A new map board.

My current campaign map board is a pin board which is hung on my wargame room door. It is 900mm x 600mm and it isn't quite big enough. Cue the map board saga....

A couple of months ago I decided to buy a bigger campaign map board. After much thought I finally plumbed for a magnetic whiteboard over a pin board and decided to get the biggest one I could store (1200mm x 900mm). My first thought was to wall mount it (in the position it now occupies but at the height of the pictures above it) and initially that's exactly what I did. Unfortunately, when stood in front of it in this position it was very difficult to view - the distance between eye and board being too short. Consequently, I had to come up with a different solution. 

The map board still needed to be stored here because its the only free space large enough to accommodate it but it needed to be made moveable. So I decided to make a baton with wooden pegs to support the board at the bottom, and use magnets and wall mounted metal plates to hold it against the wall at the top - an unclip and shift affair. 

This is only a plasterboard studding wall. It has just two batons behind it (one at each end) and I wasn't sure that a single screw at each end of the baton would be strong enough to securely hold it in place over time (the board is quite heavy), so I decided to drop the baton to the top of the skirting board; the skirting board supports the baton and weight of the whiteboard along its entire length: it's much stronger.

When in use, I plan to put the whiteboard up in front of the figure cabinets, at the other end of the room, supported on my trusty Black & Decker Workmate. 

As some may have noticed, in the comments section of the previous post, I have been working on version 2  of my Peninsular campaign rules because, against expectations, version 1 is proving to be 'the campaign without end' and better victory conditions needed to be formulated to inject better defined strategic goals. However, the basic campaign system works well and the Peninsular campaign is one I fully intend to run again. Hence the new, much bigger and improved map and magnetic counters for it.

The counters: 

These are (weather/divisions/holding box) 18mm round magnets which came as a sheet. They have a self adhesive side. 

I magnetised up some tiddly winks with white labels for other counters/markers using bits cut from what remained of the round magnet sheet after the round magnets were removed. 

3mm magnets painted with enamel paint as markers and left bright metal for use as 'paper holders' complete the mix, except for a bunch of old red and white magnetic draughts/checkers (not pictured) from a travel game which I'm not sure I have a use for yet.

A bigger board allows for a bigger map; a bigger map allows for bigger counters/markers; bigger counters means they can store a fuller ID. 

These 18mm diameter magnets are divisional ID markers; they are 2mm thick and, although they stick to the map pretty firmly, are very easy to move from place to place. When I bought these I thought that they might stack one on top of the other but they don't stack very well at all.

I decided to colour this version of the map using paint pens. One thing we noticed when using the black and white map was that major rivers, as a possible defence advantage, were often missed. 

Overall, a larger map, with larger counters/markers should make the campaign easier to follow. 

The use of magnetic counters was the chief reason for swapping to a whiteboard: Pins damage both map and board - magnetic counters, as you can see, damage neither.

Anyway, I like the magnetic whiteboard campaign map solution very much and, if you are planning a wargame campaign, I would definitely recommend you consider it.

Into the blue - a new playing surface for gaming things arid.

 I've been wanting to change my 'arid / desert' terrain playing surface for quite some time and I've toyed with several ideas including simply purchasing a ready made play mat.

My reasons for wanting a change are that firstly, my current terrain tiles (the painted backs of terrain tiles by TSS, pictured above) are very old and have largely seen better days: They are dinted beyond belief, several have had large chunks polystyrene taken out of their edges and corners, and the cat has used several as scratching posts. Secondly, they simply take up too much storage space: Storage space I sorely need for other bulky stuff like hills, so I can clear a cupboard for new buildings, new trees and such like.

The solution has always been obvious. A cloth, suitably coloured, that can be kept permanently of my table. I did look into this and made some serious enquiries about the cost of professionally made cloths, of one kind or another, 5 meters in length. As you can imagine the quotes were not cheap; they were not impossible prices (£170 - £350) but, I figured I could probably make my own for £60 - £80.

But, how? What materials would I need? A cloth, obviously, but what kind of cloth. How would I colour it? These were questions that I've been pondering for over a year or two. 

Then a couple of months ago I stumbled on a blog post about someone buying a new professionally made desert cloth to replace a home made one. I'm afraid I can't give you a link because I've forgotten who's blog it was but there was a comment he made that stuck with me and set this particular ball rolling. In the blog post the author admitted that although he liked his new cloth, he still preferred the one he'd made by staining a plain cloth with tea and coffee.

