Saint Hunna's chapel

 

The chapel from the previous post is now mostly restored- I just need to highlight the roof tiles, lichen on the tiles and the lead-clad spire. It scrubbed up really well! I sculpted a door and step to make it appear convincingly 28mm. I think it might well be the oldest model in my collection. There's a "before" photo, below.

The chapel is now named St. Hunna's, after the patroness of laundry workers and laundresses, reflecting it's origin in the Middleton Road, Bounds Green laundry!

In other news, I have just put a load of mats, chits and bases on sale, just for a few days. You can find them here.

Ancient Ruins

No, this is not about me and my grognard chums, but rather this printed scenery which I bought on eBay for around £50. I'm gobsmacked about the value- it's almost a foot high (28mm figure for scale) and there must be weeks of work in the design of it, and a ton of filament within it. O brave new world that has such buildings in it! How long would it have taken to build a model like this from scratch? I plan to customise it and use it in my Salute '24 game.

In other news I had an absolutely super chat with Henry Hyde of Battlegames this morning, which he'll be posting as a Podcast in the next few days, I'll talk about it more when I know the release date, soon, I think.

Welcome to Soggy Bottom

The Borsetshire village of Soggy Botton will feature in our Salute game on Saturday week. All of the buildings are painted- the red-primed areas need to be textured and covered with mud or grass, and the brown strips around the edges with wattle fences. All the buildings, except for the tithe barn, are from Hovels' splendid 25/28mm range. 

If you are coming to Salute please make a beeline to us and say hello! We have spaces for up to a dozen players in the morning and afternoon. Many cards will be turned...

We are GG07, near the stage in the centre, circled white in the below diagram. As well as my 28mm game, For King and Parliament co-author Andrew Brentnall will be bringing the same battle in 10/12mm. 

Flocking hills

I'm now in the final stages of preparation for the Wargames Holiday Centre gaming weekend in Basingstoke. Here are some old GW hills that I've re-purposed to match the "sagebrush" gaming mat for my Ruspina game (the one with all the Numidians). These are great products- sadly OOP but often encountered on eBay- sturdy, light and stackable. I've added scree, repainted, flocked, tufted and dry-brushed.

I an told by Deep-Cut that the mat that we will be using for the biggest game (not shown), Ipsus, is the largest mat that they have ever manufactured. So I probably have the largest production battle mat in the world.  :)  Muwhaha...

Hills now on sale

Regular readers may recall that I made a great number of hills last week for the Chalgrove event. I designed these to complement the Deep-Cut "plains"battle mat, which is a somewhat darker green than the traditional flocks used on many a wargames table. The below hills are 16cm diameter; there are also oval hills some 31cm long.

I've used three different coloured flocks and two different grits to give them a very naturalistic look. One of the hills can be seen in action (photographed at SELWG in natural daylight) below. If you'd like one, they can now be found in the bigredbatshop!

The hills have I- part 3

The hills are pretty much finished- once dry I'll remove the surplus flock and the gravel and dark green layers below will show through. You may be able to see that the colour is a good match for the Deep-Cut plains mats (in the background). I'm taking no fewer than nine mats and forty-five hills to the Worlds at Chalgrove on Saturday!

The hills have I - part 2

Five hours of flocking has got me to this stage; all the hills now have a 50% covering of dark green flock and ballast.  The next stage is, once they are dry, to remove surplus material, and then I'll apply a medium green flock, perhaps tonight, perhaps tomorrow.

The hills have I

Today I shall mostly be flocking hills for the To the Strongest! World Championships at Chagrove in Oxfordshire on Saturday. By the time I have finished these should match the Deep-Cut plains mats that we will mostly be using.

If you are in the area and fancy dropping in for a look or to join in, please drop me a line!

Bucolic Interlude

This hill was a corner piece from the recent SELWG game; there was quite a bit of interest in it. It stands around 6" tall and is built from some old OOP foam railway terrain and features the excellent Gripping Beast Manx sheep. 

Furiously flocking

Today I am furiously flocking my new terrain boards for the Cremona game at Salute on Saturday! Here I'm applying corn-stubble to a couple of fields and adding patches of long grass to break the flatness of the boards up.  It's a lovely sunny day and I'm playing '70s rock.  :-)

Eagerly anticipating Salute

Sid and Nancy (above) are eagerly anticipating the Cremona 69AD at Salute.

