What's that coming over the hill... pt. II

I have finished the hill Hexes I started the previous week...

All grassed up...

To fit in with the rest of my Hill Hexes I decided to put some trees on some of them... There is something about wooded sloping hills... I tried not to make them too densely forested so there still should be enough space to move models around.

The finished Hexes... 

I used a few tufts of the grass I purchased at Crisis. I like the look of them, but they might be a bit too tall... I think I may shorten them a bit

Didn't have the time yet to build a  set-up with the new Hexes, but will do so as soon as possible...

Cooling down from CRISIS 2019... The CRYPE is real! pt. III

Visited Crisis Antwerpen yesterday, and it was as good as ever... It must have been the 9th or 10th time I visited the show and it seems to get bigger and better every year.

This year, my main interest was getting some 6mm stuff. Several weeks ago I had placed a pre-order at Magister Miliitum. Quite ideal, as they have the option to pick up your order at one of the shows they visit. They had the order ready, neatly packaged, 100% complete and including the original order form.

About 2/3 of that order was for me, the remaining 1/3 was for my battle buddie. He ordered Early War French and British miniatures...

A total of 21 blisters of GHQ Micro Armour, my part of the order...
All Early War Germans.

I have already begun assembling and painting these, but that's something for another post...

Next on my list were some rulesets... I picked up the Crossfire rulebook first, which actually looks more like a magazine than a proper book; all black and white, soft cover and staples...

Astoundingly, this cost me €30,- I really hope the rules are as good as I have read/heard them to be...

Funny enough, I also paid €30,- for the two hardback, full colour Battlegroup books (picked those up at the PSC stand)... About 200 pages each, filled with interesting background information on the theatre, army lists, scenarios and inspiring pictures. I only intended to replace my digital rulebook with the paper one, but couldn't pass up on their special CRISIS offer... The army lists from both these books (Tobruk and Torch) should be compatible with our Seelöwe campaign...

And right across from the guys from PSC was the trade stand from Too Fat Lardies, where I purchased the I Ain't Been Shot Mum book. Forgot to pick up the cards though...

Next was some paint for my Early War German Panzers and Infantry, which I picked up at Foundry.

And last in the bag were some packs of grass tufts...

All in all a good haul! Assembling and painting the Micro Armour has started and we are getting ready for our first 6mm game.

Already looking forward to CRISIS 2020...

What's that coming over the hill...

Would you look at that, it's more hills...

In one of the previous posts I mentioned I needed more hill Hexes. I have made about a dozen, right at the start of this project, but these aren't nearly enough...

The hill Hexes can be sorted in different models, depending on the number of high points. I have made several hills with one high point, two high points, three and four high points.

Examples of hill Hexes...
Picture taken from the Hex Terrain Toolkit Kickstarter.

Making the most of a free afternoon, I have made a whole bunch of new hill Hexes. Including a couple of double level hills, Hexes on which the hills rise two levels. These are indispensable when constructing a larger, higher hill. Something I found out while setting up my Hex terrain and trying to build some high ground... Without these Hexes it's highly likely you'll end up with vertical gaps.

The bare Hexes, stacked and glued two or three high.
These form the basis of the hills...

The basic shaping of the slopes is done.
The shape is still irregular and a bit jagged here and there...

This relatively small set of hills does take 39 Hexes, six double layers and nine triple layers... While cutting basic Hexes doesn't take up a lot of time, cutting 39 does... All worth it though, these are a welcome addition to my ever expanding set of Hexes...

After some firm sanding the hills look a lot better...

The top of the Hexes is painted green, as a base for the grass.
The sides are painted in a dark grey...

These will be left to dry properly overnight. The next step is applying a layer of glue and grass... After that, some of them will get some trees or bushes applied to them.

Hexes, Hexes everywhere... pt. VI

I have finished the first multi-Hex, below are some pictures of the newest addition integrated in the rest of the Hex terrain...  

With the addition of this new module there are enough buildings to make a decent sized little village... While I was setting up, and even more now, posting this update and looking through the pictures, I realised I need a bigger surface...

Going to town... pt. IV

The first multi-Hex town module is finished...

All grassed and with a couple of trees added... 

About half these buildings are magnetized and are thus detachable, this should help to keep the streets easily accessible, even for fat-fingered gamers like myself...

With the detachable buildings removed, there's plenty of space to move around

Here are a few shots from different sides...

I tried to use different colours for the houses. The different colours are there to break up the uniformity of the buildings but without adding too much contrast (if that makes sense). I used several muted browns and yellows, which, when combined, give a nice overall appearance and add a suitably sombre look to the town...

I am thinking about adding another tree or two, but I am unsure as to whether that would limit the accessibility of the piece...

Musings on terrain... pt.II

With the completion of the church and the first real village module being almost finished, there's the question of what to add next... The river set is already being augmented, both with the new bridges and the second village module (which also covers the expansion of the village/town).

With all those 'special' Hexes and modules being completed, it might be a good idea to pay some attention to the basics before embarking on the next ambitious project...

• I am going to need more snowflake Hexes. As my collection grows, so should my foundation layer of snowflakes. I want to be able to fill a bigger surface, big enough for a serious battle, at least twice the size of my current set-up.
• More basic grass Hexes... Just regular, flat Hexes... All the gaps between those special Hexes and modules need to be filled.
• Hills! I want more vertical versatility... I really like the hill Hexes I have made so far, but the set is too small to be able to make any 'real' hills... 
• Roads... With all the recent additions, like the houses with road access, I will need more roads, preferably Hexes with three or more exit/entry points...

Both the basic, flat Hexes and the hill Hexes are relatively easy and quick to make. I should have plenty of styrofoam, too. I hope this expansion can be realised soon... 

After that? I have some plans regarding building a quarry, mostly because I want to try out the cliff module of the Hex Terrain Toolkit, but also because I want to use it as a V2 launch site... That would make for a great objective, game wise...

For our what-if Seelöwe campaign I would like to build a RAF airfield and some radar stations, but the how and what part is still unclear.

I also want to add some damaged buildings to my Hexes. These should be simple enough to make and add some visual interest to the landscape....

Gearing up for CRISIS 2019... The CRYPE is real! pt. II

Only a week and a half before CRISIS 2019 is upon us! The CRYPE is slowly taking over...

Apart from the pre-order of GHQ stuff from Magister Militum I mentioned last time, I intend to pick up several rulebooks for use with my 6mm project... I will most likely be picking up a Battlegroup rulebook (or two) at PSC, along with a bag of 1:300 plastic aircraft. I Ain't Been Shot Mum from Too Fat Lardies is also on my shopping list (as a bonus, these two traders are placed right next to each other). I  also hope to pick up a copy of Crossfire...

I just found out that Baccus won't be present at CRISIS this year... Too bad, as I was looking forward to seeing their miniatures up close and getting some of their 6mm livestock. No problem though, I suppose I will be picking those up online.

On the 28mm part of the hobby I hope to find some more cool furniture and bits for my HirstArts Dungeon.

For 15mm I will be visiting PSC for some plastic kits, both PSC and Zvezda...