terrain blitz continues

January seems to have become terrain month, as I slowly clear out old terrain pieces and projects from the well of shame under the stairs. Since the urge to build/renovate/create has not waned, I continue on. This time up, an old 'O' scale Lionel kit (or kits?), originally kit-bashed by Daniel into a train depot for his long-forgotten Cowboys & Indians project. I think Daniel may have combined two kits into one and added a wooden trestle platform. It was all very Western-looking, rustic and with lots of rough-hewn wooden extras. It was also a large piece of terrain, measuring 18" x 12" on the base. I decided to put it on a smaller base (now 18" x 8") and make some changes to have it look a little more European. This included cladding the supporting timber sub-structure with brick and removing most of the wooden accents that so clearly made it from the old West. Some new loading platforms were also added, using various bits of card, plastic, and balsa. The end result can be a basic rail-loading platform and sheds or a more generic industrial piece.

Unfortunately, I took no photos of the model when first pulled from storage. It had fared quite well through various house moves and re-packings (over that 10+ years?) but it did have a substantial layer of dust. This dust proved a bit of a trial to remove and in the end some was left on the model (especially the roofs) and I simply painted over it. The basic model had been base-coated a dark brown and I decided to leave it as is except for the roofs, which I painted black and dry-brushed and washed with successive layers of greys, blues, and greens.

 The basic shell of the model has been re-based and white card added to cover the wooden sub-structure. Brick sheeting would be added later onto this white card.

Two loading platforms were added from various bits & pieces, replacing the original ramps and platforms (deliberately made to look rather rickety as part of the Western theme).

And the finished piece... 

The supporting base was clad with embossed brick sheeting (no idea where they came from other than the depths of my terrain bits drawer). The freight piles are, I believe, from Warlord Games and separate pieces that can be used anywhere on the table. I also added some posters from the interwebs (and appropriately re-sized) and a small notice board with individually cut posters, notes, etc.

Another view of the freight pieces. These are lovely resin castings and should prove quite versatile in our games.

The backside of the structure, clearly showing the brickwork sub-structure. I needed to put quite a heavy wash over the brick sheeting to tone down it's initial brightness.

Another of the various posters and ads downloaded from the interwebs. I've just noticed how in this picture the poster looks to be rather skewed on the end wall. I checked the model and it is quite level, so it must be a trick of perspective in the photo.

continuing on the terrain band(shell) wagon...

Again, dipping into the seemingly endless terrain black hole that is the storage area under the stairs...

A small but pretty piece from Sarissa's Gaslamp Alley collection, a bandshell. Strictly speaking, this is a Victorian piece meant mainly for Britain. Some quick (but admittedly cursory) online research and I discovered that this style of bandstand was common to Britain but not so much on mainland Europe. No matter... historical accuracy be damned! This was too nice a kit to leave languishing in the forgotten pile.

As with all Sarissa kits I've encountered so far, construction was simple (though fiddly, in this case). Only one part gave me some trouble... the roof. This is etched card to represent the curved outer skin. Unfortunately, I didn't give it the care and attention required in the prep phase. The end result turned out as "adequate" and taught me (again) to spend a few minutes visualizing the end result instead of diving right in.

"Ah, to build, to build!"

"Ah, to build, to build! That is the noblest art of all the arts."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Well, making toy buildings for toy soldiers isn't exactly noble. But I'll run with it. Following from my last post and the recent building blitz, I again dipped into the black hole of terrain tucked under the basement stairs and pulled out some long-ago purchased Warbases building shells. These are pretty basic and have the advantage of almost infinite possibility for modification. I wanted these to sit alongside the Charlie Foxtrot building I recently tarted up for Michael (see here), as part of a generic French-ish mid-20th century-ish village/town.

Bases were made from 3mm mdf and front walkways added from balsa and plastic stonework sheeting. The cafe received a front patio and some scratch-built tables (I've subsequently ordered some 1/48 dollhouse tables and chairs). Shutters for the windows have not yet been added at this stage. Also can be seen the wood filler used to correct small imperfections in the kit (or mistakes in the construction... by me).

