A new hill and more bocages

When we returned from Koblenz the weekend before last Auld Nick and me weren't deedless. Nick build some Bocages whose blanks I prepared some weeks ago while I finished a hill.

The hill is based on the Games Workshop modular hill. After base-coating it with black spray paint I covered the stony parts with Citadel Rough Coat, a structure paint spray whose production was cancelled about two years ago. Afterwards I painted the rocks with Citadel Foundation Charadon Granite and drybrushed with Vallejo London Grey. I like that silightly brownish tone of Charadon Granite. However the lawn was painted green and covered it with some medium-light green static grass. Looks like springtime... A bit too tidy... I should keep that in mind when working on my new boards: They shall look more realistic and less like Wimbledon.

The Bocages were built as described in my tutorial (here). Fearing for his fingers Niclas was a bit hesitant with the hot glue gun. Therefore I had to fix some holes but generally I'm satisfied. Only one piece of Bocages has to be overworked. When I covered the pebbles with thinned PVA glue I was too freehanded and disfifured some poly fibre shrubbery Niclas apllied on the base. I'll present pictures when I meded the worst.

Two end section and a centrepiece. I should afforest the right piece a bit...

Two other centerpieces. Taken as a whole I've got about 1m Bocages now. Far from enough for a Normandy game...

Next I plan to create more straight pieces, some pieces with fencing and corners as well as crossings. Slowly I get tired of Bocages and hedgerows...

But not this weekend. Tomorrow I'll visit the Re-Action-Convention in Rheindahlen (Germany) and absorb some new ideas there. Especially some 28mm stuff would be interesting since I plan a little sidestep there.

However I'll post a review next week.

Tutorial: Bocages / Meine Wallhecken

A very busy week is about to end. Work was a hustle, my wife got ill yesterday, our daughter had to be taken care of and on Saturday we'll have our first little game in 2012. Lot of work to do, lot of things to prepare and so little time.

But no whining! Most of you share these problems I presume.

However I managed to get two prototypes of bocages ready for Saturday. I would like to share, how I made them since I'm rather satisfied with the result. Of course hints and advice are highly welcome.

Because this will be a rather long post I'll refrain from writing it in German and English. Most comments are English and most of my appreciated readers seem to come from the UK, the USA and Australia, therefor I decided to do it in English only.

Step 1:
Last week I cut some styrofoam boards as base for a new gaming board. I cut some of the cutt-off into strips as core of the bocages. I cut them about 3.50cm (about 1.4 inches) high and 2.0 cm thick (about 0.79 inches).

As base I cut 3mm "Architektenpappe". Unfortunately I don't know the correct English term. It's a thin layer of styrofoam sandwiched with to thin layers of cardboard.

I glued both parts with hot glue. (Beginners beware! That stuff has it's name for a certain and painful reason as I experienced several times...)

Step 1: The core of the boccage and the Architektenpappe to be cut.

Step 2:
I didn't want that pink styrofoam shine through the gaps of the stones or bushes later. Therefor I painted the upper part of the core dark green and the lower part dark brown.

Step 2: Undercoated bocage

Step 3:

Now I covered the lower part of the boccage with hot glue, spread some tiny pebble stones on it and pressed them into the glue carefully (!). I used pebbles which are sold as ground cover for fish tanks. and proceeded part by part because the hot glue cools down rather fast and gives you only a small time slot to add the pebbles. After taking a view of the finished stonewall I decided not to paint the pebbles. I like their natural look and favour it over that painted, monotonous look. And to be honest I'm too sluggish to paint each stone differently...

Annotation: The hot glue tends to dissolve the styrofoam a bit. I didn't care but it could become a problem when you use thinner strips.

Step 3: Pepples glued onto the bocage.

Step 4:
After the glue cooled down and hardened I proceeded with the upper part of the bocage. I used three colours of clump foliage (light, dark and medium green) and glued them onto the bocage rather at random. Again using hot glue but PVA glue might do as well but it has a much longer hardening time.

Step 4: Add clump foilage.

Step 5:
As finishing touches I glued some pebbles on the base and filled the gaps between the stones with small clusters of clump foilage and sand. To be honest I'm not that happy with the sand. It looks improper somehow. Probably I'll use more small pebbles and clump foilage only for the next bocages.

Finished bocage with two Britannia miniatures for size comparison.

Taken as a whole I'm really satisfied. It's a really easy and fast way to get some nice scenary. Anyhow I fear that the pebbles will drop off after some in-game use. Probably I'll cover them with a layer of PVA glue and matt varnish, but doubt wether that might destroy the natural look...

Last but not least many thanks to Ragnar and Mojo at Behind Omaha and "The Terrain Guy". All three made bocages by themselves and their different production processes inspired me.