Keep Your Powder Dry

It has been said of wargamers that they spend all their time painstakingly painting figures and then ignore the terrain. A trend that I feel is changing for the better with printed game mats and 'teddy bear fur'.   Today's post looks at trees: more specifically, Woodland Scenics deciduous Realistic Tree Kits. 2"-3" trees, light green foliage, PP and SF figures for comparison Warning: great trees, messy process. The trees come in several different sizes. Packaging varies, sample kits consisting of armatures and foliage are available, or alternatively elements can be bought separately. They all 'work' the same regardless of 'version'. 2"-3" on the left, 3"-5" on the right I've gone for the 2"-3" armatures and 3" - 5" armatures. Armatures are tree trunk brown plastic and look very uninspiring when you first encounter them., as they are 2 dimensional. But do not be put off, the 2D branches can be bent and the...

As I appear to have run out of things to paint, I have started revisiting stuff to make things look better. Or should that be 'slightly less worse'? Every ECW/BCW/Wo3K gamer should own a sconce. It is the law. Some time ago I took the easy route and bought two halves of a 'star fort' from Magister Militum (now sold by TSS). And it was okay. Had a few problems, but was generally okay. But deep down I knew that it wasn't. For a start it was built of stone. Had two entrances, and was much too Vaubanesque. So, as regular readers will imagine, it has been bugging me for a while. So after a good coat of thinking about it I set to work. I took the plunge and removed it from its base. A quick Dremel cutting session would remove one of the entrances. But my Dremel appears to have magically been broken - I think somebody might have some explaining to do when they next come home from uni! So I decided to use my angle grinder. Not the delicate implement I would have chosen for ...

Regular readers (hello both of you) will remember my original TBM post a few weeks ago. Impressed with my sample building (and how it blended well with my Hovels offerings), I took the plunge and ordered a couple more. Again from the 15mm Big Battalions range (correctly scaled height, reduced footprint) I went for 'three story buildings' (15BPBB07U) and 'warehouse' (15BPBB17U). My parcel arrived quickly and was packaged securely. The buildings were very clean and needed no cleaning up. I gave them a very good scrub to remove mould release agent. With some of my dragoons for size reference The three storey buildings is very neat, thankfully this isn't the Architectural Journal magazine so I can't nitpick about rendered stone in the seventeenth century (stone was an expensive building material so generally wasn't rendered, it was shown off). The warehouse, again, a neat and simple design. If you enjoyed reading this, or any of the...

Regular readers (hello both of you) will know that I am always on the look out for resin buildings that will work with the Hovels buildings I had a look at Total Battle Miniatures' (henceforth TBM) ranges. Why resin? My own house is almost 200 years old, nothing is straight, nothing is true. Whilst laser cut mdf buildings can look good, they are a bit too crisp, neat and square for the seventeenth century. Hence resin. Sagging roof lines, wonky windows are all better represented in resin. I already own a few of their Big Battalions Napoleonic buildings (Essling Granary etc), so I hoped they would work size wise. TBM make two ranges - Skirmish which are accurately scaled, and Big Battalions which are the correct height but have a reduced footprint. My test piece is from the Big Battalions 15mm Black Powder Europe section: 15BPBB12U 'Row of Houses' A clean, crisp hollow resin model which required no cleaning up. I thought I'd washed all the mould release a...

Always on the look out for buildings and scenery that 'works' with my true 15mm figures, I returned to the Hovels website. This time I had a look at the Ancient 15mm range - hidden amongst the Roman marching camp and Celtic round houses are a few wattle and daub farm buildings which have seventeenth century potential. My rationale to myself: cheap construction and maintenance methods would no doubt continue to be utilised until a cheaper better option became available. Hence wattle and daub thatched outbuildings are a 'winner', but not roundhouses. First up is the 'Raised Grain Store' 14D5. Next, 'Oblong Thatched Store' 15D5. During my initial teacher training it was drummed into us that we should never ever use the 'o word' <shudders>, they are rectangles. So for all you teachers out there I apologise, I am merely quoting Hovels's title of their rectangular thatched store. Last offering from the Ancients range is 'Pig...