Palm Trees & Jungle Sections

No tropical jungle withouth palm trees. For 28mm wargaming there are plenty of options for usable palm trees of a variety of prices and quality. To enhance my jungle board I was looking for good trees and found many options. For a long time I was going to buy the A type palm trees from Pegasus Hobbies, especially because of Anthony Karl Erdelji's excellent article at the Painting Clinic. Still, these trees are not very cheap and I would need quite a number of them.

Recently, after reading Matakishi's Jungle article I bought ten palm trees at the Baker Company. £1,50 each is a very good price but the shipping costs to Germany of £6,85 (for ten palms) are ridiculous and don't get even close to the actual costs. However, they included one free extra palm tree, which mildly made me feel better. I'm not a fan of complaining about shipping costs (such as on ebay auctions) as you know them in advance and it still is up to you to make a purchase at the given conditions or not. But I was annoyed to see the cheap post label on the package.

The palm trees consist of a rather unusual wire plus fabric construction, which does look great eventually:

So what to do with them? For some time I have been itching to try out CD based terrain pieces and this is the perfect opportunity. I also have a few 40mm flat round bases from GW which are useful as one-offs. I used modelling putty to fill the holes of the CDs and put one palm tree in the middle, others were glued onto the CD. Then I added stones of various sizes and lastly sand.

And ready for base-coating:

Update February 2018: I finally got around to finishing these pieces as you can see in this post.

Jungle Board

For Christmas 2008 my girl-friend gave me this marvellous four piece tropical beach set by Battlefield Architect (check out his ebay store for all of his cool items*):

With a length of 48" it is perfect for the skirmish gaming table.

I also ordered this set of five jungle terrain pieces:

Island Natives painted by Andrew Thomson

Although I used this scenery in a few photos for my pirate figures (most notably Redbeard's Sea Dogs, beautifully painted by Tom), I never got around to actually using them in-game, because I lacked a proper jungle board to go with the beach. Inspired by the countless posts of CD-based jungle terrain on the Lead Adventure Forum and Matakishi's Jungle article I chose to purchase some palm trees and finally finish start my jungle board. So after looking into aquarium terrain I will now do some jungle terrain for my jungle board...

to be continued...


*Update 22.09.16: His website and ebay shop is no longer available
 

Aquarium Terrain

The aquarium terrain of pet shops holds many excellent pieces of scenery for even the 28mm wargamer. The settings that are best "supported" are Egypt (sphinx, abu simbel, temple ruins, ...) and jungle (trees, rocks, temple, mausoleum, bridge, and - of course - plants) as well as ancient pillars and even temples. To top it off these pieces come perfectly painted to boot. Using aquarium plastic plants for jungle terrain is surely nothing new and has been done by wargamers for many many years. However, the use of aquarium decorations for architectural terrain seems to be surprisingly under-used considering how perfectly many of these items suit the standard 28mm scale and how affordable they are (especially when compared to similar resin products made specifically for wargaming). The above pieces are just some examples of the many goodies that are to be found at pet shops. And if you don't have a good pet shop nearby then you can easily find these items on ebay too - chances are that they are even cheaper there.

Inspired by the photos on the Lead Adventure Forum and especially by Alex Bews' pirate gallery I was really curious to find out how well they would work. I had wanted to do a jungle board for piratey games for quite awhile now and I already have a few cool pieces that want to get played on more often, but I lack a proper gaming table to use them for. So as a nice change from painting the (marvellous!) Tabletop World buildings, and because I am playing pirates now more often, I decided to try some of these items and placed an order.

I ordered three pieces from a very cheap ebay seller, but unfortunately he only one and couldn't ship the other two (which really annoyed the heck out of me). This temple cost EUR 10,40 and it is just great:

I have to say, I am very happy with this piece and I can very well recommend this stuff to anyone playing in a jungle setting, be it Lustrian Lizardmen, pirate treasure hunters, Indian expeditions or what-the-heck-ever. Actually I think with the availability of terrain pieces such as this jungle boards are the most cost-effective gaming boards you can create. By this I mean spending just a little while still achieving great results (as opposed to being super stingy and achieving "okay" results at best). Maybe a desert table with a few Egyptian statues, ruins and temples is even cheaper and easier because you probably need less terrain overall. On the other hand, aquarium plants are super cheap so that shouldn't be much a problem. Anyways, definately check out your nearby pet shops and let the available stuff inspire you.

Next time I'll post some pictures of my jungle board in progress - or photos of the Blacksmith's Forge from Tabletop World. We'll see where the muse leads me...

Til then

German Board Games

Miniature Wargaming pointed me to this article at Financial Times, "Why we still love board games", talking about the ongoing success of board games and particularly looking at the German industry. Very interesting.

Reading Tip: The Authentic Tudor & Stuart Dolls' House

I recently found this book on amazon: The Authentic Tudor & Stuart Dolls' House by Brian Long. It is an awesome resource for miniaturists wishing to create authentic historical doll houses of the Tudor & Stuart era, focussing on 1603-1625. The book is aimed at 1/12 scale doll houses but it is an equally great resource to scratch-builders of tabletop scenery. Covering all relevant aspects such as timber frames, roofing and interior, and giving illustrations and colour photos this book provides all the info you need to build an authentic half-timbered house.

Once I finish my batch of Tabletop World houses and have some free time I look forward to scratch-building a house with this book as a guideline.

Dolls House supplies

I recently discovered Mollys House Miniatures, a supplier for dolls house accessories. (By the way, I found the link following this awesome zeppelin project on LAF - check it out!) Some items from Mollys range of 1/48th scale stuff is perfect for 28mm wargamers. For example, have a look at these dead cheap furniture (£1.90 for a pack). Not all of the items suit the 28mm scale - some look a bit small - but many of them are just perfect, such as the chairs and table. Comparison shots with Village Idiot from Hasslefree Miniatures (28mm to eye level):

You can easily furnish a full house with this stuff for very little money. The detail isn't perfect of course (cheap plastics mass made in China) but with a little repaint it will look really good.

That's not all, though. Mollys also has some excellent metal bits from S&D Models (who list the items under 1/43 products while it is 1/48 at Mollys). I ordered the Green Grocers Set of veg sacks, crates and scales. This will be a great addition to the stalls of my Gierburg market square. They also have some other useful stuff such as buckets and barrels.

And now for the highlight: Etched brass pub signs and weather vanes. This stuff is absolutely stunningly beautiful! I immediately started drooling when I saw these at the shop and I was afraid they might be too big for 28mm. Fortunately Mollys has good info on the sizes and I couldn't believe to find them suitably sized. Now I really really can't wait to start working on my recently purchased second Coaching Inn and make good use of these items.

Check out the 1/48 Garden/Outside category for these items with better photos and exact information on measurements. I can tell you they fit perfectly.

So far Mollys Miniatures and especially the etched brass signs qualify for my personal "Miniature Find of the Year" award. Awesome accessories for very little money (heck, one sign/vane costs £0.60 to £0.70!) - a must for every terrain builder.

Blacksmith's Forge for Sale!

My Blacksmith's Forge from Forge World is now up for sale. It's not that I don't like it, but I have been thinking about how to arrange my Gierburg gaming table and it just doesn't fit in there. I would be very happy if the piece found a new owner who will treat it good. :)

Note that I am not intending to get the mere retail price considering the effort that went into preparing and painting the building. If you are interested or have questions please use the contact form to get in touch.

Update: The build has been sold.

Figure is for scale reference only