Terrain for Congo: Termites and Grass

Introduction

Here's a short post describing some terrain I'm making for games of Congo.  I've already got some large trees which can be used as stand ins for Baobabs or other large specimens (see here), but the new pieces below give me the option of some area features as well.

Termite Mounds

Let's see now; one of the iconic sights of the African veldt is a cluster of termite mounds.  These wouldn't be too hard to make from scratch, but I didn't have enough time or energy to do that.  Instead, I bought this set from Warlord Games.

This set is fairly expensive for just six smallish pieces of resin, but it does come with some MDF base plates as well.  I don't know if this is normal, but my pack had 9 base plates in it!  All of these are different shapes, some larger and some smaller than the one shown in the picture above.  So, given that I had 8 spare base plates, some more terrain was required.

Tall Grass

So, how am I going to fill another 8 area terrain base plates?  Well, I can and certainly will make some inserts from rocks, to represent rough ground.  However, I also wanted some elephant grass or something similar.  This vegetation is so called because even an elephant can hide in a clump of such grass; hardly surprising when you consider that some varieties can reach 18 feet high (i.e. about 5 1/2 metres)!  Good luck finding your golf or cricket ball if it vanishes into a patch of that!

There are a number of ways of modelling elephant grass in common use, but I thought I would try something different.  I'm not completely convinced by the end result, but see what you think...

I started with some artificial turf.  There is at least one company in the UK that offers free samples, so I carefully picked the longer styles (typically 40-45mm pile) and ordered some of these.  In only a day or two, I received a parcel containing 6 squares like the one above, each somewhat over 6" square.  That's the best part of 2 square feet of artificial grass which didn't cost me a penny!  The only downside is that every website I visit now puts astroturf in all the advertisement boxes - but I guess I'll just have to live with that...

So, artificial turf isn't the easiest material to work.  Cutting disks was moderately difficult, as was gluing it to the circular insert bases.

Additionally, the plastic turf was far from upright.  It had a definite and pronounced lean in one direction which was not at all what I expected or wanted.

I squirted copious amounts of white glue into the base of each piece and found a way to force them upright whilst the glue dried.  That seems to have done the trick and the tufts have pretty much stayed upright since.

I finished the pieces off by spraying them with a pale tan colour from the underside, so as to make the "stalks" look pale but allow the "leaves" to remain green.  This could possibly have been done better by dry-brushing instead; maybe I'll try that on the next batch...

Conclusion

Savannah/veldt isn't open, empty grassland with as few obstacles as a cricket or football pitch.  As well as significant hills and forests, there may be many local areas of blocking terrain.  I've just started to scratch the surface, really - and I'm doing it fairly cheaply so far!

The Haunted Lighthouse from Tin-Soldier

Introduction

For some time now I have been looking for a lighthouse model that I can use with my 28mm figures.  This would play a vital role in certain Pulp-style games as the lonely rendezvous for a spy and his/her handler, or as a focus for a raid by Nazis/aliens/sea monsters/...

I did consider converting a bedside lamp.  Yes, apparently you can buy table lamps in the form of a lighthouse!  However, they're (a) a bit too expensive for this type of project and (b) often quite kitsch - not very realistic representations of anything found in the real world.

It took a long time, but my hunt is now over.  I discovered that Tin Soldier publish a range of slightly unusual paper models to download and print; amongst these is a "Haunted Lighthouse".

The Kit

For a mere $10 (US), I bought the kit and downloaded the resulting PDF.  It's taken me about a week to build this kit, though note that this could be done a lot quicker if desired:

1. I was only spending an hour or two after work on this project most days.
2. My version of the kit has a lot of reinforcement and other adaptations to make it stronger and more suitable for the games table.  This extra work did add to the construction time.

Other observations about the kit:

• I found that I wanted some parts in paper, but others in card or even on a transparency.  Initially, I printed the entire PDF onto paper without thinking; this did waste some sheets.
• Sometimes, the pieces I wanted on card were on the same page as others that I intended to print onto paper.  This is not unusual in paper modelling, but again it leads to waste as the same sheet needs to be printed onto both the thinner and the thicker materials.
• The instructions were comprehensive, but largely written in prose rather than drawn as schematics or build stages.  There's nothing wrong with that, but it is harder to follow, I think.  As an experienced card modeller, I didn't need to refer to the instructions very often anyway; the sequence and location of most parts was fairly obvious.
• Pieces fitted together well; I didn't have to make any changes to the basic shape and form of the model.

