Dampf's Wargame Terrain Survey - The Results

During the month of September I have been running a simple survey - three questions which should help me when producing articles or tutorials for future magazine articles. The questions were;

Question 1

What scale or scales should I use when building my scratch built models?

Question 2

Do you prefer fixed roofs or lift off roofs?

Question 3

Do you prefer decorative bases or no bases?

The results are now in and I would firstly like to thank everyone who took part, those that replied to this initial post and the few who used either Instagram or The Miniatures Page to supply their answers. I have collated all of the replies to produce this result;

What scale/scales?

Not surprisingly 28mm scale came out on top although with over 93% mentioning this most common wargame figure scale, at least in part or in conjunction with another, I think the dominance of 28mm was more than I had expected.

In second place was 15mm with 44% and in third place was less than 15mm with just 7% with comments mentioning both 6mm and 10mm figure scales.

Lift off roof or fixed?

The response to this question was a almost exactly 2/3rd yes and 1/3rd no with only 2 respondents having no preference. This goes against my own preference as I prefer fixed roofs. So I will have to take a serious look at any future models or tutorial plans.

There were a couple of respondents to the second part of this question - detailed interiors or plain interiors with no discernible winner or preference.

Decorative bases or no bases?

There was an obvious preference for some sort of base, either decorative or just practical, with the remaining No Base or No Preference about the same - between 9% and 5%.

So there you have it; Future magazine articles/tutorials will concentrate on 28mm scale wargame models with lift off roofs and some sort of base although I still see some room for the odd exception.

Once again, thanks to everyone who took part.

Tony

Dampf's Wargame Terrain Survey - last day!

For the whole month of September, I have been running a simple survey asking just three questions relating to my magazine articles/tutorials;

1 - What scale should I build models for the magazine tutorials?

2 - Lift off roof or fixed?

3 - Integral base or not

For full details see this earlier post. I will be closing the survey later today and expect results to be posted very soon.

Thank you to everyone who took part.

Tony

Dampf's Wargame Terrain Survey - September 2021

DAMPF'S WARGAME TERRAIN SURVEY

Regular followers and readers of this Blog will know that I enjoy constructing scratch built terrain for my own use and as masters for other companies. I have produced three self published wargame terrain books and two further books available from Pen & Sword, as well as regularly writing for wargame magazines. I recently received a comment on my Blog asking if I would produce a tutorial featuring a lift off roof and this got me thinking.....

Am I producing the content that fits with my readers and their needs?

So in response, throughout the month of September, I will be running this simple survey, which I hope you will take part in. My plan is to ask a series of simple questions which I hope will help to guide me when producing further articles/tutorials for magazines.

Question 1

What scale? I propose that you respond with a figure or figures, for example - less than 15mm, 15mm - 18mm, 20mm, 25mm, 28mm 30mm, 32mm or larger.

Question 2

Lift off roof or fixed? A further question could be detailed interior or plain? I prefer models with a fixed roof as these offer additional strength and fit with my own gaming requirements but I am aware that others like the novelty of a lift off roof.

Question 3

Integral base or not. Again my own preference is for a decorative base slightly larger than the model with some added items of clutter, as seen above.

Please respond in the comments section, with answers to Q1, Q2, Q3 and feel free to add any additional views or re-post.

Thank you.

Tony

Scratch built well

This latest Blog post shows how I built and painted a small well from scrap material I had lying around. The design was copied from an actual stone well image found on the internet.

I started with a 3mm thick plastic card base and built the stone well from scraps of blue foam glue together with woodworking PVA glue.

The water area was another section of 3mm thick plastic card and any gaps were filled with DAS modelling clay. The base or groundwork was built-up with DAS and textured with sieved sand applied over PVA.

Detailing and decoration was done with more bits and pieces from the spares box. The water bottle was a modified Knex piece and the decorative pot to the side is a plastic bead.

I have used more blue foam to built the capping stones around the top of the well.

Here as an image showing the well from another direction. The base is 100mm x 110mm.

