent fortifications. It’s an Artillery position fashioned from some corrugated card and unlike my recent port module this one went bananas. But I persevered and it’s finished with some dried tea – the brown granules and greenery.

Javis – shrub mixture added over dried tea leaves.
I richer lighting shows off the simple two coat dry brush of burnt sienna with coffee colour dry brush
A bit bendy
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Scenery wargaming

Season of scenery challenge part IV port facilities

This years scenery season has continued to prove fruitful. I have been finally sorting out some key home builds. One is a harbour the other is a 17th century fortress. The common thread was that they must be modular in some way plus their core material is recycled cardboard.

Some colour tests
Stonework from card
Lots of checking for warping and size matches
The modular harbour gets the green light
The cellular construction means strength and lightness
Still to add some extra options like a sea wall
The first trial module

I wanted a distinctly south European style which meant ochre rather than grey would be the key colour.

I used a pva base for some fine sand dressing. It did not adhere everywhere which prompted a “potted roadway” thought. The compacted earth road has been eroded in places. Some judicious shading and job done.

The card stonewall received some dry brush over ochre base over hand drawn stones.

The holes at the bottom – don’t ask 😂

So far this piece and others made of two pieces glue one on top have defied going bananas – I did use weights for the drying step.

And here is the unit with another scenery piece on the go – it was started in the 2024 season but I changed my mind, and it got parked. It too has had a dose of ochre to help it on its way.

Low relief is not so fashionable these days but it has its place at my games table

There are some other irons in the fire. But this will do for now.

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Scenery wargaming

Season of scenery challenge ptIII – sage advice from John @justneedsvarnish

John@justneedsvarnish over time has kept reminding me that storage cannot be ignored when collecting for wargames. This is even a greater issue when scenery comes into play given it can become a sizeable part of your collection.

So my recent building blitz has a kind of logic.

Building blitz

Over the summer figure painting has dried up just like last year and scenery has come to the fore. This is just as well because the lockdown era seemed to be the time when I fervently collected for my apparent scenery needs but never made any of the kits or used the “recycling”. It was the latter that brought me up short when I looked at my cardboard mountain.

Also I have made some inroads into my figure mountain that led to a right old sort out.

The net result is two scenery drawers created by redistribution of figure boxes/bags/containers.

New homes for scenery – the tall items drawer
New scenery home – the shallow drawer with some washed and bagged figures about to depart. My Italian hilltop town from 2024 scenery challenge (I think) lives in the grey box

I am quite pleased with the result and it will probably lead to a scenery rationalisation at some point now they are all more visible and accessible.

Right now some of my recent builds have simply booked themselves a decent storage spot.

Thanks John.

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Scenery wargaming

Season of Scenery Challenge II – process and creativity

Crikey what’s going on?

Like most wargamers I guess when you stop and reflect upon your hobby, your traits often pop up.

In my case I am more process than creative perhaps more risk averse as well. So that’s the wargaming general who gets his logistics sorted before attacking – and maybe never attacks as a result 😂 queue heap of unpainted figures and of course scenery.

You could of course burrow into all this personality assessment-briggs myers style. Anyway this is a long intro to justify this!

Scenery explosion

So instead of carefully planning my scenery making I just dug out any thing I could find and started building – note, no painting.

Of course one item is self coloured so it’s done! Dating from the days of the USSR and the DDR it shows there is nothing new under the sun – even back then modellers fed up with the painting step were catered for.

Three years ago I made a tower one summer after discovering Dave Stone’s challenge. Last year it prompted me to trawl my bridges and defences pile to excellent effect. Heck I have even managed to game them!

This year the reaction to July’s starting gun has been a frenzy of building – in fact anything I could find. And especially those “I will make this when I have time to do it justice”.

So I have

An italeri church

An italeri railway station

A warbases church

Two warbases cowboy town buildings

A vero (1980’s) 1/87 scale model railway church ready coloured

A blotz starter pack for 20mm Bronze Age fortress.

No idea when some paint will get sploshed on them……

Thanks Dave 😉

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Scenery wargaming

Season of Scenery Challenge

Fortunately John over at “just needs varnish” reminded me that Dave Stone’s challenge started at the beginning of July.

Last year I had a very fruitful time in fact my challenge ran into the end of September! It did not do my figure painting any favours though.

Yet I had so much scenery waiting to be done it proved to be a rich vein.

Well this particular ore vein is still rich.

Loads of possible scenery opportunities accumulating 😆
Always read the instructions!
I nearly chucked away the ridge tile – look carefully
Some nice detail on my first mdf building
Some clever design made construction easy
I found this mdf model easier than the italeri church

So far that is two churches and a railway station finally out of their boxes and just about built.

Painting may be a stumbling block – I get quite hesitant about colours. Cold north or warm south…..

* Could be I have drawn loads of early pacers who then fade away……..

I wonder what else will come from the pit of scenery?

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natural world Scenery

Intermission 25a

Experimenting in 2D

Acrylics on a gesso canvas plus a you tube guide
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Scenery wargaming

No Ork in Scenery

As another month slips by scenery has remained centre stage.

The net result has been quite a number of scenery pieces have appeared on the work bench.

The reality is little has been completed.

So lots of starts but so far only one more finish since I posted “afterglow”.

The finished piece is an airfix cottage which I have repainted after its long life with a bright yellow thatch.

I have opted for more muted colour and some dry brush work.

Almost complete really because I think the chimney will need a bit of smoke effects.
One cottage had lost its chimney
I started a production line which is always dangerous
A few bits of model wood
A bit of card
Job done

The question is whether the scenery phase has now run its course.

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Scenery wargaming

Scenic September

Well back in Spring if you said to me scenery would be centre stage for three months while the miniatures paint brushes holidayed then I would have said no chance.

Yet July, August and September have seen a positive glut of pieces appear from the pit of scenery.

This post is about completions.

First up are my troublesome timber defences. These are very old resin castings. And initially I had painted them in dark and then deep colours with contrast paint. All to no avail. I did not care for any of it.

Finally I went for more neutral browns and slightly washed out. Narrowing the colour range has helped here. I also decided the soil was just that, despite the temptation to grass it.

So these are fresh defences and although I suspect they were sized for early 28mm medieval fantasy i.e. games workshop they are my only ones so will need to do service across the ages.

Much delayed bank and timber defences

Next up is a very pleasing Alera destroyed cottage.

I kept it simple with craft paints sienna on the roof, and the wall damage, then stone colour on the walls, dark gray interior and chocolate brown timber. I dry brushed some blast effect around the wall damage but at three feet it’s not there…..

I did not take John at just needs varnish advice about card basing, sloshed one side in craft paint – it curved. Then I sloshed the other side the next day and while still slightly damp got it flat. Short cuts………..

Then of course when I stuck the cottage on plus the static grass it curved again. This time only the free end which with overnight weighting flattened enough.

Moral is – listen to John at just needs varnish

https://justneedsvarnish.wordpress.com

The dreaded curl – I’ll live with that for gaming
Blast smoke almost visible
One coat craft paint washes used for what will be a very functional piece of scenery
I even used up some unloved static grass

I had planned some rubble or a tree/shrub for the grassed area but for now it will stay plain.

Finally I had reservations about the walls being simply hollow.

Unpainted the hollow walls look jarring and the base was behaving itself at this point….

Then when I painted them the lack of thickness just disappeared.

I wonder what’s next – maybe the miniature brushes are back from their long holidays?