The Build

The first thing to say about my version is that I cut out an MDF base for the building.  This is slightly larger than the supplied (printed, coloured) ground and will be stronger & heavier than a foam core base.  It should make the whole assembly a bit more stable, especially considering the height of the tower.  I then painted and textured the base to fit in with my other terrain pieces, so the base you see in these pictures is quite different from that supplied with the kit.

So, here's the next adaptation: I didn't glue the tower to the base.  Instead, there is a rare earth magnet at the bottom of the tower and an iron washer buried in the MDF base.  Together, these hold the tower in place very well, whilst still allowing it to be removed for storage.

I made the roof as a separate piece too.  This allows access to the inside, though note that the kit does not supply textures for interior walls.  Instead, the inside is entirely my own work; it was easy enough for me to reuse parts from other kits or to download free wallpapers for dollhouses (look for 1/4" scale if you intend to do this as most dollhouses are intended for much larger figures).

Here's another adaptation: the top platform is separate from the main tower.  This uses a simple plug & socket joint; the socket is 3" of solid cardboard tube from some packaging or other, glued firmly into the upper part of the tower.

Whilst on this part, note that the railing around the platform is especially fiddly to build from paper & card; it's easily the most difficult part of the entire project.  I did consider very seriously trying to scratch build a replacement from wire and/or balsa, but in the end I went with the printed parts.

It's a lighthouse, so I couldn't resist making one final adaptation.  I embedded a cheap LED "pen" torch into the upper part (it's the "plug" part from the previous picture).  I added a clear plastic bead glued to the top to help redirect the light and then glued a plastic cap from a drinks bottle over that.  Yes, it does light up!  At night time it seemed very bright, though in this daytime photograph it's not so strong.

Conclusion

I'm delighted with this model!  It's certainly unique and should lead to some interesting games.  The kit didn't cost much in terms of money or materials, though it did take a certain amount of construction time, as all paper/card builds do.

Although it's described as a "haunted" lighthouse, there's nothing particularly spooky about it other than the derelict roofs and optional, grimy version of the lantern room.  Indeed, if the kit offered alternate, "clean" roofs then I think this could make an excellent working building instead.

Salad Box Science Base

Introduction

Usually, I take a packed lunch into work.  Occasionally, however, I buy something at a nearby supermarket instead.  This is especially common during school holidays, when the kids don't need a packed lunch themselves and there seems little point in getting out bread and fillings for just me.

Why am I telling you this?  Well, some of the supermarket pre-packed meals come in interesting-shaped containers...

The Basic Salad Box Building

If you clean the packaging, cut off the lid and turn the box upside down then it looks a little bit like a science fiction prefab building.  At least, that's what I thought when I first did this.

Here's what I did next:

• Fix the box to a square of thin MDF, to act as a sturdy base for the model.
• Add some doors and windows.  Mine came from Laser Cut Card, a South African outfit who make some very suitable sci-fi fittings.  I imagine that other companies make such things as well, though.
• Fix some textured plasticard to the roof.  This is intended to serve two purposes: (a) add a bit of detail to a large, flat surface by mimicking solar panels  and (b) cover up the recycling marks that the manufacturer had embossed on the bottom of the box.
• Glue some sand around the edge of the base; this helps to cover the joint between the box and the MDF.

Note that this was the first salad box I converted.  There are 2 things wrong with it which I corrected on subsequent builds:

1. I tore the original labelling off by hand, but this left some residue and fragments of paper.  For later boxes, I followed this up by using "Sticky Stuff Remover" to clean the plastic completely [yes, this is a real product.  Look in your local hardware or automotive store, or possibly in a large supermarket].
2. I used far too much glue when attaching the solar panel and this has softened & warped the plastic.  It's quite obvious on this model, especially in the painted photos later on.  For later builds I was much more careful to use just enough glue and no more!

A more complex Building

I didn't want all the buildings in my science colony to be identical, though equally they all had to have elements of similarity [as if they're all based on a small number of prefabricated parts].  For the command centre, I decided to add a tower from another piece of similar packaging.

Obviously, cutting the salad box to fit around this tower wasn't particularly easy!  There was a gap of up to 3mm in places between the two parts, so I glued some lengths of balsa strip along the inside of the joint.  Even these weren't all in quite the right place, though!

Finally, with a couple of applications of filler, a reasonably stable seal was made and the model could be decorate with doors, windows and solar panels.

