Adventures on the Wargames Table

Today, Her Majesty the Queen becomes the longest serving monarch in British history. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34177107 Congratulations Your Majesty! May you reign for many more years.

I expect we've all seen it ... a lovely terrain piece that is slightly spoiled by the base having warped after the texture, paint, grass, etc has been applied. I have a couple of such items in my collection. So I set about experimenting with ways to prevent it. This is what I've learned ... The base for the field (from my previous post ) ready to be pre-curved. Ideally I would not apply any texture first in case it fell off when the board is being curved, but in my enthusiasm to get it done, I forgot. Doh!? Approx size 26cm x 21cm, of 3mm MDF. Prop it carefully, upside-down , between two books. The edges just need to reach the books. I've found that for rectangular boards you should pre-curve along the longest dimension. Place a small, solid item in the middle of the board – it just helps to focus the force of the weight that goes on top. Now stack PLENTY of heavy books on top. MDF will take quite a bit of weight! This must have been in excess of 5Kg's. ...

Here's a field that I made recently; so I thought I'd write a few notes to explain how I go about making such a piece. The base is simply a piece of 3mm MDF board (from the back of an old wardrobe I think?). It's approx 26cm x 21cm. I've pre-stressed the board to prevent warping - more on that in another post. I've also applied a few 'splodges' of all purpose filler just to give the ground a slightly more uneven appearance. The next steps are (apologies for the lack of photos) - Apply a thin layer of watered PVA glue and sprinkle with coarse grit then sand. The more variety in texture the better. When fully dry, spray or undercoat in any mid brown that fits your scenery collection. Highlight with lighter browns and cream colours to complement your figures. I used a final highlight of white to give a slightly more dusty appearance. Use PVA to glue flock/grass around the edges, plus add a few small clumps here and there over the field. The hedges...

Captain Todd shook his head grimly as the stretcher-bearers ran past carrying the badly wounded Lieutenant Carruthers. The Germans had really caught B Company on the hop. Although how they had managed to infiltrate the front lines was anybody’s guess. May be one of the few remaining French collaborators had helped them? What mattered was that Monty had given the order to hold the village at all costs. Reinforcements were on their way. In fact Monty had visibly bridled at Todd’s suggestion that it might be prudent if the General and his small staff withdrew from the village. “Right... Sergeant Murphy!” he called, his voice carrying even over the buzz of German MG fire. “His Lordship isn’t going to run just because a few German parachutists are giving us some bother, so I want a section in the old barn and another behind the café. The Vickers can cover the château gates and the road!” “Yessir!” the brawny Irishman replied snapping a crisp salute, then dashed off bellowing at his men to g...

I've found my British platoon a little out-gunned compared to Panzergrenadier and Fallschirmjager platoons and their seemingly endless supply of MG42's ;o)  So, a quick word with the quartermaster and 'hey presto' ... A Vickers MMG. Actually, I picked it up at Salute but it's taken me this long to realise how much I needed the extra firepower! Also, here's a closer view of the "senior officer" I've painted for our recent "Monty" campaign (more on that in the next post!). Not quite a facsimile of the real man, but hey - this one is only an inch high! A better view of the MMG. The gunners and the chap with the compass are Warlord figures. The other two, pistol and rifle, are from Crusader miniatures. I like the fact that the machine-gunner has his tea mug strapped to his backpack. Oh, and the barn and fences are by Charlie Foxtrot models.

Way back last year I got the splendid Sarissa Chateau kit as a birthday present. As I put it together I realised that simply plonking it on the table would not be enough... it needed a proper setting, i.e. landscaped gardens! Anyway, Jenny has kindly painted it (rather nicely) for me, so here it is. Reining in any Capability Brown tendencies, I designed the gardens from scratch, bearing mind that you need to be able to get plenty of models in and around it. I ordered some mill columns from Warbases, some gates, plus I asked them to cut some tiled strips (for the wall tops). The walls are simply foamcore with the tiling strips added. The 'gardens' are MDF sheets - all cut to fit together seamlessly. The MDF has to be fairly strongly pre-curved using plenty of heavy books to obviate the curving brought about by applying texture and paint - these have turned out nice and flat. No fancy gardens are complete without some statues. The bronze statues - spare Roman and Med...