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| Botta Regiment wonder if the Mexicans paid for this? |
Having set up the premise for the first engagement of my 'Soldier King' boardgame-based campaign, considerations of Time and Space have been in play, what with work and some chores arising from the renewed 'lockdown' - hence my apologies for a period of silence here. Now turning my mind to the promised battle, I realised I had set a trap for myself by taking note of the 'fortified' nature of the fictional location to be fought over. Visions of Vauban-style fortifications and elaborate sieges I will leave to the most excellent MS Foy - here at The Ragged Soldier, resources are more limited. I thought about horse and musket period 'Lines' a la Marlborough and Villars 'Ne Plus Ultra', but I'm not certain how to quickly and simply model such an installation ( must have a go one day, though, having recently read Maurice De Saxe's Reveries on how to attack and defend 'lines' ) . In the end, I've decided on a much simpler approach - I will just allow the defending Prussians plenty of good stout stone walls to line up behind.
So, taking a look at available scenery - oops, no walls. Well, some quite nice model walls ( acquired a few years ago from Total System Scenic ), but all 15mm scale, which come up roughly to the knees of the 25mm Seven Years War figures - that's not going to worry the attackers. I want to get the game going pretty soon, therefore there was only one thing for it. In the immortal words of the 45th POTUS (now, who was that exactly?) "We're Gonna Build a Wall.."
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| Score along the lines, fold and glue.. |
Resources were available: good old-fashioned cardboard cereal boxes. I'm glad to say, it proved fairly simple even for a handicraft klutz such as me to come up with a one-piece, scored-folded-and-glued 'box', 100mm long, 15mm high and about 5mm deep, and then glue that to a card base. What's more, when allowing the glue to set, all those elastic bands that the Postman drops on the street, and I pick up because 'they'll come in handy someday' finally did! The choice of 100mm is a cunning plan - they are therefore exactly the width of my Hexon terrain hexes, if laid along the centre line.
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| Waiting on the glue drying - thanks to Royal Mail |
As to finishing, all equally improvised. A quick coat of grey acrylic paint, then a very approximate 'stonework' pattern drawn on with a black fineliner pen. It's not exactly Flemish Bond, and I assume that any wall actually built to this pattern would fall down even before it was finished! But it looks like a wall, more or less. I did try applying a wash of Army Painter 'Light Tone' to one section, only then realsing that the fineliner pen's ink is not permanent. Debate rages over whether the resulting blurry effect is an improvement or a disaster - for the moment that one is going to be kept at the back, like my school woodwork efforts inevitably were at Parents' Day.
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| Based and painted: the one ruined/improved by Light Tone wash is at back right |
At this point I'd like to fondly remember a lovely old friend of my parents, now long deceased, whose actual job was to do this sort of thing - gloriously titled 'Cardboard Engineer'. I think he designed advertising materials for shops. Presumably he was very careful when going out in the rain. George, if you are looking down now and wincing, I'm very sorry. ( I also remember a line from Alexei Sayle "my girlfriend works as a model - this week she's being an Airfix Stuka Dive-Bomber". I'll get my coat..).
So there we are - The Ragged Soldier's beginner-grade scenery. I still need to think of something to 'weather' them a bit - maybe dry-brushing rather than a wash? And I need to use permanent ink in future! The green bases need a second coat, there are some rough corners to be trimmed off, and gaps to be filled with PVA glue and painted over, and no doubt any sensitive soul taking a close look will be shocked to their aesthetic core - or just laugh at my pathetic attempts. But from a distance on the gaming table, they will do fine. I've got some walls, and battle can commence. On time and zero budget - how did your wall go, Donald?
Next time, to battle - keep well, everyone. And of course, on this Remembrance Sunday: 'Lest We Forget'.
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