Sane Terrain

How I build hills

2011-04-15T05:53:00.001-07:00

I've learned a few lessons about hills, and found storage has always been a pain with hills. I've found a stackable tray system that comes in a few different depths and I'm using them to store everything from now on. Plus everything I now build is made to fit these tubs. I mark out the area that will fit inside the tub and roughly mark out the hill bases. I'm using 6mm MDF as that is what I had, but 3mm would be fine.

As you can see there is not much wasted space in the tub.

I cut them out with the jigsaw set at 45 degrees to save some sanding later. Left is the 45 but I like to sand that top edge (top half) to blend the hill to the table better like on the right.

I'm using a sanding disc alot in my angle grinder these days and it is a great time saver.

The production line. You can chew a lot out quickly with the sanding disc and the right tools.

There are 20 hill bases in this tub!

I'm using 25mm foam on top, just standard low density stuff. Once again it is what I have on hand. I'll use some plaster on it before the texture paint and they become pretty tuff. As you can see there is not much waste with this method either. High density foam is far better but if you have trouble getting it don't panic normal foam with theplaster skin works very well and is more than tough enough.

You do need to ID your hills or you will have made the ultimate jigsaw puzzle set.

These hills are just made with standard low density foam with some plaster bandage applied to toughen it up. Over this I have given 2 coats of texture paint. I love texture paint as it is quick and easy and coloured for my base coat.

I dry brush 3 colours over the texture paint. 1st is reay a wet brush/over brush and finish with a very light brush of a bone colour. Once again the Whole hills is done just incase the flock rubs off. If it's a desert board just drybrush your choice of clours and your done.

2 coats of paint to seal the MDF on the underside.

Grassed hills. A healthy dose of 50/50 PVA glue and water with a little dishwashing liquide. Start from the crest an work down as it's going to run on you. Leave some bare patches for looks and to give you somewhere to hold it to knock off excess flock. 50/50 glue mix works best as the flock wicks/soaks up the glue and gets a better bond. Pure glue or a thicker mix seem to not bond as well as it skins and the flock dosent bond as well. Strange but true.

I like the Woodlands Scenic stuff, but I do mix a blend of colours for a better look (not to green not to brown).

I've picked 2 sets of hills giving 6 for the table. The half hills can go together to create a big ridge or they can go on the edge of the table.

My weapon of choice for appling glue spots for static grass is a little sqeeze bottle. 70/30 Pva and water to stop it spreading out and making the grass clumps to big.

I've used 3 colours of static grass to break the hills up alittle. Some 6mm dark green in large batches, the some scattered green 3mm clumps and just a few 3mm brown clumps on the hill tops to break up all the green.

It gives a good effect.

You have to love the grass master

So thats the hills just about done once dry they will get a few coats of matt clear to seal the flock and static grass and help stop any rub off over time. They will give many years of service. I use to have flat areas on the tops of my hills with steaper slopes, but I've moved away from that. I now prefer to make my slopes as shallow as possible and have a clear ridge line in the hills. It helps the minis stay in place and better shows what realy is the crest of the hill.

Defenders of Sicily

2011-03-21T02:27:00.001-07:00

North Africa gave this list some teeth, and I gave them some attention over Christmas. A very enjoyable list to play.
The not so mighty R35's

Mediterranean hilltop village cont

2011-03-21T02:18:00.000-07:00

Just before flocking, the red earth look.

I like how the roads came up

The green hills of Italy

The cliffs

Town square

All done and clear coated ready for the table

In the tubs ready to go

Just to show the area nine buildings
2xMed bases per level!

