Having a play - building a fort

Quite a while ago I bought a couple of bags of assorted wooden blocks, some of which were painted grey, partially flocked, and have appeared  on this blog before.

Other wargaming efforts having stalled, I came across the blocks and thought 'why not have a play'?

Very rough and ready, crude and lacking all finesse...

I simply started by by glued assorted pieces together to get a rough wall and turrets.

I started with 4 separate walls and put an outward facing of card. The parapets were originally set at 10mm, but I decided this didn't look right.

I increased the height of the parapets to 15mm - much better - and completed the final basic model. This was then covered in the standard dyed sand plaster I use for basing - originally this was a bit too thick, so I thinned it down. Then it was too thin!

The finished model is easy to store - the basic fort fits quite nicely into my standard Weston boxes for storage. I have loads of these - every now and then they sell them off at half price...

So, a crude, very easy fort to make. Don't know if I'll bother with gates on this model - the main idea was to have a play, but the end result was actually quite effective and could easily be dolled up.

Must do some casting...

6mm Leven Miniatures

Order has now arrived from Leven Miniatures.

Nicely packed

Models are cleanly cast - no flash though the ends of the railway lines will need trimming.

Bought 1 of each of the 3 churches - again, nice models, cleanly cast.

Need more of these. Not exactly like the ones of my childhood but the streets will be based on the Team Valley and Askew Road Gateshead! Need lots more of these.

At the bottom end of Rose Street were a couple of green Gas Holders - quite a distinctive part of the area.

Arrived today and some already have a white undercoat. Painting will not be to a high standard!

Expanding the terrain boards.

Getting started on the updated boards.

One thing I looked at was extending the range of colours for the fields.
 

The 'new' colours are just too garish.

So back to 'old' colours - board before...

and board after... just needs things like walls and hedges, but a lot better even if it does result in a very restricted pallet for the terrain.

Meanwhile the Irregular order has arrived, Leven order should be here soon.

6mm Terrain Boards

Years ago I worked for a company making doors. This produced a lot of 2mm plywood offcuts that were... useful.  However, when I original started using them for 5/6mm terrain boards they were different sizes. The idea now is to start putting together standardised boards.

So I've bought a load of A3 2mm MDF boards. I have sprayed some grey and glued the original boards on top. Hopefully, the height of the old boards won't affect things too much. I've also ordered a load of extra terrain pieces as well - should start arriving next week sometime.

The original boards are OK on my games table - but their uneven sizes are still obvious.

Four boards with no additions. Using a grey base coat on the board depicts roads, etc, and means I can at least make them easily!

At some time I'll be adding more fields, buildings, etc - the grey will also act as hard standing around buildings or car parks.

I've already got a load of high rise buildings from Empires at War - see the Swarm Wars sequence. Most of my other current buildings, hedges and buildings are Irregular, fields are flock, a lot of the walls are simply matchsticks.

There's an order in  for some terrain from Leven Miniatures. I've still to put in another order from Irregular - should do that tonight. When the stuff comes the 'new' terrain boards should be finished reasonably quickly.