I started painting with a mix of different greys with a hint of flesh colour scrubbed on in a haphazard process which allows many different colours and tones to show through - a more natural stone effect.

The water area was painted in a bright blue, darker to the edges and lighter in the centre. The water bottle was painted in a terracotta brown with a white glazed top.

the base or groundwork was painted in dark brown with lighter drybrushing and the odd stone picked out in grey (mixed from black and white) then highlighted with white.

Prior to taking this image, I 'washed' the base with a dark tone wash.

After varnishing with Galleria matt varnish and then adding gloss varnish to the surface of the water, I decorated the base with a mix of different flocks.

The small well from another direction showing the natural stone colour and the use of 'spot colour' - the orange pot.

The final image shows a 28mm scale Pax Bochemannica Boche alongside - to give an idea of the scale of this simple piece.

The model is pretty generic in style and could be used for a wide variety of different periods/genres. It took less than an afternoon to build and paint and would be a great project for a beginner.

Tony

Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy - issue 108

The latest issue of Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy (issue 108 May/June 2020) features another article written by me.

Dandied up Dark Ages

Back in 2019, I was visiting a local carboot sale (remember those?) and came across a guy selling a whole host of Games Workshop, Lord of the Rings figures. Also on the table were a couple of resin buildings and I picked up both for just £5.00 (that's right £2.50 each) - at those prices I thought they were well worth taking a punt.....

Both buildings were either damaged or heavily modified with doors and some features either cut off or broken. I cleaned up the castings and mounted them onto plastic card bases before painting and decorating the bases.

I had originally written the articles/tutorials as two separate pieces but Guy (the editor W, S & S) has published them as one. The first, the Roundhouse is a 15mm casting by Hovels (modified to 28mm scale with new doors), while the second is a 28mm Longhouse from Gripping Beast.

For more information about the magazine see this link

Browsing my virtual W H Smiths store I currently have three magazine articles in three different magazines on display. The W, S & S issue 108, Narrow Gauge World 147 and Miniature Wargames issue 445. Although I have in the past had two magazine articles displayed at the same time - this is the first time I have had three!

Stay safe

Keep Calm and Carry On Modelling

Tony

A Christmas Store Hut - my latest article for W, S & S issue 101

Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy issue 101 included a two page article written by me. A Christmas Store Hut shows how I re-purposed a cheap 50p Christmas tree ornament that I picked up at the Bewdley railway station on the Severn Valley Railway into this characterful store hut for use in my Flintloque games.

Full details of the magazine can be found here.

Tony

Tarting-up MDF - an article for Wargames Soldiers and Statergy

The latest issue of Wargames Soldiers and Strategy (issue 83) contains an article written by me called Make MDF Look Real or Tarting-up MDF.

The basic MDF building from Timeline Miniatures was used as the core of this re-built 28mm farm building or out-house.

The walls were raised and the doors made bigger.....

Before the walls were clad with DAS modelling clay.

And the roof sculpted in both DAS and vacuum formed plastic roof tiles. The article details how I attempted to build a simple MDF building straight from the box, but in the end, ended up re-building almost every detail.

Details of W,S&S can be found here.

Tony

Oldehammer Building No. 2 - part six

Building No. 2 finished. The beams have been painted with a black/brown mix as I felt the pure black was a little too stark and the windows have been painted blue with white highlights.

Further detail painting was done around the chimney and doors.

The final image shows the two Blood Bath at Orcs Drift card inspired buildings. They have been great fun to build, but I'm not sure what I will be doing with them.

For more details please see earlier posts.

Tony

Oldehammer Building No. 2 - part five

The painting started with an all over white or off-white base coat. I then painted the roof tiles in a red/orange mix, varying the colour by adding orange or red as I painted the roof and picking out odd tiles in a lighter or darker colour.

At the same time I painted the small out-building in a range of browns in the same way that the original Blood Bath at Orcs drift card house was printed.

The main door was painted in a bleached grey colour.

