Landing at Kip's Bay

As a prelude to the write-up for my Battle of Harlem Heights scenario I wrote, I've staged a scene of the Landing at  Kip's Bay.

September 15, 1776, in the wake of the disastrous (for the Continental Army, anyway) battle of Long Island, saw Crown Forces land in strength at Kip's Bay, north of the city of New York, to cut off and capture the large metropolitan area. Under a heavy naval bombardment, the rebel militia forces faltered and broke, leaving the British troops to land almost unopposed.

The Yankees fled northward up the narrow island of Manhattan, pursued by the British Regulars, who would attempt again to trap and capture the army, putting an end to the Rebellion once and for all.

Portable Game Table: Flora

Entering the final stages of the Portable Universal Gaming Surface (PUGS), it is time to flock some base-layer greenery onto the folding table.

Portable Game Table: Painting

Returning to the Folding Game Table project, the time has finally arrived to paint the textured surface, and begin to bring the board to life.

Portable Game Table: Texture

Having finally gotten the structure operational, I am free to move on to the fun cosmetic aspects of my folding game table project.

Portable Game Table Update

After some serious gaffs and carpenterial humbling, I've set off again to try and complete my dream of a portable gaming surface.

They made camp here (Sharp Practice Blinds, Part III)

An Iroquois war party investigates the remains of a hastily abandoned campsite deep in the woodlands. They followed a trail through miles of forest, but it vanishes at this site. Is this a trap?

Dollar Tree(s)

Ah, Christmas. A season of love. A season of hope. A season of miniatures terrain available at every corner store...

Woodsman's Ambush (Sharp Practice Blind, Part II)

There! Behind that wall!

Sharp Practice Blinds (Hidden Movement Markers)

After playing a few games of Sharp Practice, I was convinced that something more photogenic than cards was needed to represent the movement of hidden troops within the fog of war.

Can't see the forest for the trees

A column of Hessian Grenadiers march though the wilderness of New England, as Continental Militia rush out from the nearby woods in ambush.

Continuing on from my first two tree stands, I have been building toward a forest that can cover half of the surface of my gaming table.

Tree Stands

Good terrain makes for a much better looking game. This week I have been working on improving my tabletop experience with some new tree stands.

Temple Ruins Basing

This is a brief tutorial on creating temple ruin bases. I am using them on my brother Dan's Tau army. The aesthetic we are attempting is that of the sci-fi ancient temple world, as seen in many computer games, not the least of which being the old Marathon series, and its successor, Halo. This project is also intended to warm up my foam skills so I can do my Flames of War Paratrooper bases.

Tools and materials are bases (duh), high density foam, white glue, an exacto knife, ballpoint pen, pin-vise, hobby clippers, superglue and a small sewing pin.

Imperial Guard Trenchline Part II

Imperial Guard Trenchline WIP

Warhammer 40,000 6th edition allows for fielding your army with fortifications as a part of your list. The one that seems the best deal for my Imperial Guard is the Agis defense line, which is a low wall that provides cover to infantry and vehicles behind it. The official model looks quite nice, but does not really fit into my more retro aesthetic that my Valhallans enjoy. This is also a good terrain piece on a tight budget, as I purchased nothing for the scenery.

To build these, I started by cutting and sanding some masonite, as I did for the 15mm walled town, then glued objects (mostly coffee stirs and chopsticks) as free-standing walls, keeping a guardsman around for scale. I built up a slope on the far side to meet the top of the duck boards. Other details include barrel bits that were a gift from a friend a few years ago.

On top of this, I glued sand down for texture, and some light debris and sandbags. These not only add some visual interest to the side of the earthworks defenses my opponents will see, but also hide rare-earth magnets that hold some removable barbed wire onto the glacis.

Looking at the inside of this particular section, you can see that the retaining walls are different heights, and the higher section has a firing step, just wide enough for a Games Workshop small round base to fit comfortably. With size a constraint on this project, the firing step detail is purchased with a much steeper slope to the earthen mound on the other side that I would ideally like, but I think it's a worthwhile trade.

At this point, I wait for the glue to dry so I can get to priming!

15mm Town, part 2

We last left the 15mm town affixed to a piece of cut masonite. After this, I textured the surrounding base using playground sand.

After this, the real fun began! I primed with black spray primer, and then basecoated the large areas of color. For the earth, I used "Chocolate" colored craft acrylic (The closest I could find to GW's old Scorched Brown) instead of my ususal Vallejo color since it needed to cover a large mostly flat area. As a bonus, the thicker paint also helps keep the sand glued in place and gives it a bit of a cushion so that it doesn't scratch models as badly should they fall or rub against it.

After the base of dark brown, I used a medium earth-brown (VMC US Field Drab) as a dry brush highlight to the ground, and as a basecoat on the plaster walls of the town. Roofs at this point are left undercoated dark brown.

Next up, the walls are overbrushed with an off-white. I used Vallejo's Bone White, which is a gaming color range name for "buff". You can see that this is a farly quick application designed to coat evenly,  but to maintain the texture of the plaster walls, and to blend with the earth brown undercoat. This created a bit of a mess on the base-ground.