Painting the Base

The recipe for this is quite simple:

1. Firstly, undercoat in white!  I wanted very much to go for a Star Trek "Federation" look, so mostly white with royal blue trimmings seemed appropriate.  By spraying white over the entire building, I saved a lot of work.
2. Paint the door and window frames in a neutral colour.  I chose a mid-grey which happens to have a hint of green in it.
3. Highlight the edges of the doors and window frames in pale grey.
4. Paint the solar panels in dark blue.
5. Wash the solar panels with bright gold.
6. Paint the windows (including the porthole on the door).  I chose to make them highly reflective and show the surrounding planet, though this could have been done differently to hint at what is inside.
   I'm not going to elaborate on painting windows since there are some very good tutorials on other websites, but I will say this: it didn't take very long at all.  Indeed, it probably took me longer to paint the window frames than the windows themselves.  Believe me or not...
7. I added some home-made decals on either side of the door, to identify the building.  On the left is a "Star Trek style" door label, with both a number and a 3-letter identifier ("SCI", "MED", "REC", "HAB"...).  On the right is a Federation logo, though I think this particular one comes from the Halo universe rather than Star Trek.  Hey, I'm not fussy about mixing genres a bit!

Conclusion

As you can see below, I've now got several of these buildings.  It's probably enough for a simple outpost/colony on some remote planet or moon, though making more would be trivially easy.

If anything, I should perhaps have some other scatter terrain to flesh out the base.  Hmm, what about a launch pad, water collection device, communications rig, garage or the like?  Anyone know any good packaging for these?

Frostgrave: Ulterior Motives Terrain

Introduction

It's been a while since I posted anything about Frostgrave.  I haven't abandoned the game; it's just that other things have been higher up the priority list for a while.  However, here's some stuff...

A little while ago, the "Ulterior Motives" expansion was released for Frostgrave.  This is a set of cards that list a hidden agenda for a wizard and his entourage; one card is dealt to each player at the start of a game.  Each card is keyed to a location (so, "search the ancient tomb for a relic") and gives bonuses to the wizard who achieves that goal.  To make it harder for opponents to guess the task, the cards also list a further set of locations to be placed as decoys; only the player who holds a card will know which is which.

To mark the release of this expansion, North Star Miniatures produced suitable models for all the Ulterior Motives pieces; these are the items I will describe in the rest of this article.

The Statue

This is a resin model of an old statue.  I've done a very simple paint job on it; just an undercoat and wash on the stonework.  However, the base has been imprinted from the Basius II "Dungeon" pad before the statue was stuck to it; this makes it slightly more interesting.

The Tomb

The sarcophagus is another model of a piece of masonry, cast in resin.  It has a reclining figure carved onto the lid and runes & other decoration around the base.  This time, I built the flagstones on the base from rectangles of thin card.  Since it's (likely to be) indoors, I didn't even use any grass, snow or non-stone colours for details; it's probably one of the quickest models I've ever painted!

The Trapdoor

The trapdoor is quite a small piece, so I've placed it on a larger base.  Once again, the base was pressed from green stuff using a Basius II pad.

When the green stuff had set a bit but was still somewhat malleable, I cut out a square to fit the trapdoor, taking care to preserve some of the chain which was snaking across the floor.  This short length of chain was then draped over the edge of the trapdoor and worked into position; I think it looks fairly seamless!  Though it does beg the question of why a trapdoor needs to be opened with a long length of chain, presumably from quite a long way away?

The Standing Stone

The menhir/standing stone is another simple resin block, though this time with carvings on both sides of it.  As with the previous items, I based it for stability.  The base was then decorated with grit, snow and grass.

The Mystic Circle

This resin piece is a thin circle of flat, carved stones.  I've placed it on a much larger base (from some ruined Games Workshop model that my son acquired from a schoolfriend) and added extra, smaller stone disks to make a path leading to the main item.

I tried to paint each of the segments of the mystic circle as if they were glowing in different colours.  This didn't really work the way I had hoped; the colours are visible but really don't look as if they are magical lights.

The Crater

The Ulterior Motives crater is a simple, small crater - pretty much exactly what you might expect.  I decided that it was a little bit smaller than I wished, so I mounted it on a large disk of MDF.  Filler was then used to blend the resin piece with the base.  Painting was very easy: just earth/dirt colours.  Some snow was added around the edge to help blend in with the gaming table.

The Portal

This strange, free-standing archway took longer to build and paint than any of the other pieces in the collection.  Why?