Each level lifts away for full access

I'm loving this board

Mediterranean hilltop village

2011-03-21T02:16:00.000-07:00

Started the hilltop village to go with this table, better late than never I guess. Made it sectional so that I can use 2 or 3 sections to make the village. Had some plaster walls that I decided to use, it did restrict me to straight walls which hadit's limits. All in all I think it will come up a treat. Should have about 12 buildings all up and there are 4 roads entry points as well as heaps of infantry entry points thru blown walls stair cases and you name it a very busy village. It will be surrounded with some fields and orchards. I'll post a thread when it's done covering the constuction and all aspects of the build. This is just a teaser.

Just to show the sections better

now just the ends

Just a few quick ones to better show roads and cliffs. So here is ther 3 sections together

All the plaster peices have been washed and soon to be painted. But this shows the tight lanes leading thru the village.

and from the other end

This is my favourate area, the cliffs below the church. with some stairs for infantry access.

Rocky outcrops

two end sections together, for a smaller village.

Once again everything I make now is made to fit in these stackable tubs for storage and transport.

Mediterranean Mountains

2011-03-21T02:14:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to show how the sections can go together along all 3 sides.
To create a valley between the high ground

Or dominate high ground in the centre

The two options above will run the lenght of the 4ft table edge. I also am going to make two futher sections that will match the smaller edges. They can be used together as a smaller ridge, or 1 could added to the dominate high ground option to run the 6ft table edge. Or both could be added to the option below and make a huge ridge. Hope that makes sense, should means loads of different configerations could be created so that the table is always different.

Or the start of a big ridge line

The 2nd half, with my sicily defenders.

2011-03-21T02:09:00.000-07:00

Just waiting on the glue to dry from the static grass then a coat or 2 of matt clear and it's pretty much done I was going to keep at it with some more bushes ect but less is more as it already is getting a bit busy. I dug up some minis for a little fashion shoot as I always seem to use those same 3 german halftracks every timt I take a pic of terrain.

So there you have it tester complete Now we all know how to make cliffs, thanks
Done

The cliff adventure cont

2011-03-21T02:00:00.000-07:00

A few quick pics while the sun is out (storms againg this aftenoon:blink It's dripping wet from the PVA but it is really starting to take shape. Generally I just do my roads is filler with brush strokes it it for wheel marks. As this is one big experiment anyway I'm going to try for a eally rough gravely mountain trail. Detailed painting starts tonight.

The next hill will have a terrace farm up its hill side. Another a Vineyard so fun time ahead.
I've finished the dry brushing the cliffs. Simply gave it a good magic wash first to bring out some more detail then dry brushed 3 shades of grey and a off white to finsh the highlights. It's been a most enjoyable experiment I have to say and in the end it came together very nicely.

Mediterranean Table a cliff adventure

2011-03-21T01:55:00.000-07:00

I've moved far beyond the photos above, it's mavelous what a difference a day makes. The strata lines looked pretty poor so I made a wedge out of compressed foil a bit like an axe head. This I pressed into the DAS as opposed to dragging a blade over the face of the DAS this gave a much better effect. I'm still amazed just how well the crunched up foil works to texture the surface, very impressive. The other huge supprise was the rock molds with the DAS the plyable nature of the DAS allows the molded rock to be distorted to match the surface of the job. I did find that I had to add a release agent to the mold to get the DAS out easer and in a bette shape, I ended up using a olive oil cooking spray to great effect. It's been funny how I've gone from just about giving up to creating one of my more enjoyable terrain features, I cannot what for the painting to start.
There is features that I like and dislike about this section. The rocky out crops will lift when painted I'm sure and what I don't like I can always hide with bushes and grass tuffs.

The lower part of the switch back road looked a bit bland so I hacked out a gully and inserted a curved retaining wall to spice it up. Just have to modle the gully now. May even fit a drain/culvet into this section yet for some extra detail and interest.

I decided after the fact to break up the rock faces on this section with a few retaining walls I'm pretty happy with the effect as well.

The foil effect really is effective and you can achieve so many diffent effects by just getting different textures in the foil. I'm so glad I asked for alittle help on the forums.