I'd looked into cloth for some time and decided that canvas was probably my best bet.

Importantly, canvas comes in widths of over 2 meters (the choice of material in wide widths is limited), it is made from a natural fibre (cotton) so it takes stains and dyes readily enough, it is hard wearing and it's relatively cheap. 

I went on line to Forrest Fabrics and, after seeking advice on which weight to buy on LAF (thanks Atheling), I purchased 5 meters of 12oz canvas 2.18 meters wide. It cost, all in, £49.50. I also bought (from elsewhere) a large plastic drop cloth to go over my table to protect it whilst work was in progress (£1.50).

I have to tell you now, at the point this picture was taken, I didn't have a clue if this would work, or if it did, how well. I had a plan and some contingency ideas, nothing more.

First up, I wet the cloth with water with a small amount of detergent mixed in to break the water's surface tension so that it would penetrate the fabric more easily.

Here you can see the plastic sheet protecting the table from the liquid deluge that's about to happen; at the far end of the table my main implement of destruction - a big wall paper brush.

The stain. Tea, About two litres of the stuff made with four tea bags, left to stew until the tea was cold.

It went onto the wet cloth. It worked to some extent but it was very pale. I was already having doubts about the tea. 

How many applications would it take?

Time to start some dark patches, put on whilst the cloth was sill wet. These were made with instant coffee (half a litre made with four big heaped teaspoons of coffee), applied with a one inch paint brush. I took care to blur the edges well.

Another batch of tea but things aren't darkening as I'd hoped.

Time to bring out the big guns. 1.5 litres of tea with 0.5 litres of strong instant coffee mixed in. 

The place is beginning to smell like Starbucks and the cloth is soaking.

This picture accurately shows the true colour of the cloth at this point - insipid is a good word to describe it.

Also, strange dark grey spots are beginning to appear in a couple of places and I'm starting to get worried.

The next morning and the cloth is almost dry. The grey spots have gone but the cloth looks very pale.

Contingency plan number 1: I put on the another tea and coffee mix then I mixed a weak solution artists burnt umber acrylic ink 1:10.

I paint the ink, in patches, onto the cloth, then flick a slightly stronger solution of maybe 1:7 onto the wet cloth in various actions from various directions. 

It's not looking good. I've overdone it and I can't go back and change it. 

Furthermore, I suddenly realise that the cloth has shrunk by nearly 400 mm lengthways. It hasn't shrunk at all in width. I was expecting to lose a little but, not 400mm!

I'm confused and slightly depressed. I might have completely cocked this up and be buying emulsion paint to rectify the situation with a new approach.

I decide go for a break to let the cloth dry a bit. It's nowhere near as wet as it was the day before so it should dry quicker, and I've set an electric fan to assist in the drying process.

When I come back, the ink has leached into the wet cloth, and the patterns and the colour are not as bad. It's just that the lighter patches between the ink patches are not dark enough. The accompanying photo is taken at this time.

Question: How much more tea and coffee is this thing going to need? I'm not quite as depressed about the way the cloth is turning out as I was but, I'm still not very hopeful. I'll give it one more day.

Several hours later, just before bed time, the cloth isn't dry but, it's just damp. Before I pack it in for another day I add one last application of tea and coffee mix.

The next morning - would you Adam and Eve it! The cloth didn't look like this last night. It didn't look at all like this.

The cloth is dry. It looks a bit like desert. Hell, it looks quite a lot like desert. 

The colour has completely changed. Did it hit critical mass? Did the wargaming fairies stop by? I don't have a clue why it suddenly changed but it has; I'm happy again. 

I'd actually made up another coffee and tea stain to cool overnight, and I'm not going to need it. 

Bloody amazed, absolutely bloody amazed!

More than happy with the colour I trimmed the cloth to size. I took care to PVA the 'cut line' before I cut it. This will stop the cloth fraying. 

This wasn't my idea. Along the length edges of the cloth this had been done by the manufacturer - good idea, so I nicked it. Note the edge shown is the width edge that hasn't had a PVA treatment: See how it is fraying badly, this shouldn't happen now

I have several uses for the off cuts. This is the reason I stained all of the extra cloth rather than cutting it first. Their use will become known to you over the next week or two - one of the uses is in this post.