Next (you guessed it!) I went about cleaning up the mess I made with the off-white, and also started to darken up door frames and windows with a heavy black wash.

The tile roof is touched up with variations on terra cotta, and the shingles are weathered with a filter of Granite. The final touches were to clean up the edges of windows, and add flock and grass outside the walls.

And finally, some a shot in some beautiful morning light:

15mm Scenery

My good friend David has entrusted me with the honor of painting a piece of terrain from his collection. The piece is a pre-cast walled village/church in the Roman style of plastered brick with tile roof, scaled at 15mm. I believe this was originally intended as a Built up Area for DBA (De Bellis Antiquitatis, a fine game for ancients!), but most recently saw service as terrain in a game of Sharp Practice, set this time in 15mm scale, and would also serve well in Flames of War, since this style of architecture is still  to be seen today in Europe and the Mediterranean.

After washing the resin with warm water and dish soap to make sure any last remnants of release agent were off the material, I went about creating a base for the terrain. Why base what is essentially all base itself already? Though sturdily molded, and quite flat on the bottom, the piece is still resin, and could potentially break in transport. The MDF board base will give it some more rigidity, as well as add a bumper around the edge so that the paint does not get scratched/rubbed off as quickly. It will also allow for a little bit of extension to the scenery, where the vestige of  a field can surround the walls and give them a little more definition.

Tools used for this phase of the project: MDF board, hand saw, rasp file, pencil, and sandpaper. I traced the village on the hardboard, and cut out the square that surrounds the wall, leaving about 1/8 to 1/4 inch margin.

To break up the pure rectangle outline (and to disguise my poorly cut rectangle), I roughed up the edges  using a rasp file. Note that the rough edge was applied as to also work as a beveled edge.

Here you can see the walled enclosure placed onto the MDF board base.

I used superglue to affix the town to the base board. To ensure that it dried flatly in place, and without gapping around the edges, I rubber banded the whole assembly together. This, however, was not enough pressure to ensure a good bond (I was impatient and kept checking), so I took drastic measures:

In case you are having trouble seeing the contents of the two cans, here is a better image:

That's right! I've use several hundred .69 caliber musket balls to hold the parts in place until dry (quite appropriate for blackpowder era gaming...). When the superglue is set, I can move on to gluing sand to the base and priming.

Stay tuned!

Portable Game Table

Though no longer an apartment–dweller, I still face the constraint of storage space for gaming materials, and although I would really like a good gaming set–up with lots of terrain in several scales, I simply don't have the a place to put it all.

I have been sketching out some solutions to the storage crisis of not only various terrain pieces that I plan on constructing, but also the standard 6ft by 4ft gaming surface that so many miniature games share in common.

The design I have settled on building is a 6x4 game table with a 2 inch lip/support stretcher all around. The board will fold in half twice, creating a 3ft by 2 ft box, with two internal compartments, where I intend to store trees, hills, crop fields, and buildings. I have some specific plans for terrain that can span several of my main games, but that will be for a separate post. Originally I started on a design that folded in half, minimizing hardware needed, but 3ft by 4ft is bigger than it sounds. I abandoned this plan when I realized that it would be larger than my drafting table! Also important that this fits into my car, or the whole "portable" thing is lost, and my trunk is only 3ft wide at the opening.

Sketchbook in hand, I sped to the local hardware store and purchased one 8x4 piece of MDF hard board. (I may have the exact name of this material wrong), and had the friendly staff there cut it down int the 2x3 sections, with a 1ft strip left over, which will likely serve as a base for future terrain pieces. Supports will use 1" x 2" strips of pine, needing 40 ft total. The most expensive part of the project so far has been the hardware end. Even though I only need 6 hinges, that easily took up the lion's share of the budget. I would suggest scavenging them from preexisting boxes or other found sources if possible.

Measuring the Miter

Back home, I measured out my frame using the hardboard surface itself as my template, to ensure as good a fit as I can manage. Though not strictly necessary, I opted for a slightly better finish, and mitered the corners for a prettier join. On the sections that finished properly, this looks really nice. I did, however, have some difficulty with my hand saw and mitrebox at some points.

In need of a shim.

After I started to make better use of my C–clamps, the corners started to turn out better. The board surface is attached to frame using small brass tacks and carpenter's glue. I;m a little wary of the tacks being strong enough, but anything more splits this wood, since I went for the "normal" wood and not the "premium" wood.

Strengthening the corners by putting some larger tacks into the long board.

Having completed my first board, I'm considering my methods, and preparing to hopefully do a better job on the next 3. 

A bit of scenery

This is an older image of a small town scene I build in 28mm. Originally intended as  Warhammer Fantasy terrain, it works well for small European villages and for Pirates scenery as well. I built this piece back while working for Games Workshop, as store terrain. The brick was all scribed into insulation foam using a pen, and much of the rest of the construction is all coffee stir and foamcore. Doors and Tower are from GW.