Well, it took longer to build because the back was just flat resin; I smoothed this off and added extra buttresses and stonework detail (not visible in this picture).

The portal took longer to paint because I decided to try painting the stonework as marble.  I also tried to make the runes above the arch glow in a strange, blue colour.  I'm reasonably happy with the result, though not completely delighted.

I also spent time wondering whether I should try to model some type of shimmering effect in the doorway itself, to hint at the magical nature of the doorway.  Possibly this could be done with translucent plastic painted with a swirling pattern of some colour?  In the end I felt that this would need to be done exceptionally well or else it would just look naff, so I decided not to do it.

All Together

Here are all the Ulterior Motives pieces together.  Note that I've extended/enhanced each of these, so they are all quite a lot bigger than the simple resin parts.

Some of you may know that there are 8 Ulterior Motives items altogether.  I've only shown 7 here, so what's happened to the last one?  Well, the 8th item is a zombie rather than a terrain piece and frankly I don't think it's the best model of a zombie that I've ever seen.  I will paint it up and use it; you'll hear about it in a future post - but not yet (I have a special idea for it).

Finally, you may remember that I had acquired several MDF entry tickets when visiting the Carronade show in 2016 and 2017.  At the time, I remarked that I really ought to use these pieces as bases for something, but couldn't quite work out what.  Well, they were perfect for this job, so 4 of the Ulterior Motives terrain pieces are mounted on "Carronade" bases!

Bonsai? 28mm Tree!

Introduction

Did you know that it is possible to buy plastic bonsai trees?  I didn't know this, at least until very recently.

It went something like this: I was wondering how I could model a large, solitary tree for my African games (probably Congo and/or Pulp Alley).  I'm thinking of the sort of thing that frequently provides a focal point in the savanna, something like an acacia or baobab tree.  For whatever reason, my mind skipped from scale model vegetation to cheap, "fishtank" grasses and shrubs and from there to larger pieces.  A quick Internet search and I had discovered imitation bonsai trees!

Preparing The Tree

It turns out that there is at least one Chinese company which makes fake bonsai trees.  I saw these on eBay, put in an order for two of them and waited for the postman to arrive.  In due course, this occurred.  Here's some things about plastic bonsai trees:

• They're very cheap.  I paid just over £2 for each item, including postage.  At this price, I figured that I could afford to bin them if they didn't work for my purposes.
• They're also very crudely moulded, in brightly coloured polythene.  Not really like any real tree at all (bonsai or otherwise)!

So, what could I do with this?

1. Firstly, I stripped off all the green foliage clusters.  In hindsight, this was a mistake because it took a surprising amount of time and I ended up spraying the foliage with the same colour of paint before putting it back on the branches.  I might as well have just left it where it was!
2. Next, I glued the roots to an old CD, after first roughening the glossy surface of the CD with some coarse sandpaper.  This should help with adhesion.
3. The base was spread with pre-mixed filler, paying particular attention to working it under the places where the roots arched upwards.  Once the filler was dry, sand and grit was glued all over the ground.
4. I sprayed the model with a paint that was specially formulated for vinyl and other plastics.  This I obtained from an automotive store (Halfords, in the UK).  Usefully, for my purposes, the paint was a very dark grey/black in colour and therefore perfect as an undercoat.  It was quite expensive to buy, but really does seem to stick to the polythene in a way that a regular undercoat would not have done.

Finishing Off

1. When the undercoat was hard, I dry-brushed the trunk and branches with a single coat of "lichen grey" (a slightly greenish-tinged, mid grey colour).
2. I sprayed all the green foliage clusters with the same undercoat, then pushed them laboriously back onto the branches.  Should just have left them on in the first place...
3. Next, I painted the foliage generously with "foam tack" glue and sprinkled it with Woodland Scenics "Fine Turf" flock.  Despite the "fine" in the name, this is a slightly coarse, ground-up sponge material that provided a useful texture for the leaves.
4. Finally, once all the glue was dry, I sprayed the model heavily with sealer.

Conclusion

This was a very cheap and relatively easy model to build, at least when using glues and paints that are designed to work with soft plastics.  I think it will be a useful addition to many of my games tables.

Of course, I did buy two of these trees, so I have another one to build as well.  I'm going to try some surgery on the second one, to reposition one of the branches so that the 2 models don't look completely identical.  How hard could this be?