I now ironed the cloth - what a pain in the bum that was. I didn't get rid of all of the creases, several of which had been caused when the cloth was rolled for dispatch by Forrest Fabrics. The worst one is pictured. 

Funnily enough, the crease down the centre of the cloth was the one I most worried about (the cloth had been folded in half before it was rolled) and it has been almost entirely ironed out. Perhaps the other creases will disappear over time.

Although the stain has permeated the cloth to some degree, most of the stain has been caught in the surface layers. The contrast is striking considering how utterly wet the cloth was at times.

Cloth with a bit of terrain on it. This gives a fairly good impression of the shade. 

I'm as pleased as punch with the way this has come out. I didn't know what to expect, but yesterday, this wasn't it.

Off cuts, heavily darkened in patches with coffee and diluted ink. 

You can see I'm PVA-ing where the cut lines will be to stop fraying. 

Just after doing this, I decided to go over the PVA 'edge' with burnt umber ink diluted 1:2. Again, I wasn't sure how this would look but, I'm feeling lucky at this point.

They are rough terrain area grid pieces for games using To the Strongest. I've made eleven: Funny number but there isn't going to be a scrap of spare. The cloth shrinking as much as it did has severely lessened the amount of off cut cloth available (I lost 18 pieces like this). 

I wasn't completely shocked by the shrinkage because I had been warned that canvas does shrink but, somehow I thought cold liquid wouldn't cause as much shrinkage as it did.

The actual terrain pieces (in this case rocks and bushes) can be moved when troops enter these areas, even to areas that are not rough, and you won't forget which squares are actually rough.

My terrain for TtS is going to be very stylised, I'm going to fully embrace the grid and this will involve the use of more canvas off cuts. That will be my next post, as the hills for TtS games are work in progress.

You might also note the cross hairs, spaced at 200 mm and marking the intersections of the squared grid used by TtS. They are pure burnt umber ink applied with a fine brush. 

When I started this experiment I had no idea where it would end up and half expected that I'd end up painting the cloth with emulsion paints. As it is, I'm very happy with the colours that tea, coffee and 15ml of acrylic ink has produced. For the price of a dozen tea bags and the same number of tea spoons of instant coffee, plus half a bottle of ink, I've coloured over ten square meters of fabric. The total cost of a cloth to cover a 15' x 6' table was in the order of £54.50 (plus the hidden costs of electric, etc.), all in.

Edit: Suddenly remembered this piece of advice from Martin S., erstwhile of Vexillia, on LAF: Is this what happened?

"James a word of advice if you are using real tea and coffee.  Don't use them fresh! 

The polyphenols, in tea especially, are very reactive and that's why the tea darkens with brewing.  It will continue for some time after it's cooled down. 

For control, far better to make a brew, and leave it overnight and dilute it to the shade you want. You don't want the tea stain darkening whilst on the canvas.

It's amazing what you learn from a career in laundry detergents!"

Cutlery

My wargame room's back wall has a new look. I've moved some pictures around and hung up some recently acquired cutlery. 

The question is, do we still allow Peter J. to stand on that side of the table in any game involving dice?

Only the sword bayonet is original; the others are historically accurate 'museum quality' replicas, whatever that means  - does it mean they can sell them in the museum shop? They are all, according to their blurb, hand forged EN45 high carbon spring steel with a full tang.

Cutlery, left to right: 

• French chasseurs sword bayonet, dated 1849. My dad was given this in lieu of payment for a cheeky plumbing job he did in the late 50s. Given that he found it in the attic of a house in Bradford whilst doing the job, and the old boy there had lived in the house for 50 years not knowing of  its existence, I suspect it had been brought back from the Crimean War as a souvenir, put in the attic, and forgotten about.
• Medieval broadsword, 12th century. Having obtained this sword I know a lot more about 11th and 12th century sword pommels than I did before. I'd be careful about asking me about them.
• English short sword, 1660. Rapiers were found to be too long and cumbersome for general everyday wear so, by the reign of Charles II, gentlemen tended to carry shorter swords like this one about the place, as macho fashion items as much as for defence (blade length is 33") .
• French Musketeer's (as per "The Three...") swept hilt rapier, 1590. You have a reach of over six feet with this thing and, considering its length, it is remarkably well balanced. It's basically a stiletto dagger with a 40" blade: Its effective stroke is the thrust.
• English swept hilt rapier, 1640. This sword is very heavy. It has the same blade length as the earlier French version but the blade is a third wider and less tapered towards the point. Apparently, by the time of the ECW, English rapiers had become much heavier and robust to make them better for cutting strokes, and to cope with the general rigours of war. In any event, you would need to be built like an ox to wield it effectively - it's a real muscle burner.

