Sunday 16 September 2012

More terrain hexes.

I was asked over on TMP forum how I make my terrain hexes, specifically the fields. As I needed to make up a few more I decided to take some pictures as I went along and add a few notes of materials used etc. This has proved a welcome relief following a particularly heavy psychotherapy session on Friday which has left me physically and mentally wrecked for three days. Something about sticking little bits of foliage and texturing stonework etc I find very relaxing. I'm glad I have this hobby at times like this!

The hexes are of course those made by Tony Barr at East Rising Miniatures and what a quality product they are. Laser cut, non warp and only 2mm thick, Tony has even added my 95mm hexes to his shopping cart for easy re order.... hows that for service.

PVA glue is then brushed on, a thin coat is all that is required. I then scatter my 50/50 mix of fine grit and foundation 'dirt' flock* and leave to dry for 24hours. For the wheat fields I instead cover with Parched Straw static grass.




Next step depends upon what feature I'm making - for fields I apply a thick bed of PVA where I want to place my 'hedges' which are made from the summer clump foliage as below. This contains three slightly different shades of clumps which can be broken up to make small individual pieces to represent hedges.





For the 'wood' bases on which my trees stand I apply small patches of static grass only, for the 'broken ground' hexes I apply a few patches of grass, a few small clumps of foliage and large stones made from selected pieces of perlite, (intended for drainage in plant pots). Around the edges of the fields I also use static grass, the grit/dirt flock mix and a few perlite stones. Have fun with this and try to achieve a nice blend of textures/shades.

Once its all dry I begin to drybrush the stones. I tend to use Citadel Vermin Brown as it matches my figure bases, and then again a further highlight of 'Linen' just picking out the tops of the stonework. And that's about it really. My main aim is to keep everything blended across the hexes as much as possible.





*All my scatter materials are ordered from Totalwargamer. They always provide a reliable service and the products are good quality. For this demo I'm using the following product codes/descriptions.

Links to each product code used are listed below. The Gale Force Nine products are reasonably priced and very good quality.







4 comments:

  1. They look good Lee - will we be seeing Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte in due course?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello Ian,

    The Waterloo project remains my main focus in the long term, it was where it all started for me and I'm determined to get it right when I do it. It will require a whole new purpose built terrain (I have in the back of my mind Peter Gilders wonderfully compacted version for example), and loads more 6mm troop bases. All of this is a learning process but I love the potential of this scale. So the short answer is yes!

    Cheers,
    Lee.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Lee,
    Great looking additions to the scenics mate. Could I make a suggestion? What about making one or two of the field hexes so that the hedge line follows a couple of the hex edges? (i.e. so not every field is square and allows for more irregular shaped fields)... It would possibly just break things up a bit. Great work a usual!

    All the best

    Steve

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Steve.....(nice one Crouch, possibly a little touch off the arm but who cares! :-)

      Cheers for the comment, I agree about the fields I was thinking that myself. There is probably a way of running a field system a cross say 3 hexes so they are not all tiny squares, could well look better. Theres a lot I want to do with those hexes, possibly covering the whole board in individual MDF hexes with some made to fit together etc. The individual tiles are very cheap so it wouldnt break the bank! Any ideas and suggestions always welcome.

      All the best,
      Lee.

      Delete

Thank you for leaving a comment, it will be published as soon as I have read it in order to avoid spam.