Craig:
Read with interest your scenario in issue 17 of the Gauntlet on MagWeb.com Thought you might be interested that "Pod Ortem" is actually "Pod Orlem" - the 'l' has an oblique line through it, meaning it's pronounced like a 'w', i.e. pod orwem, which, by the way, means "under the eagle".
Nice to see the Poles not being characterised as being on horse-back charging panzers! Incidentally, my father was a Polish Uhlan in 1939, although he did end up the war commanding a Sherman in Italy!
All the best, and keep up the good work.
Andrzej Cierpicki, Hong Kong
Dear Craig,
Thanks for the posters, which came real quick, and the books which came three days ago. The posters are new to me, and are by a French artist named Horace Vernet, who is fairly famous. The reproductions by the Art Museum are great!
The dictionary of Russian naval sailing ships is super. My interest is the Crimean War, and unfortunately most of Russia's Black Sea Fleet in that war ended up scuttled in Sevastopol harbor to block the British and French from sailing in.
The armored car book is exhaustive, as far as I can see. Hard to believe there's anything that it doesn't cover. I also like the SOLDAT series book on Wehrmacht foreign legions and cossack units. The authors use both Western sources and unique Russian archive material. Dig that cossack officer who combined parts of French, Russian, and Italian uniforms to make himself a snazzy outfit.
Have a nice spring! Thank you, Mark Conrad
VLT HERE!
Oatmeal boxes are cheaper than PVC, can be used for vertical or horizontal tanks, or implanted as bunkers. i used a thin coating of watered down spackling to cover the cardboard of the box (be sure to spray the box and all mat board or foamcore with acrylic spray before coating) used for tanks, and a mix od sand, white glue, and spackling to give texture to bunkers and building. it dries out to become almost bulletproof and they are a lot lighter to carry around than PVC too.
The everyhome has at least one (I hope!) empty cardboard TP roller. These are also useful too. Stuck in the side of a hill, or sticking up from the ground they can be used as concrete drain pipes (with a textured covering) or as ventilators. Cut in half they can be used as partially submerged concrete drainpipes in rivers, creeks, or toxic pools. (paper towel cardboard rollers are also useful) they can be placed in sections of styro foam terrain as concrete piping that obviously is there, alongside raised roadways, and crys out to the observant shooter and ducker both, where does that come out at? sure does make for some anxious moments especially if the GM has mapped out a drainpipe network.
Again coat the exposed TP roller areas with the sand, white glue and spackling mix to cover the cardboard and give a concrete texture. BE sure to coat with acrylic spray to waterproof before doing this to prevent warpage.
Be sure to place above ground entrances (manholes) round the installation or town or port or whatever. Those old plastic speaker fronts from dead radios or speakers can be used to mark the surface entry points for screen enclosed ventilator shafts or exhaust shafts, when mounted face up on a terrain base or against the sides of hills or cliff. Use the sand, spackling and white glue again to give a concrete texture if desired.
Who needs to fight their way through the front door of an underground installation? just remember, there are fan blades down that shaft SOMEWHERE, turning at whatever RPM, that can chop the unwary into chutney!
Pools of water, POL, sludge or toxic waste can be made very easily and quickly with acrylic spray sealer, mat board, foam core, white glue, sand, spackling compound and bath tub caulking.
Cut the mat board to the desired shape, then shape the sides of the pool with foam core pieces and glue in place with white glue or a hot glue gun. Spray with acrylic sealer to waterproof the mat board and foam core. NOW, you have a decision to make as to whether to use white glue or caulking for the fluid in the pool. IF you use white glue, paint the bottom of the pool BLACK before applying the glue puddle inside the pool, then add the glue and let it dry thoroughly before painting whatever colors. IF you use caulking, just put it inside the pool, and use a curved wide ceramic or sculpting tool to make "ripples". Let dry and then paint whatever colors. drainpipes can be made from straws, and hotglue used to make the dripping "whatever ". when dry, paint it.
