I have read that as many of as a third of the villages in the Holy Land were deserted, ruined or derelict. This was, apparently, due to war, forced migration and general bad management. I liked the idea of having a village that was somewhat out of the ordinary, so I built one. The exposed fallen roof sections are made from broom bristle painted in a plaster mix. The wood beam roof supports are disposable barbeque skewers. The rubble is chopped up balsa, sand and grit. The broken doors add to the deserted feel.
The intact village now comprises three structures, a gate and wall sections, and a well and trough. During the Crusades, and even to day in the Middle East (Afghanistan spring to mind), most villages would be built as compounds for defence against bandits and marauding tribal elements. This makes them ideal war games terrain.
5 comments:
What an excellent model! Great detail and a very atmospheric feel to it.
Wonderful work. Are the roads also made by you? If so, can you explain how please?
Rodge
Hi Rodger,
Thanks and yes.
The roads are made using the thin hardboard from the back of an old poster frame (the glass got broken but I kept the back for future use).
First I undercoated both sides of the board with household emulsion. This stops warping later.
Next I marked out the road sections as oblongs, side by side, 7cm wide (mostly 12 inches long, but with a few shorter sections) but with a gap of 1 cm between the edge of the board and the first and last row of oblongs. I also used a compass to draw out two 180 degree 'turns' which would later be cut up into shorter 'turning' lengths.
Once this had been done I drew a free hand wavy edge along each long side of the oblongs (this is the reason for the 1cm at the edges of the board); making sure that the wavy line intersected the points where road sections ended; so that they all matched up when placed end to end.
When done I cut the straight lines (the road section ends) with a steel rule and Stanley knife; giving rows of similar length sections.
Then I cut down the wavy lines using a (muscle power) fret saw and chamfored the edges with a Stanley knife.
The road surface was then applied down the center of each section using a mixture of plaster filler, and 50-50 water-PVA glue. The 'roadside rocks' where also added at this time (they are 'man made' cat litter granules from Tesco, they are orange/pink and do not disintergrate when wet).
When the whole lot was dry it was painted with a thick layer of 'desert' coloured household emulsion paint to tie everything in, when dry again an ink wash was applied, then when this was dry it was dry brushed with lighter shades of household emulsion.
My base desert colour is Dulux matt vinyl Wholemeal Honey number 1. This is creamy coffee colour. I lighten it with Dulux Magnolia.
I try and use household emulsion for all of my desert terrain. It is cheap, you can have any colour you want mixed up these days, covers well and keeps for ages.
If I was to start again I would buy two tins; one of (base coat)shade number 1 and one of (first and main highlight) shade number 2to keep everything very similar, only using the magnolia for second and sometimes third highlight mixer.
James.
Thanks James, I think I'll give your road technique a go for 20mm Normandy 1944.
Rodge
These buildings . . . both the ruins and the walled village . . . look fantastic. Very nice work, sir.
-- Jeff
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