Tony

Oldehammer Building no. 2 - part four

The latest update - the surface texturing. I have used a mixture of uPVA glue, textured paste (artists use it to thicken and add body to acrylic paints), fine sand and ready mixed filler to paint on a protective and textured coating to the model. I find that this texturing gives the model a better surface finish, adding interest to the plain card detail as well as giving the card a stronger and longer lasting surface finish.

I have used a large, soft bristled brush and watered-down the mix with water to which I have added a tiny drop of washing-up liquid. The plain white-washed base also helps with painting.

The next couple of steps will show how this simple card building was painted.

Tony

Oldehammer Building No. 2 - part three

The roof was clad with card tiles - slightly thinner card than used on building No. 1 but added in exactly the same way; individual card tiles first chipped and weathered and then glued in place with uPVA glue.

The capping stones have been further detailed with sections of wooden cocktail sticks, glued in place with superglue.

The next update with show how I have textured the surface.

Tony

Oldehammer Building No. 2 - part two

Following on from the earlier post - the timber framing has been modelled from card (backing card from a sketch pad) and glued in place with uPVA glue. I have tried to copy the timber framing from the card building in Blood Bath oat Orcs Drift but as I was working from internet images, I'm not sure it is an exact copy.

The small wooden out building has had the upright wooded cladding modelled from cereal pack card again glued in place with uPVA glue.

I am well aware that these techniques are not breaking any new ground - if fact they are looking back to some of the earliest Warhammer buildings I ever made, they are however great fun to build and paint and as such are well worth attempting.

Tony

Oldehammer Building No. 2 - part one

Building No 2 - The Town House from Blood Bath at Orcs Drift was built alongside the first building (see earlier posts) and used construction techniques that are very similar to those already detailed in earlier posts.

The building was constructed from spare (ex-advertising sign) foamboard with the edges strengthened with strips of newspaper. I used my hot glue gun for the initial construction and uPVA glue for the newspaper strips.

I was lucky enough to find an image of this building on the internet and as it was photographed on a self-healing cutting board (with a 1cms square grid) I was able to re-construct the building on graph paper prior to building it. If you are using foam board - remember to make allowances for the thickness of the foamboard - in this case 5mm.

The foamboard core and strip newspaper strengthening produces a very strong box - ideal as the basis of  a simple wargame building. More to follow.

Tony

Oldehammer Building No. 1 - part four

The first building finished. The most time consuming part was painting the timber frame. I used watered-down Chaos Black with some Beastial Brown added (to reduce the starkness of pure black) and with a No. 2 Rosemary and Co. brush painted each of the wooden frames. There is no quick way of doing this - you just have to take each post and paint it to the best you can.

There is some detail painting but not much and I have found these simple naive and early Warhammer or Citadel themed building to be just the tonic I needed.

My Mojo is back!

For details of the earlier construction, texturing and base painting please see earlier posts.

Building No. 2 to follow soon.

Tony

Oldehammer Building No. 1 - part three

The roof was the first thing I painted. I wanted to follow the Games Workshop card building colours as close as possible and went with an ochre tile or roof colour.

The colour has been built up over a mid-brown base by drybrushing with lighter colours and 'washing' with darker washes. As you can see I have picked out the odd tile with a grey-green colour and then more drybrushing.

The drybrushing has picked up on the earlier texturing.

Next it was on to the white-washed walls which I painted White!

The white was built up over a pale ivory colour with Titanium White tube acrylic paint painted on to the centre of the wall sections.

The model was great fun to build and even more fun to paint.

More to come - very soon. For more detail please see earlier posts.

Tony

Oldehammer Building No.1 - part two

Part two - The Texturing.

I mixed up some uPVA glue, ready-mixed filler and fine sand and applied it to the whole of the model with a large brush. The texturing coat acts as a sealing layer as well a adding interest to the simple structure.

Once the initial texturing had dried, I used DAS modelling clay to 'tidy up' the rather 'soft' detail. The windows have been decorated with some plastic coated packing material (green mesh) and the door has been sculpted from DAS.

The next update will show how I painted this model.

For details of part one - please go to this link.

Tony