Housing Development

I don't know about this.

In an effort to save some money, I bought resin houses for my fantasy villages that came in six flat pieces.  The guilty manufacturer shall not be named - they are likely a hobby outfit doing this in their spare time, so you'll have to look elsewhere for bad press.  (Unpainted lead mountains, like blood, are thicker than watered down paint pots.)

My assembly results were not so hot.  It took a lot of filing and shaving to get these things to look even halfway decent.  The glue didn't hold pieces together long enough to keep one corner straight while setting the other one.  Right now, the results look pretty haphazard, and not all of that is my fault.  Look at those houses int he front right.  They have some sort of overhanging eaves, but no matching sidewalls.  I split the difference, but it still doesn't look right to me.

A decent base and a stellar paint job might cover up for a host of sins, but I just don't know about this project.  I may have to chuck these in the circular file and start over before all is said and done.

Timber!

Sometimes these quick little posts represent a lot of work.  This isn't one of those times.  My forests took a total of around four hours start to finish.  I'm a fan of the Toob Trees for my wargaming needs.  They are a little undersized, but at a buck each for durable plastic that takes paint like a champ they are hard to beat.

Splintered Light 15mm Barbarian for scale.

Since these will be used on my skirmish table, I mounted them individually on metal washers.  These both provide weight and a little more size to help the trees stand upright, and give me a chance to paint and grass/flock them so that they blend into my terrain shapes a little better, too.  

The pine tree nearest the camera here has a larger base constructed of a pre-cut wooden disc.  These were used in a few cases to allow for the addition of a few rocks and logs to add to the variety of the trees.  This is my go-to system that allows for dense wood terrain pieces where you can move the trees around to allow unlimited movement of figures within the base, and adds the flexibility of using the trees individually as well.

By varying the painting styles a little, you can get a uniform look with just enough variety to help the trees stand out a little better.  I don't know if it shows up in the photos, but in this case every tree has the same base green, but I used three different mid-tone shades on them.  Then I used two different highlights (bone white and an ochre yellow) for a total of six different looks on the trees.  Using different weights of dry brushing provides for even more variety.  Trust me, these trees don't look nearly as white in person as they do in these shots.

My storage solution is a pair of flat plastic boxes.  Just a little something to keep them from banging around too much.  They have a matte varnish sprayed on to protect them, but every little bit helps.

These should work equally well in my sci-fi games as my fantasy games.  Which means I may have to reorganize my terrain boxes.  I think maybe I need just one 'generic terrain' box, with separate boxes for sci-fi and fantasy touches...

Terrain Base Quick Hit

You may have noticed that my wizard's tower included a wooden base.  That one was 3-mm thick wood, but after a recent pet shelf building exercise, I found myself left with a few extra pieces of MDF and Oh Em Gee is this stuff a lot easier to work with.  The scales have fallen from my eyes, and I now understand why so many guys use this stuff.  It's easy to cut with a coping saw.  It's easy to sand with a belt sander.  It's easy to paint and holds its shape like an aging supermodel.

The ones with more rocks don't need any extra items, they can serve as unwooded rough ground.  Any one of these can take a few individually mounted trees and serve as the bounds of a small copse of trees that block sight and make travel difficult.  The rock and logs come straight from my yard.

It occurs to me that I'm doing this a little backwards.  Normally I buy the drop cloth and match colors to it.  This time I've been too busy to track down the heavy canvas that is my first choice for drop cloths.  C'est la vie.  It will be ready when it is ready.

The Tower of Skratch-Bi'ilt

Full confession:  I've spent a lot more money than usual on wargame terrain lately.  My side gig paid off, and I've dumped a lot of the extra dough into terrain that I don't have time to build.  Plus, it was my birthday.  You're going to start seeing a lot of pre-bought buildings which goes against the core mission of cheap, portable wargames on a budget.

But not this day!

I couldn't find a decent wizard's tower in 15mm scale, so I built one.  What you see here are three large cork stoppers glued together and secured with toothpicks.  A little plastic-card from a debit card that I think was left over following a trip to Dave and Busters makes for great decorative spiky flourishes, and a pair of gears from the box make for a fine magic wheel thing over the door.  The rest is pretty self explanatory.

After a quick paint job, we get a little something like this.

I originally conceived of the dome as a sort of observatory and tried to make a telescope bay, but it turned out rough and delicate.  A second wood ball was pressed into service and painted gold because MAGIC!

The blue symbols are the twelve signs of the zodiac, the sigils on the red doors represent the four Archangels, and the chalk above the door...well, it's a Catholic thing.  My Papists bros know what's up with that.