Here is some pics of where I'm at

This is the 1st of 4 sections that I have in mind that will be interconnect to form differnt combinations. This 1st secton is for the monastry/ruined Keep that will dominate it. The switch back road is the only approach on the section. This will be the domain of Mountain troops and for once they will be usefull.

It's a long way to the top

I've framed all the edges in timber as shown here and I've butted them all up and sanded them flush with their respective neighbouring sections.

I'll be able to insert different terrain features into the top using the Hex system from UTTT.

Mediterranean Table

2011-03-21T01:51:00.000-07:00

I settled on a hybrid method of the one posted neelix and some other ideas I had. I ended up using DAS (air dry clay) instead of filler. I also pressed the DAS into the Woodland scences moulds and then shaped them onto the face of the job. I used PVA behind all the DAS to help ensure it bondedto the surface of the job. The foil worked a charm and I found a tight squeezed ball to push the DAS into place and give a texture 1st worked better. Then a loose squeezed foild ball to give cacks and deeper texture. Also a little twist here and there to distort the suface alittle was good. I'm not sold on the strata lines yet but we'll see in the end. I've just done a sample patch so far I want to see how it looks when dry and how tough and well bonded it is before I go further.

Colours

2011-03-20T22:52:00.000-07:00

Thatch roofs

1. Black prime coat
2. Over brush (heavy dry brush) 880
3. Brown ink wash
4. light dry brush 880
5. light dry brush 821

Rendered walls

1. Black prime coat
2. Over brush (heavy dry brush) of white
3. brown ink wash
4. Over brush of 986
5. dry brush white

Timber

1. Black prime coat
2. Over brush (heavy dry brush) 871
3. Brown ink wash
4. dry brush 983
5. lighter dry brush 875
6. even lighter dry brush 825
7. and an even lighter dry brush 874

Weathered grey do it to taste looks good on the roofs but also on the walls to some degree.

1. dry brush 1 part 976 2 parts 870
2. light dry brush 976
3. super light dry brush 986

I usually do a really light dry brush of a buff/off white to pick up the high points for detail as a final step.

Good luck, these are colours that I had and I just recorded what I did to be able to repeat it. There are more colours/steps than probably is needed I’m sure you can skip a few colours or sub in a few colours and probably get an even better result.

Gav

Total Battle Minitures

2011-03-20T22:49:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to painting the TBM eastern from buildings and I'm safely saying that I've putmy eastern front building days behind me.
Barn Lift Off Timber Roof and Thatch Roof

Burnt Out Building

Log House Front Yard Lift Off Timber Roof, Large Enclosure and well

Workshop Lift Off Thatch Roof and Shed Lift Off Thatch Roof

All still need flocking and a dull coat.

Rail head finished

2011-03-20T22:47:00.000-07:00

I'm thinking this may be a timber Village and I will make a yard of piled logs awaiting shipment along with forest around the edges of the town. Maybe some wooded hills and a few kitchen gardens to round it out. Should be good for EW, MW and LW.

But I have to knuckle down and finish my Beach assualt table as June 6th is onlt 6 months away and I have grand plans for that Sunday in June this year.:crazy:

The Eastern Front Rail Head.

2011-03-20T22:45:00.000-07:00

This seemed like a logical reason for a village to spring up and a worthy reason for a company level operation to seize it. I set about building a rail line which grew to a rail head over the Xmas time off. 3mm MDF base and some timber beading for the rail embankment keeping it nice and simple. I kept enough room on the side of the base for a track to run alonside the rail lines. I needed a point for roads to cross the lines so I modeled a rail head as a point of interest, and to enable a few buildings to spice it up.

12mm foam gave the right hight and some bamboo kerbab sticks looked good for some retaining walls around it. I carved a couple of ramps and left enough room on top for one of the barns as a warehouse. Simply PVA glued the sticks to the foam and added some match sticks as the uprights to dizzy it up.