My game is just about the furthest game from the Salute entrance (see map below). When you come in, don't get caught up in the crowds near the entrance- stroll purposefully along the central aisle, past the stage, looking neither to your left nor your right (blinkers might help here) until you reach the far seating area. Cremona will be the game just to your right, with the bridge and all the Romans. And Sid and Nancy.

If you are collecting a set of the To the Strongest! rules that you have pre-ordered, they can be found at the Agema Miniatures stand TE11 (the black asterisk above), Greg will have a list. You can pre-order the rules or buy them on the day, too.

Via Postumia tombs

My Bloody Cremona game at Salute is set along the line of the Via Postumia as it approaches to Cremona.

I thought it would be nice to depict some of the characteristic Roman roadside tombs and monuments, so I made these up. And when I say that I made these up, well, they aren't based on any particular Roman research.  ;-)

The figures are lovely Aventine Miniatures; they look suitably archaic and the pose of the horse is just right for an equestrian statue.

Here is another Aventine general, this time on foot.

The pedestals are made from very old (= 50 years!) Lego bricks and Games Workshop bases; I spent a little time "distressing" them with a scalpel.

They were sprayed white, stained with inks and I then "applied" lichen and moss to age and weather them.

Sometimes the Romans liked to use pyramidal shapes, echoing Egypt.

And finally I made a simple tomb around 30mm long.

The tombs will sit under the cypress trees alongside my Via Postumia in my "Bloody Cremona, 69 AD" game at Salute on Saturday week. If you are coming to Salute, you can find my game at GM11 on the below map, marked with the dark red asterisk. It is next to the large rest area at the far end of the hall from the entrance. Please do drop by and say hello! If you want to join in the game for a half hour or so, perhaps to get an idea of how the rules work, I'm sure we will be able to fit you in. Mark Freeth of the Wargames Holiday Centre will also be there, helping out and taking bookings!

Greg at Agema Miniatures will be selling my "To the Strongest!" rules at Saltue. You will be able to collect your pre-orders made from my shop from his stand, TE11, marked on the map with a black asterisk. He will also have some great Salute deals on his miniatures...

Majestic cypresses

I've had some issues recently with my camera and haven't been able to photograph some of the models I've been making for my Salute Game "Bloody Cremona, 69 AD".  Today, happily, that is resolved and I can start to catch up.

Here are some new cypresses. I love the pencil-thin cypress tree. They always remind me of the Dylan lyric "I waited for you on the running boards, near the cypress trees, while the springtime turned Slowly into Autumn." I am especially keen on these particular cypresses because I made them and they cost almost nothing, unlike model cypresses which cost a couple of quid each (and aren't as nice IMHO). They stand around 6" tall (next to the 28mm figure).

A WIP Cypress is shown to the left.

In order to make the trees, I twisted a double thickness of black pipe cleaners together to make the trunk, and then other pipe cleaners around them to achieve the characteristic pencil thin shape, slightly wider at the bottom. I then dipped the trees in diluted wood glue and applied a couple of coats of fine sponge (two colours, mixed), later revisiting to touch-up any bald patches.

The trunk was glued into a hole drilled into an MDF disc and this, in turn, glued to a coin to act as a counterweight. I textured the bases and later I will partially flock them. Job done!  

I would really love to make some characteristic Italian umbrella pines up but I fear that time will preclude this...

If you are coming to Salute, please drop in to see me at my game (GM11 on the Salute map, near to the seating area that is furthest from the entrance).

Monopolis

A modest digression from 28mm; I have raised the city of Monopolis from a set of Monopoly houses and hotels, and a couple of Brandenburg gate pieces taken from EuroMonopoly sets. The temples are converted from hotels using plasticard. With a little suspension of disbelief, I reckon the buildings are a good size for 2-6mm minis.

Trees of Trasimene

I have just come back from a very enjoyable holiday in the Umbria area of Italy, to the east of Rome I took the opportunity to take some shots of the countryside, as in the future I might want to model the scenery for a future Battle of Lake Trasimene, or fighting in the area in later periods.

