Forager
Scenery and Accessories
by Mark Hannam
 |
GAMES WORKSHOP have come to the aid of the wargamer who can neither afford the expense or storage apace for polystyrene terrain boards. Up till now, I`ve resorted to a couple of self made terrain boards or a ream of 'grass green' felt thrown across the dining table. Games Workshop are obviously kindred spirits as they saw the answer lay in PVC! That is PVC (don`t get excited, well, not that kind) "battlefields" , i.e. 6`by 4` sheets of pre-coloured textured PVC. Hard wearing and easy to store away, you have a choice of green or "Sulphur Desert" for £ 15. Of the two, the desert one is the best, having shading and highlights to the wrinkles and folds embossed / moulded onto the sheet. Check them out ! SNAPDRAGON STUDIO, 3 Norleaze, Hetwood, WESTBURY, Wiltshire BA13 4LQ ; sent me their catalogue update and I must say that they must now be one of my favourite scenic accessory manufacturers. Not cheap but certainly not too expensive, you get well thought out quality merchandise. Whilst I have to forgive them (just) for the giant toadstools, I think their Wild West, Mexican and Sci-Fi ranges are superb. The Wild West range includes a range of buildings which have separate facades (i.e. shop fronts) for mix and matching. The more economic amongst you can build a main street from just these building fronts alone, (like a real movie set) to stage your High Noon shootouts, allowing more cash to be spent on watertroughs, hitching rails, barrels etc. After all, how often does the gunfight move off Main Street Dodge into the alleyways - they always end up in the saloon or bordillo slugging it out ! The extent of the range is superb with a choice of squatters shacks, privys, settlers shacks in addition to the main range of town buildings. The 25mm Sci-Fi range includes a really neat space colonist frontier town idea, with half buried packing cases, and small corrugated (?) shanties etc. All a far cry from the more usual Plasma Gun Turrets available from others. These small buildings and accessories can be built up cheaply and are immense fun with TRAVELLER style roleplays or ALIEN shoot-outs. "It`s resin Jim, but not as we know it". Dwellings from £ 5.50 to £ 13.00, whilst accessories range from £ 1 upwards. Heading down Mexico way, the Snapdragon Mexican range is a must ! Here you build your stucco houses from scratch choosing walls, doorways, rooves, lean to`s and even chimneys. Courtyards can be added too. Solid buildings start at £ 7.50 whilst the multi-part affairs are proportionately more expensive, but then do look a lot better. A couple of houses are excellent for skirmish gaming, perhaps in Arizona or south of the Border. I think you could even get away with North Africa, some parts of the Meditteranean and the Middle East. Just send for a catalogue, or take time out to see them at the shows, you won`t be disappointed. FRONTLINE WARGAMING, 80 Park Road, Blaby, LEICESTER, LE8 4EF seem to be another dark horse when it comes to terrain accessories. Several subscribers have written to me regarding their wares and one even sent me their catalogue.Nuff said I think ! Frontline produces Stonecast accessories for the C20th wargamer in both 15 and 20mm. Not only are the unpainted items reasonably priced but the painting service offered is also very reasonable. A dug-in 20mm T-34 is £ 4.35, or £ 6.35 painted. Of particular interest is their miscellaneous range which includes a three piece barricade (including burnt out car) at £ 1.80, wooden pontoon with pneumatic floats, pontoon barges and pontoon bridge with barges. The pneumatic boats are only 30p each so you can cross the Rhine, Maas, Waal etc at a very reasonable price. I feel a bridging game coming on. More Forager Back to The Gauntlet No. 14 Table of Contents Back to The Gauntlet List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 by Craig Martelle Publications This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com |