"Painting bocage: a step-by-step photographic tutorial" Topic

A couple of weeks ago we reviewed James' Resins range of bocage. Well, Aaron has kindly written a clear and concise tutorial to take you through the painting process step-by-step. Enjoy :)

link

Awesome! I love the rocks at the base. Creates a great color contrast.

Unfortunately Bocage is not dry stone walls with shrubberies on top.
There are rocks and stones in it but the bulk of the mound is packed earth and roots.

Not unfortunate at all. From an artistic point of view, and the point of view of the player looking down on them on the game table, these are great. I'd proudly put these on my game table.

Realism vs playability

Both are subjective.

Personally, I don't think it resembles bocage that well. This cropped up in the review. However, if you like this sort of thing these pieces really do the job.

Check out the video review here: link

Very good work. Thanks for the tutorial.

I really liked the step by step photos of your process. Like I said before, I'd be proud to have these pieces on my game table.

Nice write up… though I'm waiting for a "certain user" to waltz in and decry the rocks on the bocage.

For gaming purposes, seems like a good enough represenation and much better looking than my bocage collection.

I also really like the tank tracks cut into the wheatfield.

No need to wait for "a certain user" just see comment #2.

fingolfen wrote:

Nice write up… though I'm waiting for a "certain user" to waltz in and decry the rocks on the bocage.

And here I am.

JustinModelDads wrote:

JustinModelDads This cropped up in the review. However, if you like this sort of thing these pieces really do the job.

The banks certainly do the job if you like the sort of scenery that doesn't look anything like the real thing.

The hedges and trees look fine.

Well, I can't say I disagree with you :)

Peace!

And I thought this thread would be a claustrophobic journey into a sunken lane with unseen enemies lurking …

As has been said, it looks pretty, but

a. Why would shrubs grow out of a bare pile of rocks?

b. It ain't Bocage.

a. plants grow out of sidewalks, why not loose stones on a hill of dirt?

b. Looks like bocage. Plays like bocage. Must be bocage.

"…that doesn't look anything like the real thing."

It's like a Chubby Checker concert. You only ever hear one or two really old hits. Never anything new.

"Not unfortunate at all. From an artistic point of view, and the point of view of the player looking down on them on the game table, these are great. I'd proudly put these on my game table."

I thought the idea was for the terrain to look like what it is suppose to represent.

Au contraire, mon ami.

Looks nothing whatsoever like Bocage. Isn't Bocage, even if it does 'play' like Bocage (whatever that means).

A line of pink candyfloss would 'play like Bocage' if your rules insisted that it took combat engineers, AVREs or Cullin Cutters to breach it. That doesn't mean it's Bocage.

Weeds may well grow out of pavements, but fully-mature hedges and trees do not grow out of Derbyshire-style dry stone walls.

Bocage only looks like that when it's been designed by someone who has only heard about Bocage second-hand from someone who read about it once in a bad book. Anyone who has seen photos of Bocage, or who has walked and lived in Bocage can see immediately that this doesn't remotely compare to anything real – especially not Bocage. If you call it 'Bocage' it's got to look remotely like Bocage.

It still looks pretty though and reflects good modelling skills.

Bocage to buildings, do these look French enough :)

Those are quite nice! Are they 20mm, and who makes them?

Some chap in France called Loic. I think he is a former paratrooper. 15mm. Very nice.

Lovely buildings.

I don't see any foundations or evidence of plumbing. Those are not what buildings look like. :-)

No, they look superb. And spot-on in terms of colour and Norman architectural style, which you'd know if you'd seen Bocage and the buildings in their natural setting. ;o)

"Bocage only looks like that when it's been designed by someone who has only heard about Bocage second-hand from someone who read about it once in a bad book. Anyone who has seen photos of Bocage, or who has walked and lived in Bocage can see immediately that this doesn't remotely compare to anything real – especially not Bocage. If you call it 'Bocage' it's got to look remotely like Bocage."

Isn't the internet great? It allows us to be rude to complete strangers while simultaneously minimizing their creative contribution to our hobby. Whatever happened to "If you can't say anything nice…"? I guess it's more important to be right about something and make sure everyone knows it.

Again, great bocage. Great job showing the steps of its completion. The OP does great work! Cheers!

Whatever happened to the 'honest review'?

I wasn't rude to the modeller or to the OP – only to you, for arguing that black is white. ;o)

Nothing like bocage. I know why people are insistent that bocage should look like this because of the "farmers throw the stones to the outside of the fields" comment which gets trotted out but seriously, what are they farming, stones?

Those buildings are lovely.

Do you have a link for the buildings?

"I wasn't rude to the modeller or to the OP – only to you, for arguing that black is white. ;o)"

Why be rude to me? We are strangers. You don't know me. All I said was his bocage was really nice looking and worked great for Flames of War. If it doesn't fit what your idea of bocage is, so what. Why do you feel the need to criticize the guys' work?

If you think bocage should look different, make some and post yours here.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, and relax :) USefulpost Tim.

I think we can all agree that this bocage doesn't look like real bocage. But that doesn't stop it from looking good. Horses for courses. Now, what else can we talk about.

Anyone know any airbrush techniques for 15mm figures :P

Maybe brushing texture paint or thinned filler over the stone walls, painting to look like mounded earth, and only picking out the odd protruding blob to paint like rock?

R Mark Davies wrote:

Bocage only looks like that when it's been designed by someone who has only heard about Bocage second-hand from someone who read about it once in a bad book

Correct. The bad book in question is D-Day by Flames of War. On page 44 you'll find them saying "A model bocage hedgerow should have a bank of stones and tree roots about 5/8"/15mm high topped with dense vegetation and trees."

You'll also find pictures and instructions on how to make something that looks like the "bocage" in the original post in this thread.

This page of the book has quite obviously been put together by someone who's never been anywhere near Normandy, or even looked at any of the thousands of the bocage pictures available on the internet.

I wasn't rude to the modeller or to the OP – only to you, for arguing that black is white. ;o)

We've been through all this before TMP link

Presented with pictures of actual bocage hedges or extracts from an official US army publication describing them as "an earthen mound or wall 8 to 10 feet in width and 4 to 6 feet in height, covered with a scrub undergrowth" some FoW fans continue to argue that black is white.

They seem quite incapable of acknowledging that their favourite wargames company can get things wrong.

Fantastic buildings. Are they scratch built? or can you buy them somewhere?

Fanatic bocage Tim, how have been able to improve upon your original technique?

Fanatic bocage

Now I am worried!

A slip, I'm sure Enjoy your wargames, all!

They look like rip rap.

Possible use, old coastal or river defences in holland?

I know why people are insistent that bocage should look like this because of the "farmers throw the stones to the outside of the fields" comment which gets trotted out but seriously, what are they farming, stones?

I'm pretty sure that's what some of the French farmers would claim!

I've watched farmers pull large (300+lb) rocks out of the Palouse hills in Idaho and eastern Washington. That's all glacial loess soil, 30m deep or more before you find bedrock!

@Ditto: *those* look incredible! How'd you make those, insulation-foam strips, flocked and 'treed'?

I see above all sorts of folks dumping as on JustinModelDads work as "Nothing like bocage." Is that a zero score on the wargame bocage realism meter?

I'm sure he appreciates feedback even when not positive, but what really matters I think when its comes to "scoring" his bocage is would the detractors above just turn up their nose and walk away if invited to a game on his bocage table?

Cheers, VB