Project 2mm Terrain: Update 11

With the end in sight, I'm making a determined effort in the three remaining areas:

• Woods
• Swamp/bog
• Buildings

I was going to do some planted fields but I think I'm going to leave them out so that the terrain is a little more reusable. With magnetized buildings that I can remove, the board can also be used for 6mm as well as 2mm.

For the woods, I was hoping to use something like paper, which would be flexible so that the contours would show up. Instead, I am using just plain foam core that I've piled up with clump foliage.

(I'll add clump foliage to the sides, but it is not sticking quite as well as I had hoped. It's going to take a couple of passes, I think.)

I encountered a problem with warping with my first test piece but I think I can bend it into submission. The problem of having too even of a colour for the trees I think I will fix by some creative other flocking and also by a little staining and painting after I've sealed them with a coating or two of diluted Mod Podge. Scattering some clump foliage randomly around the board will also help tie the whole board all together.

I have also broken up the woods into clumps so that I can remove just the bits I need. 

I will use magnets so that the forest clumps stick a bit to the board so that I can remove them as needed.

I'm hoping to complete the woods by the end of the weekend, but I'm probably optimistic about that.

Gaming in the Age of COVID: What a Tanker

Robert (from Gaming on Vancouver Island) and I made contact and arranged to play What a Tanker! on Sunday evening. I had been working on my 2mm board, which we would repurpose for 6mm. Despite some initial technical hitches, we got rolling with Robert taking a Pz IV and me with a 75mm Sherman. We treated the brown areas as open terrain (though in hind sight, we should use them as light woods for cover) and I laid out some hedges and houses. I came in from the bottom and Robert from the top (beside the house). 

The first few turns were inconclusive as both of us had gunners who were obviously blind.  I was trying to maneuver and approach him and just as I was getting close, Robert did a blitz down the road, but missed on the flank shot.

Example of the blindness

Having exchanged ends, we blazed away at each other, slowly backing up as a result of damage.

 This lead to me to continue on my path into the field and eventually to near the house. Things looked grim for me as Robert gradually improved his aim and I got down to 1 die (2 permanent and 3 temporary damage). I managed to reacquire 2 of the temporary dice but I had suffered to hull critical hits. Things weren't going entirely Robert's way though, because I hit him for two critical hits (one hull and one turret) plus backing him up a few times as well.

After regaining all of my dice (actually 4), I managed to roll a magical 3, 4, 5, 4. The first hit bounce but the second one I rolled 3 6's and a 5. Robert rolled one 5 as a save, and his tank burned.

Thank you to Robert for a fun game.

Test for 6mm WAT on a 2mm board

I dug out my 6mm terrain and minis just to see how they would look on my 2mm board. I have an upcoming game of What A Tanker! and I wanted to see how the terrain would work.

I think I will use some of my not quite finished Shermans and some not quite finished German tanks because I haven't based them. Even though I have used minimal bases, they still don't quite sit as well on the terrain as I'd like. If you are going to use contoured terrain like this, you might as well have minis that hunker down into it.

This doesn't mean that I have turned anti-basing on vehicles. I'm still planning on basing all of them because I use steel for the bases and I line my carry cases with that magnetic paper so they don't move at all. This preserves their paint job and also keeps those guns straighter for longer.

(Wow, I have a lot of Shermans! I must have more than 50 of them.)

As a bonus, I found four 15mm T34s I had forgotten about. My 15mm WAT collection just grew by 50%.

Project 2mm Terrain: Update 10

Last week, I hurt my back while trying to suppress a sneeze because I was holding my dog at the time (ridiculous as this sounds) and I didn't want to drop her. It got worse Thursday and Friday, but with drugs and ample use of a TENS machine, on Saturday I felt pretty decent so I thought I could flock my board as a relaxing afternoon diversion.

I'm pretty happy with the initial flocking. There's plenty of helpful Youtube content out there on how to flock and armed with that knowledge, I put down this first coating for the general fields. The dark patches are going to be heavy woods and I'm thinking a mix of coffee grounds and a dark green flock will be good to represent this terrain, plus eventually a canopy of coarse turf as the tree tops. The medium brown represents bogs and marsh and I'm thinking about using some static grass and coarse dark green turf for that.

I think I do need to consult with Lukes APS, Mel the Terrain Tutor, and maybe some others because I'm not sure whether I seal this layer and then do another or just keep layering on and then seal.

I may have overdone things on Saturday because my back is a bit sore this Sunday. I did take some pix and post them because I'm happy with the progress.

Project 2mm Terrain: Update 9

Now that renovations have finished, I got a little time this weekend to do some miniatures stuff. I got the urge to work on my terrain board. I was hoping to start flocking it but instead I'll settle for blocking out the heavy woods, swamp, and other terrain, because white background is the devil when it comes to flocking.

One of the reasons I had problems is that I discovered that I only have 2 inch brushes or 00 brushes. Nothing in between. So it meant slathering on with the big brush and then having to use the small brush to put in the edges.

Nevertheless, this is progress!

I must say the board looks radically different with the contour lines now blending in.

Trumpeter in March

With the rush to finish our home renovations, posting (and all miniature activity) has taken a back seat. Renovations are done (yea!) so I'm posting about the Trumpeter game on the first Friday of March.

It was an interesting English Civil War battle with 2mm figures using the Rampant rules engine (in this case Rebels and Patriots with some modifications, instead of the more temporal Pike and Shotte).

The main modification was automatic passing for movement activation. This made keeping formations possible and worked nicely. I'm not entirely sure whether the formations are built into the game and just renamed or whether they were modifications.

The battle started from a historical deployment. You can see more pictures at The Dying Gaul and he has another account of the battle.

 My initial thought was to push on the right and hold up on the left, falling back if necessary. Another Parliamentary commander showed up so I gave him command of the left starting from the artillery.

I had expected the Royalist to really push hard with both cavalry, so I was surprised when that did not happen. I felt a little bad for giving the other guy a command that wasn't really seeing action, but that wasn't what I anticipated when I gave him those troops.

On my right, I managed to win the cavalry battle by 1-2 punching the Royalist horse with one of my reserve units. I then used them to roll up the infantry.

 Here you see the Parliament horse on the right chasing off the Royalist cavalry, before wheeling to roll up the infantry.

Eventually, after doing nothing for a couple of turns, Rupert finally got the Royalist horse moving forward. However, they suffered from dismal activation rolls so no more than one unit was able to attack per turn.

This meant that the lone Parliament cavalry unit was able to fend off the entire Royalist attack, with minor assistance of a dragoon unit.



The end is nigh with the Royalist infantry threatened from the front and rear.

Good fortune was on the Parliament side for even when I lost a battle, I managed to take out the opposing horse through distracting them with a pursuit.

Project 2mm Terrain: Update 8

The project has taken a back seat to house renovations, and as a result, I've lost a lot of momentum and my will to complete it has fallen off quite a bit. Perhaps documenting where I'm at will help me get my mojo back on this.

Basically, I have completed the terrain elevations. I have also put some boards around the outside, which cleans up the edges and provides support and rigidity.


I have partially sealed the entire thing but I think I will wait until I get to some Mod Podge to do the job properly. I have to see how much dirt brown paint I have because I want to paint the entire thing with three different browns: regular dirt, a darker shade for swamp and bog, and a different brown for forested areas.

Once I have that done, I can put the roads in and flock it. Then it will be about putting in buildings and fences and other features.