'Naw Project - a bunker

After reading a tutorial on how to make bunkers for 20mm figures I thought I would use the basics of that tutorial to make one for my 28mm game.

 I used an old CD as a base, used foam card for the size and shape of the bunker, added kebab skewers and then did the 'earthworks'.

 Unlike some commercially made bunkers for wargames mine is perhaps a bit lower, but that suits me, as a lower profile bunker would suit the sneaky VC a lot more.

 I really wish my better camera hadn't died in the arse as I would be able to post better photos.

Given how easy it was to make, I would like to make a couple more bunkers, but I have other bits and pieces for the game to finish first.

Scenery Tutorial

I thought I would take a crack as a tutorial showing how I made the scenery pieces for my games.

All of the grasses and trees seen in my photos have been done this way, and it is quick to do.

You will need:
                      Corrugated card board (the type boxes are made from)
                      Masking tape
                      A hot glue gun with glue sticks
                      Trees, grasses or what ever you intend to base.
                      Paint - the colour you wan the soil to be
                      White glue
                      Flock


Step 1: cut a section of card to the size and shape you want your for your tree base. Make sure you have plenty of room for your tree and that the base will be large enough so it wont tip over once made.

 Step 2:
           cut some masking tape into small sections, and place one onto the edge of the base.

Step 3
          cut tabs in the piece of tape applied to the cardboard and fold them over one at a time so as to cover the sides of the cardboard. Ensure you can fold each consecutive tap slightly over the top of the previous tab.
 

Keep adding sections of tape to the cardboard until it has been covered on all edges, cutting tabs and folding as shown above.

Step 4: add a blob of glue from the hot glue gun to the area you want your tree to be on the base

 Step 5: while the glue is still soft push your tree firmly into the glue. You may need to hold your tree in place until the glue starts to cool down and harden.

 

Step 7: Paint your base the according the the colour you want to represent the ground for your gaming table

Step 8 spread white glue over the base and apply your flock for ground cover

 Step 9: enjoy your new piece of scenery

'Nam project - jungle scenery

As mentioned, my painting and hobby activities have slowed down a bit. Before the activities with the pruning saw I had made some more jungle scenery for my game.

I didn't get around to painting or flocking them though. I will have a crack at that soon to see how the hand holds up.

In the mean time, here are a couple of photos showing what I have made:

Most of the left half of the area is scenery I made recently

The dark green trees I made last week, and the unpainted bases I made a few days ago

I am at a stage with vegetation that I can play games happily enough - but I want to make more. I guess I have to decide when to stop and when too much vegetation becomes too much to play the game.

 I do want to make more of the frond scenery, and make some small fern bases to give lower vegetation.

'Nam project - Buddha statue head

As I mentioned in a previous post I found a Buddha statue head that had just become available to buy. The head is listed as a base for putting miniatures on, but I thought it would be great as a piece of scenery for my Vietnam game.

 It arrived on Wednesday and I finished painting and flocking it on Thursday.

Now I need to make a few ruin wall pieces to go near by.

My 40 trees also arrived and I have based them up. I just need to paint and flock the bases and they will be finished.

 I would have liked to have done it this weekend, but I have other commitments that will mean the earliest I can work on them will be next week.

 Oh, I also made my own hot wire cutter - this thing is super effective and I will show some handy work and a photo of the cutter next week with any luck.

'Nam project - more scenery

In between painting up my NVA (I only have seven more to paint and they are all done) I have been making some more scenery.

Using the same method as my previous post I used some frond like plastic plants to what I think is good effect.

These are the made up items:

These are the same ones with a TAG War Correspondent to show the scale:

And here are some 'action' shots to show what they look like on the gaming table:

LRRPs in the foreground, NVA in the back ground and VC on the path

Close up of the first 'action' shot

Side view showing the new scenery placed on the edge of the trails to show how modular scenery can work

 I have a lot more of these 'fronds' so I will make up some more of the scenery pieces as well as cut some down for low level fern type bits and pieces.

I am really happy with the way the playing area is starting to fill out. I have 40 model railway trees on the way, so by the time I base those up and make some more of the grass tufts pieces you can see in the photos I should start to have some decent scenery for once.

'Nam project - some scenery

After having some plastic bits and pieces sitting around the place for years I finally came up with how I wanted to use them.

 I was sent the bits years ago from a fellow Victorian that helped me out over at the TMP forum. (Thanks Pat - just in case you are reading this).

 Unfortunately I only had enough to make what you see in the photo - I would love to make another 10 - 20 of them to really put around the playing area.

 They were really simple to make too - cut out some cardboard, tape the edges so there were no gaps, glue the 'grass' to the card with hot glue, plaint the card and then flock. 


