Santa's Workshop

First Workshop

First of all, I'd like to say hello to all of you that I either haven't met or seen in quite a while. Now that I've entered the age of newfangled electrical thing-a-mabobs, I'd like to establish "Santa's Workshop" as a new column in the Spoils. I want to keep the format as a how to column, and would like to encourage input from the membership, especially as this is another side to the hobby that you sometimes don't see much of, and I like to make stuff and paint just as much (if not more) as the game itself. So the philosophy for this column is to share techniques on building ,painting and terraining, and I'd like to get input from the membership, so that I can learn as well. Some of you don't know about that painting session we had about 4 years ago, but John showed me painting technique that really changed my whole outlook on how to color a figure, one that has brought a lot of satisfaction (and money) my way.

OK, enough philosophy. The first and most basic way to get started in terraining, making buildings, etc., is materials, and there are many resources to draw from. I go to craft stores, WalMart, DIY, and most importantly, the outdoors. Embarrassingly enough, I keep my eyes open on trash day- I once got some nice cardboard tubing out of a neighbors trash collection(no, I don't dig through trash cans). For thin cardboard, I save my old cereal boxes. Corrugated cardboard is always easy to get. Scrap wood for bases, sand from the beach for texture....Its all easy on the wallet. 1/300th buildings are cheap enough, but did you ever see the prices on 25mm buildings? I made the buildings for Rich's WW1 skirmish (4 cottages, a factory and a church) for less than 10 bucks. The most expensive item was a sheet of foam core for 5 bucks.

Now a note on resource ideas. There are several books that are excellent. First and foremost, Citadel's book on building terrain is excellent, and I highly recommend it for basic techniques. Also, Ian Weekly has published articles in some of the wargame mags, and has a book on buildings. This is a little more difficult to use, because there isn't much basic technique. A problem with these books is that they use English materials, and you have to figure out what the American equivalent is. For instance, I've finally figured out that Tetrion filler is basically the same as Spackle. Kitchen paper is paper towels. I recently bought and used milliput, which is expensive- 7 bucks for several ounces (but it works great), and I'm thinking maybe Bondo might be the same thing...(does anyone know? If you do , please let me know). Another resource are the books on model railroading scenery, and I suspect that is how a lot of wargame terrain got its start. You have to use your judgment when using these techniques because this is terrain that isn't meant to be touched or moved in most cases, and therefore is quite delicate, so you have to figure out sturdier equivalents.

Well, that's enough for this installment. Next article, I'll start on construction techniques and tell you how I did a certain project- which one I haven't decided, so I'll leave you in nailbiting suspense for now.