As my Medieval painting project nears its completion, I've been tidying up loose ends. One of those was to make camp scenes to put on table as "eye candy," or for when I use them with DBA rules (which requires most armies to have one on table).

At Cold Wars this year, I'd bought four Medieval tents. I plopped them down on thick bass wood about 2 1/2" x 4" -- a pair of them on one base, and one each on two other bases. Then, I carved a rough slope along the edges of the bass wood with an X-acto knife.

At the craft store, I bought an air-drying clay called "Paperclay. " I molded a rampart with it and tacked it down with pins along the slope. I had a leftover bag of lead spears for an army where I'd used piano wire instead. I pushed these into the rampart at about a 45 degree angle so they looked like implanted stakes. I gave the clay about a day to dry, then painted it an earth brown, putting a dark wash over it and drybrushing the highlights. The stakes were painted to look freshly trimmed and planted. The bristling rampart was then sealed with a mixture of white glue and water.

Of course, my job was only half done at this point! I like to have fun with my camps and indulge my craftsy side. For one, I spitted a 15mm pig from a bag I'd bought from The Quartermaster, and placed him over a campfire with a peasant on hand to turn him slowly over the flames. On another base, I made a rack of extra lances (once again, extras after I'd replaced the lead with piano wire -- I always save extra weapons and stuff!) and had a spare man at arms reaching as if to pluck one from the rack. On a third, I shoved in bundles of arrows (more extras from a pack of Rank and File longbowmen) into the camp side of the clay rampart (before it dried, of course) and had a spare archer on hand, ready to loose them at oncoming enemy. A halberdier was emerging from one of the tents, perhaps summoned by the archer's call. Overhead both flew the scratch built banner of their lord.

I also scattered a few 15mm barrels I'd purchased long ago, tossed in an extra peasant setting up a table and another spare foot soldier as camp guard, and the camp scenes sprang to life. Of course, my favorite of the three is the unfortunate porker being roasted over the campfire (whose smoke I added with a portion of a cotton ball). I've always loved doing camps. We spend so much time on our armies, I feel just a little extra on the accessories can make the diorama of a miniatures battle complete. I was especially happy with the results of this Paperclay. It cost only a few bucks and it doesn't need to be fired like ordinary clay. I will definitely use it for future constructions.