Terrain Blitz

I’ve been on a bit of terrain blitz over the last few weeks as I’ve recently realised that my painting table and project area has become overrun with unfinished projects. Like many of you I game a number of periods and systems and flit from thing to thing like some kind of demented giant butterfly.

So I’m going to aim to finish things over the coming months rather than have stuff lying about in various states of completion. With that in mind below are a few hobby projects that I’ve completed over the last two weeks:

Rocks

These are the ultimate in budget terrain solution and were pretty much free (apart from time). Ok well maybe not free as such however they are very very cheap to produce. Firstly a visit to the local park to collect some wood bark chippings that the council scatter over the flower beds, then a detour to the kids play area for some sand. After that I had a rummage in the recycling bin for some thick card which was duly cut into some random shapes. I ran out of card fro the larger pieces and had to utilise some 5mm foamcard however this was my only real expense. Zap the wood bark in the microwave to make sure there’s nothing nasty living inside (my better half was not impressed with the burnt wood smell that lingered for days in the kitchen - oops!), then liberal use of PVA to glue the sand and bark down. Once dry base coat in black (I used cheap poster paint that I keep for terrain projects). Block colour in mid grey, highlight in various light greys. Scatter some flock and you’re good to go.

Big River

Yes, that’s right a really big river, not one of those piddly little things that meander across the board but somehow manage to stop your ranked up Roman Legionnaires from crossing even though its jumping distance across! No this river is roughly 8” wide and far too big for my bridge. It’s made from black vinyl floor tiles that were deemed unsuitable for my paved gaming board. I first gave it various coats and shades of acrylic blue and edged the banks in artists’ acrylic and polyfilla. There then followed many coats of varnish, this being the most awkward part as the stuff stinks and the weather has been rather changeable in the UK of late so outside drying has been a problem. Also it appears that small flying insects love the smell of drying varnish, and with the stuff being rather sticky you end up with all manner of unwanted creatures in your river.

I then painted the edges in PVA and liberally sprinkled on my flock mix. Currently I only have 4ft of river however I plan on picking up some more tiles to expand on this with a few corners and fords planned. Luckily I currently only need 4ft for my gaming needs as this river represents a certain water course featured in a very well known book, which leads us on to …….

The Brandywine Ferry

As my LoTR journey continues I’ve been slowly painting up the various elements required to play the Fellowship Journeybook scenarios. I have most of the basic terrain features such as hills, trees and the like however I don’t have access to a river the right size (see previous comment regarding “piddly”). Obviously if you’re going to make a river to represent the Brandywine you may as well build the ferry so I set to with all the components listed in the Fellowship book and proceeded to build said ferry.

So that’s most of my terrain activity over the last few weeks, my model painting update shall follow shortly (Hobbits, Riders, more Ringwariths and some Germans!).