I'veput some figures on the boards to show what I mean about the colour. Essentially the base colour is a good match, but I'm certainly going to need to get some green vegetation on there! Unhelpfully, there seems to be a UK-wide shortage of Silflor at the moment. :-(
Below is a Dead Nellie, who probably tripped up in that drainage ditch!
I'm shortly going to raid Modelzone in search of vegetation ideas.
Monday, 22 March 2010
Sunday, 21 March 2010
Pictures of the Real Zama
I thought it might be useful to show some links to photos of Zama I found on the interweb, which explain why I've made the terrain colours a bit muted (some might say a bit grey!).
Here's the approach to Zama at sunset:-
http://www.woodbrothers.tv/image.axd?picture=2009%2F11%2FWood+Brothers+-+Zama+sunset.jpg
And this picture, in particular, is very much what I'm trying to capture:-
http://www.woodbrothers.tv/image.axd?picture=2009%2F12%2FWood+Brothers+-+battlefield+of+Zama.jpg
The field is slightly browner than mine, but appears to be an umber-type shade. I wanted to achieve a very dried out , dusty post-harvest look. In hindsight, I could have bunged a bit of yellow ochre into the mix when highlighting, which I do with the mix I use for basing. I'll need to work in some clumps of dark green vegetation. If anyone could whip up some trees looking like those, that would be very helpful!
The below looks like it is taken much earlier in the year, as it is a lot greener, but appears to include an olive grove (I have one on order):-
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/23/95148729_137d2b6ba9.jpg
Flocking hell...
I started the flocking stage yesterday hoping that it would be a quick job, but one test board later (and that far from completion), it is clearly not going to be the case. Below is the test board before flocking:-
and after...
The flock disguises the dark brown edges where the base board paint had soaked into the fur, and makes the field edges appear less regular. I 've also been applying it on top of the fur which makes it seem more natural. What I haven't done, yet, is to apply flock around the drainage ditches. I intend this vegetation to be greener, to inject just a little colour onto the brown-grey boards.
Saturday, 20 March 2010
4 weeks to Bletchley, 5 to Salute.
4 weeks today we'll be listening to the opening lecture at Bletchley. Gulp! I've got up early to polish off domestic duties and try to get a full day in on the terrain.
In other news, my period of "resting" will shortly be coming to an end, as employment (finally!) beckons. It's a good job that the boards are nearly complete! Post Salute, I expect that I'll have to become a less frequent (but regular) poster.
Friday, 19 March 2010
Quick Zama update
Last night Ian and I had the best playtest so far. The game was exciting, and felt fairly balanced.; the Carthaginians were very slightly ahead, but we'll fix that. I was particularly happy because we have felt able to strip out most of the special rules we had been testing, so it is now fairly close to vanillla Command and Colors. The elephants, in particular, are now in 5 units of 2 and but a mere shadow of their former stompy selves (although they did stomp my Carthaginians a few times, in blue-on-blue incidents!).
Today I received a package from French Greg Privat including the last of the Bruttians, and some casualty minis, all looking very nice. All the Generals arrived from Nick Speller earlyer this week, and they look great too. So with the exception of a few more casualty figures that Nick is working on, and the olive trees band hay ricks currently being fashioned in the Scottish glens by my mate John, I now have all the stuff that I'm responsible for.
This afternoon, I'm sticking fields to the boards; tomorrow, hopefully doing some detailing (tufts of grass, etc.). And I've put in an order for 700 more 5mm map pins...
Thursday, 18 March 2010
Fields of Zama
Sorry that my hithertoo regular posts have become somewhat sporadic! I've been very busy with life in general, and some very time-consuming and non-photogenic elements of the Zama project.
Here is one such element. These fields (and others not shown here) all needed to be cut into shape, trimmed, shaved with my Wahl hair trimmer and dyed with diluted acrylic paint.
The next stage will be to stick them onto the terrain boards. Then I'll need to dress the terrain boards with clumps of static grass, leaves, weeds and whatever. The board project is now around 75% complete! Never again. ;-)
Saturday, 13 March 2010
4" Drybrush Day
Today I drybrushed the 9 terrain boards, with a mid-brown and then a highlight, using the biggest brush I could find!
Here's a board drying in what passes for sun around here.
Here's a board drying in what passes for sun around here.
Here are a couple of boards with the first highlight. I hope to apply a very sparse second highlight, tomorrow. The colour I went for is a sort of raw umber with a bit of tan in it. It looks a bit grey in the photos, but it is slightly browner IRL.
The boards will look (somewhat) less austere when the fields and tufts of vegetation are added. I feel an awful lot better about the project, as they are starting to look like something a man could stick a wargame figure on!
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