Old West Terrain Board Ideas

All this cactus terrain construction has got me thinking about knocking together a proper, custom made desert terrain board for Fistful of Lead: Reloaded and other skirmish games in hot places. I normally just chuck a beige coloured cloth over a table but, now I have a half decent set of terrain pieces, I thought I might as well have a permanent but portable desert terrain board as well.

The majority of scenarios for FFofL:R are on a 3' x 3' area, so not too big to be a single square board, as long as it isn't too hefty. I could make one out of wooden battens and mdf sheet but, I thought I'd try out a 100mm x 100mm stretched artist's canvas frame, which would be very light and is designed to be painted on after a skim of acrylic medium to add some texture.

The only problem would be that the canvas is a bit 'bouncy' but with some expanded polystyrene sheet cut to size and fitted inside the frame, I reckon it would be far more rigid. It's worth a try and, if I can find a cheap one in The Works or Hobbycraft, then I think it could work really well. It would definitely be better than a cloth and I could match the texturing and colour scheme to my existing terrain.

Stumped!

It's cricket training and matches for the sprog on Tuesday evenings from now until the summer holidays, which means that I won't be able to get to the club for any convivial wargaming other than the few occasions when he's not involved. This is only about three or four days between now and August, so I am well and truly stumped! Any games I can get to will have to be 'off the cuff' or something I can just throw together at short notice if rain stops play, so it will be a case of fitting in the gaming around the cricket rather than the other way round. It also means that I'm going to have to knock the club Back of Beyond campaign on the head early, although I'll try to set up one last big multiplayer battle if I can to wrap it up. Bugger.

Old West Cactus Scatter Terrain Finished

I blitzed the last couple of stages on the cactus scatter terrain this evening, adding a mixture of Gamers Grass Dry Green and  Light Green tufts, together with a few sprigs of Army Painter Meadow Flowers, to add a bit of colour. I left these to dry while I painted the abandoned wagon wheel in various dusty shades, then over brushed the tufts in Foundry Boneyard to tone them down a bit. I'd like to add some more but I think that's it. I'm quite pleased with the overall effect and can't praise the plastic resin cactus more than enough, as they are easy to work with, perfect for 28mm and very good value for money at only £9 for twelve bases worth. Fill 'yer boots!

http://shellholescenics.co.uk/index.php main_page=product_info&cPath=254_262&products_id=2060

Old West Cactus Continued

I've now painted the actual cactus in a combination of Foundry French Gun Olive Green Shade, followed by a dry brush in Foundry Phlegm Green Light and Army Painter Necrotic Green, which took ages to do but looks the part. I now only need to do a bit of tidying up here and there before I can add the tufts to finish off the bases. I'm quite pleased with these so far and am now thinking of adding some other scatter terrain pieces including some rocky outcrops and scrub.

Old West Cactus Bases Painted

I finished painting the bases on the cactus scatter terrain pieces this afternoon, with the end result looking not too bad. I copied the same approach that I have used on the rest of the desert terrain in my collection but the match isn't spot on for some reason, not that that's a major problem. I'll paint the cactus plants themselves tomorrow and add some tufts, static grass and the like to finish them off, ready for another game of A Fistful of Lead: Reloaded. I think the Bad Times in the Badlands scenario would be perfect for the cactus debut!

Baltic Air Policing NATO exercises

There's been quite a lot of air activity in the Baltic States of late, with USAF F-35A's forward deployed to Estonia for familiarisation exercises and the multi-national NATO exercise Ramstein Alloy 4 in Lithuania. The brilliant The Aviationist website has some outstanding photos taken of the latter, featuring Dutch F-16's and German Eurofighter Typhoons, which have given me some more thoughts about painting the 1/600th scale Oddzial Ozmy planes that I have based for Target Locked On! I may even dig them out this weekend and have a go?

https://theaviationist.com/2017/05/04/ramstein-alloy-4-served-to-exercise-baltic-air-policing-alert-aircraft-procedures/