To give you an idea of how tall they are, here is another photo with the TAG 28mm downed pilot figure:

 On a whim I also painted up a figure I intend to use as a encounter as part of my random event list for the game:

The photo isn't the best, but it is a 28mm scale cobra that I had lying around from Mega Minis in the U.S.

I made sure that cobras are found in Vietnam before painting it up though.

The "Where Heroes Dare" rule book has stats for cobras, so I will be able to include this nasty critter without having to do any work except look it up in the book.

'Nam project - now with added river

Happy with my high speed trail I decided to go one step further and use a similar process to make a modular river for my game.

I used the same sized MDF sections but made the key feature wider than I did the paths.

Making the rivers took a bit longer - I first coated them with caulking and once that was dry I painted the river sections a two tone colour.

Again waiting for the sections to dry I then applied multiple layers of polyurethane to each section progressively over a few days.

Once the polyurethane was dry I built up the banks of the river sections with putty and, you guessed it, waited for that to dry before also painting over the putty.

With that all done I applied another coat of the polyurethane to the rivers and once that had dried I added the flock to the river banks.

One of the river pieces was made up to represent a ford in the river, as seen in the photo above.

I am fairly happy with the end results and I will have to make a few new sections for the path and the river too allow for different directions and to ensure I can fit them both on the playing area with out falling short or going over the edge.

'Nam project - high speed trails

Instead of playing my next game of Point Blank I wanted to create some more scenery.

 As one of the missions the LRRPs can go on involves paths or trails, I decided to make myself a modular trail.

 At first I contacted companies in Australia that sell laser cut MDF for wargamers to ask if they can cut me some MDF to the sizes I wanted, but business must be so good that they don't need customers, as not one of them bothered to reply.

 So, armed with my woeful ability at wood work and a bench saw, I proceeded to cut some MDF I purchased to what I hoped would be usable for my paths.

I cut the straight sections first, and then after a few no so good ideas I came up with some bend pieces that would allow for more than a straight track.

 I glued sand over the path area and then painted the whole lot.  Once the paint was dry I flocked the edges of the paths.

I don't intend to glue any scenery to the sides of the paths, but I will make small scenery that can be placed on top of them instead, thus allowing for a lot more flexibility with how I use them. An example of this can be seen at the bottom of the photo

 I am fairly happy with the results, and by making some intersections and some more straights (some of different lengths) I am sure I can come a fairly good collection of paths or trails for my games.

'Nam project - a rice paddy

This time I have a rice paddy to share.  It has taken the best part of four and a half days to finish, mainly because there were many things involved that needed to dry before I could go on to the next step.


First of all I cut a piece of MDF in to the size I wanted and glued foam card along the centre and the edges to form the walls for the rice paddy:

Next I used polly filler to fill in the gaps on the foam card (on top and on the sides) as well as slope the insides of the field so that it wasn't square:

 After leaving it to dry over night I gave it a quick paint and cut some sections of synthetic turf into strips to see if it would do the job that I wanted:

Having decided I was 'on to a winner' with the synthetic turf I went ahead an marked out 1 cm spacings for the turf and proceeded to painstakingly cut out the turf strips and then trim them to the required size. This took a bit of time - the good part of a whole day (of spare time) to finish:

Once the glue had dried I painted the edges of the turf strips to reduce the amount of black that would show and then squeezed wood glue around each strip. When the glue dried it has a bit of a sheen to it that would help give it a 'water' look.

I applied several layers of the glue, and it took a fair while to dry, thus the main reason this build took so long:

Once it was dry I applied sand to the 'dry ground' parts on top and on the sides to give it an earthy look:

And finally I added some grass flock over parts of the sane to give it a bit more of a country feel to it:

Here is the finished product with my LRRPs on it to give an indication of size. The really good thing about the synthetic turf is that I can place my figures on to of the 'rice' and it wont get damaged:

I am happy with the results, and it will make a useful addition to my 'Nam wargame.  Now I just need a village to go around it!

My wargaming buddy suggested I should make scenery to sell, but a) I can't see anyone wanting to buy the things I make, and 2) the time this one took would make it expensive to sell.

But hopefully my photos will give an idea to others of how to make their own rice paddy.

 One thing I did learn while researching what rice paddies look like is that they come in many shapes, sizes and level of growing.  The field can be mostly water just before planting, small stalks after planting, long stalks towards harvest time, and dry empty fields before the next planting happens.

Trees for my Mate

Last week on my Zombie wargame blog I made a post showing the trees I was preparing for added scenery.

 In this post I mentioned that a mate of mine had given me some trees he didn't know what to do with and that I was also preparing these to give back to him as a surprise.

 Well, I have finished the trees and will give them to him once he gets back from his holiday.

 In the mean time I will use them for my own games...