Guest Silesian-jaeger Posted October 23, 2000 Share Posted October 23, 2000 Had some great recommendations on rules and figures from you guys last time. I am going w/ GHQ despite the cost for figures and Spearhead for rules. Now for terrain. What do you like? Do you buy or make your own. Keep in mind i'm looking for 1/285(6mm) here. I have found lots of makers on the web but very few have picts. Your thoughts? ------------------ "In one (German) town, Private Honey stood next to an elderly German man and a ten-year-old boy. As the Shermans and brand-new Pershings rumbled by the boy said,'Deutsches Panzer lind besser.' Honey looked down at him and asked,'If German tanks are better, why aren't they here?' " quote from Stephen E. Ambrose, "Citizen Soldiers" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullethead Posted October 23, 2000 Share Posted October 23, 2000 What I've found works good is to buy a sheet of foam rubber for the map board. Paint it using water-based paints (so you don't dissolve it), 1 side green and the other leave tan for desert or paint white. Paint some roads on it if you want. You can make sunken roads and streams by gouging out grooves in the foam and painting them brown or blue. To make hills, you have 2 options. For large-scale rolling terrain and slopes, put some books under the foam itself. For small-scale features, make them out of 1 or more layers of foam rubber, with the edges beveled. Then glue a couple toothpicks in the bottom. This enables you to stab the hill down anywhere on the main map, a different place and orientation each game. Best part about this type of map is you can just roll it up when you're done and stuff it in a closet or cabinet. For scenery, there are a number of options. N-guage model railroad buildings and trees are about the right scale, but they get expensive and break easy. So the best thing, IMHO, is to make your own buildings out of little blocks of wood--just paint (or use a marking pen) windows, doors, etc. The level of detail is entirely up to you. For trees, you can buy bulk model railroad green moss. With this, you can tear off small blobs, glue them to toothpicks, and make trees you can stick anywhere in the foam map. Or you can just use big blobs of the moss laid on the foam for forests--just pick the whole thing up to move units through it. Making this type of scenery IMHO is the most cost effective, the easiest to modify and store, and looks quite good enough. ------------------ -Bullethead In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is strength, in water there is bacteria. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trooper Posted October 23, 2000 Share Posted October 23, 2000 Actually, N-Scale is far too big. N works out as 1/160. Z scale, if you can find it, is closer at 1/220 but still noticeably too big (By about 30%) Here's what I'm up to... I've just gone out and bought lots of foamboard from Office Max. It'a about a cm thick and green on both sides. I have also gone and acquired more than just a 4x8 (Actually two 4x8s, I run double-blind games), so that I can cut up the extra boards into hills with a hobby knife. They won't be exact hills, instead they will be contour lines with a little 3D effectiveness. For trees.. Lichen will happily do the job. Spray them with diluted white glue, then coat with model railroad flock. Cheap and effective. Similarly, for hedges, I'm coating pipe-cleaners with it. Flexible and appropriate. Roads.. I just get colored (black) card that I cut into shape in sections.. Less permanent than painting them on. I may hold the card in place with thumb-tacks painted black. Buildings... This is a fun one.. You ever remember those things that you would cut out along the lines, fold to shape and glue in place? I abused the color printer at work, and made nice little paper houses, complete with windows! Not the most robust things in the world, but they're hardly expensive. What I have learned the hard way is to have as little 'permanent' as possible. I used to have a setup that was practically a model railroad with no trains. However, I grew tired of fighting repeatedly on the same terrain. Later.. Manic Moran Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trooper Posted October 23, 2000 Share Posted October 23, 2000 Actually, I'm looking at that sig line above. It reminds me of a story I heard somewhere... An American is guarding a German prisoner, and they're discussing who are the 'better' race... The American pointedly asks "If you're so superior, how come you're my prisoner?" To which the German responds... "For the last four days, I manned my PaK gun. Every time a Sherman came over the hill, I fired and destroyed it. It just happened that we ran out of shells before you ran out of Shermans..." NTM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THumpre Posted October 23, 2000 Share Posted October 23, 2000 It sounds weird but another thing that works well is the reusable tacky stuff they sell for puting up posters. The white kind is easy to manipulate and make into walls, bridges, etc. because it is sticky it stays put and you can use it over and over. Don't forget cotton balls for smoke- several colors to far knocked out and brewed up tanks ------------------ When one goes tear-assing around, one often ends up with a torn ass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt Steiner Posted October 23, 2000 Share Posted October 23, 2000 Hi <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR> Had some great recommendations on rules and figures from you guys last time. I am going w/ GHQ despite the cost for figures and Spearhead for rules. Now for terrain. What do you like? Do you buy or make your own. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Personally I use a mix of bought and homemade stuff. Dont know which manufacturers you have looked at but the following all do nice ranges some using resin others metal : Hovels Mainly Military Irregular Miniatures for other terrain types try Scenic Accesories S&A Scenics Keep Wargaming Lichen, rubberized foam,pipe cleaners, plasticard, balsa wood etc are all useful items for making terrain. Most Wargames Shops/Stores Mail Order services include various scenic items. Cheers ------------------ Sgt Steiner Belfast NI UK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Devils Posted October 23, 2000 Share Posted October 23, 2000 Hovels and J&R miniatures have some nice 6mm stuff. Foam for hills can be cut and shaped easily. For forrests, take thin sheets of plastic, paint green or brown, then flock w/ train grass and glue on 4 or 5 trees per base. Hobby/train stores usually have small trees (HO scale) available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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