PROJECT LEWES

Well I've chipped away at this terrain project for more time than I care to reflect on but thanks to some school holiday leave with my daring daughters, I got 'some' downtime and put the finishing touches to the marshland for my Lewes table-top. This first shot was an indulgent one but just goes to show how realistic natural light in all its forms can render a model at the right time.  The next shot is the completely finished marshland. As you might make out, I edged some of my bogs with foam foliage and put a few dots of static grass at the extreme shallows. I'm not happy with the acrylic lacquer but am satisfied they look wet enough - less pools and more wet mud. This feature of the ground has in fact caused far more effort on my part than it may ever justify but if we play the game enough times, some units are bound to get driven into it. Here's what the Royalists will be looking at as they form up to advance up the slope of the Downs - rather them than...

Back to my boards after a frustrating absence and a brief stint in the Pacific. I re-read over my previous posting and there have been a few 'u-turns' in my approach to these marshes. You may see the results of my attempts at brushing colour into the synthetic fur. Not at all what I had in mind but it left the terrain with that sodden, well-trodden look like a wet cow paddock. I'm actually happy with the results where I had them but ended up returning to the spray gun to colour the remainder. The reeds have been sewn into the pools by cutting crosses into the paper and foam beneath and pushing the ends through blobs of Selley's Liquid Nails. The reeds are taken from picking apart a brown fiber door mat. I just love this stuff for clumped grass, crops and reeds. Once unraveled, the fibers are bunched and double over and can be either glued as a double-clump or adjusted to an alternate length. Once glued, they paint up easily and so I gave them an uneven dark green c...

I decided back when first carpetting the boards with synthetic fur to leave the low ground or marsh edge of the river Ouse for a different surface. I thought this becasue I wanted the 'grass level' much lower than the pastureland and the heights. After staring at it for the past two weeks and a failed experiment in dying a toweling bath-mat I came to the realisation I should have covered the entire surface and worked the pile down. Well, I've been learning as I go. The sink points have been painted in a dark undercoat which I will later wash over with browns for a muddy effect before adding the water effect using a product I have yet to determine. They will be sown with reeds. I then carpeted around the bog holes with more synthetic fur using Selley's Quick Grip . I'll be trimming the entire area quite low, particularly about the bogs. As the pile will be lower and thin, I plan to attempt painting in the same greens as the rest of the boards but rubbing or p...

Well, all of the synthetic covered tiles are now completely painted. The first shot shows the beaten ground on which I will feature the town edge. Some sparing white is intended to indicate the chalk coming through the thin topsoil. The fully worn chalk tracks are fully painted with a generous dry-brushing of cream over which I dry-brushed stark white (two coats). I was happy to dust off to either side of the track onto the fur. This shot also includes the worn ground up to and about the windmill site. You may also note the broad bands of colour better represented in the next shot.  After posting my reference photos, I decided to hit the fields with swathes of flowers after all. Centre/left directly above the track junction you can make out the expanse of purple flowers achieved simply with a generous dry brush with a house brush. I wasn't worried about how much paint I used as any drops forming I hope will serve as representing flower heads. To the right of the last bend ...

Third tone: a dry brush of lighter green . Talk about momentum. Got home and whilst the light was good in my back room (Autumn now) I got a three-finger width house brush and took to the boards with the third and final green 'coat'. At this stage I soon discovered not to be prissy and feel free to work the paint into the pile. Also, fingers are very good in a brisk, rubbing action to blend accidental excess into the overall green smear. Straight into it, I hit the tracks with a base coat of mid-earth brown, smearing it at first with a thick craft brush then worked it into the fabric with plenty of water. The paints reactivated with the water and I got a very pleasing ochre effect in the main. I didn't care about being too finicky as I expect the grasses to the sides will be slightly dusty in high summer. In any event the next step is a generous dry brushing of light cream and then a highlighting dry brush of white in keeping with the chalk surface. The top two shot...

I seem to have gotten a move on finally and once started am now under-way once more as you can see from the drive-way production line. These panels have been stacked on a shelf under covers for the past year-and-a-half and now are seeing the light of day. I am learning much as I go with my air-compressor and spray gun but to be honest, it's really quite straight forward though not simple. I am having much more success with this large equipment than I ever had with an air-brush - fiddly bloody things. One of my first observations is how the synthetic fur alters even after the first coat of acrylic paint. I probably could have gone for house paint - cheaper and with greater volume - but went for the matte fluid acrylic craft paints to be on the safe side for my first attempt. Even with the thinnest of coats, the acrylic tones right down to a khaki and stiffens considerably. Any ideas I might have had about flossy, springy grass has been dispelled. There will be some elasticity and...

This has been far too long in the making  or should I say assembling? Bought in December as a Christmas present to myself I just got it out of the box and yes, assembly was required. This 50 litre compressor is just what the doctor ordered and when united with my spray gun and hose, what was taking me hours was taken care of in minutes. WHAT A DELIGHT! The above is the smaller of a two gun set and once I had read and re-read the instructions, the novice engaged the device and away I went. Given that I am colouring synthetic fur there wasn't much of a technique I needed to master so with only a few seconds to see the gun was spraying satisfactorily, before I knew it I started over my panels. I am using Jo Sonja acrylic Green Oxide artists paint, which applied particularly well but is getting used up very quickly. In fact, I estimate one tube per tile and after just these two, I am out of paint. Still, whilst I have stalled yet again until I revisit the store to buy up what...

