Thanks Wargames Illustrated and Battlefront

A quick thank you to Gareth and the staff at Battlefront for their great customer service.  I subscribe to Wargames Illustrated and wait with a Pavlovian response to the next issue arriving.  However issue 321 seems to have gotten lost somewhere along the line.  After contacting the staff at WGI/Battlefront to check it was sent they very kindly sent out a replacement copy free of charge.  Thanks again!

Ruined Roman villa for Saga

N.B. Apologies for the fuzzy pictures in this post.  My camera was on the wrong setting at the time.

A very white villa

Recently I've subscribed to Wargames Illustrated which the wife rightly describes as terrain porn.  Every issue leaves me with a overwhelming desire to make some new piece of terrain or a new game board, etc.  In one issue there was a brief article on making a ruined roman villa for use in Saga games.  As soon as I saw it I wanted my own.  Plus it gave me an excuse to make a decent sized building which I hadn't done for some time.

Voodoo pins into the building

In order to get the scale of the building right I made a floor plan on a piece of paper and drew the rooms.  Then using a 28mm figure on a 25mm base I could make sure the doorways were wide enough and the rooms could fit the right number of figures.  As far as room layout and design I pretty much copied the design from the WGI article.  It was a nice layout after all.  Once I had the size of the floor plan I cut out a base from 3mm masonite (Whitecoat) which has on one side a white covering which makes painting much easier.  No need to undercoat or seal the masonite.

Always make sure the doors are wide enough

The walls are made of 5mm foam board which makes the construction very quick.  Since the top of all the walls were going to be irregular I laid out the sheet of foam board and drew the top wall line for the each room in one go, with spacing for the width of the walls.  This meant that each corner would match up exactly.  Much easier than trying to cut each wall out separately and measure and match later.  Cutting out irregular curves like the top of wall is best using a sharp hobby knife and holding it almost vertical.  That way the cuts are small and you can follow a curve easily.   I used PVA glue to put together the building.  Also I use dress making pins to hold the walls together while the glue dries.  This means you can make the entire structure in one go and let it dry overnight.  To keep the foam board walls at right angles I copied the Paul Davies (of WGI fame) method of using Lego bricks to make a right angle wall, pushed the foam board next to the Lego and thus keep the corner at 90 degrees.

The front entrance way

Looking at the piece the next day I decided that the high corner I had made in one room was too high, almost a three storey building in scale.  Such a high wall would dominate and make storage an issue.  More knife work and it was cut down to size.  I also put in a small first floor so missile troops have somewhere to shoot from.  Every ruined building needs a platform for the bow/rifle/zapgun troops to fire from.  I used more 5mm foam card as supports and a piece for 1mm plastic card as the floor.  This plastic card was then covered with wooden craft sticks painted to become wooden floor boards.

First floor ledge

Sheep for Saga

Baaa

I wanted to add some more dark age flavour to my table and also have some kind of objectives for a raid type scenario.  Being the dark ages livestock seemed the obvious choice.  Gripping Beast had a nice set of Manx Langton sheep under their livestock range.  The good thing is that Manx Langton sheep are still around so google images provides an easy way to get painting reference shots.

The sheep are usually white with dark brown faces.  The young are quite dark going on black all over.  I also painted one of the adult sheep non white to break up the look of the group.

I based the sheep into pairs so I would have three bases of sheep.  I used the 40mm Renedra bases which was then covered in my standard rock mix and painted the same as I do my figures.  Now it's time for the Vikings to chase some sheep...

New hills and single rock for Saga

The hills I made ten years ago were made out of styrofoam covered with plaster of paris.  Then they were painted green and covered with static grass.  Very cheap at less than a dollar a hill.  However over time a few bangs and dents have resulted in bits of plaster falling off and the hills started to look a bit ragged.  So it was time for some new more robust hills.

A bend in the hill

At the Fernvale Scenics stall at Cancon there was a new selection of hills made out of a flexible resin.  Think like the gel keyboard hand rests, but a bit firmer.  These were quite nice as they can be dropped and survive (unlike hard resin that will shatter if dropped).  Keeping things simple I planned to paint them green and flocked them.  

