Making Trees

Don't know where I saw this trick, so I can't claim the credit. But I like big trees. Most of the premade trees on the market are small, or if larger, very expensive.
Here's a quick step-by-step.
1- Sharpen one end a dowel and glue it to a large washer, or even two for weight. Then I use wood chalk to blend it to the base.
2- Use ai conditioner filter (comes in a big blue sheet) and cut in irregular shapes and maple them on the stake. It's at this stage I usually also goop the base (another day for a tutorial on that that).
3- Spray the whole thing black
4- Use a spray adhesive like Super 77 (nothing un-sticks from that) everywhere your foliage goes, and thickly apply course turf flock.
5- spray the whole thing with a spray sealant. I use CrystalClear. This makes the whole tree hard and the keeps the the flock from "shedding". Then finish the base.

28mm soldier for scale.

Making a gaming mat pt2

I got a great tip from a fellow wargamer (can't find link so speak up if it was you) about these Eco-Rugs. $20 for a 8x6 outdoor carpet piece from Lowes. These are way different from grandma's cheapo outdoor carpet. It's not so "green you'll never find in nature" and doesn't have the flakey weave to it. It's made from recycled plastic.
the rug is nice and heavy so it lays flat.
It's still an awful color for realistic grass, and a little part of me dies whenever I see nicely painted armies sitting on putting a green. So, I painted it.
I grabbed a cheap gallon of my favorite green ( great to have extra for making hills, etc) and rolled it on. No need to be precise. Let those happy mistakes take over. It will soak in. It was more important to knock back the color than completely cover.

Next step it taking a sponge and adding bits of brown. This mat is for To the Strongest. It's getting a 6' grid on it. Great part is, I can flip in over and make a different grid, or none on the back.

This project cost me about 2 hours of time and under $40. Considering the new printed mats I see everywhere would cost me close $90 just for half my 8x6' table, I call it a bargain.
Update: Here's the original article: Anton's Wargaming

Knights and roads

I expressed before how much I love and hate the Foundry Gendarmes. They are a vital part of my Italian Wars armies, and look great when finished, but they are time consuming to paint.

You'll notice they're sitting on my new experimental roads. Unlike the Gendarmes, with very little time and money invested I have several feet of road that matches my bases. The addition of sand really helped. I'll be adding a few more feet soon.

A water tower for Lesterville.

The parched citizens of Lesterville finally get a drink. My Old West town has been around for quite a while. Thought it was time to give them a water tower.
Scratch built from balsa and paper.

I added sand to my mixture for the roads posted previously. They look a lot better. I'll post pics soon.

Road Test

I decided to do a variation on what I've seen on the internet and at conventions. I've seen people take sealant and either put it on felt or just right out of the tube. I never liked how either of these worked. The whole point of getting paintable caulk is to paint it.
I used DAP indoor/outdoor paintable (has to say paintable) sealant in Cedar Tan color and a caulk gun to squeeze out several lines on some wax paper and then used my finger to spread them out. I wanted the edges ragged, but wanted fairly uniform widths so I drew out lines on the reverse of the paper 2" wide.
After they dried, I dry brushed them using the same colors I use on my miniatures bases.

You can see the straight out of the tube color at top, then lighter drybrush, and finally even lighter shade.
They turned out okay, but next round I'll put wheel ruts and some sand in for texture while the goop is wet. I'll do some curves and T intersections also.

He's dead, Jim.

I need lots of hit markers for Hail Caesar/Pike and Shot. I toyed with using those cool spinny dials, but with amount I might potentially need, and fact they're kinda hard to read on an 8x6 table, I made my own.
I just cut a frame from heavy mount board to snuggly grasp the die, glued to base and stuck a dead guy on.
He's a little too late for the Italian Wars, but he'll work.

You know where are?.....

...you're in the dungeon, baby. You're gonna diiiiiieeeee!

Well not really a dungeon, but my Fantasy arena with geomorphic tiles. Each 6 x 6 inch square is movable giving lots of variation. The whole thing gives 2 x2 feet of gameable area. Which doesn't sound like much, but is in fact, more than enough. I've been using a version of the Goal System game engine, where characters start out roughly the same with "upgrades" and traps scattered about. There's teleport squares and chances for bigger nasties to appear. Great fun for a convention or quick throw down.

all the pieces are made from 1" thick pink insulation foam. Just cut to size, score with a dull pencil to make tiles, bricks, etc. then dry brush. Whole thing took surprisingly little time.

The Cave, finished

I'm posting this with the link over to LUDstuff's blog. He's finally finished with the cave complex. I have no words. I'll let the picture do the talking.

This was truly a mammoth effort (pun!) by Warren, and now I must find a game worthy of his work.

Late xmas present from LUDstuff

I walked in last week and found some lovely presents sitting on my desk at work. Santa, I mean Warren of LUDstuff fame, made me some hex terrain to fit with all the Commands and Colors games we've been playing. If you follow the link to his site, you can see how he made it. I'll be taking the hills to my local Home Despot to match the paint, and then making a new terrain hex map to match (which I'll make a "How To" post about). You can kind of see my hex maker template in the background, above.

The rivers are especially nice. I can use them for more temperate climbs, too.

Warren's next project is a mammoth cave project. Can you say "Hollow Earth campaign"? How 'bout, "Dragon's den"?
Thanks again Mr. Lud....