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TSS, PS2, XBOX, WW2 Research scenic tips

hI Donald, I like the 2 foot by 2 foot by 2"Sytrofoam green tile squares that TSS(tOTAL sYSTEM sCENICS see webpage) produce and others do.Its light weight packs away.then thE special hils ,roads an drivers that go with it.Can build quite a battle field.

Model cake xmas trees and HO railway trees are good to stick on small hilocks.Place dry moss underneath the trees for good effect and /or use as hedges.You can make hedges(European ww2) etc with milliput and moss.

A few pieces of HO railway track and some railway buildings(wooden coal bunkers add
great effect, leave off the roof and throw in some broken up match sticks washed light brown will look good .rail shed s etc and perhaps some flat rail cars lying around for effect.You dont need an engine etc .Any plastic model derbis you can use as blown up vehicles for effect.

A timber yard is a timeless set of buildings to have.Glue piles of matches together and a HO barn and model brick walls will soon buil dup your urban town.

I bought some cheap plyboard and with a jig cut a pair of 36 inch terraced normandy type linked cottages.I then extended the rear soem outhouses(wc toilets) and chicken sheds with a small retaining wall.Some ready available source is look at some PS2 Xbox games Call of Duty/Brothers in arms to get the idea of the layout."EARNED IN bLOOD" ETC looks at replicating the french villages as they were, with pictures of the towns now.Alot of research was done for these games,check it out.It snot just a game its a historical re enactment.

Some railway buildings (generic brick factories look good too) plus walls and fences.Fram animals add to the picture.Some loose sand or gravel and small stones from your garden will help make it look more natural.

I smeared some very light brown paint (earth effect)patches on my boards just to help blend the finished look.Its amazing how realistic it can look.A few vehicle tracks etc .Cardboard houses do pretty good as well with a little dry brush effect to "add time" and weathering.

Paint a stream brown then use clear nail varnish on it.

The hex stamped terrain i dont like , it looks unnatural , but depends what you want.good luck

cUrRENTLY MAKING TRENCHES OUT OF 22 paralell WINDOW FRAME BORDERS THAT U CAN GET CHEAP AT A WOODSTORE .break them in half and make some zig zags etc,Stick some cut up plastic sprue waste for bumpsonto th esurface or put wood filler over the wood with apalatte knife.let dry and this will be painted a base color dry brush paint in different hues of green and browns white and black .Glue some small broken garden plant twigs (tree stumps etc) .


flat paint and dry brushing will help bring this to life.

Re:stuff from everywhere

i use railroad buildings and odds and ends for scenery. to create a wooded area, take a thin piece of veneer or thick cardboard and spread green clay over it. i found some dried flower arrangements and stuck them into the clay thickly, as well as other twigs and such. sprinkle sand over the clay. in this way i have a cheap wooded area that is easy to modify or dismantle. a hedgerow could be done in the same way. as for vehicles, i use every thing from old airfix,esci,rocco, etc. kits to newer corgis and matchbox diecasts. the new hat tanks are great too if you need lots of armor. the kits are easy to assemble and look fine.

Re: Re:stuff from everywhere

Don't forget the Britains 1/32 scale trees. I know this sounds strange but some trees are very big. So if you want a little 1 to 1 skirmishing then these big trees are the right size. I especially lke their Oak tree. Having seen the Kevin Costner Robin Hood film the other day it makes you think about the possibilities of modelling the tree houses shown.

Best regards,


Malcolm

Re: Re:stuff from everywhere

The Armourfast stuff is great: even I can't wreck it!
I add a bit of tank stowage from various sources (leftover stuff from son's Warhammer is very good) paint & dry brush.The overall effect is fine.
Of course most diecast & Armourfast is mid to late WW2 but as that's 'my' period, it's all good.
regards, donald

terrain

"Gamescape" i spretty good terrain.Sort of elite polystyrene block hills slopes and a felt cloth .pretty realistic looking abnd blend with Britains TSS stuff.Just found th ebox in my lock up.look it up on the web betswishes HANK

Re: TSS, PS2, XBOX, WW2 Research scenic tips

Thanks, Hank, a wealth of ideas here: I've run your posting off to keep it for future reference.
regards, donald

scenerific stuff

Don,

I'll start with WW1, but I'll touch on a range of periods and scales.

Hongwell produce a range of ww1 die-cast planes, including a float plane. May not quite correct but they do me!

After years of slumming with just an Airfix British tank, Emhar and Hat give the German A7V, British male, female and Whippet and the diminuitive French FT17 (avec gun or machine gun). Now I just need a Tsar Tank and the French Chamonde. And now Strelets have given us cavalry, whilst HAT and EMHAR have given decent artillery. Mr Hat's Napoleonic wagons will also be seen across a variety of eras.

I have extensive range of 1/87-1/100 Russian and German 1960's-1970's vehicles (love the Petner Panzers T62 and the Roskopf range is quite extensive) that fight everywhere with their 1/72 infantry and a few 1/72 and 1/144 jets and choppers (and the 1/700 naval contingents).

Of course, I have a range of paper 40K tanks (robust enough and very cheap to produce, including varients like command, engineering, supply and AAA). I have also done some 40K landing craft and littoral combat ships and a nice LOTR elf warship (all based on empty wine casks cut in two).

Buildings are easy (even the non battle damaged ones)
1. I have made a number of destroyed buildings from plastic card (and a number from cardboard).
2. I have an extensive collection of paper buildings (PDF/jpg) and I occasionally build one or two up. I built a vaubanesque type fort up for a FIW scenario (do need to get the outer earthworks done, maybe next year!!??!!).
3. The conflix (?) range has a couple of bunkers, batteries, etc that look very good on the tabletop.
4. I got a small number of resin buildings from Clints for around $2 each and I keep meaning to put them on a couple of olde englishe village boardes (something for my various hordes to pillage).
5. A few model railway kits ....
6. various packaging material gives me various sci-fi buildings/structures.


I use a variety of trees
1. a plastic Christmas tree defoliated
2. a range of artifical lawns (make great jungle sets)
3. a small collection of model railway trees (8 packets of the $AUD10 3-4 trees per packet)

As regards boards etc, I have glued together slabs of packing 'foam' to make stepped hills (once again, I'll get around to painting them). I also plan on doing some trenches, one day ....

Have a great day, Frank

Re: scenerific stuff

My experience is that you want the scenery to be flexible. I once built an elaborate rural scene with a river,a hill and stonewalled fields on a ping pong table. The problem was that having war gamed over it a couple of times it was obvious that to take the high ground always won the game. It became stale pretty quickly.
I now have the scenery from a variety of sources on small sections that can be moved. Therefore you don't get stale scenery.
Just my 2 cents
David Moore

Re: apart from figures

I have sort of mixed feelings about the Dragon models. On one hand they look very well painted (how do they do it??) on the other hand... I was shopping and saw some of the Dragon 1/35 armor, and there was a lovely T-34 with winter white wash, well worn, it looked great in every way until I saw the slogan on the turret. It was not in cyrillic, but in what looked like sanskrit!

I don't know.

Erika