Finished: Jungle Buildings

 

Well, finished for now. At some point I will probably add some tufts to the bases and I also need to glue the buildings onto their bases (the roofs will be kept as removable for access to the interiors). I was tempted to leave the more elevated buildings unglued to allow figures to be placed underneath the decking, but I did a couple of tests and there isn't quite enough headroom for kneeling figures.

Also, like you if you had read my post yesterday, I am pleasantly surprised to have these finished today.

Plantation Buildings

For my plantation complex, I wanted a slightly more "modern" feel to the buildings so I opted for corrugated iron cladding for the roofs and the walls of the barn. That didn't make sense for the tool shed though as the roof is flat, so I used fine grit sandpaper to simulate tar strips.

This "complex" could also work for a miner's/prospector's base.

Planter's Lodge

Tool Shed

"Outpost"

I believe this shelter was inspired by the Airfix kit. I'm not sure what purpose it serves on the plantation - perhaps a shelter away from the complex?

Water Tank

Barn

At some point I need to make up some bamboo tables and sculpt some coconuts and banana bunches to go in here.

All of these are from Sarissa Precision apart from the barn which is from Charlie Foxtrot Models.

The Village

I decided to thatch all of the village buildings. If you look back to earlier posts, you will see that I used towel strips for this. I should, perhaps, have tried it out first on one building but in my own inimitable style opted just to go for it and do them all at once. Had I been more sensible I might have achieved a better result, but they do still look good. I have learned a few lessons for if I do any thatched buildings in future:

1. Soak the strips in diluted PVA before adding them to the roofs (you still need to coat the roofs with undiluted PVA).
2. Make sure all the strips have the loops going the same way - down for a neat look, up for a rough look.
3. For the ridge strips, cut the towel at 90 degrees to the main strips
4. Cut the strips at least an inch longer than they need to be.

Village Huts

The first hut is from Warbases, the rest are from Sarissa Precision.

Big Hut

This one was from Warbases. The laser etched "woven palm" detail was not very deep, which meant that it doesn't really show through as well as it should, and it got filled too much for washes to help re-define it.

Village Community House

I only too a photo from one long side as the other is identical (apart from static grass pattern).

this was another Sarissa Precision kit.

Colonial Residence

I imagine this as the domicile of a team of missionaries or maybe a wealthy planter or miner.

This was also a Sarissa Precision kit.

I think that's enough buildings for me to be going on with. I might get some more of the village huts at some point and I have made a note of how I painted these for future additions.

Now I need to work out what I want to do next. I think I might have a go at making some log bridges for my jungle collection.

Finished: Tree Plantation Tiles

I finished the terrain tiles off yesterday and took photos in the evening. As they cover 2' x 4' I had to lay them out on my dining table, so the lighting wasn't brilliant for photography. I added some other terrain around the plantation - as you can see, I can almost fill a 3' x 5' table; with the banana plantation I could mostly fill a 6' x 4' table. However, I wouldn't want a table that is mostly plantations, so I still need to make a lot more jungle pieces.

I've shown them here with coconut palms, but the tiles will also see use for rubber plantations when I get around to tarting up some trees for that. There were lots of coconut plantations in New Guinea, mostly for copra production; the only rubber plantation I am certain of was at Kokoda, but there would have been others.

I took some photos with a troop of Matilda II tanks being escorted by a section of Australian commandos.

And a photo with the palm trees removed:

The terrain tiles are from Sarissa Precision with MDF washers from Warbases to hold the removable trees and scrub.

These are the sixteen 40mm insert pieces I prepared:

Today I have started the preparatory work on the bases for kunai grass and bamboo. The tops of all the bases have had filler added to smooth out the joins between the MDF and blue foam (and also to harden up the foam a little). I'll have to let that dry overnight before hitting everything with brown paint. The kunai grass bases have also had pegs glued into the foam to act as anchors for the plastic plants I'm using for the grass.