Canvas, Caulk, paint, Flock

Allright… so while the battle for Peter’s Hill is still ongoing (will explain later), I want to take the opportunity to talk a bit about the bits and pieces of terrain that I had to provide for this scenario.

Beside the hill itself, perhaps the most prominent terrain feature of this particular board is a large wooden area that covers the entirety northern half of that hill. There are different ways to represent wooden areas, but in this particular case I decided to try the technique I’ve already shown in one of previous posts – caulk mixed with paint, spread on canvas and then covered with flock.

I used exactly the same technique that I’ve tested here. The difference between the test piece I did on that occasion this time around was the size. I started by cutting off suitable piece of painting canvas and pinning it to the table. Next I outlined the shape of the wooden area. This helped me to keep track of the shape of the terrain piece as I spread thin layer of caulk and paint mix on the canvas. Finally the ‘painted’ canvas was covered with liberal amount of ‘Nadelwald boden’ ground cover mix from Buch. Once this was done, I left everything to dry for two days.

After two days I unpinned the mat and cut out the covered piece. Despite it being pinned to a table, the edges of the mat curled upward during the drying process. This was expected, but caused a bit of concern.

On a whim I decided to try to fix this problem by simply painting the edges of the mat with same acrylic paint I used of ‘original’ mixture. This turned out to fix the curling problem and at the same time resolved the issue with the rather unseemly white edges, which would otherwise disturb the visual effect on the gaming table.

Another thing that I wondered about was how well the ground scatter material would actually stick to the caulk/paint layer. In the much smaller test piece I did earlier, the adhesion as well as flexibility of the finished piece was really very good, but this piece was much larger. I didn’t have to worry though, size of the mat didn’t make any difference at all and the flock sticks to the caulk as if it were glued there.

Since this piece of terrain is really rather large (about 60 x 60 cm), the question of how to store it became a bit of an issue. Obvious solution here is rolling the piece together. I was however a bit worried about friction agains flocked side. To give it a bit of protection I simply picked out four pieces of baking paper, taped them together with duct tape and used them as top cover for the mat.

Overall, I am quite happy with both the mat itself as well as with how useful this techinque is turning out to be. I am quite sure that I will be using it in the future for different types of area terrain that need to be flexible. Roads, rivers and other linear obstacles is another area where this technique could turn out to be quite useful after a bit of experimenting.

Peter’s Hill… Evening before the storm

‘Short and sweet’ post with quick preview of terrain setup for tomorrow’s game. Yes, imagine that! I am actually having a game tomorrow! And it’s not just any game, but a first try at ‘Guns at Gettysburg’ from Partisan Press.

Anyway, by the time I’m done with tomorrow’s game, you’ll probably be bored to death by me milking it for all its worth, so here are just two quick snapshots of the scene of the drama… evening before the drama. Being ‘one man band’ when it comes to terrain, I must admit… I’m quite proud of this setup.

Serious reinforcments for the Austrians

Work on miniatures for Teugen-Hausen scenario continues. New addition to Austro-Hungarian force consists of two 3-pounder batteries – perhaps not overwhealming firepower, but better than nothing.

To be completely truthful, these are 4-pounders standing in for 3-pounders, which are missing in Adler’s range, but at 6mm who’s gonna notice. And while we’re in the ‘honest mode’, these guns are intended for the Grenzer force present at the field, but once again, Adler has no Grenzer artillerymen, so regular artillerymen in caskets it became instead. Sometimes one has to compromize.

In any case, here they are and if I may say so myself, they look properly ‘artilleristic’ to me. Next, a shedload of Austro-Hungarian infantrymen, as I need another five battalions of those guys to meet the ‘specification’ of OOB. Better make sure I have good supply of white paint!

Double trouble

Time for yet another distraction – this time around an early Mustang P51-B (Revell) and Il2m3 Sturmovik (Eduard). Both kits are quite simple, quick builds… which didn’t stop me from making several mistakes with each of them. Still, they turned out well enough and here they are.

 

2016 in review and plans for 2017

Last day of a rather dismal wargaming year, if I can say it myself. Highlights of the year:

• Managed to paint basic forces for both US and VC locals in my Vietnam project
• Also for Vietnam project, a shedload of jungle terrain pieces was completed. This may very well the greatest ‘success’ of the year, since it was a horribly tedious task I undertook most unwillingly. Still, I pushed through, good lad there…
• For Dux Britaniarum, I’ve painted the Saxons, so I now have both sides at home.
• I’ve added a couple of units and artillery to my 6mm ACW collection.
• Over last couple of months my interest in 6mm Napolenic project woke up again. As result, I’ve made some progress with Teugen-Hausen OOB and added three infantry batalions and two cavalry regiments.
• Terrain board project proceeds at glacial speed. 21 basic boards are now ready for use. So far, four of them were used for a photo shoot, the rest is still waiting for their premiere apperance.

