A lack of depth perception makes fine detail painting an exercise in frustration. As a result, the craft side of my hobby time has languished, but the itch to create can’t be denied forever. Bulk work like assembly and rough paint job on more organic forms are a much more forgivable enterprise than painting epaulettes on 15mm figures. By thinning the sci-fi collection a bit, space became available for a box of terrain themed around rural Americana.
The rich heritage of my home country and its tradition of solid engineering and construction lasted right up through the Great Society, which replaced the American tradition of building for future generations with a churn of cheap disposable junk and flimsy construction. Still, one can see the last lingering vestiges of the American way of life outside of the graffiti covered polyglot homeless reservations commonly called cities. Which makes the classic big red barn a staple of conflict on American soil over a span of centuries.
The MDF buildings seen here are from Sarrissa Precision, and they assemble easy and paint up nice after a quick base coat of spray matte varnish. Even better, I am able to maintain a consistent look with buildings bought and assembled five years earlier. The painting House on the Left was originally intended from modern table, and it would still work great for that.
With four homes and a church, we even have enough for a small town.
The wagon provides a little more difficult ground, and is an odd mix of MDF and cardboard. In retrospect, I think it was engineered so that the arm could swivel, but I’m going to mount it on a permanent terrain base and park it on the table for cover rather than add oxen or some.such and let it wander the battlefields.
It will be interesting to see how well this next feature blends in with the MDF terrain. Etsy provides a perfect complement with this 3D printed piece:
You don’t need to incorporate every aspect of farm life to have your setting feel like a farm, but you do need one or two specific indicators. Nothing says form like the sound of chickens scratching in the yard, and while I’m not much of a soundtrack guy at the war game table, with the flock outside my window, I don’t need to be.
In keeping with a more autumnal theme, I had a few pumpkin patches 3D printed as well. The flat black plastic doesn’t photograph well, so we’ll have to wait until it’s done and painted to see how well it fits into the table. What I can tell is that TableTop Forge by Brian had a minor misprint on my order, so he sent me TWO patches. I would definitely recommend his services to anyone.
Now if only I could paint up a scarecrow in 15mm.