I have been tinkering with the terrain for my Khartoum! game this week and I came up with an idea to enhance the appearance of the city walls. The "Before" picture, below depicts the city walls placed on the game mat. The "After" picture illustrates some removable ground pieces (modules) that I placed around the base of the city walls. The modules hide the "join" of the wall to the mat.
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| BEFORE: City walls without ground modules. |
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| AFTER: City walls shown with the new ground modules along the base of the walls. |
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| View of the front gate with the base modules. |
I used cork backed table placemats for the base of the modules and then I slathered a mix of premixed wallboard paste and paint over the surface of the module piece. I sprinkled some fine railroad ballast (Woodland Scenics) over the surface while the paste was still wet.
Let the piece dry overnight and then dry brush the surface with a light buff/sand color paint.
Painting Update
My painting mojo has returned and I am back to Dervish figures, working in groups of ten foot and 5 cavalry figures. I finished 20 foot and 5 cavalry figures since getting back in the groove.
I still have no interest in painting 28mm SYW figures.
Little Wars Convention April 27th to April 30th, 2023
Last night I signed up four games of the Khartoum! wargame for the Little Wars convention. The show will be held from Thursday April 27 through Sunday April 30, 2023 in the Chicago suburbs. I will run one game on Thursday, two games on Friday and one game on Saturday. This will be a test of my stamina for running a lot of games, basically by myself without any help, at this year's Historicon. Each game will have to 12 player slots so it should be easy to play in one of my games.
Looks a good change
ReplyDeleteHello Der Alte Fritz, Sadly, I much prefer the originals. Most castles rise majestically out of the ground, solid and organic with the surrounding area. I get that feeling from your unbased walls. Now, with that awful change of level and black shadow surrounding them, these bases make them look like wargames models from the late 60's. From my perspective, assuming the walls stood up well on their own, then you have made them look exactly like models, not fortress walls. The movie that all wargamers see in their minds eye has been spoiled by a Jumbo jet flying over Khartoum as the Mahdists scale the walls. Sorry. Cheers. Glenn
ReplyDeleteGlenn, I appreciate your feedback. That's why I make these kinds of posts so that I can get feedback. You make a good point. :)
DeleteBoth look fine Jim and its a subjective thing to decide which is better log. Given the huge and tiring task you he set yourself, the less stuff you have to take the better. It will be a spectacular game either way..Well done.
ReplyDeleteLess is better - something that I need to keep in mind, especially since there is so much terrain to haul to the site.
DeleteI prefer the walls without a base added to them as it were. Certainly less to carry and set up at a show really helps based upon experience. Fingers crossed you have 4 great games and hopefully you might get some help...
ReplyDelete