Although people may struggle with the enforced lock-down currently in place in many countries around the World, I suspect I'm like most wargamers who will see this as a great opportunity to catch-up on starting or finishing projects that have lingered due to real life getting in the way. In New Zealand the period of lock-down is initially for one month, but most likely to be longer than that. Nobody could have foreseen the serious situation we now find ourselves in, but eventually this time will pass; although sadly at the cost of many lives. In an effort to retain what sanity I have left and to avoid 'cabin fever' I've decided to attempt to be disciplined with my time to get the most out of this break. This includes a daily walk with my wife when the weather permits and I have just started reading Shelby Foote's 3-volume monograph of the American Civil War. I've had these books for 26 years and only just read the first few pages today! I've also been planning for the last month to add a post on the new 28 mm fortified farm house terrain piece that I've recently completed. I'm quietly proud of how this has turn out, but can't claim all the kudos for it. The two buildings are mdf flat pack models that I purchased through Titan Terrain from Dunedin here in NZ (www.titanterrain.nz). These were easy to make and are of a style that I can use for multi periods for games covering the British Isles and Western Europe.
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| Aerial view of the farm. I particularly like the generic farm house that could be anywhere from rural Ireland to Northern France. The wattle and daub barn might not be an exact fit with the house, but I liked the contrast from old and new style buildings. |
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| The walls are made from thick artist foam board, while the capping is made from old bits of Balsa wood. The corner stone effect was made by gluing cardboard. The gates and gate posts are also made from Balsa wood. |
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| I decided to cut the corner of the wall boundary so that the tree was placed outside the wall. I though this would make it easier to place stands of figures inside the compound without damaging the tree over time. |
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| The wrought iron effect on the gate was achieved by using a pen to push in some dents on the reverse side of small strips of card, then painting them gun metal, finished with a dry brush of silver. The brick paving came from a roll of vinyl bricks purchased from our local Christmas shop. The dry brushing really worked well in providing an aged look. |
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| This fenced farrowed field is another small project that I started back in the Christmas holidays and have only now managed to photograph. The farrow effect came by gluing down some corrigated card, then adding small grit to help make it look like dirt. I hope to use this for FIW, AWI and ACW games. |
That's it for now. Thanks for taking a look... and until next time!