I also added a couple of sheds/outbuildings to the side of the cafe, to add some visual variety. These are Warbases extras and are as cheap as chips (so much so that's it's easier to order them from Warbases than to cut them from mdf or foam-core myself... or maybe that's just me being lazy).

The backyards for each are made with foam-core walls (ok, so maybe not so lazy after all), capped with card pieces. The gates are from Warbases, as are the garden sheds. These had been completed (almost) many months before but shoved aside for far more important things... like painting toy soldiers! Thus, they have the roofs covered with Warbases laser-cut shingles... as will the main buildings.

And the finished product! Walls plastered with tile grout, shutters and doors added, and roofs tiled.

The cafe patio will receive a few tables and chairs... waiting on the post.

Great buildings are the work of centuries...

"Great buildings, like great mountains, are the work of centuries."  Victor Hugo

At the very least, parts of this hobby can sometimes seem to take centuries. I've had a few terrain update projects on my grand list of things to do for some time now. After my figure-painting blitz in the last part of 2018 to get Xmas gifts completed (link), I thought I'd switch gears and look after some of these long-standing terrain items that needed updates or makeovers. 

First up, I've been wanting to re-base our grand resin church (from HG Walls, I think?) This fantastic, multi-period building had a rather large base with small courtyard and attendant graveyard. You can see it below in action. We were quite happy with the look of it and many a skirmish swirled among its walls over the years. But the big drawback was the size of the base when trying to fit it into and among other terrain pieces and it awkwardness for storage.

Thus I decided to rip the church off its large base and salvage as much of the graveyard as possible for a separate terrain piece.

A smaller and tighter base for the church makes it more adaptable to various terrain situations and its reduced footprint easier to store. The gravestones and mausolea also received their own small bases, again for added flexibility.

I also pulled out an old half-finished courtyard piece, originally slated for the long-forgotten Boxer Rebellion project, and tarted it up. It's essentially an empty walled courtyard but allows a variety of pieces to be placed within, including the church. The courtyard walls are 1/4" plywood screwed and glued onto the base from underneath to prevent warpage of such a large base. I usually use yellow carpenter's glue for all terrain construction. It's stronger than normal PVA and dries much more quickly. In this case, I decided to up the ante in the fight against warpage and drill-inset-screw the walls. So far, no warpage! The walls were plastered with tile grout and painted/dry-brushed. The last additions were a few WWII era posters (that can be selectively ignored if the piece is used for earlier periods).

Also pulled from the unfinished terrain pile were two kits from Sarissa...village fountain and park benches. Added to the new courtyard, they provide another option. I'm thinking of purchasing some large willow trees for this as well. The fountain came in a nice little kit that took only about 30 minutes to construct. I realized early that "as-is" it would look to be a wooden structure because of the various layers of mdf required to build it up. I chose to use a liberal coating of wood filler to... ummm... fill... The result, I think, looks more like stone. I added a small flagstone enclosure made from some old offcuts of plastic stonework.

Also included in the terrain blitz was a Charlie Foxtrot townhouse piece that had been sitting on Michael's shelves in the Trenton Gaming Emporium, built and base-coated, but sadly neglected for many months. As with almost all mdf building kits, the roof was flat (although etched) and showed the attachment plugs too clearly. I chose to overcoat the roof with some laser-cut shingles from Warbases (a tedious but curiously cathartic exercise) to provide a bit more depth. The walls were coated with tile grout and painted/dry-brushed as normal. 

Michael had already provided a nice little birch tree for the backyard, attached via rare earth magnet. Some posters were also added to provide variety.

First use of the new townhouses in a recent game.

Many a gamer of a certain age will recognize this piece... the ubiquitous Hovels resin church. Pulled from the depths of my terrain black hole, this lovely little piece is intended for the ImagiNation collection (but could easily be used for later periods, including WWII, if required). An easy build (glue the steeple on and cut a base from 3mm mdf) and straightforward paint job made this a pleasure to work on.

And a peak at what's coming up next...