How I paint in enamels. Part one - The Set Up

Since the Covid lock downs, the monthly hit rate on this blog has escalated from 10,000 - 13,000 a month to over 20,000, and with that increase I'm receiving triple the number of private communications with specific queries, mostly regarding my use of enamels, or painting in general. In response, I have decided to do a step by step of how I paint figures using Humbrol enamels.

Now, I have to point out straight away that, there is nothing new in my basic technique and I don't have, as far as I know, any special tips for speed painting. This latter point will, no doubt, disappoint many. The most common compliment I get is "the speed you paint at is amazing" or suchlike, but the truth is I don't paint that quickly. Granted, I probably do paint a little quicker than most because the paint only goes where I want, how I want, and nowhere else but, that is only because of constant practice. I paint as many figures as I do, not because of technique, arcane magic, or trickery, but because I don't mind putting the hours in - sorry but, if you are looking for a secret speed painting technique, or a tartan paint supplier, you'll need to look elsewhere.

Not all the painting questions I've had relate directly to enamels, technique, or colours, so in response to the myriad of questions I've had recently, I think I'll start at the very beginning and cover as many things as I can.

This is my painting station (it's not used for anything else): It's a big desk, with lots of drawers for paint, tools and the like. And, it has enough surface space not to be overly crowded - it has elbow room.

It has to good local forms of lighting. These are an Anglepoise LED lamp (light without heat), placed to shine directly and closely from my right (I'm right handed), and a wall mounted 2' long 20W florescent strip light, situated just above my sitting eye line, to brighten the general painting area - which it does considerably.

My desk is directly beneath a big window for even more light during the day but, I don't like painting in direct sunlight so the blinds are usually drawn to defuse it when I'm painting. At night, I suppose the blinds reflect the artificial light back into the room - double bubble.

The lighting doesn't end there. Above and behind my head there is a further 9' of florescent tube lighting. These are, incidentally, why the photos of my battles tend to be quite well lit.

Note the digital radio, under the Kitchener poster, because you can't paint and watch things at the same time. (I mostly listen to talk radio and plays. I find being entertained whilst I paint keeps me at it for longer periods of time).

Close by I have a laptop, which is in invaluable when painting stuff for which I don't have hard copy guides (also for Radio 4 Extra on the BBC Radio iPlayer, so I can listen to 'box sets' - four and a half hours of Sherlock Holmes, anyone).

A good comfy chair is an absolute essential. This one was a Christmas present, from my wife, last year.

Close at hand, top drawer right side, I keep my paint. It's split into two lots, opened tins at the front and unopened tins at the back. Best to be organised here. It's all Humbrol, and nearly all is 'new recipe'. The three acrylics, in the corner, are bright metal colours (more anon).

Beneath this drawer, several others mostly hold other paint of various types (tins of emulsion, spray paint, etc.).

On the other side of the desk there are drawers for modelling tools and all manner of other useful, on occasion, odds and sods.

To the right side of the desk (as seen in the first photo above), I keep my modelling drill close by and always set up, and hanging from the wall by their cables are a couple of glue guns. I also keep a small, wooden desktop chest of drawers here - it contains transfers, pens, pencils, compasses, and a very simple minor injury first aid kit.

It's amazing how much gubbins this hobby of ours creates. I also have various cupboards full of modelling and basing materials - storage space is a never ending problem; it's always storage space.

At the back of my desk I keep the things I most readily need to hand.

Brushes, glue, and a clear plastic desk tidy stuffed with various scalpels, modelling knives, pincers, etc.

On the subject of brushes: I mainly use Artmaster Pearl Series 10/0, 5/0 and 3/0. These are reasonable quality and keep their point for some time but are very cheap, at £1.50 a pop. The Artmaster Acrylic series brushes are also very good - these brushes are sized the same but have slightly stiffer bristles.
My advice when painting with enamels: Don't buy expensive brushes because the thinners will wreck them in no time at all and their better quality is soon negated: Best to use cheaper brushes that you can afford to change more regularly.

