Making Jungle Terrain

My game group is eager to get started on some Caribbean pirate action with Blood and Plunder, but we're sorely lacking in appropriate terrain. We assembled some Spanish style resin buildings, but the pine trees, oaks and other temperate vegetation I have just won't cut it for swashbuckling adventures across the Spanish Main.

Check out my method for creating dense jungle terrain after the jump.

Desert Wasteland Terrain Revisited

My desert terrain tutorial has received a good deal interest since I posted it a few years ago, but a few readers were concerned about the durability of the latex covered terrain cloth.  I haven't had a chance to put it to the test until now. After creating the desert terrain cloth I had to roll it up and place it in storage while we prepared our old house for sale, built our new house and moved in. Things are starting to settle down and I was able to unfurl the desert terrain cloth. And the verdict is...

Perfect! I anticipated some damage, perhaps some sand that came loose, but I don't think the cloth lost a single grain.

The cloth remained flexible and intact, despite being rolled, thrown into storage, and manhandled into our new house, where it was stashed unceremoniously in a basement storage closet. Now... I just need some more desert figures to fight out some battles on it.

Kickstarter Roundup: Dungeons and Hussars

There a pair of Kickstarters I'm following, one just wrapping up and one just getting started: Dwarven Forge's "Game Tiles" and Wargamer's "By Fire and Sword".  More details after the jump.

Incredible terrain set ups for fantasy campaign

I saw this link pop up on reddit and finally got around to watching it. This guy has filled his basement with elaborate terrain set ups for his groups rpg games. Even if you don't play role playing games you should check out these diorama terrain set ups. Awesome stuff!

Architects of War Dark Ages Buildings

Architects of War was running a show special at Fall-In for a bundle of dark ages terrain I couldn't pass up. I painted up the Daub and Wood A-Frame and Timber A-Frame to go along with my wattle fences in anticipation of some SAGA. My thoughts and progress pics after the jump.

Renedra Wattle Fence

I knocked out a pack of Renedra wattle fences this weekend. I thought the little "feet" used for basing might look a bit goofy, so I gave each length of fence a base. To make sure the fence ends could join up seamlessly I left the bases a bit short, leaving a baseless gap on the ends. I might go back and tidy that up, but seen at normal playing height those gaps aren't noticeable. The pic above only shows a few lengths of fence, but the pack contains enough to create quite a large enclosure for dark ages livestock or a village.

I have a few more bits of dark ages terrain I want to get finished up before moving on to the actual figures. I'm looking forward to finally jumping into SAGA and maybe extending those warbands into full on 1st Crusade and Sicilian Norman armies for Hail Caesar. Black Friday is coming and I'm already starting to collect a list of wargame deals for the holidays, hoping to find deals to flesh out these nascent dark ages armies. I'll post whatever I find in case you are interested. Do you know of any hobby or gane deals coming online for Black Friday?

Desert Wasteland Wargame Terrain Cloth Tutorial

I've been upgrading my terrain scenics lately: woods, buildings, walls and other items that sit on top of the table, but I've been holding out on updating the terrain board or cloth that our miniature wargames are played on. I toyed with the idea of creating terrain boards, but after seeing some impressive terrain cloth tutorials (Of Metal Men's, Jeff Knudsen's Terrain Cloth and Balagan's Felt Cloth for example), I decided to tackle one myself as part of my Flocktober projects. Hurricane Sandy and Fall-In delayed completion, but pics and a tutorial after the jump.

"Song of Blades and Heroes" Halloween Brawl

I've been trying to pull off a Halloween themed game night for years, but never managed to get my act together. I was determined to finish up a final Flocktober project in time to run a Halloween themed monster bash using "Song of Blades and Heroes" this year. All of the spooky carnage after the jump.

Flocktober! Polishing off some lingering terrain projects

It may not seem impressive, but I managed to finish off a pair of half completed terrain projects that have been nearly complete for years.

A roof for a Mordheim building

Flocked bases and drybrushing for some telephone poles.

I also made a lot of progress on a much bigger terrain project that I'm hoping to complete this week.

Flocktober! Improving Wargame Trees Tutorial

After figuring out how to improve my wargame trees last year, I didn't employ those techniques to bring the rest of my wargame trees up to par. To kick off Flocktober I decided to try using those same methods to improve some rather wimpy Woodland Scenics trees and document the process in case anyone else is interested. All my tips for building wargame trees after the jump.

Flocktober!

I'm hoping to put all of this to good use this month

I spend all year painting up figures and learning rules and then they wind up fighting over some pretty mediocre terrain. It's become intolerable. I've got a number of terrain projects lingering in limbo that I'm going to try and get finished off to bring the table top up to closer to the standard set by so many of the gorgeous games I see online and at shows. To keep me on task I've decided to christen this month as "Flocktober" (named after the bits of green flock that represent grass in these terrain projects, and God did my wife make fun of me for that) and work on terrain projects only. No buying figures, no painting figures, no basing figures. It's just trees and hills and grass from now until Halloween.

Hopefully between sticking to projects already in the house and selling off old bits that have overstayed their welcome I'll be able to keep the lead pile neat and tidy.

Celtic Village Terrain

Just a few pics of some terrain I painted up.  I bought some low stone walls and three 15mm Celt huts from Falcon Figures while at Historicon. While researching colors for the Celtic hut I found a pic that seemed to be the model these moulds were emulating, and used it as the basis for my color scheme.

I intend to create a sunken, circular Celt village to place these buildings in, but for now these generic stone walls will give them slight protection.  The crude walls should be useful in every period, from ancients to modern. At a buck a piece they were well worth the time savings it would take me to build something similar from pebbles, pink foam and ballast.

Historicon 2012, Photos and Review

Our final day at Historicon would need to be cut short for the drive home, but we were signed up for a pair of games, and I had a ton of items I wanted to pick up from the vendors. Some photos from our final day and my review of the con after the jump.

Historicon 2012, Friday

We are having a BLAST at Historicon.  I cam with a friend of mine, both of our wives and my son. All of us are having a tremendous time - we're already planning to attend next year. Some of the games I've played in have been the closest, epic gaming I've ever done. Some pics and thoughts after the jump.

Historicon 2012, Thursday

With my family in tow, I arrived at Historicon on Thursday to find the games I'd signed up for canceled. Despite that disappointment, I managed to have a great time. Pics from my first day at the convention after the jump.

Making Rough Ground Wargames Terrain Tutorial

One of the main reasons I've been so taken with this hobby is the visual aspect of miniature games.  The actual figures don't take up very much room on the tabletop battlefield and I think the terrain that makes up the battlefield should receive just as much attention as our figures. I'm on a continuing mission to create better looking terrain for my wargames and I've documented my process for creating some rough terrain in case you'd like to try something similar.  Follow along after the jump.

Megawood

Finished up my "megawood", a huge stand of dense trees to fill a large portion of the table.  I based the design on a combination of techniques from Architects of War and other tutorials for similar woods with removable canopies.

Improving My Miniature Terrain Trees

Woodland Scenics tree on the left, my custom trees on the right.

I had an epiphany a few years ago. For all the time we spend painting, detailing and basing our miniatures, most of a wargame's playing surface is covered by terrain rather than figures.  I think it's a shame to see beautiful figures battling it out on top of some ratty green felt and half a dozen crummy model railroad trees.

I really get jazzed about beautiful set ups - wargames that look like dioramas with terrain that matches the figures in aesthetics. My first order of business when I got back into wargaming was to upgrade my terrain. I found out that I may have had some figure painting skills built up over decades, but when it came to terrain I was clumsy novice.