Mayan Temple for Pulp adventures - complete!

It's amazing the motivation posting work in progress pictures on forums give me when completing projects. A few days after deciding to make a Mayan-style temple for Pulp Alley adventures to come, I have managed to completed it (although some final painting will be completed/details will be added in time).

I'm quite pleased with the result and am grateful for the useful advice I've received on TMP and Pulp Alley Forums.
The painting was largely inspired by this thread on painting stonework on TMP.
Details to come include:

• crafting a sacrificial alter to sit on the summit of the temple
• some more shading on the stairs
• a little dry brushing to knock back the colours used to highlight different tones among the stones
• possibly one final wash to help define the shadows a little more
• adding some moss/lichen to increase the 'lost ruin in the jungle' look

The next project is some trees for the jungle setting.

Mayan temple pt 2

After some great advice on  TMP and Pulp Alley forum about possible approaches to texturing the
surface of the Mayan-style temple, I have settled on building up a clockwork texture using thin card 'stone slabs' glued on and then covered with tissue paper brushed in diluted PVA glue.

I think some of my efforts to lay the tissue paper over the 'slabs' of cardboard are a little sub standard, but in general I'm liking the texture. Of course, the immediate benefits of this approach is that it is cheap and I can get moving on it strait away.

The question will be whether to undercoat and dry-brush, or to use some sort of texture over the tissue paper. The advantage of another layer is it will make the surface more durable, but I may end up losing some of the effect I've created.

Another pice of advice I received was to seal/reinforce the edges of the corrugated cardboard with thin strips of card glued on. It's a little too late for the edges of the bottom two levels, but I will try this on the steps and possibly the upper level.

Some other products mentioned by fellow wargamers that I will be looking at for future projects such as this will be:

• Mod Podge
• Durham's Water Putty
• Miniwax Wood Hardner
• Fleck stone

Scratch built Mayan temple - of sorts!

My pulp adventures need more locations - I fancy a steamy jungle ruin.

The aim here is to produce a cheap, useful bit of terrain without it spending months on the craft table like all my other projects do.

I am loosely basing this (very loosely) on the Tikal Temple II in Northern Guatemala.

Ok, I confess I was originally planning on the standard Mayan temple with the staircase on each face but I could see the job bogging down if I had to make four staircases! So a quick web search found the temple at Tikal, and Bob's your uncle!

So, the basic structure (sans stairs) has been constructed our of heavy corrugated cardboard. I'm pondering how to manage the summit shrine - partly because I've not allowed enough space - but in the mean time am wanting to get the main exterior finish sorted.

Here's how it looks at the moment:

28mm miniature to give a sense of scale.

I've contemplated covering it with tissue paper soaked in PVA glue to give it a uniform, rough finish, then dry brush and add a bit of vegetation. However, it would be good to get a bit of a stonework feel to the surface. The question is how?

The role of this bit of terrain is just to be a serviceable bit of pulp terrain - so it does not need a refined finish. The other criteria, is to continue with the 'no cost' strategy!

I'll post more pictures as it progresses.

The polar night approaches at Gruhuken

Not content with on Pulp project on the go, I've started work on the buildings for a Arctic adventure based loosely on the book Dark Matter by Michelle Paver. As the clouds of war are gathering over Europe, a small British expedition leaves for a small island in the Arctic Circle to establish a weather station to map sub-polar weather systems. Ahead, their first experience of overwintering and the months of darkness of the Polar night. Paver writes a jolly good ghost story, the pulp adventure to come will explore in other directions… the harsh polar environment, polar bears, rogue trappers and U-boats, perhaps?

The building is a balsa construction with a corrugated card roof and polystyrene 'skin' to provide the texture of the timber planking. The minis are Bob Murch's excellent Courageous Mountaineers!

Architectural details

In a quiet day at the 'office', I happened across a number of interesting website form the 'miniatures' fraternity (eg. doll's house makers etc.) and I thought they offered some interesting ideas. I'm sure much of this has already been done by the wargaming fraternity but it's always worth looking at what others are up to!

In reality, it's just a good way of keeping links for my own use, but hopefully others may find it useful too!

Making model windowns

http://miniatures.about.com/od/dollshousesandshops/ss/Make-Dollhouse-Windows-Or-Miniature-Windows-For-Your-Model-Buildings.htm

 

Craft wood aging solution

http://miniatures.about.com/od/miniaturebasics/f/vinegarwood.htm

 

Palm trees

http://miniatures.about.com/od/miniatureprojects/ss/modelpalmtrees.htm

 

Bullrushes

http://miniatures.about.com/od/miniatureprojects/ss/cattails.htm

Flint finsish (buildings)

http://miniatures.about.com/od/finishingmaterials/ss/Scale-Miniature-Pebble-Dash-And-Flint-Finishes-For-Dollhouses-And-Models.htm

Shingles

http://miniatures.about.com/od/materialsforminiatures/ht/woodshingle.htm

"The illusion of moss/lichen on shingles can be created by washing the lower areas (or shaded areas if you are using trees) with a light wash of sap green acrylic or watercolor. Actual patches of lichen can be applied by dabbing small amounts of bright green, tan, and orange chalk on in tiny irregular patches. The chalk can be fixed in place with an artist's fixative, or by a light coating of matte varnish."

