RE: [SG] Game Pictures and sort of AAR

Hi folks,

>
>Looks VERY impressive! I love your swish terrain!
>
>Thanks for brightening my day
>
>Beth
>

You're welcome!  And thanks for the praise on the terrain.  I should
clearly take more pics :)

(or at least kick myself into getting more content up on the site...)

I did enough terrain like that for a 4' x 12' table (two of the GeoHex
green mats end to end) at the game I ran at GZG-ECC this past March. 
I've
got pics around that I've been meaning to add to the scenario article on
the site...

The rivers and forest areas are EASY to do.  I just bought some sheets
of
blue and green felt from a local craft store (was extremely inexpensive
-
about $0.50 for a sheet roughly equivalent to a letter size sheet of
paper
- enough to get several river sections or a couple of good size forest
mats), cut them to shape, and for the river sections I painted the edges
and then added green flock.  For the forests, I painted them with a
50/50
water/white glue mix leaving about 0.5cm or so around the edges, and
covered them in flock.	The other nice thing about doing felt-based
terrain
bits like this is that they are quick to produce, look pretty good for
the
effort involved, and they FLEX over rough table bits or uneven ground
mats
or whatever.

The trees are commercial - several different brands including GW and a
couple of model railroad suppliers.  I stuck them individually to the
large
flat round  plastic bases that GW sells (these are inexpensive also, and
come in bags of 15 or 20 or so) so I could move them out of the way if
we
needed to position figures more accurately.

The hills are a bit more of a problem...

>
>But you forgot to link your article on "Making Hills".
>

Heh.  Sorry Laserlight.

That article is wayyy down the list, after stuff like "Laserlight's
TO&E's,
Atkinson's Many Articles, New Pics from Albert Cho" etc.

Besides, it might be a little bit difficult for most people on the list.
 I
vacuum formed them over moulds I made from fiberglass.	They're done in
sheet styrene, about 1/16" thick.

They were primed black, brush painted green, and flocked (just brush
painted with a 50/50 water/white glue mix, and then a coat of flock was
sprinkled on - the trick is to ensure both an even coat of glue and an
even
coat of flock).  

The flock is quite vulnerable...  One of the players in my "Carnage Con
Queso" game at GZG-ECC (who shall remain nameless, though he won the
event...ahem  ;-) spilled tea onto the table, and one of my hills
developed
a pronounced bald spot...

The good thing about doing home flocked hills is that you can just
reflock
them later if the flock comes off...

The hills could be replicated in insulation foam, using 1 1/2" thick (or
so) pieces.  Cut to shape and rough in the curves using a bread knife
(get
an inexpensive one).  Sand it to get the curve smooth.	You can use
sandpaper in the hand or on a power sander for this.  Just do it
outdoors,
or somewhere where you don't mind lots and lots of blue dust...  Then
seal
the surface, and paint it and flock it the same way.

I used vac forming for my hills because I was in industrial design
school
at the time and had access to the equipment...	I'd love to make more -
I
still have the patterns (moulds) - but no vac former...

Design school was three years of "Hey, I can do this really cool new
wargaming modeling/terrain thing" every week as I learned new stuff...

Have fun!

Adrian

***************************************

Adrian Johnson
adrian@stargrunt.ca
http://www.stargrunt.ca