Wurttembergers and other Napoleonics (Terrain work 8/14)

[arget8]

So, I decided to throw together a test figure for a converted Hungarian Fusilier. Here is the result. I think I'll be putting together at least three groups of these fellows. He was a lot of fun to paint.

[arget8]

Another group of Jaegers and their grizzled, but well-loved sergeant, Oskar Meier. These are the last of the Jaegers for now, for which I am thankful. Due to their relative lack of color and the details regarding the piping (which was a must if I wanted them to have any interesting features), they were simply annoying to paint. These guys have been sitting half-painted on my desk for the better part of a month, just taunting me with their tedious nature. But enough complaining, I'm done! As these guys will be used for Sharp Practice and maybe Forager, I don't anticipate ever fielding more than two groups of six, so I'll likely never have to paint up another unit of them, unless someone pays me to.




Next up will be the Wurttemberg deployment points and a drummer.

[DintheDin]

Fine looking! Their piping is an eye-catcher! Congrats!

[arget8]

The assembled forces of the men from Stuttgart so far. Four groups of line infantry led by Leutnant Hans Bernhard and Feldwebel Harold Schleimfuss and two groups of Jaegers, led by Feldwebels Oskar Meier and Essen Hundwurst.

[arget8]

So, I haven't been feeling terribly inspired to paint this week so far, which is troubling considering that I'm so close to the goal, but my hands have not been idle. I've started work on some terrain to further bring up the level of terrain excellence that I'll be forever seeking.

First up is my first house for Mittle Europa. This simple, timber framed and thatched house is still awaiting its daubing, but other than that, it's ready to paint. I'm going to put the spackle on a bunch at once to reduce wastage, so it may be a few days before it sees paint. The doors and windows are from Warbases and are really worth the investment in my opinion as now I don't have to scratch build window frames or cardstock doors. I plan on putting shutters on them as well, but I need to wait for the spackle to be applied.





I've also been toiling away at something completely ridiculous, but if it works, I really think that it will just be the shit. This is a prototype/proof of concept, really, but I'm already pretty pleased with it at this point. I'm going to give you guys a chance to guess what it is before I spoil the surprise, but it should be incredibly obvious if I do any more work, so guess away!

[arget8]

Here's the next step:




Anyone have any guesses yet?

[John Boadle]

I'm guessing it's a vineyard?

[arget8]

A flexible, completely customizable vineyard, or at least it's my first attempt. I'm still trying to work out how to affix the washers to the bottom without losing the flexibility or interfering with the fur. This attempt is with Flex Seal spray, which you have to put so much on that I'm not sure about it. However, I may just need to do a big piece in order to truly ascertain how flexible I can make it. This piece is so small that I'm just not sure.

[John Boadle]

OK, I would say there's a couple of issues with where you are so far. Firstly, the wire connecting the tops of the posts will stop anything being flexible in certain directions. But you don't need that wire; I'm not aware of that being a particular feature of vineyards, though I stand to be corrected here. Secondly, it's difficult to get the thing conformable to all terrain contours, because in reality the posts would always be vertical.

However, I think all vineyards are on a slope, and only on one slope of a hill, the side that gets the sun or whatever it is. They don't go over the top of a hill and down the opposite side. Therefore, the posts should always be at an angle to your base material, so that when placed on a typical slope they will sit vertical. You need to put some stuff on to represent the vines, but that will keep the posts in place.

It is the right approach to base a vineyard on flexible material, but I'm not sure about the faux fur, which suggests long grass. Vineyards don't have long grass between the rows of vines unless totally neglected. I would suggest brown felt material. You can give that an earth texture without losing flexibility: just apply thinned PVA then a light scatter of fine sand, then paint as earth.

[arget8]

Well, the wire is actually an elastic thread, which I plan on gluing blobs of flock to in order to represent the actual vines That will be the next step.

I think that the verticality of the posts will always be an issue. Heck, they're kind of an issue for most vineyards if they're not purpose built to be on a slope. I'm not sure there's a better solution.

The faux fur pictured is only the proof of concept. The actual fur used will be cut super short out of the same material as the rest of my fur mat.

I think I may have to disagree with you about the space between the rows, though. I agree with you that the rows themselves would absolutely be practically bare dirt, but the paths between the rows is most certainly grass around ankle height or a touch higher. I live in wine country and have spent my entire life living and working on orchards and vineyards. I wont argue that some are bare dirt, but I would not say that this is the norm. Something a little more patchy and sparse is probably the most accurate, which I'm going to try to see if I can work something out to do so while making it fully modular.

[DonFabrizio]

I rather enjoy seeing this project unfold. Nice work!

[arget8]

Thank you! I'm hoping to have the house and the first floor of the next one spackled up in the next day or so.

[John Boadle]

You evidently know more about modern vineyards than me, arget8! Point taken about what is between the rows of vines, ie short grass or maybe sparse patches. And they all have wires between the posts, so I was wrong there.


However I do make a bit of a study of historical terrain, and like almost everything vineyards weren't the same in the old days. They originally consisted of just rows of vine plants, each attached to a pole, with no wire or anything joining them. In winter the plants were pruned very low, and in summer they grew to varying heights, presumably based on different varieties and soils. They could be only thigh-high or over head-height. I imagine the horizontal wires now used are to for one thing to get the grapes growing at the most convenient height for harvesting. I've attached some mediaeval illustrations which show the kind of thing. It would be the industrial age when suitable wire became available, so the mediaeval look would still be right for Napoleonics.

[arget8]

Well, I'm a bit embarrassed now. I assumed that there must have been some sort of line or rope used. I really have been struggling to find anything about what they looked like between the Romans, when they used pergolas, and the modern, industrial, methods we see today. In all honesty, I'm a little relieved to get your info, because this means that I don't have to string lines for any dark age or napoleonic games I do now, just wrap some twine on the poles, paint, and flock them.

I think that the limits of the modular design will still preclude me from making them always fit the slope of the terrain, but I've also been thinking about nixing the magnetic aspect and just putting pins or tack nails on the bottom that I can stick in foam.