Water plants can be made from paper or cardboard and glued to the surface of water pools, then painted. I use mat board and foamcore to make terrain bases - it is cheap and simple. I always spray with acrylic spray to prevent warpage when I apply the sand, spackling and white glue mix to make an earthlike surface texture. Chunks of kitty littler (clean) or cork are used for small rocks or gravel. when dry this stuff is light and almost indestructible!
I use plastic brush bristles and broom bristles, glued into holes in the foam core, as tall grasses and weeds. before the surface material is added. After the surface is added and dried but not painted, I paint the bristles whatever color. Rolling terrain can be made this way, and breaks up the billiard ball look that i have seen on too many battlefields without carpeting the tabletop with styrofoam hills.
I make my own styrofoam hills and cliffs. I cut the basic styrofoam shape using a styrofoam cutter (or a steak knife in the old days) and glue this to a mat board base with white glue, press it down with heavy books and let dry before doing further work. I do use "stepped" hills, but the edges of each level are beveled to indicate relative easy climbing by troops, animals or vehicles, and vertical edges to indicate the places where the only way UP is hand over hand climbing! My hills are all multilevel! The ridgeline is indicated by a slight built up line of spackling, sand and white glue mix, so that it is easy to see if troops and etc, are on the forward or reverse slope, or totally flat to indicate a flat topped hill. I do not permenantly attach any trees or undergrowth to my hills, but use small terrain bases of trees, undergrowth, and rocks when desired. saves wear and tear! My hills are at most 24" long and 18" wide at the widest point, and are usually halved for ease of transport and storage! Some hills have caves built into them (or will when I finish these) and lift off sections, or sections with holes blown in same to reveal tunnels or drainpipes and hint at underground movement if appropriate!
Trees are available cheaply enough from assorted toy boxes and bags or ordered from specialty dealers. Such toy trees are from 3" to 9" tall. when painted and mounted on a nice terrain base, all scoffers will eat their shorts when they see these next to their $5.00 "professional RR made trees" . Hard to beat $0.50 a pop!
Cake decorating stores offer all types of trees and plants made from plastic CHEAP! The trees very from 3" to 6" tall, are already colored, and just need to be based. The most expensive I have found is $0.39 per large tree! The smaller one are around $0.15 each. Again this is an old RR trick, since oh, about 1950 something. Cake decorating stores are also a source for various types and sizes of cactus and animals. Pet stores and dollar stores and hobby lobby or just about any good hobby/craft store are all great sources of plastic plants for gaming use too. Aquarium plants of the weirder sizes, shapes, and colors make wonderful alien or mutated plants when mounted on terrain bases. Even the floppy ones can be used by stiffening them with a piece of soft florists wire, so that the standor dro as desired by you. Very nice rocks, huge boulders, etc can be made from styrofoam and foamcore scraps, glued and held in place with wooden toothpicks, when dry cover this with the sane sand, spackling and white glue compound to get fantastic and real looking rocks, etc. be sure to seal the styrofoam with GESSO or it will melt when sprayed with the acrylic sealer prior to covering with the texture mix!
When making jungle or forest bases, or anyterrain bases, I recommend based on 20 years of doing that y'all leave room to move soldiers around on same, and use multiple small bases instead of larger ones. I ALWAYS KEEP A SOLDIER ON A BASE AT HAND FOR COMPARISONS WHEN MAKING TERRAIN! It saves lots of grief!
I also use the WOODLAND SCENICS fine foam and coarse foam as ground cover over the terrain surface. i use watered down white glue to stick this to my bases as grass. (i soak the coarse foam white glue before placing it on the base, so that it will dry rock hard).
I realize that the lacewars, WAB, etc, will not use the alien or mutated plants in their games. but, think that some of my ideas maybe useful to these gamers too!
Well, that is enough, for now!
VLT
"THOUGH I BE WOUNDED, I AM NOT SLAIN!
I WILL LAY ME DOWN TO BLEED A WHILE,
THEN RISE AND FIGHT AGAIN!"
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