Sarissa Precision: Skirmish Compound Charlie (Or how to make a Quick village on the Colonial Frontier!)

 

"Dad you need at least one village for the Anglo-Russian War."

So Honorable Son #4 sent me an MDF building pack from Sarissa Precision called Skirmish Compound Charlie. Skirmish Compound Charlie consists of the following products from their Alamo model:

1. Alamo North East Corner (A018).

2. Alamo South East Corner (A027).

3. 2x Alamo West Wall Building (A022) each with two buildings.

4. Alamo East Wall (without gun ramp) (A032).

Perfect for my colonial battles. These are great models but pay attention to the instructions. They are not difficult to put together (each one took me about an hour, not counting time for glue to dry) but I did accidently put one base upside down and skipped a step on another building for an inner wall. Fortunately in both cases the glue was not completely dry.

What I love about what Sarissa does is their Terrain Tile system which allows you to rearrange the buildings how you like (or keep them separated if you want). Here are just some quick samples as I was fooling around:

The well is from Battlefield in a Box for Flames of War from their WW II Desert War collection. The well is scaled for 15mm but I have used it numerous times for 25/28mm and it works fine. Speaking of working fine, the buildings are perfect for 25/28 mm scale. Below are some miniatures from Pulp Figures which I am using for Militia/Bandits/Tribal Infantry, etc. (very versatile figures!).

Moving along the roof.

Access from the roof.

Roof tops come off . . .

As does the upper portion of the building allowing you to put figures in the structures.

For destroyed buildings or buildings that are ruins, during the game I will just permanently remove the upper half of the building.

The Royal Guard of Chaimbellistan prepares to defend the as for right now unnamed village. Trust me, it will have a name before the game!

Mr. Kipling asking Brigadier Alfred Tramontin if the British Indian Army will arrive in time to stem the Russian horde.

Supplies are being stored.

Keeping a sharp lookout.

I haven't decided if I'm going to paint them or not (the laziness factor) so for now they will just be what I call Light MDF Brown which coincidentally is the traditional color of buildings in Chaimbellistan!

My Favorite Terrain Piece

Back in ancient times of lore, when Warhammer was Warhammer, the 4th edition of the boxed game came with two card stock terrain pieces; a cottage and a stone tower. I still have both of them and the cottage has probably been in more of my tabletop battles than any other piece of terrain.

The classic Warhammer cottage.

Lord of the Rings battle.

Continental Firing line to the side of the cottage.

Another LOTR battle. 

Prince Rupert leads the War Poodle's own Regiment of Foot during the English Civil War. 

Green Regiment of the London Trained Bands. 

Action in the Peninsular.

World War II British Paratroopers.

The Wild West. 

 The Doctor and Sherlock Holmes.

Colonial Action. 

Lord Essex.

More Inexpensive Rocky Terrain

 

As a gamer on a budget (who isn't?) I like to save money with my hobby whenever I can. This year I have really been focusing on making terrain for my tabletop as my two new periods are the British Raj and the French and Indian War. Coincidentally, the rules I am using are both from the talented Dan Mersey, The Men Who Would be Kings, and Rebels and Patriots from Osprey Games. Since both rulesets are "large" skirmish games, terrain plays and important part. In addition, one of the major of appeals for me in miniature wargaming is the aesthetics of the table top. So lets make some more rocky terrain to break up formations and to hide behind for excellent cover.

First step for me is to find some real rocks! One of my past times (and how I get my exercise) is walking in the woods of the Southern United States. When I was working this project, over a period of days, I found some interesting rocks to use. I know what some of you are thinking: "Aren't that heavy and require storage space?" Well, they are really not that heavy, and now that my children are grown, I have plenty of storage space.

Hobby Lobby is a store in the United States and for US $5.99 I bought a pack of six, 6 inch diameter round craft plywood pieces. I use gobs of white glue to glue the rocks to the wood; but, before I do, I position the rocks with figures to make sure that are positioned correctly to use on the tabletop battlefield. Pictured above is a 28mm figure from Perry Miniatures mounted on a 25mm mdf stand from Litko Game Accessories.

The rocks are glued in place and left to dry overnight. You may notice that four of the bases have painted brown borders and two of them don't. Yep, I started applying glue and rocks and suddenly realized that I forgotten to paint the edges after I did two. I highly recommend painting the edges first! It can be challenging (yes it can) painting them with the rocks already on the bases. The base edges were painted with inexpensive (US $2.99) Burnt Umber craft paint.

I use Railroad hobby ballast for my basing needs as it is less expensive than buying hobby sand that is marketed for miniature gaming. I use gobs of glue and water it down to affix the sand. Since these bases are considerably larger than my figure stands, I used a large plastic container to put the sand in so I could easily dip the bases into the sand. Don't worry if you miss a few spots - that can easily be filled in with static grass. Make sure the sand is fully dry before moving onto the next step.

Once the sand is fully dry, pour some more white glue over the sand and use and old brush to water it down and spread it out evenly over the sand. When dry, it acts as a sealant and gives extra protection to your sand to it won't fall off.

Save those old, worn out brushes for jobs like this.

Remember that Burnt Umber craft paint. Once the coating of watered down glue is dry, I water down the Burnt Umber and spread it over the sand to let it seep in. I've gotten lazy highlighting my terrain and this is a quick, and I think looks good, alternative.

After the paint dries, I randomly put some white glue on the bases and water it down with that same old brush. Then I add some static grass and let it dry.

I added static grass on this rock as there was some white glue that spilled on the rock, dried and was noticeable. The stain around the grass is just watered down glue drying.

Ta Dah! All done. I'm am by no means a modeling expert and I find this technique quick and easy to do. I failed to mention that I used photographic references of the areas I'm gaming to help me with the positioning and modeling of the terrain.

As you can see, the rocky terrain works for a multiple of genres. One last look at some of the rocky terrain I have built this year.