And let's not forget the wallpaper:
http://www.jennifersprintables.com/printables1.html

Adobe buildings using cork

So, I've been agonising about the possible price of buying the buildings I need for my Pulp Alley venture having no 28mm terrain to speak of. I found an interesting Desert Village paper terrain kit at RPG Now by Papermodels which provided the inspiration (and plans) for a test run with balsa - wanting something a little more durable than paper terrain. I found the stock I was using way to light and lacked the substantial feel I had hoped for. My eye drifted over the pile of 7mm cork tiles I'd recently snapped up at the local hardware (being hard to find at times) and it came to me in a flash what a great building material it would be.

I quickly cut out and assembled the shell of a simple building and saw this was the way to go. Now, fellow wargamers, I thoughts I was pretty clever for about 30 minutes thinking I'd come up with something new. A notion that about 10 minutes searching the web completely disabused! I trawled over forums finding all sorts of interesting work using cork tiles but all roads led to Matakishi's Tea House.

So, 36 hours later, I fond myself well under way. The simple building style for desert villages makes for quick results. I'm even getting to the stage of splaying the first coats of paint on a few. Here's some initial pics – much is held together with pins (glue still dying) and the canopies are just slapped on. Once they are completed and weathered they'll look much better. A couple are awaiting a dome as well.

I've decided to draw some inspiration from Matakishi's Afghan buildings as well. I'm starting to realise that these will open up a world of gaming - Pulp, colonial, modern. Hmm. I'll keep on working on getting more of a market town feel to it all then populate it with some of Eureka's excellent Middle Eastern civilians.

A vexing Vauban venture pt 1

After many months with ruler and compass, I have finally taken the first step towards building a section of Vauban fortress to grace the corner of the occasional 6mm WSS battlefield. Not only does the complexity of these works make for a design challenge, the well-documented short comings of many models weighs on my mind – for instance see this TMP thread.

I was very interested to see the approach being taken by The Kingdom of Wittenberg in their excellent Fortress Fever posts. Particularly good to see such efforts pit into the Glacis which would seem to overcome must of the criticism of other models.

I took to the shed today and had a first attempt at cutting a bastion from a nice piece of cedar I have been holding onto for years. The initial plan is to construct a modular Vauban fortification mostly for the fun of it at present but also with the impending publication of Vauban Wars ruleset.

I have begun with a bastion to see if I can overcome some of the modelling issues I will face with managing the issues associated with getting the wall height to look right in conjunction with ditch and glacis. Here's the results of the first day's efforts with some bases of 6mm Baccus figures and buildings thrown in to give a sense of scale.

 My first impressions is the wall is too tall but I'm working on the bedding this down into the terrain considerably.

You can see the proposed height for the bottom of the ditch roughly marked on the outer edge of the bastion in the photograph below.

Using cedar for the construction has proved quite a success at least at this initial stage. It is so easily worked with hand tools for the initial cutting into shape and the parapet was then formed freehand with a router. It also has the advantage of being quite strong, yet light. The only struggle I'm having is the ex-joiner inside me keep thinking how nice this would look well sanded up and oiled, but I know I should give it a faux masonry skin!

Ploughland

With the impending addition of 'ploughland' to the DBA terrain options for arable landscapes, there have been some excellent pieces of terrain being created. Some inspirational ploughland terrain created by Timurilank which can been seen at his Eighteenth Century Sojourn blog - have a look!

In the same spirit I will provide some before and after (when they're done) shots. Currently I'm using these pieces cut from a larger terrain mat I was working on a couple of years ago.

DBA-RRR ECW – battlefield terrain

Having painted and based and fought an initial battle with my ECW army for DBA-RRR, I decided it was time to turn the paintbrush to some terrain to get that quintessential English feel to the battlefield. I have a box of resin buildings from the Hovels 15mmm Medieval range sitting around from a bygone period of affluence. Amongst them are some cracking pieces that will add atmosphere to my Civil Wars battles.

• (6M5) Inn of half timber with thatched roof
• (8M5) Bailiffs house, stone walls half timbered with tiled roof.
• (3M5) Stable block in timber with thatched roof.

I have not quite decided how these buildings will fit into DBA-RRR. The could be used as a single built up area (BUA) if mounted appropriately. However, recent experience with other rules in the DBx family has got me thinking. Having played a number of games of DB ACW lately where we have used buildings scattered over the table (4' x 4') as impassible terrain features (with each building representing a hamlet or such at the scale of armies, rather than a single building).

If spaced with appropriate room for elements to move and deploy around them these buildings become very influential on the battlefield: providing shelter from artillery / musket fire; being a great feature to anchor a command's flank on; and at times as a hinderance when forming up into lines of battle. While you have to be careful not to overdo it (no more than 3-4 on a 4' x 4' table), they seem to add to the game rather than detract. Aesthetically as well as providing tactical challenges.

In the ECW context, I am thinking of introducing a similar approach as we have used in DB ACW. To that end I will experiment with the system we have used which is to do away with rules dictating the amount and placement of terrain and have the player who hosts the game set up a table with plausible terrain for an encounter and the guest (who sees the board for the first time the night we play) having the choice of which edge he/she deploys on.

A report on this approach will follow. In the mean time, here are a few pictures of the new buildings (Inn and Bailiffs house only) I took in a flood of sunlight today. Thanks for looking.