Rivers for Small Scale Gaming

A long held frustration of mine when it comes to terrain for use with the smallest of Small-Scale miniatures is the depiction of rivers on the tabletop. As I mainly use terrain mats with 2mm troops, all scenics or terrain pieces are necessarily those that are placed on top of this mat.

Now this expanse of green, in my case, can often be found broken up by road networks which are temporarily laid using dark flocking powder or even dried coffee grounds, that can be vacuumed up afterwards, but the putting down of water-courses presents much more of a problem.

I have found that most of the commercially available product out there is simply too large and too wide to represent anything other than the widest of rivers, estuaries in scale, even, when put against those 2mm unit bases. Whilst I do own some of the useful river sections made by Terrain Mat in the UK, they are really too wide for your average stream or medium sized river.

Now of course Irregular Miniatures themselves offer a very useful Roads pack in their Scenics and Accessories range, helpfully pictured by Tony Hughes of Tiny Tin Troops here:

http://www.gildasfacit.btinternet.co.uk/2mm/2mmTerrain/Roads_Rivers_2.jpg

these can be painted to represent rivers as well as roads, but here comes part two of my pet peeve: although 25 sections are available for UK £9.00, the sections themselves are in relatively short lengths, so much so that the river, when laid across the tabletop, looks more like a jigsaw than a coherent watercourse!

What I wanted to get my hands on was something that would come in long single lengths that would naturally span the surface with fewer joins, whilst at the same time not being too wide to throw a bridge across.

I was very pleased, then, to come across the DH1000 pack of Ditches from S&A Scenics, offering some 60 inches of ditch for £11.00. As you can see in the first photo above, a decent selection of lengths and curved parts, the longest of which coming out at just under 30cm, with an overall width including banks of 25mm, with the inner 'ditch' itself being 10mm wide.

http://www.scenics.co.uk/

In a hommage to the Road/Rivers from Irregular, then, I set out to give these ditches a repaint to look more like what I was after.

The strips themselves are basically a thin slice of MDF, with built up edges, painted in the centre with a very dark brown stripe, and having some rough vegetation to the banks added probably with a flocking gel or paste containing grit or sand. These lumps have been dry-brushed in a rather lurid yellow, the banks in a light green.

The pack contains three of the longest sections, with a nice meandering profile, two half-lengths that are even more curved, and finally the constituents, in four further pieces, of a nice curve.

Plenty, then, to make use of, and remember an overall length of 60 inches to cover the width of the tabletop with as few joins as possible.

Next, I had ago at an example stretch, just to see how well these might perform in their dramatic conversion from humble ditch to noble river!

A few splodgy dry-brush strokes with a dark shade of green took care of the worst examples of the yellow blobs-as-vegetation, and some watered down PVA was then attacked with some flock and a few wafts of static grass. The 'water' itself already had a nice undercoat in the form of the dark background of the ditch, so some Prussian Blue was washed down the middle:

Of course, I was far too impatient to let this properly dry before blowing off the excess static grass, so some of it ended up, shall we say, as if 'floating' down the river - more attention to detail required for the other sections, I think!

Anyway, not bad for a quick example piece, and hopefully this gives some idea of what the whole might look like, seen here with a couple of bridges from Irregular Miniatures, (BG126) shown for scale:

Finally, with a few blocks of troops approaching what should be, rather than an impassable object, an inherent part of the terrain they will have to fight over:

I think the ditch lengths should reward some more care and attention to detail, and hopefully will give the aesthetically pleasing lack of so many physical joins that I was after. In conclusion, of course, these would also stand in at larger scales for merely smaller rivers, or even streams, so may well see some double duty in the future!

Interlude: Public outdoor wargaming tables in London?

A recent weekend spent indulging my significant other's hobby of photography, saw the SteelonSand caravan traipsing the highways and byways of our great Capital, and brought yours truly into contact with some intriguing bits of 'Public Art'.

These art works brought to mind the often plaintive requests for information you hear on the Message Boards at TMP and elsewhere, from visitors to London who are looking for something gaming-related to visit, particularly shop-based. Whilst of course there are excellent military museums and historical artefacts, there is sadly little left in the way of wargaming emporiums in the centre of town. So if you find yourself in either of the two following locations, have a look at these curiosities, which should at least set your imagination running wild, if not giving you a practical solution to a wargaming-free trip!

First up in Bishop's Square next to Spitalfields in the East of the City of London (Near Liverpool Street Station), lurking amidst the glass and steel of the commercial district, is what I can only describe as a wargamer's wet dream, if said wargamer had a mind to construct an outdoor table upon which to game 6mm English Civil War, that is....

With each square measuring approximately 40cm per side, you have 2.4 metres by 2 metres worth of scale model depicting the Civil War fortifications around the city of London circa 1642, shining a spotlight on an oft forgotten part of this period, when the Parliamentarians rebuffed the King at Turnham Green, only to continue in genuine fear of a further attempt at attacking the capital, and therefore enlisted the good gentlefolk of the town in constructing miles of Bulwarks, Hornworks, Batteries and Bastions to defend the city. All long gone now under the urban sprawl of course, although a few street names survive to commemorate them, Mount Street in Mayfair, for instance, calling to mind 'Oliver's Mount(ain)', the large earthwork bastion that once guarded the Western approaches there.

