Homemade Terrain - Seeing the Forest and the Trees

Howdy folks,

Picking up from my last post. I have since been able to finish all of the scratch-built trees and terrain. All in all, there are 16 x 4 inch tree stands, 16 x individual trees, and 6 x treeline segments approximately 6 inches in length. Within all of this, there are over 105 trees, 16 coaster, 6 strips of MDF, and a large number of wooden tokens. Not to mention the homemade basing compound, the overlay using AK diorama mud compound, and half a can of dullcote.

The process was somewhat involved. The trees that I got from Temu did not come with bases...very annoying, but I did get about 70+ trees for about $40...I took some wooden tokens or chips that I got from the DollarStore and drilled into the middle so that I could use these as individual bases for the trees and also on the strips and stands. The 4 inch coasters were a bit of a gamble, in that I wasn't sure how durable they would be, but I needed a quick low cost solution. As I was putting the compound on them, which had a fair amount of water in it, I figured that given they were coasters that they should be able to handle any moisture without warping. 

Happy to report that they did not in fact warp.

Anyhow, after I put the base compound and AK diorama mix on, I then used a layer of Cinnamon Brown crafters paint. I then did a drybrush layer of Territorial Beige...which turned out okay, but wasn't overly pumped by it. I took a semi wet/dry brush layer to the overly beiged up parts using Vallejo Beige Brown. Surprisingly, this did not take a large amount of paint to rectify. I then took some Vallejo Stonewall Grey (I think) and painted up some rocky elements to give the eyes something else to look at. I followed this up with some Army Painter Soft Tone to accentuate the rocky features and give some light variation in some of the recesses of the basework and then hit everything with a very dry brush of Vallejo Tan Earth.

Very satisfied with the result, I then took everything outside to the sunny 18 degree day we were having and zapped it all with a matte overcoat. This was to give some protection to the base, but also some stability to some of the trees. Surprisingly, the Michaels trees were somewhat 'foamy' and some pieces were coming off, so I was hoping the dullcote would seal the materials in.

Here are the pics...next stop, the gaming table.

2026's Trek up Mt. Shame

Painted

15mm         36    

28mm+       16

Terrain      +38, 38 pieces of terrain 

  

Bought        0

Progress   +90

CanGames Prep - Scatter Terrain and a Buttload of Trees

Howdy folks,

We are sitting at just under a month until this years CanGames (https://cangames.ca/) in Ottawa. I decided to throw my hat in the ring for running a table this year and while I took some time to settle on a ruleset and setting, I realized afterwards that I would have to get moving on prepping things up. I hadn't played Team Yankee in some time, and I had a few models kicking around that I could paint up (cough cough, horde!), so I thought I could give a shot at TY. At the same time, I didn't want to settle on a traditional TY or Flames of War fight and instead dove into the Tank Aces Campaign and rules from a bunch of years ago for a solution.

I liked the idea of running a standard table with a reduced number of forces, and I also like the Force on Force (FoF) ruleset, but at the same time I didn't want to get too bogged down in rules and minutia. I really just wanted to focus on having models on the table. So, Tank Aces will give me the chance to whittle the force structure down to more of a FoF friendly size, and using Tank Aces, I will be able to have folks move around as independent teams and all that comes with that nuance. Anywho, maybe more on that later or in another post.

So, I had the setting - Cold War (which was where my original FoF thoughts were going) - I did a deep dive google search into table layouts (found some eye-candy and great looking tables at Sparkers Wargaming page), and took them as inspiration. That meant that I had to finally beef-up and invest in some scatter terrain that I could be proud of.

Again, going to google, I tried looking for something similar to what Battlefront offers, but the price point was a little much for me at the moment...and, the biggest consideration, every site I looked at had the Pine Woods or similar tree terrain sold out. Well that kinda solved the concerns about the cost...

So, DIY/Scratchbuild time! I ended up buying an assortment of trees from Temu and Michaels…over 100 of them. I picked up some coasters to base the trees from Michaels along with some regular felt pieces (12x9 inch and 12x18 inch) and some textured felt, which would be great for some farmers fields.

I made up a mixture of sand, pva glue, drywall compound, hearty craft paint, and some water. It made a pretty solid mortar for the bases and it didn’t take much to tidy up the bases with a second application. 

Next step is the painting and dry brushing. Cheers.

Painting Update - Horde of Team Yankee Americans

Howdy everyone,

 

Whether you are in the midst of spring or the [alleged] last storm of winter, I hope that all is well on your respective sides. I have been rocking the best of both seasons, although I have not had any of the big snowfalls that other folks have been experiencing...which is both great and horrible all at the same time.

 

I have been taking it somewhat easy over the last few weeks, enjoying some time off from work...and while I have and have not accomplished anything, I have at the very least worked my way through a number of vehicles that were sitting on the painting table waiting their turn for the brush. Between picking up starter boxes that were well priced (the first release of the Complete Starter Set and Ryan's Leathernecks) or supporting local gaming stores on my travels, I had amassed a bit of a small-ish horde of vehicles for Team Yankee.

 

Over my time off, I was able to paint up the 6 Humvees from the Leathernecks box, the M1 Abrams and the Bradley's from the Compete Starter Set, and a box of Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles. This also gave me a chance at trying my hand at the M81 Woodland camo pattern for US uniforms. I am pretty happy with the results of the uniforms and have a Rifle Platoon to get to next...and the vehicles, I painted most of them in the MERDC pattern that I had used prior, and did 2 Bradley's and 2 Abrams in straight green no camo...having looked at a wide variety of images, I thought the mix would work. And certainly it helps in distinguishing small units on the table...and the green vehicles can work well for Red Dawn type, as in my mind green feels more continental-US.

 

Anywho, I'm very happy with how they all turned out. Enjoy the horde of photos to go along with this.

 

Cheers.

The horde…enough kit to field an understrength M1 Armoured Combat Team with multiple Bradley recon teams and Humvee recce support.

The Bradley’s…M2A2/M3A3’s with a pair of M2/M3’s…enough for 3 support teams for the M1’s or enough for their own Armoured Cavalry Troop (with M1 support).

Some Humvees on parade…enough for a couple of Scout sections.

Some M1’s…can combine with the previous couple I had painted up for a small core formation.

2026's Trek up Mt. Shame

Painted

15mm         36, +27 (crew and vehicles)    

28mm+       16

Terrain        0

  

Bought        0

Progress   +52