Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Project 2mm Terrain: Lessons Learned

So now that I am done with my 2mm terrain, what are my thoughts?
  • At times it was a slog, other times it was enjoyable. The toughest moments were half way through the contours, probably somewhere around the 120 foot mark. I had been creating elevations but was mostly just almost covering the previous contour. I enjoyed putting on the flock the most because of how good it made the board look.
  • I'm stubborn. Even though I knew my contouring was flawed, I kept consistent with my method even though it was not efficient nor fast.
  • In retrospect, I should have done a contour every 20 feet because that would have represented the actual slope of the land better.
  • I might not do contours next time. Instead, I'll do smoothed hills. That being said, I think the contours worked pretty well for this board.
  • Stupidly, I didn't bother using Google Earth to look at the terrain until I nearly completed the contours. I guess I got excited by having a good contour map to look at and just didn't consider the vertical scaling.
  • There's a number of maps of Gaines Mill and other than all of them agreeing that Boatswain's Creek being wooded, they didn't agree much with the placement of other woods and swamps. In the end, I use the contour map for the Boatswain's Creek woods and another map for the other woods. I also extended the Boatswain's Creek woods and swamp based on the description of the battle. I figured the D.H. Hill probably had a good reason not to just immediately attack the far left of the Union line, so I gave him that reason with that terrain. 
  • Looking at the actual contours, the positioning of some of the Union units makes little sense, particularly the artillery, so I moved them a bit for my recreation shots. Accounts of D.H. Hill coming under long range artillery fire is only possible if the batteries on the Union left are on the ridge line and not in the valley where the map has them.
  • The 3mm x 1mm magnets I bought (300 for $15CDN) work just great for placing the buildings.
  • It will be quite a while before I do any more 2mm terrain. I do have some buildings, walls, and tree castings I can paint.
  • If I do another board like this, it will probably be for Antietam (or part of it because that is a pretty big battle).

On to the next project. Let me give you a hint:


2 comments:

  1. Well it LOOKS fabulous! Especially with your wee units on it!

    I know the stubbornness... how many projects have I bulled forward on, even though it became utterly clear there was a better way to do it, because... CONSISTENCY!!!? Ha! I'm laughing with you, not at you!

    Oooh! The Desert War! The tacticians dream and the logisticians nightmare!

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    Replies
    1. Oh, I'm super happy with the final result.

      Since I stubbornly maintain inefficient methods within a project, at the very least I don't want to repeat them across projects. I'm hoping that by documenting them, it will remind me to explore better methods instead of reverting to what I know.

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