28mm: The Middle Eastern Village

Introduction

A few months ago, I started to prepare for Scenario 3 in my Pulp Alley "Perilous Island" campaign.  As written, this scenario takes place inside a large warehouse that is full of goods and inhabited by a few night watchmen.  I did look for warehouse models (I have quite a few crates and the like already), but didn't really find any that were both large enough to fit my vision and at the same time cheap enough to be affordable.

One day, I was browsing the Hoka Hey Wargaming/Timeline Miniatures website when I happened to see some 28mm MDF Middle Eastern buildings.  Suddenly, I changed my plans: Tarzan and the Nazis could fight the scenario at the hideout of the Snake Cultists instead!  Since my cultists are vaguely North African, some adobe buildings would work just fine.

I'll add some trucks and some crates & other goods for clutter (hmm - the Cultists obviously are in the middle of some nefarious plan, such as shipping copies of their manifesto to unsuspecting bookshops across the civilised world!).  Of course, the night watchmen will then become a handful of cultist guards instead.  Muahaha!

So, the rest of this article describes the 3 buildings that I have constructed...

The Small Adobe Building

The smallest of these models is basically a simple, wooden box.  It has been detailed slightly by the addition of wooden beams that protrude from the tops of the walls to hold the roof (these are just about visible in the picture below).

For all 3 models, the laser-cut MDF fitted absolutely perfectly.  I suppose that I should expect that these days, yet it always comes as a pleasant surprise when a kit such as this goes together so well.

I've "upgraded" the basic MDF shells by coating them with a mixture of white glue, sand and a ballast powder (I used an old tile grout).  Of course, this required some fixing up after the mixture had dried, to clean any excess from the joints between the walls and the roof!  Oh, well...

The Medium Adobe Building

My second building is slightly larger than the small, simple one above.  It also has a second storey and a canopy over the front door.

Like the first building, the interiors are playable.  In this case, the top lifts off to reveal the upper floor, which I have decorated with some printed paper planks and rugs.  I've also added a piece of dowel in the centre of the floor, to act as a handle...

...allowing the upper floor to be lifted out easily to reveal the ground storey.  I've left most of this space empty, but there are some more rugs, a table and some pots to hint at habitation.

The Large Adobe Building

The 3rd and final building in this collection has multiple rooms, a dome (a resin hemisphere) and a courtyard.  This latter has allowed me to add some exterior detail; in a couple of the nooks and crannies there are large pots that contain lemon trees

Once again, the top storey lifts off to reveal the upper floor.  Again, I've added a dowelling handle to make it easier to remove the next piece...

...which then shows the 2 rooms on the ground floor.  Once more, I've added minimal detail to these space - just some rugs - thus allowing plenty of room for figures or loose scenery items.

Conclusion

Timeline make only these 3 types of Middle Eastern building, which is a pity as they're really nice models.  I think that repeats of the largest building would look a bit strange (it's quite distinctive), though I'm somewhat tempted to get more of the small and medium ones.

These kits are easy to build and could be painted just as they came.  However, I'm glad that I added the plaster mix to the walls; it gives texture to the otherwise completely smooth MDF.  It was a messy and slow process, though!

I'm in two minds about my interior detail.  Part of me thinks that there should be much more to be realistic, whilst the other part says that open space is better for playability.  I'm really not that sure...

I note that other manufacturers exist: Knights of Dice (in the USA) have a larger "Tabula Rasa" range that includes quite a variety of adobe buildings.  These seem to be specifically designed for the model-maker to add detail (the name of the range is a bit of a giveaway!) and are very similar in concept to the Timeline models.

Low Tables for 28mm Middle Eastern Homes

Introduction

I'm working on making some 28mm North African or Middle Eastern buildings.  Why?  Because they'll be useful for Pulp games - specifically, for the 3rd instalment of my Pulp Alley "Perilous Island" campaign.  Technically, the 3rd scenario as written is set in a large warehouse, but I figure that it will work just as well in amongst buildings.  I've never been afraid to change a scenario's setting before!

Before I get to the buildings themselves, I thought that I'd need some furnishings.  If they have playable interiors then I don't like my wargames buildings to be completely empty, though any furniture is strictly representational and will leave plenty of room for figures or other models.

So, tables...

Low Tables

Now I don't know a whole lot about North African buildings or their furnishings.  Nevertheless, it seemed to me that some tables would show that the places were inhabited.  They should be easy enough to make as well, right?

I started with the table tops.  Now I could have just cut out some rectangles of thick card or plastic.  Instead, I found some unused rectangular bases from Renedra.  These worked just fine; I took one of the longer bases and cut it into 2 pieces.

