HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!

Update on FALCON’S return see #1 and in DISPATCHES!

Lessons Learned in Terrain Making

This month this should be titled Barely Intelligent.

I went and made several more pieces of terrain for the tabletop. This time was two large river sections with 4-6 inches of ground and 18-20 inches of river. This will allow me to have a large river across the short side of the table. I will soon add to it a 2 by 4 foot section of river so I can use it along the long side of the table. This allows me to use my paddle wheeler and other craft I have more effectively. The original river I described making for the terrain boards was only 3 to 6 inches wide, I didn’t want the river to take up too much table space just to be an obstacle to movement, knowing then that I would have to eventually make a large river.

Construction was similar to the small river/stream. I glued a 1/2-inch blue board to the masonite base and cut the river edge blue board and glued it on. One section had a continuous riverbank while the other had the stream outlet centered so that any section of my stream could be contiguous and added a small beach area. I painted both sections black, then the land surface browns (three varying shades) and the river a dark blue (I think it was Navy Blue, well obviously). Then I started adding gloss acrylic varnish (occasionally adding a layer mixed with brown or black paint to simulate depth) to the river area, of several coats, but this wasn’t giving me the depth perception I had before so I switched to Future Acrylic floor polish.

First, I painted a very thin coat of green to help add more depth. I had the game table loaded down with stuff (figures, buildings, the finished stargate) and didn’t really have much flat space; and was also adding more floor polish to a previous river section making it deeper (this stuff takes a long time to dry when you pool it). My wife was with me at the time and as I brushed the floor polish over the paint it was pulling the paint up and swirling it (which I didn’t really like) and she said why don’t I pool the floor polish so it won’t pull up the paint. Great idea, except I didn’t carry it out right. I just happily poured the polish on the board, carefully so not to let it run.

Well dummy that I am, I let the stuff sit for a few minutes and did something else. I also forgot the table was not perfectly level and the d*&%$^#@! floor polish went over the edge, under the masonite base and was going for the table edge and under the adjoining sections I was working on, well S*&%$#!. Fortunately, I had a few rags handy. So, I picked up the old river section and leaned it against the table on the carpet, then took the big river sections and set them on flat surfaces. One of which was the hall banister. At least I thought they both were level until I went downstairs for more rags and got dripped on the head, D*&%$#!!!! (Nothing is square or level in this old house). Well cleaned that up and the tabletop, adding a nice shine to it. My wife had a good laugh, well so did I when it was over, but I wasn’t done being stupid yet.

Two weeks later, after the new large river sections were completed. I top coated them with a Minwax acrylic varnish. I looked for the small deep stream section I had added floor polish to, as it had been almost finished. OH NO! I had leaned it up against the table and it had run, D*&^%$#! Even the polish that I thought had been dry for over a month. What a lump of floor polish in the carpet to clean up. It didn’t hurt the look of the stream any though. Ben came in and said well dummy didn’t you remember that you added to the river, well, no I forgot in my haste to clean up the running floor polish D*&^%$#@!

SOOO, a lesson learned (I hope!), pay attention or the stuff will outflank you. With that all cleaned up I added two more coats of floor polish mixed with brown paint and one with black paint. Actually, I coat some of my figures with this mixture of acrylic floor polish with brown acrylic paint. Not only does it give the figure a more finished look, with the crevices of the face and uniform (shadowing), but it also gives a protective coat. While it gives a glossy look I over spray with a Dull coat or non-gloss finish coat from Krylon. The large river sections now look like they have at least some depth, while the smaller stream sections have quite a bit of depth with submerged stones in some sections. I’m still adding to the deep river section to replace what ran.

Next up for terrain will be: a 2 by 4 foot large river section; a swamp board; a small lake or pond/oasis? board, a board or three for wadis; and two more hill sections to join with those already made. When done I will use a card system to determine what the terrain will be for any game. So that eight cards will be chosen and placed on the table in the order picked.

I have also been working on finishing my Foundry African Natives (some 400+) giving them weapons and shields. What a pain it is, as the hands are way too small to accept most of the provided spears and you have to drill out the hands where you can. But most of their spears still can’t be used so I switched to floral wire, which is half the thickness. It doesn’t look as good as a provided spear, at least some of the other weapons were an easier fit. It took two weeks to get all the weapons and shield super glued (yeah to my fingers too). I started spraying them with Testor’s light earth which I can touch up easily and add some more brown to the bodies, a quick loin cloth or whatever clothing and they’re mostly done except for the shields. I’m still working on shield designs for various tribes. I’ll be glad to finish them as they have been sitting around for over four years waiting to get worked on.

My pile of unpainted lead seems to have a life of its own and grows when I’m not looking. I thought I was getting close to catching up with my painting, but that was two years ago and have since bought too many figs; but, wait! You can never have too many, you always need something else for your units on campaign. I just realized I have only one British cavalry unit (Dragoons) of eight figures, got to do something about that. May be a Lancer unit from Castaway Arts will help, can’t hurt. Well, it will make Gerry happy. May be that won’t be enough to go with the six Indian Cavalry Regiments I have, time for a careful think. I guess I could also use a unit of hussars.

I have also been thinking of adding two units of British redcoats as most of my Brits are in Khaki, may be one will be highlanders in kilts. I have been surfing through several figure manufacturers and most do not show their figures (i.e., Britannia, Bicorne, Essex) this is very frustrating. I guess I will have to wait until Historicon and see them in person. Since I am about to spend half of my figure allowance with Castaway Arts completing my British and Egyptian cavalry and camelry units.

Over the years I have bought a few flags for my colonial units and have gotten some off the internet, now I have some nice ones from TVAG (see the review). It would really be great if some company would produce regimental flags that we could purchase for any unit rather than just for a specific campaign or war. I know they stopped carrying flags into battle in the 1880s or such but that doesn’t mean I have to stop.