Red Storm Coming!

While I have been working on a number of the vehicles for the Winter Soviets, this is the first color test figure that I created for the infantry.  I have already done an article on the basing of the foot troops, which I will include here.

I thought that doing some winter urban basing would not only be interesting, but work for a number of special battle reports.  You can see some thoughts on that urban basing here:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2017/12/urban-combat.html

I will try to do a few Facebook live sessions on the painting process, and even make a few more step by steps on the basing.  The first test of the urban winter bases were for the Americans.  There's a new winter American army under way, so plenty of opportunity to create more!

It was especially fun to see him with one of the completed T-35/85's.  Here's a link to the live session where that was painted:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10211859089046747/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

I am now working on more "permanent" videos for painting these historical armies, which would be edited and rendered to USB drives like my original Painting Pyramid video series.  These will be made available to my Patreon subscribers initially.  The more successful that is, the more I can make!  It is a lot of fun to do these, but a tremendous amount of work, especially in editing and rendering.

Any support is appreciated!

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Rolling out the Tundra

After several articles on both the mat and how these terrain pieces were made, I just had to see what they would all look like together!

Obviously I will be making many more pieces, not just of these types, but frozen rivers, hills, and iced over ponds.

Here's a link to the kind of mat I'm using:

http://www.tablewar.com/copy-of-6x4-alpine-f-a-t-mat-gaming-mat/

As you can see, I was able to mimic the printed pattern of the battle mat (from TableWar), which has been the point of all my terrain building.  While it would have been OK to have terrain pieces completely covered in snow, those would have been better on the Alpine mat, which is covered in a similar manner.

If you look through the previous tutorial posts, you will notice how I tried to plan every layer of my terrain pieces in advance, down to the color and coarseness of the flock.

The larger clumps of flock not only matched the greenish tones of this mat, but it made it very easy to brush my snow mix right onto the applied flock to make that scattered snow pattern.

When it comes time to film battle reports on this mat, I will be using some snowflake Christmas decoration to make additional ground cover snow.  This will help to mesh the terrain elements and mat even better, and provide an extra level of detail for up close shots.

Just imagine trails being left by the treads of the tanks in the 'snow'... should be quite a sight!

By the way, I will also be doing plenty of tutorials on painting these winter vehicles... you can see how I winterized this T-34/85 on a Facebook Live:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10211859089046747/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

The last article that I created showing how these were done was posted here:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2018/02/heres-another-adventure-in-winter.html

This one shows how I made the bigger pieces:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2018/01/winter-returns.html

More tutorial articles are coming... and I think I might even have enough equipment to start doing video terrain tutorials!  Stay tuned...

If you would like to see even more terrain posts, and the battle reports that are under way, you can support me on my patreon page here.  Now that the first sample reports are up, I will start doing Patron Only battles and campaigns.

As you can see, these will cover every theatre and era of the war:

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Snow Pack

Here's another adventure in winter terrain!  After the discovery of the tea leaves that you saw in the last post, it was time to put the snow onto these tree stands.

I have already made a post regarding this process (see the completed stand on the right), but these are a little different, and I have made a few adjustments to that process.

This bit is the same, taking a few of the Vallejo mediums like stucco and snow texture, which is mixed with a tiny touch of blue/gray from Badger paints.  I added that tiny bit of color to match the color of the snow on the battle mat.

With a broader 1 inch brush, I started to add this snow mix onto the trees.  It was important not to pile this up too high, because I don't want complete coverage of the ground!

The various snow piles are arranged on the ground cover as closely as they are on that battle mat, and gently brushed over some of the clump foliage which was applied.  Here's a link to that battle mat:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2018/01/snow-patch_17.html

Once the paste has been added, the snow flock is drizzled over the top.  The paste is just sticky enough to hold this material, giving it a fluffier appearance.

The rest of the snow flock 'blends' in with clump foliage too.

Overall, this yields a very nice effect! :-)

Painting some snow on the fallen logs and exposed tree branches adds on extra level of texture.

The newly completed tree stands!  A little bit of hair spray is dusted over the top to keep more of the snow flock in place.  You can use a spray fixative as well, but the hair spray is a bit less toxic.

While these tree stands look quite real, you can see that there is plenty of space for entire units to move through them and take cover, etc.