A bit dull in the end

The only issue was how much paint the hills absorbed.  The hills had a pocked surface to aid in dry brushing.  However all those little holes sucked up paint like nothing else.  I estimate I fully painted each hill three times and still only had a bare undercoated look at the end.  In the end I cut my losses and applied static grass all over.  This was done so the hills matched by terrain boards.  The end result is fine but does remind me a little of a lawn bowls green.  Too much constant uniform colour.  It probably would have been better to do more of a scatter mix across the hill.

A very pretty LOS blocker

This resin piece is also from Fernvale Scenics which was picked up for a few dollars.  It falls into the ubiquitous impassible terrain category that every gaming table needs.  For the paint scheme I went for a granite look.  This was done with a base coat of blue/grey followed by a blue wash.  Then the piece was lightened by dry brushing starting with blue/grey with the final dry brush colour being a peral white to add some sparkle.  The base was painted green and then flocked and had grass tufts and flowers applied.

Nothing too hard and complex but a simple piece to break up a table with and hide some troops behind in skirmish games.

Baggage train for Saga

The boss man

For the Saga scenario "The Escort" I didn't have any appropriate baggage like models.  I took the easy route of buying the set from Gripping Beast (part no. SSC01) from War and Peace Games during one of their 20% off sales.

You can lead a horse to water...

I also added a leader figure/merchant to the party.  He originally was the "Celt carrying coracle" (part no. 100DAK003a) from Eureka but I obviously didn't use the coracle.  Instead I sculpted up a hood from green stuff to go on his cloak and worked that into the rope around his neck (ie how the boat was carried).  Now he just looks like he is adjusting his cloak.

Ugly farmers

I used about half of the trade goods that came with the set.  You get quite a lot with the set which is nice.  The other trade goods I saved for future use with my Revell viking ship model.  That project has stalled a bit waiting for me to work out how to base the ship to fit my existing terrain boards.

Ox cart for Saga

As every historical miniature gamer knows every table needs an ox cart (and a camp site).  Mine started with the "Peasant's Ox Cart" (part no. 28R-CAW-306) from 4Ground.  There are two options for the wheels and I went for the spoke version over the solid wheel variety.  This was painted Vallejo Game Colour Charred Brown and then drybrushed up with Beasty Brown and Leather Brown.

For the oxen I first considered the North Star Oxen, but they were a bit expensive at $10 each.  From Eureka miniatures I found they had an "Ox" (part no. 100ANM02) for $3.50 each.  Once they arrived I found them to be on the very lean size.  Much more like skinny Indian Brahma cows than big tough oxen.  Guess this farmer is a bit on the poor side, well at least that's the story I tell.  The oxen were air brushed with a dark brown craft paint and then highlighted much like the cart.

Early mock up and base sizing

For the farmer I made one up from bits including a Wargames Factory unarmed viking figure, a Gripping Beast Saxon head and some green stuff for the upper legs.  This was my first body sculpt and I got the legs too short.  Since he was sitting down and wasn't going to get much table time I decided close enough was good enough.  After all I had real figures to paint.  Mind you he does make a very good inbred misshaped peasant.  I think his open hand needs a whip or something as he looks a bit off currently.

Watch out for those rocks

The barrels and sacks in the wagon were from a $10 grab bag of resin bits I picked up at Cancon.  One of the sacks was made from a left over piece of green stuff.  Sacks and misc. pottery are a great way to use up leftover green stuff and to add background filler to terrain projects.

Early on in the design process I was going to add a dog to fill up the base space a little.  That got dropped off and some rocks were used instead.  Originally I was going for a rectangular base to fit my other baggage train pieces but the base was just a bit tight with the oxen hanging over the end.  So I up sized to the large oval base from Renedra to make sure everything was within the edge of the base.

Wagons ho!

For the ground effects I used a dark brown scatter for the road with a mixture of light green / olive green on the sides.  The rocks were originally white quartz which I drybrushed light brown to tone them down a bit.  Then the usual grass tufts and flowers were added.  When you buy 120 grass tufts every bit of terrain tends to get one.  The flowers added a bit of colour to a very green and brown piece of terrain.

