Making mountains

 But not out of molehills!

As a break from painting, I decided to go with the mojo and attempt to make a mountain.

I had been mulling over creating some mountain pieces as a sort of 3d scenic backdrop. The Soldier King map has some squares / boxes  which feature a natural defence bonus which are situated in a mountain pass. I wanted to suggest something impassable that normal wargames hill methods were unlikely to convey. I could have deemed the board edges impassable, but wanted something tangible and more 3d than a flat backdrop.

There are other uses; I have an unpainted collection for WW2 Yugoslavia and mountain passes feature in many historical battles, such as Thermopolae.

I had contemplated something along the lines of the Tremorden Reddering method, but didn't need the steps for figures to stand on:

https://bobscolonialwargaming.blogspot.com/2009/08/hills-and-mountains.html

So I set to with a vague plan. Like most such projects, it was trial and error with some impractical ideas abandoned almost immediately. I had an idea of the dimensions and initially planned a flat sided series of three mountain pieces joined together. Experimentation revealed I could create something with sloping sides......

Here are the trial efforts having just received a first layer of brown paper. The shapes are just cardboard packaging (folding book wrappers are very useful with a built-in fold) cut to shape and bodged together with masking tape. I have been stockpiling materials and brown packaging paper for just such a purpose. 100% recycled mountains! They have not come out too bad and with a bit more work should be passable (inadvertent pun!)

The Painter's Progress

Some leave has seen the opportunity to do some painting, so a start has been made on the Imperial Estavian army for yet more glacial progress on this long running project.

Estavia or more properly, the Estavian Empire does not appear as a player in the board game, rather as the unwilling victim of the Soldier Kings who have the aim of capturing enough electoral cities to have themselves elected to the vacant Crimson Throne, the last occupant having expired without an heir. Shades of the war of the Austrian Succession and the Holy Roman Empire....

Allowing the provinces to be undefended makes the game one of territorial conquest; while simple, such does not make for a satisfying campaign, as playing in a WAS Sport of Kings campaign revealed. States are conquered too easily.

There are different was to approach this; Martin SC made each province an independent state, merging some of the smaller provinces in his VnB SK campaign, but did not use them in his playtest campaign. His view was their insertion would make for a better campaign.

Despite providing him with the materials, we diverged in our approach. I created the Estavian state from the provinces of the Hereditary Lands, the Midlands and the Bravancian Marches. The rest of the "grey" provinces nominally became the Empire, with a mix of electoral and non-electoral states and thus a potential say in who becomes Emperor.

The Estavian Empire (in my campaign) is the  "Zweikreutz Reich" from the amalgamated heraldic crosses of the Hereditary Lands and the Midlands, to form a Jerusalem style cross. It's enemies and detractors call it the "Doppelkreutz" Reich as a comment on the diplomacy it indulges in....

For inspiration, it draws on the Austrian and Saxon armies, with infantry in white uniforms. There is a nod to the "crimson" of the Crimson Throne as well. I have allowed more latitude in the range of facing colours than the historical models.

Progress has been slow; not only am I out of practice, painting white on Spencer Smiths is not easy! I seem to spend a lot of time correcting and retouching. Much of the detail has to be painted on; which allows for some latitude in "reading" the figures.......

For inspiration, I spent some time looking at Charles Grant's figures and browsing the excellent Duchy of Alzheim blog:

http://mavisming.blogspot.com

How they painted 50+ figures per unit  is beyond me! What struck me was the variety in how to paint the bag and straps, suggest a waistcoat etc.

I will post photos when the army is done.

Sitrep Jordanian front

Well another month disappears without an update.

Truth be told busy working weeks have taken it out of me, so there hasn't been much to post as I have achieved very little in the past few weeks.

I did finish off three personalities for one each of Bravance, Arcadia and Argozia to even them out but these have already been packed away.

A chance discovery on eBay of a model gantry kit propelled me to tackling Jordanian armour.....

the Jordanians used a mix of M48, M47 and Centurions in 1967. The two armoured brigades (40th and 60th) used M48 (the 40th may also have had M47 but that's another story). 

the M48 was the early model with low cupola and unmodified engine deck. A rare beast in most scales, fortunately Roco's early model is just such a version, although with the separate MG turret. Due to shortcomings, an external fuel system was developed which is also seen on Jordanian versions; it was something of a liability with tanks being knocked out when the vulnerable external fuel tanks were set on fire - quite easily it seems with tracer ammunition.

Anyway, I had been contemplating how to model this for a while and had bought some oildrums but stored them away. When sratchbuilding (or scratch bodging) more than one model, it helps enormously to have prefabricated parts. Sadly I know of no such kits, let alone in 1:87 scale.

So to the chance discovery; looking at the sprue suggested various useful parts that could work for the "trailer" or frame which attached to the rear of the tank. I'd contemplated building the complicated structure out of plastic strip and card, but to be honest didn't fancy doing one, never mind four or more!

As a firm believer in striking while the enthusiasm is there, as soon as the kits arrived I started playing around and working out if it was viable.......current state of play below.