Older Posts Imported

 I have imported the older posts from my old Little Wars Revisited Blog that ran for 10 years.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to bring across the pictures but the words are still there for posterity...

I have also uploaded my mods to the Portable Napoleonic Wargame to the new Rules Page.

Flock of...

 Started on the great flocking project of getting the hex tiles ready...

Still need to paint the hill edges green and then cut some 2mm wood and building bases.

Epic Failure...

I have been thinking about a 30Yw project for some time, possibly starting with Swedes vs Poles and have bought a couple of boxes of figures (Swedish Infantry and Winged Hussars) to produce a couple of test units.

Wargames Illustrated arrived yesterday with a free sprue of the Epic scale ECW/TYW figures and I was very tempted by them.  The units are half the footprint of a 28mm unit and it is considerably cheaper to buy a full army in Epic scale rather than 28mm.

But I got rid of my 15mm because I decided I could no longer paint 15mm, having become used to painting 54mm.

So, could I paint these?  Well, I undercoated a strip last night and then dabbed some paint on this morning before breakfast.

I got 4 colours on before realising that, no, I couldn't paint them.  They are too small, too fiddly and I am not enjoying the process.  I am never going to paint 100s of these without it becoming a chore and I paint for relaxation.

So, back to the 28mm experiment!

Finished the cutting out

 

I have now cut everything needed for the base terrain and sprayed it green.  Just need to start flocking now.

I have ordered some non-slip backing to stop the hills moving on the flocked surfaces.

I am mixing Spring Meadow and Marsh Green flock together to get a slighter darker, less lurid green then Hexon uses.

More Laser Cutting

 

 

I spent this afternoon cutting the rest of the big tiles and decided to go for just over 6' with 7 tiles wide - it also comes to 45" deep or so - will be a bit deeper once I've cut the edge pieces.

The pieces aren't quite exact multiples of 2" due to the laser Kerf which cuts away a small amount.

I have also started painting the hill tops ready to be flocked.  I decided that flocking over a green was better than bare MDF as it hides any missing bits and also shows the hex lines in green.

The big pieces are going to have to be sprayed green as using a brush obscures the hex lines and you need to run a knife along each of them - fine for the smaller pieces a real pain for the bigger ones.

I have to do the same after flocking as well, but that isn't quite as bad.

I have ordered more flock and will try to get the edge pieces cut next week and make a start on painting the big tiles (difficult as they have to be sprayed in the green house if raining and I can do about 3 at a time!  Also won't be able to use the greenhouse once I've put some plants in there in a week or so.)

New Hex Terrain

 

I spent the day working on some new terrain boards - which wasn't what I planned at all.  I've been thinking about some form of hex terrain which will let me represent different levels of hills in a satisfactory way.

I have always liked this picture from Battle Magazine of a Spanish wargamer's setup and was deeply envious as a teenager of his wargames room...

So, armed with Sketchup and my laser cutter I played around with 2" hexes and produced some Hexon shaped tiles which I quickly realised were too small so made tiles four times as big.  Unfortunately, I hadn't studied Hexon closely enough and didn't make the tile in the same shape as 4 hexon tiles tesselated, but after I'd cut 5 of them this morning I realised and redesigned the tile so it tesselates properly with a 6-hex tile.

The basic big tile is this:

I had a go at flocking a small tile (and painting the edges grass green) and the hexes virtually disappear but can still be seen for alignment.

I have cut enough for nearly 4' square now and started playing with hills.

This is how I visualise the hills working - as double height pieces.  Either with 2 x 4mm MDF glued together or simply with plain (but edge painted) pieces underneath.

 

 

Bavarians at the bottom of a very steep hill...

 

 

Now I just need to flock a load of tiles and work out a frame to hold them in place.

I will probably just use my standard roads and stream at the moment as I am not planning on using the hexes for movement but might go to sunken stream tiles later on.

Looking at the original photo he has 5 levels of hills so I need quite a lot more tiles!