More North Africa Terrain

My first week of leave has been a productive one. I have finished the two ridges and the hill for my North Africa terrain set, painted some Anglo-Danes (four hearth guard with Dane axes, one with spear) and three of the grassy hills are almost done.

North Africa Table

I set up all the North Africa terrain I now have on my 1200mm square desert board to check it all out. It’s probably a little much for such a small battlefield, but that only means I won’t have to make as much more to fill out an 1800x1200mm table.

When I finished the hills I realised that the desert board I had (as in the physical MDF board all the terrain is on in these images) was probably a little brown and it shows in these pictures. I might lighten it up with more Unbleached Titanium, but I might also just do up another few boards instead.

Here we have the front and rear of the first ridge.

The hill from two angles.

And the second ridge front and back. I am really pleased with how they all turned out – actually that’s a bit of an understatement, I think they’re some of the best terrain pieces I’ve ever made. The ridge faces came up great, likewise the scree piles. The grassy hills I have on my table to put the finishing touches on aren’t bad, but these desert hills blow them away in my opinion. I’ll post up pictures of the grassy hills later and you can be the judge though.

Next Up

A mate is coming around today for Flames of War, his 8th Army force not being ready we’ll be hitting the eastern front. I’ll make sure to take plenty of images and get an AAR up sometime this week. I’m planning to use at least one of my new hills, so that’ll be the first sneak peak of them. Then in the coming week I want to finish off my Anglo-Danes (currently there are 20 models still to paint, not an insignificant task, but very doable), so I’ll probably take the whole week to finish the two grassy ridges and last grass hill. Beyond that, I have a Welsh force to do, 10 more trees to get cracking on, two or three buildings I want to make for SAGA (they’ll be a few weeks out) and then there are plenty of other things to paint – like the SU-76s and PTRD teams that have been sitting on my shelf for three years…

Until next time.

North Africa Terrain

Over the past week I finally got around to finishing off some North Africa terrain for Flames of War. I also painted up a couple more Panzer IIIs that I had laying around.

Buildings and Scrub

I started getting my North Africa terrain together a little after I finished painting my current forces, but I put it on the backburner and so it has been a long time coming. My plan was to have four buildings, three patches of scrub, a couple of ridges and a hill. So far I’ve finished the buildings and two scrub patches, I also have the MDF base for the third scrub patch done. The ridges and hill are carved out, but I still have to cut the MDF  bases out to glue them to. It’s been freezing cold (for here) and raining frequently so I haven’t had the chance to get outside and cut out the bases this week, but I’m hoping to get them done soon.

The buildings are made out of foamcore with MDF floors. I put a strip of cardstock around the bottom of the roof to conceal the cut. The rooves are removable. The stairs at the back are also foamcore, but I covered them with wood putty to make them more uniform (conceal the joins and such). The brick areas are created by taking off patches of the paper in between which the foam is sandwiched. They’re painted Unbleached Titanium with the brickwork being Terracotta. I felt they looked a little bland being completely Unbleached Titanium, so I added cardstock windowsills that I also painted Terracotta. Each building has a popstick door painted Raw Umber.

The scrub is torn up bits of foam from foam pieces that have been taken out pick and pluck foam trays. I rip them up to a nice size and try to make them clumpy looking. I then dumped the whole lot in some very watered down green acrylic paint (the foam is blue) and kneaded them with my fingers. Squeezing out the excess liquid, I left them on a bit of Glad Wrap to dry. The bases are 25mm Renedra bases with sand on. The MDF is 3mm thick, though I probably would use 5mm thick MDF going forward. After sand was added, I painted them Burnt Sienna, then a moderate coat of Yellow Oxide, then a light coat of Unbleached Titanium. I think the result is nice. The scrub conceals infantry, but confers no benefit for vehicles and counts as difficult ground for them.

I’m pleased with the results and am looking forward to getting my ridges and hill done so I can get a small battlefield together for a game. Other things I’d like to add are some walls, a large building and an air field.

All the Leave

I am on six weeks leave from work (I’ve not taken annual leave since Sept 2013) and have decided to complete a SAGA project in that time – and probably more besides. Last week I picked up the SAGA rulebook and two of the Gripping Beast 4pt starter armies: one Welsh, the other Anglo-Dane. I’m not sure how long they will take me to get done, but you can expect posts in the future about that project. I’ve also carved out some hills and ridges (in addition to those mentioned about) and will get more trees done. So that’s what you can expect me to post about over the next month or two – though I’m sure there’ll be other things besides.