Gave it a very generous coat of texture paint.

and inked the retaining wall.

some drybrushing and it was looking good.

I needed some way for the road to cross the line so I decided to shave some balsa wood stips and glue them on as ramps then build the road up to it. It looks good and rough.

and with the other rail sections

I'm planning on this table being very portable so with that in mind I will be using a games mat. Due to the colour of the static grass on the mat it is a tuff match but I got pretty close with a blend of Heiki grasses.

These little odd secions allow me to have the rail line on an angle on the table.

Ironclad Minitures

2011-03-20T22:40:00.000-07:00

Ironclad Miniatures 15-H6 Small Eastern Front house, removeable roof also includes a small seperate solid cast timber shack/annex. I almost didn't get these rendered walled buildings, but they offer a nice variety to the village and the walls came out very nice.

I've added a fence section to the pictures also from Ironclad these are very nice.

This shows the annex in place along with some of the fences.

15-H4 Eastern Front house, L shaped with removeable roof.

And together

Left is 15-H3 Eastern front barn and to the right 15-H1 Small Log house together they will make a nice little outlaying farm on the edge of the village. Note that the annex from 15-H6 is in this picture. I intend to use it with the barn as it breaks that big box shape up very well, and makes they barn look much better.

Once again they have removable roofs, lots of room in the barn too as you can see.

I took these to show how the detail in the Musket Miniatures roofs. the 2 barns Ironclad left.

Small buildings Ironclad right.

I just put the finishing touches to the fences from Ironclad Miniatures, so now it's onto the boards and terrain overlays:D

These are very nice well worth looking up.

2011-03-20T15:21:00.000-07:00

I've just about wrapped up the Ironclad miniature's gear I'll post up some pics tonight. I will say that the Musket Miniatures have done the best job by far with the Thatched roofs. The Ironclad gear is great but the thatched roofs let them down just enought to hold them back from being exception. I don't like how the Musket Miniatures have a base that extends out from the edge of the building, its a personal dislike. I will say that Ironclad has some really nice fence sections that look a treat and will add heaps to the village on the table they are so good I'm going to order a load more of them.
I've looked long and hard at the King and Kerr eastern front buildings and I'm going to pass on them. I just don't like the roofs on them, the shingles just look rediculiously big.
My earlier referrals to the Musket Miniatures Russian church roof was about the odd shape/angle that the roof runs out at. I thought it was a miscast and contacted them about it but it is how the mould is. I've got an image that better shows it.

Musket Miniatures Smolensk Log House, thatched roof. Removeable roof and geat detail a joy to paint.

Musket Miniatures Russian barn. Slat walls, thatched roof, pig sty. Removeable roof and geat detaileven comes with a pair of pigs! still have to paint them.

Musket Miniatures Russian Church. Log construction, onion dome. Removeable roof. Even with the odd roof it is hard to not love it.

I'm very impressed with the Musket Miniatures buildings and plan to get some more.

I had a few JR miniatures solid cast log cabins. Pretty basic detail but they do add some variety.

I bought the Miniature Building Authority Russian Peasant Village set. It is 4 buildings that came prepainted I don't like them at all. I did repaint them to blend better, they have removeable roofs. These were a very regretable purchase.

I'm a big fan of the Battlefront, BB102 Battlefield in a Box - Eastern Front pre painted and with removeable roofs. I added a black wash to the roofs and added some colour to the door and window frames to lift them. But a nice item out of the box.

Hovell ACW barn, adds some flavour. Roof is not removeable but it is hollow. Nothing special.

2011-03-20T15:12:00.000-07:00

With many games set on the Eastern front on the Horizon for me I decided to get stuck into a decent sized village. I'll post them up as I complete them as a way to compare different manufacturers
Musket minatures, and my centre peice the church. Nice peice but the roof is not right, if you can get past that it will add alot to any table.

The barn is fantastic and the detail in the roof is amazing

Many more photos of diffeent makes to come