monger | 24 Mar 2015 4:16 p.m. PST |
As part of my new Sudan project, does anyone have any good advice for making desert terrain suitable for this region? How about some good links to blogs on the subject. I have the Desert Cigar Box mat… so I am covered regarding that. I am interested in various trees, brush, rock formations, etc. Any help here? Thanks. Kurtus |
Sobieski | 24 Mar 2015 5:21 p.m. PST |
Aquarium shops can be very helpful with vegetation. |
Florida Tory | 24 Mar 2015 5:32 p.m. PST |
I have the CBB desert mat also. It is the wrong color for the Sudanese desert. Searching Google Images for "Sudan desert" is instructive; it is, just like Churchill's description, red. Rick |
Atheling | 24 Mar 2015 10:18 p.m. PST |
I'd go for terrain tiles, home made if you have the space to make then? Just buy 2' x2' 6mm MDF, get it cut instore to size. polystyrene at 25mm or 1"…. buy wooden battons to width the same as the depth of your polystyrene, glue and screw along sides of MDF, fit polystyrene to fit middle, put filler in any gaps, add PVA and sand and you're away! Oh, and paint it too- sand left by itself with look crap but also come away from the polystyrene. Darrell. Just Add Water Blog: link Gewalthaufen (Late 15th /Early 16th Century) Blog: gewalthaufen.blogspot.co.uk La Journee (Early 15th Century Blog): link Shooting Leave (Late Victorian Blog): allthebrave.blogspot.co.uk |
Mad Guru | 24 Mar 2015 11:51 p.m. PST |
Hi, Curtus, Well, above you have brief outlines of the two main paths to take for desert terrain: the terrain-cloth AKA: terrain mat path and the terrain-board AKA: terrain tile path. There are several great tutorials online -- at least one right here on TMP -- for making excellent homemade terrain-mats, and there are several companies that sell them commerically, like "Cigar Box", who you've already bought from. For terrain boards such as Darrell suggests, there are a few companies out there that sell them, mostly in the UK, but they are expensive. Making them at home is much less expensive, but takes a bigger investment of time, and either way -- bought or homemade -- terrain boards require much more storage space than terrain-mats do. Deciding how to approach your terrain involves several factors: time, money, available storage space, and of course your own taste and style. A lot of my wargaming is set in the Second Afghan War of 1878-80. I started out using a "terrain-mat" of inexpensive vinyl in a desert tan type colour, as seen here:
Then I graduated to homemade terrain boards:
I think my old mat looked pretty good, but the boards look much better. They took more time and effort to build, but not that much more. Re: trees, rocks, scrub-brush, zarebas, etc… just for a start, below is a link to a post I did a while back on scratchbuilding rocky terrain areas like these, which could work in the Sudan as well as Afghanistan:
…using cheap self-adhesive vinyl floor-tile and garden bark-chips, as seen in this WIP pic:
LINK to "Rocky Terrain" blog-post: link |
Mad Guru | 25 Mar 2015 2:20 a.m. PST |
Here's a LINK to a great tutorial by "1000 Foot General" on making your own Desert Terrain Cloth: link |
timurilank | 25 Mar 2015 2:58 a.m. PST |
@Monger, These pieces were made two years ago but may help to give you some direction. In photo one are samples of difficult and low hills, a village and dry river bed. The oasis is rather simple to make. link Photo two, show some close ups of rocky ground and sand dunes. link The difficult hills have been reworked since those photos were taken. They have been sculpted and terraced in part. These are two such hills which have family tombs placed on them.
Cheers, Robert |
War In 15MM | 25 Mar 2015 9:04 a.m. PST |
For my ground cover I use indoor-outdoor carpet. I've had mine for about 30 years and I'm sure it is no longer available but something similar probably is. It's easy to used and store and I've always liked the look of it for the desert layouts/tables I do. You can see it and my Sudan collection at warin15mm.com/The-Sudan.html |
monger | 25 Mar 2015 10:16 a.m. PST |
Excellent. Thank you guys for the feedback. I am going to check out all these pics and blogs. Kurtus |
EricThe Shed | 25 Mar 2015 12:17 p.m. PST |
Hi Kurtus I built Desert terrain earlier this year – all the builds are up on the blog starting here… link
The hardest part was getting the colour right… |
monger | 25 Mar 2015 2:02 p.m. PST |
Very nice! Your right about the color. One of my issues as well. What are you using for the trees and plants? I'm gonna be looking at a lot of blogs tonight! Thanks :) |
EricThe Shed | 26 Mar 2015 4:06 a.m. PST |
The trees are all palms sourced from China on ebay the plants are aquarium plants and really small palms sourced from ebay. My desert colour was achieved after a great number of false starts is… Light Brown base (I got a big 5 litre pot matched to GW steel Legion Drab) Followed by a heavy dry brush of yellow ochre acrylic Followed by a lighter brush of Buff Titanium (a creamy colour) It seems to work OK The photos above all seem to be very different colours but I can assure you that they are not its just the lighting. Perhaps the best one is the well picture to get a true reflection of my desert board colours |
monger | 26 Mar 2015 9:19 a.m. PST |
Ahhh… I have bought trees in the past rom China on Ebay. I know the vender. I did in act find a good source other than the one in China however. So I will be good with the trees. As for the table itself, I will be using the Cigar Box mat regardless as I have made many boards and such in the past (none desert however) and just don't have the time to actually make more. The mat will work fine. I am looking at using some lichen to represent the small brush and such. However, it seems hard to find any in the brown color. I noted there are "natural" colors of lichen (and I have some in fact). These look a bit more on the off-white color. Can anyone source "brown" colors of lichen? Are there alternatives? I have yellows as well but not sure they look right. |
timurilank | 26 Mar 2015 10:30 a.m. PST |
monger wrote: "I am looking at using some lichen to represent the small brush and such. However, it seems hard to find any in the brown color. I noted there are "natural" colors of lichen (and I have some in fact). These look a bit more on the off-white color. Can anyone source "brown" colors of lichen? Are there alternatives? I have yellows as well but not sure they look right." I would recommend rubberised horse hair. The material was used in the past for upholstery, car seats and packing material. link You do not need to treat this material as you would lichen. This is an ideal material for zariba and acacia trees. Cheers, |
monger | 26 Mar 2015 11:04 a.m. PST |
Excellent! THank you timurilank. THat's perfect. Now to find a good source for it. Kurtus |