Apologies to all my readers and the wonderful folks who leave comments on here and post on their own blogs. This has been perhaps one of the busiest times of my life since probably my university years. Sometimes it comes down to such little time that I have to pick between writing on the blog or even getting any of the hobbying done. I have managed to sneak in a few projects though, like this batch of terrain for Black Powder. I even got a game in, but that's for another post.
The above is a terrible photo, but it was difficult to get everything in frame. I'm quite happy that I was able to get some legitimate terrain done in time for Dave's Season of Scenery. Can't always be turning in ships you know. Anyways, all of these buildings are actually European, but all my 15 mm wargaming occurs on the North American continent. So I had to do a bit of work to get everything to look like it fit.
My first go at this is a structure that Napoleonics nerds might be able to point out as the Belle Alliance, a tavern near the Waterloo battlefield. This kit came in the British Starter army for Black Powder Epic Battles, which I intend to use for the War of 1812. So my first task was how to make this European building American. After some research, the wood side planking on buildings is a very American look, so I painstakingly set out to paint lines all along the building.
It took quite a few passes to get this to look right, and even still I'm not 100% sure the illusion works. My best gamble is honestly to rely on my player's ignorance. Which, let's be honest, you have to be quite the die hard fan to know what all the buildings looked like during the Battle of Waterloo.
My next idea was to cover up the original Tudor look of these houses with a thin material that I could then draw on. Luckily for me Hobby Lobby was having a sale of balsa so I picked up a bunch of very thing sheets. Balsa is incredibly soft and as such is quite easy to carve and sculpt.
The process was still annoying and tedious though, but it gave me (in my opinion) better results than just painting on the details. I had 3 essentially identical houses so I experimented a little.
I have a dilapidated hut:
A nice white washed home:
And a more rustic cabin:
Much better and more in-line with what I'm looking for in terms of theme. I did also complete a bunch of wheat fields, two of which are in the lead photo. I didn't bother getting more photos of them because that's one of the oldest tricks in the hobby book. It's a coir mat cut into pieces. If you're super curious it's a very quick google for tons of inspiration.
Anyways, thanks for sticking around, hope you like my tiny houses.
-The Space Dinosaur
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