"3mm Battle Mat near completion" Topic

1809in3mm.blogspot.com

Hey everyone,

Here's some new updates on my 3mm 1809 project. Originally started for Wagram at the tactical level, it then shifted to Blucher, and now has become a hybrid brigade/battalion level set-up that can accommodate almost anything.

That is a great looking set up. I know some might quibble with the blue river being "wrong" but I do the same. Are the trees just plain clump foliage?

Thanks! The trees are a combo of my thumb-tack trees which I explain in one of my earlier posts as well as finely broken up clump foliage to make the hedges. The thumbtack trees can be made two ways. To make tougher, denser ones I used super glue to attach some canopy foliage to the body of the thumbtack, let it try, then soaked the foliage in clear drying PVA and rolled it to get the canopy foliage as tight as possible. Let it try and they harden into little green foliage plugs, touch as rubber. Alternatively, you can use a low-temp hot glue gun to attack regular clump foliage onto the thumb tack, and just squeeze and shape it with your fingers (I have a hot glue gun that works at a very low temp, to where I can use my bare hands on the glue. You might not be able to do this with your own!). If using just clump foliage then you really need to hammer it with glue, but the end result is basically the same, although not quite as indestructible they're still tough.

The creek is only a place holder for now- I want to make more realistic ones in the future, but I don't have too much experience with them. I'll definitely use the same basic tack-down method, and create banks by using the substrate.

That is some beautyfull terrain!!!! I think your batallion level setup looks 1000 times better – the brigade bases just does not do it for me (neither does brigade level unit gaming for that matter).

Arg, Sparta… after much work I am tending to agree. I'll end up doing both, of course, but from a sheer coolness perspective the battalion level does appear to be the way to go. Fortunately I didn't scrap the 20mm x 10mm bases when I took the figs off- I had a feeling this might happen so I saved them all. I also have a ton of painted and unpainted figs, so it looks like I have my work cut out for me there.

Streams are easy. Cut strips of cloth and give a heavy coat of green or brown and let dry (use house paint). Paint on the river and flock. Like this:

link

I have to agree with Sparta. Brigade bases just do not have the visual impact of battalion bases. And mass effect is one of the main raisons d'être of 3mm in the first place.

HPhD- I agree again. The brigade bases do look really good in the display case, but on the table top the battalions look better. The entire time the idea was that the individual bases, being on the thinnest, smallest litko bases, would blend in with the terrain so that the table itself became the brigade base, if that makes sense. I ended up giving up on the idea prematurely, before ever getting a table top completely done up to see what it actually looked like. Mostly because I didn't see how I could build enough terrain to create a battalion level battlefield. Now, between the vinyl streams, the thumb-tack trees (which are provide support to the whole set-up) and the super-cheap, near unlimited buildings made form balsa, the original idea becomes completely viable.

So back to it! 6:1 battalions! 2:1 cannons! 5:1 cavalry! Should look good!

That's the spirit!! On to Moscow!!