My Peninsula War Terrain Circa 1810

 

Spain during the Peninsular War circa 1810

Click on the pictures to enlarge

I set up my Spanish terrain for Napoleonic games in the Man Cave last weekend and I have been adding little bits and pieces this week. My plan is to really take this terrain up a notch or two, striving for some model railroad style layout.

I want to thank one of my regular blog readers for donating a copy of the book "Setting The Table - Mediterranean Terrain". There are a lot of great ideas in the book and I will be working on some of the terrain bits that are shown in the book. One of my goals is to do a purpose-built terrain board for the Battle on the Coa River. I have to build up some of the boards to a height of 6-inches so I am not sure that these boards will be suitable for transport to conventions such as Historicon, but we shall see. The boards will have to be no larger than 6ft wide by 2ft long, otherwise they will be too unwieldy to handle.

Here are some pictures of some of the terrain pieces that I currently have. I made the large rock formations several years ago based on the techniques outlined in the Setting The Table book. Large chunks of tree bark are used to create the rock effect. I also made the road sections. The buildings are made by Herb Gundt and the war game figures are from Connoisseur Miniatures. The French cavalry are from Elite Miniatures. The rubber river sections are from Novus Designs, a company that has gone out of business. The water pieces look nice and grab your attention, but I think that a darker green or black color with lots of varnish would look more natural.

The table shown measures 6ft wide by 12ft long and it represents the type of smaller table that I plan to take around the convention circuit in 2026. You can achieve some amazing results when you add lichen to your table.

Here is a view of the whole table. The buildings in the foreground were made by Herb Gundt.

Spanish windmill made by Herb Gundt

I really like this picture of British light infantry clashing with the French on the bridge.

A few rocks were added to the scenery. I picked these rocks up while walking the dogs.

I like the look of the bridge that connects two pieces of mountain terrain.

Elite Miniatures 28mm Polish lancers trot down the road.
I like lancers - they are a weakness of mine.

I think that I have focused in on doing this game with 40mm figures and running it at the skirmish level. For larger level games (battalions and regiments) I will use 28mm figures.

I have some 40mm samples on order from Sash and Saber, Perry, and Battle Honours and I am looking forward to painting some of these figures. If that doesn't work to my satisfaction then I can always stick with my 28mm figures.

I briefly thought about doing this project with 54mm plastic figures, but it is probably time to give the 54s and double tables a rest for a year or two. I think that the novelty of my large games is beginning to wear off as I wasn't able to fill up my Little Wars and Historicon Hannibal games to the published ten players (although I had 8 players in the games and this proved to be the right amount of players for the game).

I do enjoy making my own buildings and the lure of Spanish buildings in 1/32 scale for 54mm figures is still appealing to me.

ccc