Touching up tired terrain-tumbling water and trees

Once I start touching up I just can't stop!!-this time it's an under-used piece of terrain-a waterfall,and my very often used trees.

This waterfall  is a vacuum formed plastic piece-I can't even remember where I got it,but I've had it for years and years.
As with the stream sections,I gave it a thorough clean,and then a coat of varnish......

Varnished,and looking good-I have filled the inside with an expandable filler to give the whole piece stability.

Stones painted and touched up,plus a few embellishments(lichen!) added.

A couple of different angled shots of the finished waterfall-look out for this item in future games!!

The tree collection was next on my touch up of terrain hit list-basically I just re-stuck the "trunks",straightened them up and added a bit of flock,lichen and "logs"-but it keeps me out of mischief!!

Quite a lot of trees,but,as someone once said,you can't have enough trees!!

I know,I know,it's as silly as Battling Tanks and Zombies,but it amuses me!!

"Embellishments" added-looking good.
And what of the wife? whilst I'm doing this important stuff,what is she up to?

Tut!! doing mundane things like putting a coat of Ronseal onto the garden seat-I would help her,but I'm sure I would only get in the way!!

A little touch up!

After playing with the same thing for years,it gets worn out and tired looking-I am of course talking about my river/stream sections! so I decided to touch them up and breathe,hopefully,new life into them.
I started the process by giving them a damned good brushing,to get rid of years of flock and fingerprints.
The next stage was to find some varnish,to bring out the faded colour,and apply it liberally to the sections.
I then re-painted the "stones and rocks" using a brown colour rather than the grey that they already were(basically because I didn't have a grey!!)

The "lads" didn't notice the renewed sections last night though!!-ho hum!!!

Two photo's showing the sections after being varnished-many years ago I glued three sections to one piece of hardboard,then "jig-sawed" the shape-so each section you can see has three small sections of stream on it.The sections are quite brittle,because they are made of plaster,bought from a company,no longer with us,called A and M models.

I still do have some single sections,like this one,which give me greater flexibility in layouts,if required.

A close up showing the new colour and new stones(plus some bloke looking at the section from the news-paper!!)

The real thing(photo taken in Jesmond Dene,Newcastle,yesterday)I can't see any difference,can you?

New Terrain Pieces

While I was helping out with picking up some stuff from the wholesalers I came across these two pieces in the aquarium section.
Now being a wargamer I immediately saw their wargaming potential! I have it in mind to use them as jungle terrain for my Maharatta project, although I am sure John will think of a few more scenarios in which they can be utilised.

I have pictured them with a couple of my Maharatta figures (Redoubt) to give an idea of the scale.

As you can see they are fairly substantial and require no further work!

I really like them and I will keep an eye out for any others next time I am there. Especially considering I paid £4.50 for the two.

I have also posted a couple of pics of my first complete Maharatta regular battalion. This project is a slow burner (as I am a slow painter lol). However I am chipping away and I have another 16 regulars primed and ready to go and these will complete the Red turban battalion.

In addition to these I have about 20 almost complete sepoys sitting in my painting box. Why can't I concentrate on one thing at a time?! In the next couple of weeks I hope to get these progressed but, as John has mentioned in his post preceeding mine, I have been a little diverted by the Vauban fortifications and a recent purchase of some Great Northern War figures from Musketeer Miniatures.

I have almost completed the first regiment (Uppland). This period has been one which I have wanted to do for a long time and I have been waiting for the right figures to be produced. Now that Bill at Musketeer Miniatures has started to expand his range I have given in to temptation.

I will post some pics of these later tonight hopefully.

Work in Progress ( Vauban fortifications)

After far too many months I have revisited my Vauban fortification project. I posted in October last year showing the Ravelin which I have completed and I thought it was about time I pushed on and finished this project. So I have now started work on constructing the two Bastions which will form the main part of the defensive works. As with the Ravelin I have not bought any materials other than wood glue. I intend to build this as cheaply as possible! I have used a sheet of hardboard left over from lining the shed in the garden and some off cuts of chip board from an old set of drawers which I was replacing. Here is how I have got on so far.
The base board for the Bastion with cut outs at the rear to allow the curtain walls to abutt snuggly (thats the theory!).

The upper level of the bastion again from hardboard.

The two lengths of retrieved chip board which will form the wall supports.

I have glued and tacked the wall supports to the base after sawing them to (approximately) the right length and adding angled cuts.

The suppoting walls glued and tacked into position. As you can see the construction is fairly rough but all this will be covered by card and Tetrion eventually.

The upper floor is now glued and tacked on top of the walls.

A side view of the basic construction (with one of my dogs looking on :) ). My next step will be to add card to get the angled wall surface and to add the top of the battlement. Hopefully this will progress in the next couple of days. I just need to find some more offcuts of wood!

Work in Progress

I eventually go time to finish the ravelin which I started in April. If you view my post from the 29th April you will see it at the halfway stage. Actually this was finished about a month ago but our official photographer, Paul, has had the photos until now. Anyway here is the finished model. It will eventually form part of a more extensive Vauban fortification.

I am quite pleased with the result of my first ever scratch built model and now I must find the time to start construction on the two bastions. As you may recall I have the gateway already (another scratch built model purchased from Phil Olley).

I have gone for a pretty rough hewn effect (more to do with my limited modelling skills than a design decision!). This will form the defences of a small fortress or town rather than the more grand defences of Lille and such like.

A view from the attackers perspective (Paul getting creative).

I hope to finish at least one bastion this month and will post pictures as and when I do. My time is torn between finishing the fortifications and building up my new project: The 2nd Mahratta war and the campaign against Tipoo Sultan. More on this when I have some photos. . . .