My next post will show what all these completed pieces look like on the mat!  I can't wait to see myself :-)

If you can support these kinds of terrain projects, that would be very helpful.  There is a never ending chain of supplies which much be purchased to continue this process, and that support is appreciated.

Here is my Patreon Page:

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Reading the Tea Leaves

As those of you who have seen my previous posts about basing and terrain know, using tea leaves can be a very interesting way to do ground cover on larger areas.

These tend to have a wider variety of shapes and sizes, even on one 'type' of loose leaf tea.

I realized that I could use this to augment the winter terrain pieces that I am making now.  I have a few articles on how I have been making these, starting with this:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2018/01/winter-returns.html

Once the terrain pieces have been painted, they are set up for flock, and then snow.  Here's are a few episodes on how I do the flock and snow:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2018/01/snow-patch.html

I try to have a number of shade and textures of flock on hand, especially when I am trying to match the game mat that I am using.  The coarse turf is great for that extra flavor of texture here and there, especially where I am trying to put the partial areas of snow.

On several of my tree stands, I have regular leaf trees, so that it is not just endless Christmas trees everywhere!  However, I had forgotten that those leaves need to go somewhere, and that I should have piles of those fallen leaves under those trees!

So, after saving several batches of Cathy's loose leaf tea (Chai and Earl Grey in this instance), I crushed those up a bit with my fingers and then piled them up under the trees.

It made a huge difference in color and texture.  It was quite fortuitous that the colors of those two tea leaves were far better than anything I could have painted.

Here you can see the difference that it makes, and how nicely it compliments the greener flock.  Oddly enough, that flock is really a brownish green, but compared to the tea leaves, it is so much greener!

That extra touch of texture is wonderful, but not so much texture that figures won't be able to stand in the forest pieces.

This tree stand shows it quite well.  Before I put on my flock, I dropped the leaves directly under the trees, scattering it a little more the farther away I got from the trunk.

With the flock placed next, this terrain piece really comes to life.

Next, I will be doing the same snow effect that I created in the previous posts.  I am hoping to do live tutorial sessions on terrain, but that will definitely require more equipment than I have available.

If you like these terrain posts, any contributions to the Pateron Page will be very helpful towards that goal!  And you will also be eligible to win the monthly raffle figure. :-)

https://www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Snow Patch

With the flock in place, it is time for the final stage of the winter terrain pieces for the Tundra mat.  I want to see what happens when I combine these three materials to create the patchy snow, and the snow on the trees.

This is the Tundra mat from TableWar that I am going to match:

http://www.tablewar.com/copy-of-6x4-alpine-f-a-t-mat-gaming-mat/

The white stucco material is simply used to extend the Snow Texture mix.  I only have so much of it, and I need that for basing as well!  To better match the  color of the snow on the TableWar mat, I mixed in some Badger Stynlrez primer that is blueish gray.

Once I have that mixed thoroughly, I can start applying it to the terrain piece.  The nice thing about this material is that I can pile it up very easily, but also apply it in other ways.

If needed, I can thin it down the simulate lass or melted snow, and by "drybrushing" it over the clump foliage, I will get the same kind of mottled appearance as the mat.

You can see where I have piled it up, and also placed it carefully on the fallen logs.  The drybrushing effect is working quite well on the heavy flock.  This is also another reason why I used that watered down glue mix to adhere it more firmly to the terrain piece!

Before the snow mix has a chance to dry, I will dust some of the Woodland Scenics Snow Flock over the wet paste.  This will hold it in place, and also create a finer grain like snow, as well as a bit more texture.

With that snow flock applied, you can even see some of the granules showing up in the recesses created by the heavy greenish brown flock!

The same mixture is brushed over the trees, but not too much!  This is supposed to be a partially covered snow board after all.  Just as I did on the rest of the terrain piece, I can sprinkle the snow flock on top.

I did the same for the bare trees, making sure to have some snow on each branch.  Now you can really see how all the various elements start to come together.

I will let this one dry, and then repeat the process on the next piece...

There we have it!  A very solid terrain piece that will look great on the mat, has plenty of room for figures to move around, and will match the Tundra mat as well!

Now for the test... here we go!

I was very happy to see how these first few pieces looked with the mat.  I have much more on the way, including frozen ponds and rivers!

If you would like to see more terrain building posts like this, and the battle reports that go with them, any support you could provide to the Patreon Page would be very helpful.  Eventually I want video battle reports to be a part of that page.

https://www.patreon.com/JamesWappel