Setting the scene...

When I think back to my early gaming beginnings, I always recall playing with the typical 20mm or 1/72nd scale plastic airfix toy soldiers... tipping them out on the carpet, lining them up and knocking them down to the accompaniment of mouthed sound effects... boom, bang, dakka dakka, Aiiieeeeee!!!!

Simple 'rug-rat' fun... but then of course you want to have some scenery for your soldiers to interact with, take cover behind etc etc...

The next trip to the toy store and you start picking up bits and bobs of lichen or other spongy foam stuff from the model railway section...

And I think its this close connection to model railway materials that begins to transcend our humble wargaming efforts...

I can still recall, back to my youth, when sometime back in the 70's, the fire brigade went on strike in the UK... it was a period of strong trade unions, and it seemed everyone was having their chance to hold the country to ransom by striking for more pay or better conditions or both... My dad was in the fire service, and although he didn't agree with the strike, putting lives at risk, he had no choice due to the strength of the trade unions, and being unable to cross the picket line, as such...

With the forced time off, he built us a proper model rail layout, on a 8'x4' board complete with hills and tunnels, using chicken wire and cloth bandage and paper-mache, then painting it all up and adding clumps of lichen and sponge etc... and although relatively basic by todays standards, it rocked my little world back then.

But best of all, when not playing with the trains, the board was perfect for my toy soldiers... and I think its the connection between toy soldiers, model railway stuff and cool looking terrain and layouts that's at the root of all my gaming now... I want it all to look good!

We strive, well many of us wargamers do, to paint up good looking figures to build our forces for the game, whether a simple skirmish force or a large army. But I don't really see the point in striving for well painted figures, if you then plonk them down on naff terrain. Agreed, we all have to start somewhere and we were all beginners once, but I feel if we are going to try and improve our figure painting, we should be trying to improve our scenery to 'display' them upon too.

However in wargaming, we are not dealing with a simple static display, but terrain that needs to be interacted with as we move our models over and through it. Our models need to be able to stand on the terrain without falling over all the time, so a balance has to be struck, quite literally, between looks and 'play-ability'. On top of which, we don't want to be playing over the same board every game, so we often resort to making terrain pieces that can be re-positioned to vary the layout for each game...

I have always enjoyed making terrain, as anyone who has followed this blog over time can probably tell, whether its simple hills and hedges, or trees, walls, fences and buildings of all shape and sizes... but these have always been terrain 'pieces'. My relatively recent return to Middle-Earth, and playing through many of the journey book scenarios, has now led me off down another terrain building path... no longer just 'pieces' but now entirely themed boards, to match the specific scenario... and this has had me looking back more closely to those model railway scenic items and how-to guides...

So I have been looking over the Woodland Scenics range of materials and how they work together and compliment each other, and found their how to videos on their website and Youtube very interesting...

Here's one which seems to cover most of the basic techniques and materials...

Having watched this, I was all fired up at the weekend, to have a splurge at the local store... However I saved a few pennies when chatting to the chap there, who explained there was no need to buy the branded spray glue, as its just thinned PVA (interior) glue with water about 50/50 with a little detergent added. I did buy the spray bottle and some packs of fine and coarse turf to add to the stuff I already had at home... Only downside was they were out of Realistic Water, which I need to finish my Watcher Board... oh well, hopefully have some next weekend...

So I'll be giving these techniques a try, with the Watcher Board to finish first. Then our Fellowship quest continues through the subterranean realm of Moria, so things will be mostly rock and stone there for a while, then back out in to the sunshine, with the flight to Lothlorien, followed by the scenes at Amon Hen.

Lothlorien is fairly straight forward, though I am tempted to try building a model tree large enough to take a flet; an elven tree platform.

Amon Hen has several scenics items; ruins, statues and more water to arrange, and I have been ordering and sourcing components to complete this set up too.

I think, on the terrain, and thus gaming front, its going to be an interesting year! Wish me luck!