Note that the brushes in the jars, behind the good ones in the black plastic desk tidy, are big ones mainly used for terrain and basing jobs; and old figure painting brushes which I keep for silly one use then chuck away jobs, like applying glue when sticking paper flags together - you can see by the amount of them, just how many I go through, and these are the ones I kept after a 'full jar' clear out last week. Also, in the black plastic desk tidy, are two big plastic water reservoir brushes with lids on - we'll get to those at the end of this series of posts, they are very clever and I use them for acrylic inks.

BTW, I don't usually keep this many new unused brushes in stock but, with Covid and lockdown, I decided to stockpile a few just in case there is a supply problem.

The jam jar is an essential piece of kit. It is full of paint thinners (white spirit). I find stubby wide topped jars are the best but, any glass jar will do. I generally have two or three jars of used thinners on my desk in which the enamel sediment is slowly settling out. When it has (it takes a couple of weeks), I pour it into a clean jar and re-use it. That's why the thinners in this jar is the colour of, to be polite, honey. Using old, settled out thinners means I only go through 2 litres of spirit every three or four months - unless I'm particularly thirsty.

When using enamels you will need to mix paint to get the right highlighting shades. There is no way around it, so you will need a palette.

I've used all manner of things over the years but, I've settled on using a 6" white ceramic wall tile. These are nonporous, smooth, the right colour for mixing on, and easy to clean. My tile has a piece of cardboard the same size as the tile underneath it, to 'cushion' it.

Next to my palette, I always keep three sheets of kitchen roll (medium quality), folded in half, bulldog clipped to a piece of board. It's used for brush maintenance and it is in constant use. It's important that there should be several layers of paper, rather than just one, to add sponginess. Sponginess is important for springiness as much as absorbency - it helps to have a springy, spongy surface when wiping your brushes.

I keep the pallete and kitchen paper on a larger tile purely as a means to quickly move the whole lot to one side as one lump when I need to make space on my desk, and I regularly cover this larger tile with clean paper (green at the moment) so I don't have to clean it.

IMPORTANT ADVICE: Enamel paint wrecks furniture and clothes.

You may need to protect your work surface: To protect yourself from your wife, in the event you get Humbrol all over her dining table! My desk is covered with a sheet of perspex (actually a bit of old shower screen) to protect it as best I can - unfortunately the glass that once covered the desk got smashed. In the event that you don't have something (a sheet of glass, perspex, MDF, or whatever) to protect your work surface, may I suggest a roll of wall lining paper; it's a fairly cheap and disposable alternative. I have a sheet of lining paper under my perspex to reflect light - the actual desk top is brown leather and it soaks the light up. You might also notice, in the first picture above, a piece of denim rag and three still folded sheets of used kitchen roll just to the left of my palette, these are for pallet cleaning and, in emergency, cleaning up any accidental spillage - once bitten, twice shy. 

Lastly, on the subject of protection: As we are all now aware, proper PPE is important. I always paint in a plain white cotton apron. These are cheap as chips. I buy about three a year and they cost £2.20 each on ebay. I would never paint in good new clothes, but these aprons make my old cheap clothes last twice as long - much to the chagrin of my much embarrassed son, but that's what I'm there for, isn't it.

Next up, Part 2, will be a very short piece on figure preparation.

Different types of built up areas

When one is creating 'built up areas' the obvious always springs to mind - a shop, an inn, a house, a church, etc. But, sooner or later the list runs out and you end up making more of the same.

A couple of years ago I was a player in a Blucher game put on by Dr. Ken over in Menston. One of the terrain pieces was a small graveyard. I thought, that looks good, and I stored the thought. 

Now I have one of my own. As 'built up areas' go this was a very simple piece to make and that is partly why I'm advertising it here. Of course, it's more a family plot than a full blown graveyard, but that's the nature of war game's terrain, is it not.

The walls are 5 mm foam board with balsa strips added to give the angles for the Will's pantile tops - these were added to make the piece a little more interesting. As always, these days, the wall texture is heavy body artist's acrylic (believe it or not, emerald green because that's all I had). The walls were then painted with emulsion paint, ink washed and dry brushed with more emulsion paint. The doors / gates are balsa wood.

It's based on 4 mm plywood and the ground texture is the usual sand and grit rubbish, ink washed and dry-brushed with emulsion paint.

The gravestones are MDF on pennies, or balsa wood tombs. BTW, I think buying the odd pack of multi sized balsa wood sold in craft shops is a good idea; for a couple of pounds its a useful thing to have in your bits box.

