Before I start to develop this article, I want to thank the gentlemen and friends of my gaming group who helped me put it together, especially Ed Miller and Bob Wall whose creativity gave me a number of good ideas, and a special thanks to Bob Frantz of Jenkintown Hobby Center who pointed me in a number of good directions.
Many of us who have been in the hobby for the past decade or so remember the days when scenery consisted of a few model railroad houses and a couple of pieces of stone fence. Scenery has certainly come a long way since then, and as with most facets of the hobby, there is now an incredible variety of houses, trees, fences, etc. to choose from when building the background for your wargaming tabletop.
The purpose of this article is to explore methods for creating scenery on a limited budget. It should also be understood at the outset that this is not a complete list, nor the final word. There are many ideas circulating in the gaming community that will not be touched on here.
First, let's look at trees. The idea which you may wish to convey with trees is that of small trees and not bits of twigs on the table top.
Pine trees always seem to have a nice effect on most table tops. The most inexpensive pine trees I have seen are made from a craft product called "bump chenille" which is pipe cleaner material. Bump chenille looks like an oval with tapered ends that come to a point on either side. Each piece makes two trees. All you do is cut the bump chenille in the middle where it is thickest and you are finished. The exposed wire from your cut serves as the trunk of the tree.
Other types of trees can be done using two different methods. One is to twist wire together using the tightly twisted part as the trunk and the individual strands as the branches. You may want to also leave some individual strands near the trunk to provide support and give the appearance of roots. The nice advantage to the wire method is that you can completely control the size and proportion of the trees you are making. The disadvantage is that you have to be careful to paint them properly so that they do not appear to be just twisted wire.
The second method is to use natural branches and roots for your trees. The best I have seen are done with roots of rose bushes. This is because rosebush roots are very finely detailed so that they fit in with small scale miniatures. Make sure that the roots are completely dry, however, before you mount them. Add realism by using a dark brown wash to bring out their natural detail.
The foliage on the branches can be added by using white glue and any number of "foliage mixtures" available at your local hobby shop that has a model railroad department. These mixtures come in a variety of textures and colors enabling you to mix and match for the proper look.
As an aside, make lots of trees for your table. Single trees look odd on a table while clumps of trees with various textures and colors look great.
Think about pot scrubbers for hedges. They often come in a dark green color and with the proper cutting look pretty good.
Now for the ground itself. In most wargaming scenarios wargamers fight on green felt with only the occasional hill, tree or house to vary the scenery. There are very inexpensive methods for bringing the table top to life. Consider using yellowish brown carpet sections for cornfields, or brownish white sections for wheat fields. Considering the amount you will need, most carpet outlets will let you have them for next to nothing.
Plowed fields can be represented by squares of corduroy in various brown shades. If you want to be really creative sew some green threads to the back of the corduroy square at the appropriate intervals and the loose ends that you will see on the front of the square will appear as early crops.
As a final touch try blue felt for marking rivers and streams. The richness of the felt adds another dimension to the table, and is not as flat as paper or cardboard.
The advantages of using cloth on the gaming table to make fields, crops, and rivers is that it is relatively damage free and can easily be stored and moved. Add a few pot scrubber hedges and handmade trees and the table will have a nice look without putting a large hole in your wallet.
The final item for discussion is buildings, walls and fences. Buildings are the easiest to do and there are a number of different ways to accomplish the task. First, there are a number of very nice pre-printed paper buildings on the market. Some come in black and white; others are done with four color printing. Assembly takes some practice, so if you are a novice try the black and white ones first. You can support these buildings with cardboard for greater durability. The other approach I have seen is hand drawing your own buildings using an exploded view. This way you get exactly what you want on your building and it is always done to your scale. If this idea makes you nervous, use graph paper at first until you get a handle on it. You then xerox or copy the building, assemble it using cardboard baking, and color it to suit your taste. Color pencils may be helpful here.
Another approach is to buy blocks of balsa wood, shaving the sides down to form a roof and then adding cardboard on the roof for realism. You can then paint anything you wish on the sides of the house and use your foliage mixture to form ivy or small bushes.
If you live near any large craft outlets (they seem to be garden and craft outlets these days), look for pre-cut houses normally used in craft items or for curio cabinets. Finding the right scale might be difficult so bring along a few of the troopers to get a feel for the proper proportion.
Finally, let me suggest one of my all-time favorites... Village in a Bag by International Hobby Corp. found in most hobby shops. You get five houses for a very good price. The colors, however, are not what one might wish to have on a gaming table so some repainting is in order.
Inexpensive walls can be made using two different methods. First, you can glue stones together, and if you keep them in proper proportions they will make nice wall sections. Some additional painting will be needed to give them the proper depth and variety. The other method is to go back to the cardboard and painting method, but that will take some time.
As for fences, toothpicks make great split rail fences and with some brown or grey stain look pretty believable. Another avenue you might wish to explore is to check again with the railroad department of your local hobby shop. There are a number of manufacturers of railroad equipment that make surprisingly inexpensive rail fence. After using a brown wash on the fence, you will have a very nice finished product.
As I said at the outset of this article, this is just a beginning. If you have any methods for making inexpensive scenery, please share them with us at THE COURIER. I know your fellow wargamers would like to know what you have discovered.
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