On the other hand, the simple fact is that I hardly played any games this year. This in itself is worrying, but what bothers me much more is the fact that I didn’t really mind that much. Seems to me that both my personal engagement in the hobby as well as that of my wargaming buddies is slowly winidng down. Over last couple of years our focus seems to be shifting in direction of boardgames such as Command&Colors (both ancient and Napoleonic), Combat Commander and most recently, Wing Leader. Common denominator for all of them (beside the fact that they’re from GMT) is that they’re quick to pick and set up, have simple rules and an average game doesn’t last longer than three hours, often much less.

It will come hardly as a surprise then when I say thatI have pretty much lost the insight into whatever developments and trends may have taken place in the hobby over the course of past year. The only major event that registered on my radar was the change of editor of Miniature Wargames magazine, which signaled a change in course for that magazine for me and prompted me to a binge purchase of PDF issues of Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy. Other than that, things have been going on without any major upheavals and disturbances in my personal wargaming bubble – no new projects started, no new rulesets, no major miniature purchases. Seems like not following the news or trends is a bit of a bliss, allowing me to consolidate on stuff I already have going on, rather than jumping from one shiny new thing to another!

Allright, so what about 2017?

• First and foremost, play a bit more. One game per month may be over-ambitious, but that’s the goal for this year.
• Which leads me to the second goal – looking into solo gaming. One sad trend I cannot overlook any longer is the simple fact that gathering together a group of three or four friends in same place at same time seems to be more and more difficult. Often even arranging a one on one game is a bit of a challenge. So solo gaming seems to be the most obvious solution to this problem.
• Regarding painting projects, I hope my current momentum will last a bit longer and allow me to paint figures necessary for Teugen-Hausen scenario. I’m about halfway there, which means about 1000 more 6mm minis that require attention.
• I would also like to expand on my Vietnam collection – helicopters and VC main force units are in the pipeline. Maybe some additional terrain, while I’m at it.
• Chain of Command from Too Fat Lardies – this ruleset has peaked my interest and I have already a shedload of 20mm minis for a one of their mini-campaigns. Need to paint some bits and pieces and make couple of meters of boccage as well as a couple of buildings.
• Ancients – strangely enough, I never had a chance to play what I consider my ‘first love’. I have a sizeable Greek hoplite army. They need an opponent, most probably early Achaemenid Persians. Two rulesets need testing – ‘Impetus’ and ‘Spear and Sword’.

OK, that’s it for now, Happy New Wargaming Year to you all. See you on the other side!

Day of hussars

Yet again Christmas is upon us and what better way to celebrate that fact than posting another entry on this somewhat neglected blog! So first of all, if you happen to read it in a couple of next days – Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. May 2017 bring you a shedload of games and miniatures, both painted and otherwise.

Anyway… a week or so ago, I finished yet another unit intended for my personal return to General de Brigade and more specifically for scenario for Teugen-Hausen from one of scenario books by Partisan Press. This particular unit – 4th Austrian Hussar regiment, 40 figures strong – was a bit of time sink hole, but it turned out quite nicely in the end.

As I prepare for the ‘photo shoot’, I recalled that earlier this year I’ve also painted a unit of 1st French Hussar regiment. And so, you get a ‘2 for 1’ deal here.

Figures from both units come from Adler Miniatures.

 

FIrst Huey–the story continues

Spent two more hours on Huey ‘pilot project’ and the results are not too shabby. Not too shabby at all! The construction itself is pretty straightforward, although the fit of individual comopnents is ‘basic’ to say the least.

Also, as I suspected, the construction of rotor sub-assembly contained a hidden trap for the unweary. Rotor blades are installed on the shaft one at the time, with the lower one being mounted through a small square-shaped frame. Well. if one is not careful. the actual removal if this component can potentially weaken the plastic square to a point where it snaps off, either during removal process or at later time. As every plastic model kit modeller will tell you, when components are cut out of their sprue, there is a tension, which often can snap ‘the weakest link’. Whic, in this case, are the sides of little frame supposed to be used when mounting the blade in place. In my case, the frame held during removal process, but snapped as soon as I touched it later on. Once again, Tamiya’s Extra Thin Cement came to the rescue and salvaged a potentially critical situation.

The rest of construction process is quite uneventful. I am still not conviced that a mixed medium (pewter, plastics and resin) approach had to be used here, but once the kit is put together, certainly it certainly looks the part!