Rough ground terrain for Saga

Three rocks means Irish missile attack

Using another of the Woodland Scenics rock moulds I made three smaller rocks to be used on a single "rocky terrain" piece.  This would be another representational piece over realistic so rather than cover the piece in rocks, I would have just a few to show the effect.  If I covered the whole base with smaller rocks then figures would be unable to safely stand up and no one wants paint chipped figures.  Sad faces there.

Blue flowers for this rock

The paint job on rocks was the same as what I did on the larger version previously.  The base of the piece was again a piece of whitecoat masonite cut to size with the edges bevelled.  I normally paint the edge of my terrain pieces and figure bases in Vallejo Game Colour Sick Green to hide the transition from the static grass of the terrain board to the figure/terrain.

The base was then covered in PVA glue (50% dilution with water) and then sprinkled with a number of different scatter materials (mid green, olive green, dark green, light brown) and static grass (light green and a mix called "Flowering meadow").  To try and replicate the random nature look I sprinkle the materials one at a time from about 15cm above.  Think much like sprinkling cheese on a pizza.  Some areas get more of one type of material to avoid the constant bland colouring.

Finally grass tufts and flowers were added to give a bit of colour and height variation.  On the rocks themselves some olive green scatter material was added to break them up from being a uniform colour.

Bridge over the river resin - a 28mm wooden bridge

I already have a number of bridges in my collection.  A home made one which was a bit wonky, a smaller resin wooden plank foot bridge and a large stone bridge.  The stone bridge was in a WW2 style so looked a bit modern in the dark ages.  Looking around for a new bridge I came across one at Eureka Miniatures (part no. 100WAL04).  It was a nice looking wooden bridge with a flat resin base and white metal side rails.  Since the rails would be the point that the bridge would be picked up by I pinned them (using cut down bits of paper clips) to the bridge in three places on each side for extra strength and epoxy glued everything together.

The base is dead flat - great for my terrain boards

Using this as an excuse to try some more airbrushing I base coated the bridge in a mid brown (using a cheap $3 craft paint).  Then it was onto the usual dry brushing up the colours of light brown to tan to near ivory/off white.  The end result was a nice looking bridge wide enough for two foot figures (on 25mm bases) to be side by side.

Five layers of dry brushing later...

I could have made my own as I have done previously but I doubt I would have gotten the side rails looking as good or as strong.  The open sides of the bridge have the advantage of making it much more appealing to look at on the game table.  Perhaps I'll have a go later and make my own to replace that WW2 stone bridge...

Saxon hut from 4Ground for Saga

Little hut on the flood plains

While browsing at my local game store I found they had gotten in a batch of 4Ground terrain.  This is laser cut mdf flat pack terrain with a range of buildings across the standard time periods (Dark ages, WW2, ancients).  They come (depending on model) as either unpainted or painted.  One of the buildings was a great little Saxon hovel (part no. 28S-DAR-104), prepainted and with teddy bear fur for the thatch roof (something I have used before on my Rohan buildings in LotR times).  The design allows the roof to be removed too.  All for $22!  The walls are double think, so you get an inside wall and an outside wall.  That way during manufacture only one side of the mdf sheet needs to be worked and painted.  Also include was the extra "detailing" part with included doors and a fire pit.

Assembly is with PVA glue and the only painting need was on the floor and the fire pit which came unpainted.  Of course you could bling up the paint job very easily but for this one I was looking for a piece of terrain I could complete in a weekend.  The teddy bear fur is first glued onto the roof and then a mixture of 50% water / %50 PVA glue is used to shape the fur.  Using a toothbrush the fur is combed with the glue and ends up after a day of drying to look quite like thatch.

All the pigs are at market

For the base of the building I used a scrap piece of 3mm MDF.  To make a muddy field I used texture paste and sculpted furrows into the surface with a clay sculpting tool.   The plastic wattle fence from Renedra was used to enclose the yard.  Final detailing was done with static grass flock and bits of lichen as climbing vines/bushes.  Finally I added some sand/rock mixture to the field.

The mud field was painted dark brown and dry brushed up to off tan.  The surrounding grass area was first painted green so any spots missed by the static grass flock wouldn't show up too much.

So another terrain piece to add to the collection.  Since the building was pre painted this dramatically cut down the time needed to get the whole thing finished.  However it does still feel a little bit like cheating.