Sunday, April 16, 2017

Simple terrain for the Campaign in a Day

The Snappy Nappy "Campaign in a Day" is 1 week away. It will have seventeen (!) 4 x 6 foot tables, and use Daniel's 15mm troops. It looks like we will have about 14 to 16 players gathering at The Portal gaming space in Manchester, CT for the event.


Daniel is the GM for this event. Primary roads are grey in his maps, secondary roads are tan. I used Foam paper for the basic terrain, but Michael's didn't have any in grey. So I used black foam paper, cutting it into 1" wide strips.


I then  "stamped" them using a moistened sponge and grey acrylic craft paint.


The first of my four tables, roughed out. Unfortunately, the felt I thought was 4 x 6 feet is only 3 feet wide; it will have to do! The table tops are painted a dark earth shade anyway.


I have spray painted the wooden plaques etc from Michaels that I am using for hills brown, and the 1' wooden blocks that I am using for villages have been spray painted light yellow and the top faces painted light red.  At the bottom right is a fortress - the wooden walls and central Tower have been spray painted grey, and the top of the "Tower" painted red with some black "windows" painted on. Pretty minimalist terrain, but it's the right size and conveys he idea.  


The woods are cut out of green foam paper, and ornamented with some cut up Greenery squares, again from Michaels. I don't have any 15mm terrain otherwise, and this stuff is re-usable from event to event. Greg made up about 40 insulation foam hills and flocked them, and Daniel bought some 60 odd 6mm villages, so they are more than welcome to replace my items with theirs!


Another of the tables; you can see some of the Michael's "greenery" at the bottom of the picture before it is cut up.

The wooden plaque hills after spray painting, and some long hill lines cut out of medium brown foam paper. 


A third table; running low on plaques, some Styrofoam sheet is pressed into service as hills after painting. 


The mountain (ex Lemax  Christmas Village) represents impassable mountainous terrain. 


Some Daffodils for Easter - they just bloomed a few days ago. 


Likewise these Crocuses


and these Snow Glories!

9 comments:

  1. Looks like spring has arrived in the NE despite your late season snow storm. That is good!

    I have not heard of "foam paper." What is it?

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  2. "Foam paper" is just very thin foam, think more rubber like than most plastics. Easy to cut, especially with a sharp pair of scissors. Comes in a bunch of colors, although maddeningly never all the colors you want when you go. ;-)

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    1. Joe was using Foam paper at least a decade ago or more; it is about 1/16th of an inch thick, and very durable, unlike, say, construction paper. It is about $1 per 12' x 18" sheet at Michaels, and if you subscribe to their sales, you can often get it for 20 - 30% off even that.

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  3. Great ideas Peter. I look forward to seeing the results of your campaign.

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    1. Hardly thins of beauty, but here we're looking for clear indication of the terrain and fast set up - both important with 17 tables to do in a short period of time!

      I am looking forward to it as well! This time I will be playing an Austrian Division commander!

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  4. The roads came out really well and the rest of the scenery whilst simple works well, I have to sort roads and rivers out soon.
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks, Ian,. For my normal rivers I use the excellent Wizard Kraft rivers; they do roads as well. although the ones I have made myself with dark brown felt and paint (as seen in the Grossbeeren game) work well and look good, too.

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  5. Looking good. Seventeen tables - is that a record for your campaigns in a day?

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    1. Thanks, Lawrence. Yes, it is a record, and not one likely to be broken as that is every last 4 x 6 foot table the facility has! Even if they had more, they wouldn't fit in the spacious miniatures gaming room!

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