The first photo at the head of this post depicts an overview from the West, looking across the city, with this large bastion in the centre bottom foreground; the next picture sees us hovering south of the river Thames, and spying on the line of circumvallation that cuts across Southwark and Lambeth of old, and below we see the centre at the Thames itself, with the Old London Bridge topped by houses as it was all that time ago before the Great Fire:

Next up, a good view of the old St. Paul's Cathedral in the middle, rising amidst row upon row of houses and buildings -if only they had been individually made and painted by Timecast rather than cast in this architectural art-form!

I think I'll definitely have to inaugurate an annual wargaming event here, with a few thousand Baccus, Irregular or Heroics and Ros 6mms on hand to fight out a fictional siege; don't know what the Artists themselves might make of that, though; an interesting Wikipedia page describing the artwork and the fortifications depicted thereon can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lines_of_Communication_(London)

Next is quite a hop skip and a jump away, on the south side of the river Thames near Tower Bridge, outside of the newly iconic 'motorcycle helmet' of City Hall, currently inhabited by the buffoonish bouffanted Mayor Boris.

This would make a great little board for some sort of Kaiju / attack of the X-Monster type nonsense, with each target for stomping clearly outlined in all-weather bronze (Flock has no place in the outdoors!):

Never seen a circular wargaming table, of course, nor one that helpfully points out the location of the nearest WC facilities:

For those amongst you that are navally minded, how about a 1/900th-ish representation of the WWII light cruiser HMS Belfast, a definite magnet for the weapons of any passing Martian War Machine, if ever I saw one.....of course, the 1:1 scale version is docked nearby....

So then, really just some publicly-minded works of Art, but nevertheless, grist to the mill of my own wargaming imagination at least, which might be worth your while seeking out, if you are ever in the neighbourhood!

So, where would you mount your attack from? The eastern approach looks pretty well defended...hmmm....how about a riverine assault, Renaissance style.....? :-).

She Who Must Be Obeyed

So, my Significant Other has deigned to take a look at my workbench, cluttered as it is with the plastic 'Silent Death' fighters from EM-4, mounted on 1" flight stands.

"What are those?" she declares haughtily. I launch into an explanation of the use of these fighters as alien aircraft for the Land Dreadnoughts project, only to be cut short.

"I know that  - what are those things?" "Erm, oh, you mean the flight stands?"

"Yeah, what are those black things - I thought they were flying saucers or something stuck underneath...."

I bluster in reply, "Well, these are black plastic, but you can get see-thru ones...."

"Why go to all the trouble of making that green surface, and then plonk those on them? Don't people think they look weird?"

"Well, we, er, kind of ignore them when playing, you know, they're something to get hold of instead of touching the mini..."

"You should cover them up - you know, with that green stuff that always seems to get everywhere!"

I splutter, "Well, I....", but with that she has turned on her heel, and gone, interview over.

After sighing long and deep, I turned to look at the stands. In a way, she had a point - they were kind of obvious - but how to disguise them? 

Flocking directly onto them probably wouldn't take too well, and would get rubbed off in play, mmm, other work forgotten, the wheels started to go round. "Cover them up", she'd said - I'd often used a medium grade sand paper as a basing material, how about a cone of that to act as a cover?

You could even dye or paint it to represent different surfaces, earth, grass, desert, whatever; some double-sided sticky tape along one edge, and you have a removable, re-usable cover, at least on the face of it.

Of course, as an imperfect being, of questionable ancestry regarding mathematics and geometry, I had not realised that the wider you have the circumference of base of the cone, enough to cover the plastic hexagon, the taller it is in height, or something like that, so the efficient cover rather turned into something clunky and horrible.

I was about to turn back to the drawing board when I heard a dismissive sniff behind me:

"What are you making now.....tents?"

I didn't have the heart to admit my failure to the harshest critic in the world, so grinned cheesily in reply.

Whatever their input or influence, this is a salute to those Significant Others who inspire and indulge our hobby, treat us to helpful suggestions, or little surprises that have to be gently put right........"No love, the Giant Bunny is not appropriate for the Russo-Japanese War...."

Long may they be our guides!  :-).  

Painting 2mm: The King's Life Guard Part 2

Irregular Miniatures make a number of different blocks of combined Pike and Shot suitable for the Renaissance period, however I find that they are comparatively small in size, and depending on the kind of figure ratio you are hoping to achieve, not ideal for large formations.

Thankfully, they do some separate blocks which can easily be combined to form a representative whole. As you will have seen in my previous post, I favour a Pike block from RBG9, and Musket 'sleeves' formed from 4xBG16, which gives an appropriate depth against the Pike. I suppose strictly, the officers of a regiment of foot would have been on foot during a battle, but I like to top off the base with the mounted trio from RBG24. As you can see in the photo above, once I have the blocks painted up to my stasfaction, I like to base these large formations on an artist's card base (1.6mm deep backed with magnetic sheet), which is 60mm wide by 30mm deep.