Pre-Dreadnought China Station Royal Navy Fleet

HMS King Alfred

I've spent some time over the weekend working out the various potential permutations for a Royal Navy China Station pre-dreadnought fleet. This is based on various online sources and the relevant titles that I have on the bookshelves, so isn't just plucked out of thin air and should bear some relationship to the actual deployment of warships on the China Station c1900-1905, the time bracket for my proposed solo mini-campaign. I've also worked out the various codes from the Tumbling Dice 1/2400th scale range, so that I can order a few battleships, cruisers and torpedo boat destroyers as a starting point. I think that 1903-04 offers the most scope for an interesting mix of warships, with potential for a naval clash against my Imperial Japanese.

HMS Centurion

Royal Navy China Station Fleet c1900-1905

Pre-Dreadnought Battleships                                                                         

HMS Centurion (Centurion Class) 1894-1901 / 1903 – 1905                            

HMS Barfleur (Centurion Class) 1898-1901                                                                    

HMS Goliath (Canopus Class) 1900-1903 / 1905 (recalled)

HMS Albion (Canopus Class) 1901-1905 (relieved HMS Barfleur)

HMS Ocean (Canopus Class) 1901-1905

HMS Glory (Canopus Class) 1900-1905 (refitting 1901-02)

HMS Vengeance (Canopus Class) 1903-1905 (relieved HMS Goliath)            

Armoured Cruisers

HMS Cressy (Cressy Class) 1901 -

HMS Hogue (Cressy Class) 1904 -

HMS King Alfred (Drake Class) 1903 -

HMS Leviathan (Drake Class) 1903-1904                                                                   

Protected Cruisers

HMS Iphigenia (Apollo Class) 1900 / 1903 -                                                         

HMS Thetis (Apollo Class) 1902 –                                                                              

HMS Sirius (Apollo Class) 1903 -                                                                             

HMS Dido (Eclipse Class) 1900 – 1901                                                                   

HMS Talbot (Eclipse Class) 1902-                                                                                              

HMS Eclipse (Eclipse Class) 1903                                                                             

HMS Bonaventure (Astrea Class) 1901 – / 1904

HMS Astrea (Astrea Class) 1900 - 1901                                                              

Torpedo Boat Destroyers

HMS Arun / HMS Dee / HMS Itchen (River Class) 1904                               

HMS Erne / HMS Errick / HMS Exe (River Class) 1905                                         

Old West Cactus Basecoat

I've been out at the sprog's cricket match most of the evening, so haven't had time to do anything apart from an undercoat on a couple of the cactus bases that I prepared over the weekend. These have been sprayed in Halfords Ultra Matt Camouflage Khaki ready for dry brushing and washing, once they've thoroughly cured. I'll just do these two as test pieces for the moment so that I don't muck up the whole lot in one fell swoop! It's all a bit unexciting and beige at the moment but should look better after the next stage.

15mm Sci-Fi SWAT APC

I was in Poundland today when I spotted these Hotwheels toys near the check out. They're supposed to be some sort of X Ray scanning rescue vehicle but I thought that, with the big yellow plastic arm removed, they would make pretty good SWAT trucks or APC's for the 15mm GZG Sci-Fi police figures that I bought in the Xmas sale.

I picked up three of them and drilled out the plastic rivets on one, to separate the plastic body and inner section from the metal chassis, so that I could remove the big yellow arm thing. After re-assembling the parts I reckon I could either add a crew figure into the top hatch or a weapon mount from the GZG or Brigade Models accessories range, to create armoured riot response vehicle for SWAT transport and fire support.

They would also do as generic transport or cargo vehicles for military use. Not bad for a quid each!

Old West Cactus Basing

I didn't get the cactus bases painted today but I have blended them in with a mix of wall filler, PVA glue and sand, followed by a sprinkling of model railway ballast to add a bit of texture. I'll sand them down a bit tomorrow when they have completely dried then basecoat the whole lot in a desert khaki shade to match my other terrain, ready for some washing and dry brushing. I think they will look pretty good, especially if I also add some tufts and weeds around the bases.