Tuesday 23 February 2010

A Little Board

This is the first of eight terrain boards for the Zama game with basecoat applied (the final colour will be a dustty light brown).  I've tried to break up the flat terrain with fields, ditches and tracks; I'll probably get more ambitious as I move along the battlefield.  The cream-coloured fields will be dyed or painted in due course.  I've tried to avoid making the texture too rough, so that we can move the pieces across it, with relative ease.  I hope that the ploughed fields will look good when finished.

When it is complete, I'll attempt to add a hex grid to it...

My take on Zama is that the battlefield is essentially flat, agricultural land, with a few scattered trees (olives and a type that looks a bit like a cypress), in autumn.  There is going to be a lot of brown, and dried grass.  If anyone knows any different, please let me know ASAP!

7 comments:

Secundus said...

I see what you mean thats a great mud colour you've got there. I will try and get some Burnt Umber and raw Umber.

BigRedBat said...

Hi Secundus, I'm treating the boards like one, very big base! I'm even using my basing gunk on them.

Dave P. said...

Looking great! I need to shoot you an email sometime soon. I need some advice on putting together a big project (maybe not Zama big) for our 2011 convention.

BigRedBat said...

Hi Dave, yes do drop me a line.

Not too soon to start planning a big project! ;-)

The Extraordinarii said...

Lookin good so far, a terrain board is approaching the top of my list really soon, i will be watchin closely in order to absorb as much as I can :), excellent work keep it up !

Broeders said...

I once had a book on cinematic disasters (mainly of the financial kind - i.e. millions invested but only a few dollars at the box office).

When Mussolini came to power and the invasion of Abbasynia / Ethiopia etc. was underway they wanted a reminder of past successes of Italians in North Africa.

So they made a film version of the Battle of Zama - including drafting thousands of soldiers in as extras dressed in Roman and Carthaginian armour.

The elephants they used went haywire and trampled the set on several occasions and (in terms of your scenery point) managed to film a key sequence with hundreds of Romans in battle with a line of telegraph poles clearly silouetted in the background!

So perhaps a line of poles would add something to your scenery!

Needless to say, it bombed in the box office!

BigRedBat said...

Hi Phil, IIRC it was directed by Mussolini's son or nephew, which may explain the telegraph poles! I've not see it, myself; but apparently all the poor elephants were killed at the end, and after filming the extras were sent off to fight in Ethiopia.