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'.