It has been a while since my last post but I have been busy on the terrain front both with this and the next blog post.
This post covers the four enclosed farms plus 13 feet of hills/ridgeline, plus just under half of the 90 trees that I have made.
I pinched the idea of magnetized hills from Geoff at Purple Lion Creations and had the hill and river laser cut MDF templates made up by the talented and very helpful Colin at Charlie Foxtrot Models.
I have used a Perry Miniatures 28mm figure in the picture for scale.
The hills/ridgeline can be used with or without the magnetized trees and I have used textured coins as blanks to go over the magnets when not using the trees. (check the date on the coins as only the later ones are magnetized)
Using magnetized trees gives you the flexibility to remove your trees for figure placement, also I think they look better on your hills if they are growing up vertically rather than out at an angle perpendicular to the slope of the hill.
I will also be using magnetized trees for my river banks and woodland bases, plus if the table gets knocked, your trees don't fall over.
When making your hills it is also good to make sure the slopes aren't too steep and you can still place your troops without them falling over.
Having said that, I have made some rocky outcrops that will be more suitable for single-based skirmish troops when it comes to maneuvering.
And of course, they are timeless and can be used for other gaming periods.
Moving onto the buildings, I went with Hovels ltd, as they have a smaller footprint 25-28mm, rather than the larger MDF laser cut buildings from Sarissa.
The Sarissa buildings are ideal for when using the Too Fat Lardies Sharpe Practice skirmish games but I also wanted to use them with the General d' Armee Napoleonic rule set by Dave Brown and the Sarissa buildings just take up too much space for my liking.
As it was, the Hovels La Haye Sainte farmhouse still had a big footprint and I had to reduce the size of the rear garden and based it in three parts. As for Hougoumont and Papelotte, I used some of the buildings from these sets and based my own smaller generic enclosed farms using additional sections of wall and gates, both commercial and scratch built.
Farm 1. La Haye Sainte (the orchard I had made previously).
Farm 2
Farm 3
Farm 4
Not been a fan of “hills” on a table as the scale just seemed “off” to me for a 28mm setup, even on larger tables. Hills are typically massive in real life compared to a human, even a small hillock and so shoving blanket or books under a grassmat etc provided a more realistic effect to me. Still, your creations are up to your typical superb quality and look fab Pat and I really like the more rocky “skirmish” ones that could work well for a mountainous gaming setting if used en masse.
ReplyDeleteThe farms are my fav pieces of this post though! As usual your attention to detail shines through. Hope we get to see some action shots with your armies battling it out in and around them in a future post?
Thanks Dai, fair enough with the hills as not to everyone's taste.
DeleteHopefully I will get a xmas game in with the terrain and some action shots.
Fantastic work as usual. I love your magnetised hills; I have been thinking of magnetising my terrain sections similarly. The farms are also beautiful; wonderful painting and weathering.
ReplyDeleteThanks Codsticker, I highly recommend the templates from Charlie Foxtrot.
ReplyDeleteGreat work and some good ideas in here.
ReplyDeleteThanks, glad you like.
Deleteexcellent looking terrain
ReplyDeleteCheers Eric.
DeleteGreat work there Pat and the magnetised bases are a neat idea. With my 10mm figures I use 6mm buildings as otherwise, 10mm ones take up too much space for most games and don't look like a BUA. When I the table you don't really notice that they are the 'wrong' scale.
ReplyDeleteThanks Steve, a smaller scale built up area is the way to go if playing the big games rather than skirmish.
DeleteInspiring and finely made stuff as usual Pat, totally agree on the use of the Hovels buildings fine looking pieces that have stood the test if time too.
ReplyDeleteThanks Phil, the Hovels buildings are great value as well as they don't seem to have put their prices up much over the years.
DeleteThese are lovely. I'm a fan of putting hills under my cloth but you are making me rethink ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks Paul, I have done both over the years and some of these may end up under as well as above the cloth.
DeleteVery impressive terrain! 23 feet of hills is quite a lot. I really like the magnet idea for the trees. I’ll have to copy that whenever I get around to making my own hills. 😀
ReplyDeleteThanks Stew. I have just been and checked what I had written, its 13 feet or 13 one foot pieces. Would love to have 23 feet of hills but that is a lot of storage.
DeleteAbsolutely awesome Pat and some very clever ideas too!
ReplyDeleteCheers
Matt
Thanks Matt but the idea with the hill templates come from Geoff and Colin.
ReplyDeletePretty fantastic terrain very inspiring 👍
ReplyDeleteThanks Matt, much appreciated.
DeleteSmart work with the hills and trees and the buildings are lovely, I'm rethinking buildings and considering going smaller except for bolt action skirmish stuff.
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thanks Iain, some of the buildings have lift off rooves but I know what you mean for WW2 skirmish.
DeleteYou never cease to amaze with your work Pat! Stellar as always!
ReplyDeleteThanks very much Terry.
DeleteAbsolutely stunning work Pat!
ReplyDeleteChristopher
Cheers Christopher.
DeleteIndeed stunning work !
ReplyDeleteI thank you kind Sir.
DeleteOnce more lovely terrain Pat, was that a miss print 90 trees, wow
ReplyDeletecheers John
Hi John,
Delete90 trees for my riverbanks and woods, and all magnetized.