terrain

Refurbishing my TSS tiles.

thomasriepe , , , ,

As I said in another post a few weeks back I wanted to improve my trusty TSS tiles / boards. These are tiles measuring 1foot by 1 foot or 30,5 x 30,5 cm square. I have lots of them and after acquiring a foam cutter I even did some by myself. So after using them for years I wanted to give them a make over. I started with my river tiles. When they come from TSS ( Total System Scenic) they look like this:

FullSizeRender

As you can see the river clearly shows the structure of the styropor used to make the tiles. Doesn’t look very natural when you ask me. So I wanted to do a better water effect on these river tiles. But before that the banks have to be done properly. Like this :

IMG_8819

I added gravel, sand and little stones to the river banks. Next will be paint and flock. With the following tile I wanted to recreate a steeper higher bank of the river . I used cork bark, ready mixed filler Styropor and gravel,sand and stones, to come up with this:

IMG_8818

Here are some more pictures of my other river tiles:

The last board has a very thin layer of filler on the actual river to get rid of the styropor structure. I will do this to the others too but will mix paint with the filler to have a bisect to work with too. So over the next week I will add more so watch this space!

 

Finished of the wire wool trees

thomasriepe , ,

You remember the wire or steel wool trees I started a few weeks back? I came to this end:

Now I found the time to base them properly on mdf bases and added rocks and scatter . They look like this now:

IMG_8795 2

Here are a few closeup pictures of the rocks and scatter:

They are done with cork bark and gravel and grid . Hope you like what you see!

Next up my improved TSS river tiles.

New stamps for representing stones on Styrodure and a template for roman doors and windows.

thomasriepe , , , , ,

I got two stamps for texturing walls from MiniWorlds a italian company and a template for roman doors and windows. The two wall texturing stamps are only two examples there are many more on their web page.

Here is the first one: The MT 009 San marino type

FullSizeRender

This stamp is to be placed on a piece of Styrodure and pressed into it to imprint the stone layout into the Styrodure. You will get this:

IMG_8476

Depending on the stability of the Styrodure, there are different grades of toughness, you might need a hammer to make this work ( like shown on the companies website. It took less then 5 minutes to do this. Doing the engraving by hand would take considerably longer.

Next up is the MT013 Siviglia type:

FullSizeRender 4

This is what you get after using :

FullSizeRender 5

Both stamps can be joint to produce bigger ares of stone on the Styrodure , just align them properly.

What I got too is a product called minimask. A stencil template to do roman arched windows and doors . Also from MiniWorlds. You use this to draw window and doors onto the Styrodure to cut them out later. One word of warning though the one I got was very fragile.

This is MM001 roman arches:

IMG_8478

Excuse the bad picture . Better ones are on the companies website .

When you place them on the Styrodur you van use the one cm lines on the template to align them properly.

FullSizeRender 2

Here is what you get when you use both devices :

FullSizeRender 3

IMG_8481

And together with the other template:

All in all a very good product . Recommended but using a hammer is necessary.

I will use these to build some buildings in the future so watch this space.

The Flockbox

thomasriepe , , , , ,

I got a Flockbox for x xmas which can be used for making your own grass tufts or for flocking your terrain.

FullSizeRender 7

“”The Flockbox is a unique and versatile flocking device that allows flocking of small to medium size objects at a fraction of the cost of purchasing a commercial flocking device.

‘Flock’ is nylon fibres like fine hair and is available in a huge range of colours, it is used to create the velvet feel on objects such as jewelry boxes, car dashboards, toys or longer flock can be used to create realistic looking grasses in miniature.

The Flockbox uses an electrostatic charge to attract the flock fibres onto your glued surface resulting in the fibres standing on their ends in the glue to produce a carpet effect.” Quoted from the manufacturers site.

You can find more info here

Here is a short video showing how it works. Curtesy The terrain tutor

 

Here are some tufts I made with the flock box:

FullSizeRender 4

I haven’t tried flocking terrain directly but I will post the results here when I did.

If you want to make your own tufts this device is recommended !!

New Book

thomasriepe , ,

Battlefields in Miniature

Making realistic and effective terrain for Wargames

by Paul Davies

IMG_4817

Like a good General a good warmer should have an eye for the ground. Just as nature plays an imported role in real battles it also does this on the tabletop.

When you spend a lot of time painting your miniatures you should also spend time on building good wargames terrain.

This book helps immensely to fulfill this task.

In the different Chapters everything you need to know about terrain building is explained.

The book starts with showing which different possibilities there are to create terrain like Terrain cloths, Terrain tiles, custom or sculpted terrain.

In the following chapters Davies explains how to build Rivers and Ponds Islands Cliffs and Hills, Trees, Walls, Fences and Screens, Hedges, Gates, Cultivated Fields, Roads, Bridges, Defense and  Buildings.

The book is well worth reading and helps building terrain.

It is useful for beginners and old hands alike.

Highly recommended

FullSizeRender

sample page.

cover for your troops

thomasriepe , ,

As I am playing Bold action by Warlord miniatures , I need a lot of scenery!
If you do not know Bold action it is a squad or platoon level wargame set in WWII.
As troops die very quickly in this system without adequat cover I started my terrain building project with field walls. You can see how I made them here.

PA260251

New terrain page

thomasriepe , , ,

I added a new terrain page. I think good looking convincing terrain is as important as well painted miniatures for a eye candy wargame.

I started out with an MDF house in 28mm by timeline. You can see more here

IMG_2013 IMG_2014