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:

Project 2mm Terrain: Done!!!!!

It's done! Finally finished!

I had a momentary bit of panic when I could not find my 2mm figures. While it's distressing to search and search for something, there was some good that came out of it: I did a little reorganization of my hobby desk/storage, cleaned out one more bin of hobby stuff, found some more 2mm terrain bits, and  found another 15mm tank that I can use for What A Tanker!. 

So in celebration of finishing the project, I put my newly found figures onto the terrain board. The stands represent roughly the positions in the battle of Gaines Mill 1862 at 2:30pm. I didn't put troops in the woods, but I could have because the woods are removable (as are the buildings). As my figures are based according to Antietam and for a different corps, the regiment names don't correspond to the regiments in the battle.

Anyway, here for you enjoyment are some pix:

Gregg's Confederate brigade emerging from the woods to attack Warren's Union brigade

View from above showing Gregg disguised as Wilcox and Warren disguised as Brooke

A third view of the action

From the Confederate viewpoint

DH Hill's division arrives on the far left of the Confederates

View of DH Hill's arrival in Old Cold Harbor. He would continue in this direction until he arrived on the flank of Gregg

Buchanan observes Hill's arrival with a protective swamp to his front

In the centre, Branch is launching his attack to support Gregg to his left. On the right, is Field. On the other side of the creek, Lovell's Unionists await in the woods.

Porter commands from near the Adams farm. Gregg's attack is in the background to the right. Directly ahead is the rear rank of Lovell's brigade.

To Porter's left, Martindale makes his headquarters in Watt's house. Most of his troops are dug in half way up the bank of Boatswain's Creek. To the left of Martindale is Butterfield.

A shot showing Field's Confederate brigade in the centre advancing in the woods of Boatswain's Creek. To his left is the second rank of Branch's brigade and behind him, partially obscured by woods is Pender. Powhite Creek is in the foreground and to the right.

Pender's brigade following Field's.

Project 2mm Terrain: Update 12

The end is nigh! I've done the swamp, completed the woods, and finished the buildings. The penultimate step I've just completed: giving everything a good spay with a Mod Podge and water mix to stick everything down and seal it.

The final step is to paint the frame just to make it look good. I've got some nice grey house paint that should do the trick. It won't take much time to do.

So here's an other teaser shot of the terrain to whet your appetite. My next posting will have a bunch of glamour shots showing the final board, complete with detachable forests and buildings and with my 2mm miniatures in roughly the Gaines Mill deployment.

Terrain Teaser

I've made a little progress on my 2mm terrain, but not enough to justify a full update. I now have some buildings I can put on the board. The buildings have magnets embedded in them so that I can add or remove them as I want. I need to seal and paint them.

House and barn

I experimented adding a thin black wash to darken some trees and some thin yellow to lighten some. The black worked but the yellow didn't really.

Garden interlude

I accomplish little in the way of miniatures this weekend. But I have been admiring our efforts from last summer and fall in the garden. We ripped out all of the weeds and other vegetation except for the ferns and two wild rose bushes. Apparently, gardening is a blood sport when it comes to things with thorns.

We replaced that with 9 bags of mulch, an Easter lily we gave the alternative of growing instead of composting, a bunch of Hostas that we moved, and some upside down roofing tile to serve as a cheap trough for dealing with rain.

Six months later, I'm happy with the results so far. We'll see what it looks like in summer but this is a great start.

The next project is likely to be the front garden and lawn. The lawn is in particularly bad shape because grass struggles to grow on it and I just weeded it with a digger that rips out the entire weed, root and all. It looks a bit like World War One battlefield right now with big craters everywhere.

I'd love to replace those concrete blocks at the end of this garden, but I think that is going to take some serious WORK and some expense to do properly, so for now it will stay as-is.

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.