Friday 29 April 2011

"It's a Fair Copse"

Work on terrain continues, and I textured the bases of the tree stands that I posted last week.  Since then I've made some more, along with the first part of what will be a Russian village that I hope will do service with both my 20mm WW2 Soviets and my 28mm  Napoleonics. 

The village unit consists of a resin cottage from Britannia Miniatures, and one of the wonderful Pegasus Hobbies Russian farm houses.  The white patches are glued-down bits of old dishcloths, with the rest of the base textured with a "putty" made of white glue and sand.  Once it has all dried out, I will prime and paint it all.
 
click to enlarge 
The buildings are fine for my 20mm miniatures of course, but they should also do for 28mm as well.  The Pegasus Hobbies building kits in particular are on the larger end of 20mm, and given unit footprints for Horse-and-Musket games, going down a bit in size for terrain pieces does not look out of place.

The pine trees were easy enough to do, and are ready for painting but the deciduous trees will require some more work, as the flocking drops off the branches at a drop of a hat(chet?).  I will just do the messy job of soaking the foliage with watered-down white glue to seal everything together, and adding more flocking to the trees for depth.



6 comments:

Paulalba said...

I have to say Robert your terrain is starting to look really impressive!

Your a real wizard with it. This is the side of our hobby that I am not 100% on.
Keep up the good work!
Cheers
Paul

Doc Smith said...

I just commented to a mate of mine that with all the painting I hadn't the time to do any of the terrain required. Your stuff is looking really good. Is there a method for the pine trees or do they come in kit form? I like the use of old CDs - I may just have to pinch that idea when I do some scenery of my own.

Cheers,
Doc

Iannick said...

I always love your work on terrain Robert, the finished product should look great.

Achilles said...

Its looking really good Robert! I cant wait to garrison those buildings with the Legion Irlandaise :) (almost done)

I am back in Tokyo by the way! I dont know if I am going to stay here for my Phd after all but for the time being I am here...

Robert said...

Thanks, mes amis, terrain is a lot of fun to make for me, and is a lot easier on the 'ol eyes than is painting miniatures (though it does make considerably more of a mess).

I've been pacing myself this time. I don't want the eyestrain and back problems to reappear, so after having spent a lot of time at the computer and/or working on figures recently, I find that switching to the terrain gives it all a bit of a rest, while still staying hobby-focussed.

Paul, terrain building is a lot easier than it looks- and fortunately there a lot of good "how to" tutorials out there that save a lot of time and grief.

Doc, the pine trees are- I believe- from Games Workshop. One of the guys at the club had a bunch of trees and hills that he gave to me to me and Brian here to work on. The deciduous trees were bought at my local hobby shop. I could no doubt make my own a lot cheaper, but tarting up commercial trees simply saves on time.

Achilleas, looking forward to seeing those Irish! It might be fun to game their last stand at the Battle of Lowenberg in 1813- although there were not many Irish left in the ranks by that time.

Ben Gilmour said...

Hi Robert,

Lovely terrain pieces!Unfortunately, I don't have any Garth Brooks in my collection so I don't know if I can replicate this wonderful idea!

You may already have one of these, but I've nominated you for the 'Stylish Blogger Award' that's going around like a virus at the moment. See http://rosbiffrog.blogspot.com/2011/05/id-like-to-thank-everyone-who-made-this.html
for details.

Thanks for your comments and efforts with la Bricole since you've taken over!