Olde Englande - Scenery Project - Part 1

I've finished the first few sections so I thought I would post a couple of pictures with some handy 28mm models to show the scale/size of the pieces.  The top picture shows the new bits,  with the white walled hay field a test piece on Hardboard which has warped slightly. The rest are based on ply hardwood.  The building is an old one which I've revamped to fit in the the rest of the new stuff, and I did the same with the butter cross building and the two ponds. I'm particularly pleased with the hedgerow around the ploughed field, although I do have concerns that if it's not stored correctly it was disintegrate quickly.

Next up I've already some wood cut to base some more hay fields and a walled Orchard, and I'm going to try to make the sarissa windmill. The overall look on the gaming mat isn't quite as good as I hoped for, and I think this is partially to do with the small space I used, I'm also thinking of reflocking the roads to blend in better.

Olde Englande - A Terrain Project

I don't get out much these days, at least not without small children in tow, and almost all extracurricular activities have been cancelled with the exception of 5 a side on a Sunday evening. It's lucky I really like playing football or losing every week would be upsetting, but it's not its really enjoyable. Back on subject and I don't get to wargame, no, not at all.  But I did get a wars of the roses novel at Christmas and it inspired me enough to look on the Internet for wars of the roses battle reports, and in doing so I came across the blog of a chat with the most remarkable scenery building skills, and he has inspired me to plagiarise his work.

So here we are - attempting to create a mostly rural English  (or welsh) set of terrain to cover the period between around 1200 and 1700 in 28mm scale so I can use it for wars of the roses and the English Civil war, and most probably many other periods besides. 

This is part one, and I've included some work in progress pictures,  and a shot of a test piece I put together. I'm writing on a tablet which means the photos may be iffy, and the text short, I may/may/might go into detail another time on the how's etc, but cannot claim originality of ideas.

Scenery, also known as What A Lot Of Trees

With the prospect of a mouth-watering English Civil War game on the Sunday at Gauntlet we're currently in the midst of debating which scenery to use, and it occurred to me that I hadn't a list or picture of my rather large collection of trees.  I know.  Oh how exciting this has become.  They may not get used because they are primarily fir trees not matching much of Cheshire (but excellent for the Ardennes and Bavarian forests), but this gives an idea of how many, as well as the lovely wooden shapes, several hills, a bridge, and a graveyard that needs a lick or many of paint.  As well as the fields in the background there are a number of 'broken' trees in need of a fix, and half painted musketeers scattered around to show scale.

The count of trees in good condition being:

83 Pines

18 Rounded thingies

3 More impressive rounded thingies in a clump.

Work In Progress......The Scenery Special!

Some of the money made from selling copious amounts of Games Workshop models in the last 6 months or so went on, instead of more models, scenery.  For me the battlefield has to match the troops being deployed on it, or the imagine is lost and your just playing a game over a folding table covered in polystyrene and wood, rather than a battle through forests and villages.  With the English Civil War, Wars of the Roses, and finally Saga all in 28mm scale I decided to expand my collection of scenery, most specifically buildings (of which I had few/none), and it all got out of hand, costing me more than I had planned for, and pricing other things out of the plans (sorry Soviet troops for Bolt Action – your relegated to the back!).  I set out all the ‘new’ bits I’ve bought since going to York a month or so ago, and put some notes below.

Firstly the bits that I’ve done little/nothing too – the  roads and fences, both purchased in York.  The roads are quite nice, and have already appeared a few times in different games.  The fences are more fragile, being made of loose twigs, and I decided to paint a layer of pva glue on them to give them a sold feel, which has worked nicely.

The Dark Age Village & Butter Market – the three similar sized dark age houses were very much an impulse buy to go with the new Saga purchases, but I feel they would also be at home up to the English Civil War.  They are resin and came painted to ‘factory standard’, which I’m happy with.  The larger building with a hexagonal room is from the same company (on eBay), and is something I kept thinking about buying.  It came painted, and probably best fits in with the RGMB buildings set which is the same manufacturer and colour, but looks ok on my battlefields.  Again its resin.

Church – the white building with a primarily brown/orange roof is the 28mm church I wanted when we went to York.  It’s a wooden MDF kit from a company (not 4Ground) which was a sod to put together.  The white colour scheme is based upon a picture of the Norman church of St Bartholemew in Goodnestone.  The lack of a tower is actually handy because it could be planted in an ancients game as a Roman building as well, and the strength of the white colour on top of a grey undercoat came out very well.  The experience of painting from scratch a wooden building was not an enjoyable one, and needed a varnish undercoat, then a primer, then the paint.  It is mounted on a plasticard base to make it a better footprint shape, and link to the other buildings.

The town house and blacksmiths – two buildings that come ready painted from Conflix, and I’d had for a few years.  However, the paint job was at best ‘ok’, while they were becoming chipped and tatty (the blacksmiths was in 3 pieces and required a repair), so I hadn’t used them in a while.  They were both based on plasticard, then touched up with Vallejo paints to get a better effect and hide the damage, I think its come out well.  Both are resin buildings.

The ruins – also conflix I think, they come in plain grey with green flock on their bases.  Inspired by an example I saw at Deeside Defenders I painted up two rocky outcrops and a building, and added some flock as well, and overall they are much more realistic and have more life to them.  A basic form of resin.

The Medieval Cottage – a job I’m happy with; the Perry’s plastic cottage placed on a wooden base, and given a garden surrounded by fences and with an animal pen and a pig muddy bit (the pigs are still in their packets).  A few more touches (old GW bits) like the toadstools, a rat and the axe give it more character, and again its usable from Saga to ECW.

The Figures – touching on these briefly, all but the boy on the wheelbarrow (an old GW bretonnian) are Redoubt Enterprises figures.  The pastor, woman and 6 sheep were bought to add colour to ECW proceedings, and having already had a few outings I think they do that.  The camera isn’t kind to them, or a couple of the buildings, which I’m quite happy with the detail on.

I did want to add a river, but couldn’t find one I really liked.  Future scenery plans include expanding the amount of roads available, possibly at Triples in May, and some more fences/hedges.  I also have those pigs to finish!  Finishing the buildings (that needed it – the church, medieval cottage, town house and blacksmiths) takes me to the below total.

Purchased: 174

Painted: 106