Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Fresh off the Vine(yards)




Having some decent looking Vineyard terrain that was also practical for the wargamnes table has been one of my terrain objectives for some time. My freind Michael, aka Wargamer Rabbit, has a great tutorial on how he made his. I had been meaning to give his method a try, but.... it had yet to happen!



As some readers might recall, I saw this rather nifty item in the Flea Market at Historicon; $10 for a bag of 10 pairs of shrubs/grapevines... or 3 bags for $20!  So I bought three, thinking they would be pretty easy to turn into vineyard terrain. 


I get to work on them last week. I decided to use some of the many Litko 60 x 20 mm MDF bases that I had on hand. 2 clumps of two fit very well onto each of these bases, which I first painted dark brown. 


Taking WR's advice, I painted the edges and underside of the bases dark brown as well, to avoid the distraction of unpainted MDF seen on overturned sections. There was enough of these shrubs/vines in the three packs to make 15 sections, or about 30+ inches of terrain. 



I then applied white glue and fine "earth" flock to the bases. Here's the finished product on a light green terrain cloth. 


A view down the rows. Note the colored flock (actually lilac colored, rather than pink), sort of suggesting grapes. 


Top down view of the rows of vines. 


Here's a picture on my usual grey background (which is the cover for our outdoor hot tub!). I find this background, and diffused natural light on a cloudy day, gives much more accurate colors
In vino veritas!

20 comments:

  1. Useful and beautiful, well done!

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    1. Thanks, Phil.... now I wish that I had bought more!

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  2. Useful and decorative pieces of kit! The subtle lilac flock gives just enough to suggest grapes!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks Iain; the effect is even more subtle and effective in real life.

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  3. Looks very effective indeed Peter.

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    1. Thank you, Carlo! I expect we will see them on a TTS! battlefield of the Great Italian Wars shortly...

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  4. These look great Peter, useful pieces of terrain

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  5. I was only thinking the other day I need some vineyard terrain, and these really look the part. Those lilac clumps look good as well - perhaps the formative stages of a nice shiraz?

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  6. Great minds and all that. Having spent so much time in the relatively northern vineyards of the Finger Lakes the pasr 7 years, perhaps a Cabernet Franc or Marechal Foch!

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  7. Peter,

    Great vines and the 'yard. Never can have too much for the tabletop.... vineyards tend to spread rapidly across the open ground. I enjoyed reading about your inventive use of the clumps. Thanks for the plug on my method too.
    M

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    1. Thanks, Michael. I thought your method was very clever, and had planned to use it. I saw an easy way to do them, so I went with it! :-)

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  8. Great looking vineyards Peter! :)

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  9. Wonderful scratch-built terrain!

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    1. Thanks, Dean, although I wouldn't exactly call it scratch built!

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