Terrain WIP

Last Saturday's game was a bit of a weird one (no pics as camera didn't make it to the club. Ooops!) as we were experimenting with 1:120 scale in preparation for applying it to the Wagram scenario in the not too distant future. This worked well for those playing French and Austrian, but for Quinny and I using British and allied troops it posed more problems than solved. Also against us was the fact that everyone bar John W. had misinterpreted Tim's instructions and come along with half sized forces rather than doubling the points and turning up with the usual number of troops. As a result we had lots of space to play with!

British forces of the period were made up usually of 1 battalion regiments, the 2nd battalion usually being a depot battalion back home. Even though some 2nd battalions were deployed, they rarely fought with their senior battalion in the same brigade. Therefore, Quinny and I were at a disadvantage from the start because we couldn't really pretend that one 1:60 British battalion was two 1:120 battalions brigaded together, as the French and Austrians could. We had tiny little 5 or 6 figure battalions facing 12 figure regiments! 

While Quinny was having trouble fending off John W's attacks, I managed to bamboozle John R with my number of tiny units able to get in on his flanks, even though his cavalry brigades easily saw off my individual squadrons. Quinny finished him off in the centre, but in turn was having trouble keeping the field with the pressure John W was putting him under. 

Anyway, the consensus was 1:120 doesn't really work for British forces in our rules.

I've also decided that I need more terrain for my boards as I tend to have too much open space and not enough woods and other impedimenta for my liking. So, I 'borrowed' some felt from my daughter on the condition that I replace it, for the forest footprint, and made myself some more trees.

When I began this hobby I experimented with making my own terrain and found a tutorial online (can't remember where now) on how to make trees from kitchen scourers and roofing nails. The results weren't exactly to my liking, so I flocked the canopy  to make the foliage look more leafy. After a lot of handling and use, the flocking that remains looks a little threadbare. I left the trunks bare which made them look a little scrawny, too, so this time I've broken out the old Miliput again to sculpt more realistic looking trunks and roots and used Woodland Scenics undergrowth to provide a more coarse foliage which all in all makes a fairly convincing looking oak tree. 

After seeing teddy bear fur used in wargaming terrain here, I experimented with a small patch to represent a standing cereal crop that you may have seen in some of my previous posts. I still have quite a bit of fur remaining and as I have been suffering from insomnia for a while now, I thought I'd put my wakefulness to good use and create a larger field complex of 3 different crops. I used scissors to trim the path through the crops as well as to trim rows through the bottom right crop, then dry brushed 2 shades of green and some earth tones through the main field, a combination of black, grey and brown along the paths and a slight hint of green through the rows while leaving the bottom left quadrant in its original state. I'm quite pleased with the results!

Rough circles cut from scourer after tracing circles using different sized bottle-tops. Largest at bottom to smallest at top of tree. Holes made by pushing nail through WARNING: try not to impale yourself while doing this!

Roofing nails stuck though roughly ripped pieces of thin corkboard

Milliput added and sculpted to look like tree trunk and roots. Painted dark brown with lighter tones dry brushed on.

Scourer circles stuck on nail, then generous amount of white glue applied to the surface. Flocking applied and pressed into glue. Once it begins to dry, I gave the foliage a generous squirt with matt varnish which acts like hairspray to keep it all together. Base still requires some static grass/flocking.

Teddy bear fur crops