Graveyards are a very simple building block, but you can only have one! I did this one to be multi-period. It should fit in well with my Peninsular and Italian Wars collections. It will also fit in with my SYW at a pinch. Removing the gravestones an tombs it can be a walled garden or small high walled orchard.

A client recently asked about the view from my 4th floor studio (and wargame room) window - and it's not a bad one. As this is a terrain post I thought I'd share it with you. This pic (taken today) looks out, north west, towards Middleton on the other side of the River Wharfe. The view from the other side of my house is dominated by the Cow and Calf Rocks and Ilkley Moor but, this is the view from the 'office'.

First French regiment completed & some new lighting for painting

The 3rd battalion of 36th Ligne is done.

I started this regiment on 28th November. Today it's the 12th December. So that's a regiment of three twenty-four man battalions plus a dozen skirmishers, eighty-four figures in total, done in fourteen days. I doubt I'll be able to maintain this pace but, it's a very good start.

I was planning to do 2nd Leger next but, whilst double checking the painting guide, I suddenly realised that the carabiniers in this regiment wore bearskins. Of course, I bought all of my Leger in shako. Consequently, I've had to revise my painting schedule until after firing off a quick order for my Christmas / Birthday present to Front Rank. I will not get my hands on these figures until after Christmas so, next up will be 14th Light Dragoons for the British, and after that a dozen riflemen to finish off the two British infantry brigades - both were undercoated today.

On a different note, I've been thinking about getting some new bright lighting for my painting station for for quite some time. 

I've talked about a short wall mounted florescent tube with a plug in cable. Today I went into my local, very old school, electrical shop to discuss the possibility of Mr. Clegg (the very old school owner) making me such a light. To my delight I found they are commercially available, ready made, and he had some in stock. 

I happily paid over the money, went home and fitted it. I now have 100 watts of lighting, just above eye level (so no glare), directly above my desk - it is, no pun intended, brilliant.

The Battle of Trebbia 218 BC using To The Strongest [Edit]

Following an email from Simon Miller, pointing out that there is a new army list for Polybian Romans, I have edited this post with new photos and a slightly different set up. I have also added a few scenario notes, making this short post a little fuller.

I have been pondering marking my main table cloth with squares for To the Strongest rules for some considerable time. I have also been pondering what size of squares I would use, considering my unit footprints, because my unit footprints wouldn't allow the full eight squares cross table that the rules recommend. However, after a brief exchange of emails with Simon (author of TTS) he confided that seven squares across would be perfectly fine for all but battles involving two cavalry armies. Indeed, he admitted that many early stage play test battles were successfully fought on tables only six squares across - that swung it and I went for seven 25cm (10 inch) squares across table. My infantry unit footprints are based on four 6 cm stands, so when lined up, units will form an almost contiguous front.

I have marked the squares at the intersections (corners) with dots in dark green acrylic ink. They are easily visible, they are 2 mm - 3 mm diameter, but only when you are looking for them - for some reason the eye doesn't pick them up when scanning the armies. The dots, in the pictures below, are not the bits of 'scrub'.

The Ilkley Lads have played a lot of To The Strongest in Graham's wargame room, so we are now very familiar with the rules. They are incredibly fast play, so a I'm fairly confident that a battle this size can be easily fought out in an evening (2-3 hours). There are quite a few figures, but not that many units - both units are deployed in the confines of a thirteen squares wide by two squares deep deployment zones, separated by two squares. 

It is interesting to note that if the table was eight squares across the Romans would be deployed one square further forward and the back row would feature the Trebbia river.

We will play a couple of special scenario rules, effecting the Romans, to give this battle a little more historic feel . This will make winning the battle difficult for the Romans so the game victory condition is for them to break through the Carthaginian line, and get off the Carthaginian table edge, with more than eight units of heavy infantry. 

The set up from behind the Roman right.

I have used the Osprey book The Roman Army of the Punic Wars 264 - 146 BC by Nic Fields for the basic orbats and deployments. The battle was fought on a treeless plain, so it's pretty easy to set up.

The Roman Army deployed as though it has made one move towards the Carthaginians - historically they attacked, and this deployment creates a clear row of squares behind the Roman army. The Carthaginians will get the first move in the game proper.

The Carthaginian horde.