The scenery today is divided between flat-bottomed valleys, devoted to agriculture and ideal for warfare, and steep heavily wooded hills. The shot below depicts the view that Hannibal's Celtic allies might have seen down towards Lake Trasimene, although the plain at the bottom is probably rather wider and better drained than in 217BC.  Moreover, it was misty on the morning of the battle.  

The trees are interesting. On the hills there are many deciduous trees, including oaks, that would be readily familiar to British audiences. Intermixed with these, however, there are exotic conifers that give a very characteristic view to the landscape, and which would make a model battlefield look very authentic. Some of these are shown below. A note of caution; some tree species such as the poplar have been developed since Roman times, but I believe the below would have been around back then.

My favourite Italian tree-type is the pencil-thin Cypress (two shown, above left). One can't have too many of these; they look particularly fine along a ridge-line. The taller the better. The pine on the right was also rather common and suitable models are readily available from China, on eBay.

The Umbrella Pines (above) are majestic trees, with a most unusual appearance. I'm hoping to be able to convert some model trees to resemble these.

There are huge numbers of olive trees, often neatly laid out on a grid. The silvery green leaves are very hard to imitate, though.

Here is the modern shoreline of Lake Trasimene. Modern Italians frolic in the sun where their ancestors fought and died; and who can blame them? It was a lovely day.

Finally above is a shot of the reed banks just along the shore of the lake. The reeds are perhaps 1.5m high. The shore to the right of the Roman column would have been very marshy. Some Romans waded out into the water, neck deep, in an attempt to escape, only to be hunted down by the Carthaginian cavalry.

I'm clearly going to need a whole lot more trees!  :-)

Umbria is a beautiful region and I can heartily recommend it for a sunny rural holiday, with great food and historical cities.

Roman Pontoon bridge...

...kit.

This will become the Roman pontoon bridge that will feature in my Bedriacum game at Partizan, in just over 2 weeks time.  Gulp.

It'll be built of coffee stirrers, card, bamboo skewers and balcony edges from 4Ground.  It's not a complex build, but I've left myself very ilittle time to do it, and I also need to knock up some terrain boards, including the River Po.

I've always wanted to own a Roman pontoon bridge.  This will be one of the largest terrain pieces I've built, and one of the cheapest, too!

The saddle

This is the other hill (clickable) I made for my Scottish themed terrain.  It is based on a Javis model I picked up cheaply on eBay, but I customised it heavily, and repainted the rocks.  It is around 40cm wide.  The heather on the slopes is glued in place, but the heather on the top can be moved so that troops can be placed there, as shown above.  The peak can also be removed, to make the saddle wider.

Happily heather seems to be quite widespread across Europe, so I should be able to use this piece reasonably frequently.

Ben Muswell

I've finished the "Scottish" mountain I stated around 10 days ago.

It is boomerang shaped, perhaps 50cm long, by 12cm high.  I've included some sheep on the sheltered lower slopes, amidst the heather... mostly Gripping Beast Manx Langtons.

...whilst an old ram keeps watch (below).

There's a WIP shot of the mountain here.  We used it in a game last night for the first time; it is impassable terrain, and occupies 3 of the terrain boxes I use in my rules.

Bagging a Munro

A Munro is a mountain in Scotland that is at least 3,000 foot high; there are, apparently, 282 of them and more than 4,000 people have climbed the lot!

I decided that I need a smaller mountain for my own table, as it is likely that my Late Roman Field army will be campaigning north of the Wall.  This is a WIP shot of my own Monro (background), which is a lofty 5" tall, and build from some old model railway latex mountain pieces scavenged from the loft.  I have stuck them on top of an old polystyrene hill, and joined them together with grout and faith.  

I am also customizing a Javis ridge (foreground) that I bought cheaply on eBay, and some GW hills (not shown).  The 28mm figures are there to give an idea of scale.  We'll see how they come out after painting...

The hills are alive, with a charge of static

Last week, I re-flocked my old, balding, terrain boards using my zapper. During this week's game of Longstreet, the new, improved boards made my one colour spring-green hills stick out like a sore thumb, so I have added two different blends of flock on the hills, too. I have found that a 4mm grass in a summer green works particularly well.

In the longer term, I intend to add more colours to the boards, and perhaps even patches of flowers, to break them even less uniform.