Once glued down, the troops just need a final look over, and any areas that look a bit sloppy, or have been obscured, tidied up. If you're feeling ambitious, this is where you add in the feather in the Colonel's hat, and a few coloured sashes to distinguish the officers!

I pre-paint the bases before mounting the blocks, again making sure to use quite a light colour tone in order to make the figures 'pop' with a suitable contrast. The base could probably be left like this, but I think some attention with your smallest grade flock, or even some larger pieces as bushes or trees gives it a nice diorama-like feel:

So there you have it, a straightforward way of painting the King's Life Guard, ready to defend His Sovereigne Majestie against his rebellious foes!

Finally a shot of part of the Royalist army en masse - I think this gives a good idea of the visual effect that can be achieved by these tiny troops when deployed in number, all for a comparatively minimal effort in both time and expense. Give some a try; you won't be disappointed!

Painting 2mm figures: The King's Life Guard

A word now, on painting 2mm scale figures from Irregular Miniatures. As I've said before, I'm certainly no expert, but it always surprises me how many people criticise 2mm for being impossible to paint, that they are mere blobs, or that you need an electron microscope to see any detail.

Oh ye of little faith! Of course they are small, of course they were designed to depict groups of soldiers; and yes, you can't count the buttons on the uniforms, but give them a try and you might be surprised. Not all the available blocks are perfect, but handle one in a well lit room, and take a good look. As you scan along the front, it is obvious that far from being a plain block, each figure is clearly delineated, you can see cross-belts on their backs and weapons at port to their front, there is even a drummer at one end of the line and a standard bearer in the centre!

As to painting them, you'll struggle to do justice to this detail; at least I always do, but for reference, here's my quick method:

As you can see in the first photo above, after cleaning up the mini, I sit firmly on the middle of the fence in the white versus black undercoat debate by using panzer grey!

Stage 1: Using a dotting motion, I put colour to the front, side and rear of each visible figure on the block, and then using almost a highlighting or drybrush stroke, pick out the raised detail of the figure's legs.

Next I fill in the line of the shoulders as seen from above, taking care to make sure that not too much paint flows from the brush.

Stage 2, in the picture above, sees a dot of flesh tone for each face, (you can even put in the hand of the standard bearer) and I also usually paint in the pikes and their points, and give flags their base colour.

Next up, as you can see below, I do the headgear, in the case of these ECW chaps, a variety of colours (scruffy lot in those days), again dotted on, with care taken not to obscure the faces at the front.

Here I've also added in a few buff coats amongst the musketeers, and follow up with a dot of black for armour amongst the pikemen, applied over the uniform colour.

Stage 3 is to finish the standards: of course at this size you are really only trying to suggest the colour or pattern, so don't worry too much; on occasion I've even removed the cast on flags entirely, and had them replaced with oversized printed or painted ones for more visual appeal.

Next I will try and pick out the weapons visible in the front rank with a stroke from my finest pointed brush (usually a 000), yes this is fiddly to do,not always successful, and perhaps not really necessary, but I think it adds a level of definition.

Finally, I line in the exposed base in the ground colour, using a bright contrasting tone that is lighter than you might normally use, for reasons of visibility, taking care not to overlap onto the figures.

So, you're almost there - a whole regiment (the same principle applies to mounted troops, just paint from the horse outwards) in a few quick steps - and you haven't gone blind or in a fit of frustration decided to use plastic Risk counters instead!

These figures were designed for maximum 'Mass' appeal, enabling you to portray a lot, in a limited space, on a limited budget, and will reward a bit of attention with regiments and battalions that at least look like they have the footprint of the real thing on the tabletop.

Don't be afraid to give them a try!

Next Post: Finishing and Basing the King's Lifeguard.

This Week's Top Tip!

Painting figures at the smaller end of the scale requires a good solid platform for holding the little beasties still whilst you apply that all-important paintjob. I think there must be as many different kinds of mountings out there as there are wargamers; bottle caps, steel washers, nail heads, etc, etc. I, however, like many others, have sworn by the craft sticks/tongue depressors approach, and stuck the figures on lightly, using a dab of the hot-glue gun or a weak generic glue.

I often found, however, that with the smallest figures, often the removal after painting could be quite stressful, pulling and twisting the little masterpiece to get it free. Then I recently had a brainwave! (Careful, now!) How about trying double sided sticky tape? 

As you can see above, it's easy to apply to the stick, and then to trim it to shape thus:

You then only need to peel away the top cover sheet and hey presto, you have a strong tacky bond to mount your figure bases on:

Now of course, you have to make sure that the bottom surface of the mini is filed nice and flat;

which for these Irregular Miniatures' 6mm IND40 Sikh Regular Infantry, as with a lot of their ranges, can require a bit of work, but then they will sit quite comfortably on their new paintstick:

The heaviest of miniatures probably wouldn't stand up to this stress test, but for these little chaps a firm shake in the photo above, whilst upside down, has done them no harm, and they are present and correct and ready for painting.

I've found this method to be cheap and fuss free, particularly as after painting, the sticky tape can be peeled away easily, and the stick re-used. If you're having a go with 2, 6 or 10mm figures, give it a try!