Trebbia has elephants! Trebbia is the only 2nd Punic War pitched battle in Italy where elephants were present. All but one of the elephants Hannibal brought over the Alps died  in the days following the battle - they died of the cold. He was resupplied with a few elephants at some point - they were used at Capua - but for something so famous, they were very little used (in Italy).

Trebbia was fought on a treeless plain. Nevertheless Hannibal found a steeply banked watercourse, overgrown with brambles, somewhat behind the Roman lines in which to hide an ambush party. It consisted of his best Spanish and Numidian troops (veteran status). It was led by his brother Mago, who later timed his attack into the Roman rear to perfection. Consequently, from turn 3 Mago and his troops can arrive anywhere on the Roman baseline, drawing an activation chip to do so - note they will arrive on an Ace but the activation will immediately end.

Hannibal rides before his battleline - he will be Heroic and Brilliant. Spanish and Gauls in deep units - these are 72-ish figures strong.

I will do a brief report on the game later in the week.

A Long Dusty Road

This weekend my new road stock arrived from Early War Miniatures. I've been wanting new roads, and more importantly roads that can traverse the slopes of my 'under cloth' hills, for ages. 

Late for Christmas or not (my fault, not EWM, for ordering late), I'm delighted with the present from my wife. It comprises four Track Set 3 (totalling about 30 feet). EWM were happy to change the contents of the packs to suit what I wanted, which was very nice of them.

EWM Link 

The road is made from latex rubber. Unlike most of the gamers I've known, I've not dealt with latex before and was sceptical about the ability of it to take paint - memories of silicon sealer smeared up a wall came to mind. I shouldn't have worried.

Anyway, as an aid memoir, should I be required to do more of it again in the distant future, I'm doing this 'how I did' post so I can repeat the process and hopefully end up with a very similar result. It might also be useful to anyone wishing to follow in my footsteps.

First I washed all of the sections in warm soapy water. I wet each section, laid it on a towel and gave it a gentle scrub with soft paint brush, then I rinsed it and dabbed it dry between two old towels. 

BTW: I tend to keep hold of old towels (that are heading for the rubbish bin) for use when decorating or, more importantly, making terrain with big brushes. It means I don't wreck the new ones and my wife buys me roads!

I laid them all out on some sheets of plywood to air dry for a couple of hours.

Next step was to apply a fairly heavy dry brush coat of artists acrylic - I used Daler Rowney 667 Raw Sienna acrylic. 

This is basically an undercoat that blends the road sections together, some come in a slightly darker shade than others.

When dry I added a wash of Liquitex Burnt Umber acrylic ink diluted 1 part ink to 3 parts water. Each long section got one squeeze of the pipette which was then sloshed over the surface with a soft brush. I didn't do the outside of the banks.

Next I applied three dry brushes of the road colour. 

These roads are for, at present, five theatres: The Italian Wars; The Punic Wars; The 1st Crusade (in Anatolia); The Seven Years War; The Peninsular War. As the road surface would probably be 'dusty' for most of these, that's the way I decided to do them. 

Coat one was Daler Rowney 667 Raw Sienna acrylic.

Coat two was Daler Rowney 667 Raw Sienna acrylic 50:50 with Daler Rowney 634 Naples Yellow acrylic.

Coat three was Daler Rowney 634 Naples Yellow acrylic.

I did the base coat of the bank using ink. I did consider flocking but I couldn't decide what glue I could use that would preserve the flexibility (the bendyness of the latex), so I decided to paint. For undercoat, I used Liquitex Sap Green acrylic ink straight from the bottle.

Then I stippled the green ink with three shades of dappling.

Dapple one was Daler Rowney 335 Emerald acrylic 50:50 with Daler Rowney 663 Yellow Ochre acrylic.

Dapple two was a 33:33:33 mix of Daler Rowney 335 Emerald acrylic, Daler Rowney 663 Yellow Ochre acrylic, and Daler Rowney 620 Cadmium Yellow acrylic.

Dapple three was a 50:50 mix of Daler Rowney 663 Yellow Ochre acrylic and Daler Rowney 620 Cadmium Yellow acrylic with just a hint of green.

 Lastly, I did the edge of each road with a streak of Liquitex Burnt Umber acrylic ink diluted 1 part ink to 3 parts water to highlight that there is a bank.

And that as they say is that. So far I've done about ten feet. A couple of painting sessions and it will all be finished.

This road is good stuff and I can recommend it. I look forward to Early War Miniatures producing more junctions and turns - I'll be their first customer.