Well, I have an awful lot of lost ground to make up for this lost year. My divorce is settled and I have regained possession of my house - after a struggle before the courts and a lot of mutual stress, we came to an understanding of sorts. Such is life. So when I look back on this project of mine I find myself wondering - where was I? I had done a lot of work on getting the battlefield up to scratch and I realised (I can be slow at times) that painting my synthetic grass with an airbrush was going to take me a second life-time to complete. The painting was slow, blockages too common for the task and even my patients was wearing thin. The principle remains sound but the tools were just not fit for the job. This will not be my only spec built table top so any further investment in equipment was to be a worthy venture. Enter the 50 litre Ryobi Airwave 2.0 horse power direct drive air-compressor . Complete with 10 meter hose, brass fittings and twin top-cup spray guns I can now colour...

Well, in spite of my best efforts, work, family and fate seem to conspire against my making too much progress along hobby lines. Having said that, I haven't been completely idle and have learnt how to use my airbrush and compressor - not without difficulties. The above shot was taken on my new Canon EOS 600D (digital SLR) which I am also learning to use. Hopefully the three states of my synthetic fur painting are evident. At the rear is what the camel coloured fur looks like before painting. The section in the left side foreground is the fur after having been given one coat of spray over a week ago. The right side mid section is the greener area having been given a second coat. The difference in colours are perhaps better seen in the second photo. I have picked up a number of tips as I've progressed which I thought may be of interest. First is more of a caution - spray painting this size project is extremely time consuming with an airbrush. It takes me more than an hour ...

I don't know what came over me this past weekend but I found my terrain building Mojo and just got stuck in. Having glued the synthetic fur to the polystyrene, I needed to trim the material back flush with the edges. As you can see, I brushed the fur into the centre of the boards before trimming to ensure the fur length right up to the edges - I deemed this especially important for internal edges. Once that was done, there was no reason to put off giving the terrain it's hair-cut. I trimmed those areas of intense habitation or use right down to the base - that being the rise where the furthest extent of Lewes township appears and the site of the windmill. I began by using a Breville brand electric hair clippers but after some time realised that the hair care scissors which came with the kit was far quicker and more effective at getting straight to the base. I finished off with the clippers though. Pathways and habitation areas marked by brushing before trimming The ...

The weather may have improved but my return to work has become more inconvenient when it comes to advancing my projects. A rapid deployment 'up north' took me out of action but I am back at it again. I might say that any terrain project of this size is going to have it's monotonous elements and it is hard at times to soldier on but the ends justify the commitment - at least they had better. As is often the case, a break away from the coal-face often yields results as it gives me time to think. With foam layered construction of this depth, protecting the sides of each tile is an issue. Normally I would plaster it with soaked newspaper pieces and apply them with a diluted PVA (white or wood glue) solution as I have done for those areas of marsh. This has been a tried and true method for me when applying a paint/sand mixture for colour/texture. This time I am experimenting with material - calico to be precise. I chose calico as I had plenty of scraps lying around and it...

Having fine but cold weather these past few days has enabled me to complete my Downs of Lewes to the sanding stage. I have completed all eight levels of the Styrofoam construction, being mindful to return and justify the sides repeatedly. They need to be a near to perfectly square as I can make them, requiring re-shaving and sanding back each time a new layer is added . As you can see, it looks quite the colossus in pure white and for the time being my car has taken up residence on the drive. The dots in the mid-left quadrant are figures from my Lewes collection to give some idea of scale. There was a time early in this build that I pondered whether to add another 300mm to the left of this shot (another half tile width) but then decided against it. The table is big enough and players need to be able to reach into the middle from at least one side. I moved straight on to the chamfering stage and started out with a hot-wire cutter - this time a hand held 'Polylon' cutter ...

The Royal army edge of the battle field complete to basic construction Well now I'm home once more, I have commenced building the terrain for my version of a 28mm Lewes 'Downs'. This has required about AUD250.00 thus far with a ways to go before completion. I bought several sheets of quite solid (and rigid) 9mm interior ply which was cut into 900x900mm squares (near enough to 3'x3' in stone age measurements) and 14 sheets of 600x1200mm polystyrene (white foam) 25mm thick. I went with the 9mm ply to ensure against warping and help anchor the built up terrain pieces - they do make for heavy(ish) pieces. In approaching the build I have layered the foam, cut to the contours as laid out in my map (see previous TABLE-TOP post) and after basic construction I will sculpt the slopes back from the edges of each sheet. In approaching this particular build the first thing I needed to do was determine what thicknesses of foam to deal with. Whilst the contours represent...

I have been absent for some time now from both home and this blog, but not entirely idle - I have been thinking and purchasing. It had long been my intention to commence building my terrain for this project once I had reached the half way mark on building the Rebel army, which I have now done. This was essentially to ensure a complete match between my table-top battlefield and my figures' bases. Whilst not able to commence construction for a further two months, I nevertheless require consideration of what my table top should look like. DEBATE Yes, you guessed it - opinion remains divided on the issue of where the respective armies both formed for battle and thus where the battle took place specifically on the Lewes Downs. As used to be the case with Bosworth field, until such time as a full archaeological survey is undertaken we have two preferred sites remaining to chose from in Lewes. Without getting drawn into this ongoing and academically speculative debate, it must ...