For legs, I raided an old sprue from a Wargames Factory kit.  These were designed with legs on one side and cups on the other, so that the sprues could be stacked with each other to make a block that was easily packaged (seemed like a neat idea to me).

Each of my sprues had eight cylindrical spacers of about 1cm in length; pretty good for a 28mm coffee table, though rather too short for a full-height table.

To make them a bit more interesting, I added some baskets and pots to the tables.  These metal items come from Steve Barber Models, from his "28mm Market" range.  Roughly speaking, one table has food on it (bread and fruit), whilst the other has drink (3 cups/goblets/small jugs and a larger vessel)

Finally, here's a (rather gloomy) picture of the finished items.  I've also included some larger pots that also came from Steve Barber Models.

Conclusion

These tables were easy to make and cheap.  I do wonder if they'll be enough, though - even if my goal is to have very sparsely-furnished buildings.

TTCombat: the Construction Office

Introduction

This has been a fairly busy weekend, with a full day's gaming on Saturday (2 exciting battle reports to come, in due course!) and my daughter's Christmas Dance Show on Sunday afternoon.  Consequently, I've not had much time to put together a blog article for today.  Still, here's a short discussion of a piece of MDF terrain that I was given for my birthday.

The Construction Office

This model is a "Construction Office" from TTCombat.  It looks very much as if it's intended to be the office for a construction site or a builder's yard - some form of Portakabin or other prefabricated building and is described as "Great...to use with...28-35mm wargames".  Very useful; I can think of many scenarios involving modern or even sci-fi scenarios where such a hut could be used.

The kit costs a mere £3.95 and (like other TTCombat kits I've built) is extremely easy to assemble into a very sturdy model.  The parts are relatively few in number and fit together very well indeed.  Although there is no interior detail in this hut, the roof can be left unglued to provide access so that you can decorate it yourself, if desired.  Excellent!

So why haven't I painted it yet?

As soon as I had finished gluing the parts of the hut together, I felt that something was wrong.  The building was fine in itself, but it just seems too big!  I placed a fairly average-sized 28mm figure alongside the Construction Office and my suspicions were confirmed.

Captain Haddock cannot see through the door window, even though he's mounted on a base that gives him an extra 4mm or so of height.

 My measurements confirm that the overall height of the hut is 3" (75mm), whilst the door alone is 2" (50mm).  If we assume that a Portakabin door is about 6' 6"" (2m) tall then the model door is at 1:40th scale.  This is almost half as big again as it should be for my 1:56th scale/28mm models.

So, this lovely, cheap model of a prefab building is so far out of the scale of my figures that I won't be able to use it.  It would work well for 42mm figures, though!  Or maybe 35mm models at a pinch, if they had fairly thick bases on the figures and you weren't too fussy.

Here's a last, slightly flippant thought.  I borrowed a Lego minifigure from one of my children for a few minutes, just to take this photo.  The hut is quite a good fit for him...

Let it Snow...

Introduction

Earlier this year, I completed some stepped pyramids as scenery for my games.  So far, they've been used exactly once in an arid setting (Doctor Who and the Pyramids of Venus), but hopefully that will change soon.

Even at the time I made them, I intended the pyramids to be used in multiple different types of terrain, such as in frozen wastelands and steaming jungles.  However, the bare masonry wouldn't look quite right anywhere other than a desert, would it?

Snowdrifts

Fortunately, I still had a large number of offcuts of the blue polystyrene from when the pyramids were built.  Even better, the edges of these scraps were already cut to the same angle as the sloping sides of the models.

It was a simple matter to take my hot wire cutter to the fragments of polystyrene and sculpt them into irregular shapes.  I cut the ends on some of them square so that they could fit against the staircases; the remainder were rounded off all along their lengths.

Once the pieces were cut to size, they were painted white, with a little fine sand added to the paint for texture.  This took rather longer than cutting the pieces out, as I needed several coats of paint and had to wait for each one to dry before applying the next.  Still, it wasn't exactly an onerous task!

Conclusion

Although I haven't used them in a game yet, I think these add-ons should hold in position fairly well.  They are very light, but there's still quite a lot of friction between them and the main building so I don't think they'll be knocked out of position too easily.

The white drifts will allow me to use the pyramids in a snow-and-ice setting.  I'm wondering now if I could do something in this line for jungle?  I could use similar offcuts and paint them brown, then cover them with vegetation.  To look effective, I suspect that such jungle "drifts" would need rather more effort than the piles of snow, but maybe it could work...