I'll confess that my slow progress has mainly come from a lack of motivation, slow progress, and how fiddly the whole process has been. But last night, I had a brain wave. Since I am using foamcore and cork as my materials, I can just pin the terrain in place until it is dry. All of a sudden, the fiddliness has gone away and it's just become a matter of cutting the pieces out, gluing them, and pinning them in place.Completing the western hills represents only a small fraction of the entire battlefield but doing something and having it come out looking really good has raise my morale and now I want get the rest done.
I was toying with the idea of smoothing out the contours but now I've gone the other way and I'm thinking I might keep them. I might do some experimentation before I decide.
Maybe a compromise - instead of smoothing them right out maybe round the edges of the counters, or bevel them slightly...?
ReplyDeleteI recently watched Gods and Generals - which I'd never seen before. I actually watched it because it had a couple of actors in it that I liked in other movies and had been wondering what they'd been up to and noticed them both in it. I was pretty shocked by the portrayal of the Confederates fighting for "freedom". Reminded me a lot of the rhetoric from modern militia movements. I mostly had it on for background noise while painting my own minis and occasionally glanced unto watch a battle and admire all the pretty uniforms.
Yeah, bevelling or rounding the corners would be easy for the foamcore. It's the cork that is the problem. It's awfully tough to cut it nicely. It tends to tear or crumble. I've been actually using scissors to cut it because that's a lot easier to use instead of a scalpel.
DeleteLike almost any war, there's usually not one reason. Some Confederates did indeed fight to keep slavery, but I suspect that most of them fought for other reasons. There's a Confederate general who named his son States Rights, which seems pretty hard core. I suspect that many fought because they had little choice in the matter or that while they didn't like their own government, at least it was a government of their own guys.
Oh! I somehow missed that they were made out of cork!? Yeah, I could see that being very tricky.
DeleteFor my Vimy terrain I left pretty clear contour lines. They are bevelled some, but mostly level and clear breaks between level. This was for two reasons; 1) at the left flank (the only part I have completed) it is pretty steep - if I'd tried to smooth it out no figure would EVER be able to stand on it. if one tried to place any sort of miniature on it, it would fall over immediately and roll down until it hit a trench. So I wanted basically level "steps" that figures could actually stand on. 2) I wanted it to be harder to climb the hill at the far left and so I was going to have a figures lose an inch of movement every time they passed a contour... Some aesthetic sacrifices I was willing to make - but I was making practical wargames terrain and not a diorama!
Neither of these are likely to be applicable to your board... just some thoughts...?