While I have been busy painting my new ACW armies I have been pondering what I will do for a battlefield. At home I have a box full of terrain such as buildings, trees, fences and even some foam elevation. Here I have none of that. Having my family mail it to me just does not make a lot of sense for the few times I will be able to use it.
Yesterday I was able to find a basic fabric store on one of our trips off base. With the investment of about $20 I think I now have an adequate solution that will allow me to bring some basic skirmishes to life without just fighting them on a table top. I secured a nice large piece of light green(2.5m x1.5m) cloth that will be used for the base terrain and is large enough to drape over some tables at the MWR building. In the limited time I had I also found some brown corduroy (fields) and dark green (wooded areas). Sitting in a box was also a pile of short brown shoe strings so I grabbed 10 which will do for fence lines. Last night I started to lay everything out and realized I should have grabbed another light brown color for roads. Oh well improvisation is the watch word for any gamer. I decided to cut up one of my older tan Army T-shirts a I now also have roads.
The only thing that that is currently missing is buildings. I am still pondering the idea of purchasing some 3D structures, but in the meantime I think some simple cutouts of cardboard will suffice to represent several structures and give a good flavor to break up the landscape.
As mentioned I have also been painting (more like touching up) some of my new 10mm Gordon & Hague ACW troops. My last post addressed some of the techniques I used to give my confederates more of a Ragged look. Since then I finished painting the rest of the infantry as well as Arty and Generals.
The Union I decided looked good with their more uniform appearance. The only improvement I made was to apply a black wash and then go over with a white dry brush to bring out the highlights. Overall I am happy with the results. Today I decided t tackle the union Cavalry. The men are fine as is IMO, but the horses needed a little work to break up the uniform brown mounts. I decided to add black, grey and even beige to the mix as well as a multitude of white stockings and some patches of white on the nose. Again, when finished I went over with a wash and dry brush. Overall I think they look much improved and are ready for battle.
Yesterday I was able to find a basic fabric store on one of our trips off base. With the investment of about $20 I think I now have an adequate solution that will allow me to bring some basic skirmishes to life without just fighting them on a table top. I secured a nice large piece of light green(2.5m x1.5m) cloth that will be used for the base terrain and is large enough to drape over some tables at the MWR building. In the limited time I had I also found some brown corduroy (fields) and dark green (wooded areas). Sitting in a box was also a pile of short brown shoe strings so I grabbed 10 which will do for fence lines. Last night I started to lay everything out and realized I should have grabbed another light brown color for roads. Oh well improvisation is the watch word for any gamer. I decided to cut up one of my older tan Army T-shirts a I now also have roads. 
Fences are fast, easy (and cheap) to make, sir. All you need is a box of flat toothpicks and some glue. See my post here:
ReplyDeletehttp://saxe-bearstein.blogspot.com/2009/10/easy-15mm-fences-for-acw-while-reading.html
For 10mm troops just make the "x's" smaller . . . or don't bother. Make a section and decide for yourself.
-- Jeff
Jeff, Thanks for the tip, I have several feet of fences at home, just looking for a simple solution to represnt them here as resources are scarce and I do not want to send my good stuff over. May try that when I get home though to add some variety to my collection.
DeleteAaron
Jeff, another thanks for the tip. I've been tossing around ideas for fencing and it totally never occurred to me.
DeleteI've used those exact toothpicks for basing. I found brown wash or any of the Army Painter dips make them look spectacular. Also, a little time with a lighter also helps shade them quite nicely.