ACW Teaser

A few models on the painting table for, I hope, some games of Longstreet in the future. We've played a test game so far, and I remain as enamoured of the rules as I was when I first saw they contained abilities like turning an opponent's unit up to 90 degrees off course mid-move, and a "poor cartography" card which lets you place a swamp slap bang in front of an enemy unit!

Odds and Ends

Tidying things up at the end of the year, I find a few photos sitting around that I have yet to share. Some are old bits of work refreshed, others are wholly new. Without further ado, here we go. First off, a huge load of hedges I made some months back. Quantity was the watchword with these, not quality, but they look better up close than in this distant photo. I came up with three heights (10mm, 40mm and an intervening one I forget right now as it isn't in this picture), and produced six feet or so for each height. These aren't the only hedges, mind you.

Next, an unsuccessful river experiment. I cut up a rubber doormat as a base, and gave it banks and texture with some squeezy acrylic goop from a tube. I painted over the top, and painted some cheap varnish over that. The idea was that the rubber would let it conform to terrain. As it turned out, the varnish still hasn't entirely set over a month later. I don't know if it's a problem with that cheap varnish or what. I may experiment further this year.

Third, 1/72 Polish, French and Prussian cavalry for the failed attempt at a wargaming do back in the summer. When that fell though I understandably lost the impetus to get the models done, so large numbers of models are stuck to painting sticks literally gathering dust.

Last of all are two pieces of scatter terrain. The former has been finished about nine years or so on from its creation. A simple bit of light cover is all it is. The other is made of "granny grating" and some of those till rolls I have mentioned in previous posts. I envisage it as part of a larger complex, which has fallen into disrepair.

Sandbags a la The Terrain Tutor

Inspired by the ever-excellent Mel, I made a handful of experimental bits of sandbags, some for 28mm, and others for 15mm. I based them on his Youtube video, which you should check out. They've turned out pretty nicely, and I mean to make some more. I'm going to make the 28mm ones a bit taller, too. I made these with air-drying clay, but future ones will probably have a top layer of Milliput so that the most visible bit looks better. If you look closely at these, you can see some cracks in the top layer of sandbags because the clay dried before I was done. If I apply a layer of sandbags made of Milliput over the top of that, it should look much nicer.