Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Adventures in the Far East => Topic started by: JollyBob on January 12, 2009, 02:45:55 PM
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Hi all
Just a quick question - who makes Chinese terrain? Buildings, walls, graveyards etc. is what I'm looking for.
I know about Monolith Design's range and will probably pick up some bits from them, but are there any other manufacturers out there that I can get ready-mades from?
I could scratchbuild some, I suppose, but I'd rather keep all my fingers and have something that actually looks the part rather than a hideous misshapen lump.
Any ideas? ???
Thanks!
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Curteys, and they have a sale on
http://curteysminiatures.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=12&zenid=b6c2dfc45cf352620b228e870e9c08d1 ;D
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Redoubt Enterprises have a couple of items in their Boxer Rebellion range including some walls, and a nice building.
http://www.redoubtenterprises.com/shop/?page=shop/browse&category_id=d582fffe91ddf133579ca391277ae5be
Curteys Miniatures have some multi part buildings and some nice walling, the buildings look very similar in design to the Monolith ones.Probably more in keeping with what you want them for.
http://curteysminiatures.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=12&zenid=9884badc2e1bff83ec1174602d5eaae2
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AAhh, that Crafty boy Lowtardog beat me to it on the Curteys ones and he is absolutely right they have a sale on. Get your order in quick laddie. ;)
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Talk to Dodge about walls ;) ;)
Its actaully Japanese but the John Jenkins stuff if you can get it is the mutts.
Thought you would wait and see what was at Vapnartak? I could go and keep prodding you whilst you attempted to buy stuff ;D
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You want to make your own, I did and they turned out ok for my first time.
Walls are quite straight forward, flat polystyrene packing about 1/2 inch thick cut to height and length , polyfiller and then use the mould that svenn sent me ( which I haven't managed to do yet) for the pantiles. then paint.
I'm doing some more this week hopefully, including the wall pantiles.
But you can always buy monolith or john jenkins they are all good, I just like spending my money on figures and vehicles and paint really.
I've got a thread on chinese buildings going somewhere try the bob section :D
dodge
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Cheers guys! :)
I've been on the Curteys site loads recently and never realised they made houses. I am a foolish Bob today. ::)
And I really don't want to make my own, I'm afraid. Cack handedness costs thumbs. I'm quite happy to pay someone else to make them and just paint them myself.
@ Svennn - I'm going to have a scout about at Vapa, yes, before I order anything. Have you become my own personal devil? "Go on, buy it... you know you want it... It'll look great with that thing you were thinking about the other day.... So you need to buy that too...."
I'm going to need someone to volunteer to wear a halo and follow me round at my other shoulder. lol
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@ Svennn - I'm going to have a scout about at Vapa, yes, before I order anything. Have you become my own personal devil? "Go on, buy it... you know you want it... It'll look great with that thing you were thinking about the other day.... So you need to buy that too...."
I'm going to need someone to volunteer to wear a halo and follow me round at my other shoulder. lol
Not much chance of that happening around here.... And did we mention there's a sale on at Curteys at the moment, that's A SALE ON AT THE MOMENT...
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:D :D ;D :D ;D
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Svennn make building for Bollyjob to paint if want to.
Oh I am a whore.
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You know, one of these days I'm going to learn to stop asking you lot for help. lol
I just had a look at the Curteys stuff, and I'm afraid I'm not that taken with it. Maybe its just the photos. Still, regardless of the SALE NOW ON (thanks Nick), I think I'll wait and see it in person at Vapnartak. Might look better in the hand.
Svennn, between building aeronefs for people and bespoke houses, you could be a Chinese sweatshop all on your own. I'll take your offer under consideration, thanks for that. :)
Edit: Just thought, Redoubt are gonna be at York as well. Crap, I'm gonna have to keep things in the car and sneak them in one at a time when she's out. o_o
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You know, one of these days I'm going to learn to stop asking you lot for help. lol
I just had a look at the Curteys stuff, and I'm afraid I'm not that taken with it. Maybe its just the photos. Still, regardless of the SALE NOW ON (thanks Nick), I think I'll wait and see it in person at Vapnartak. Might look better in the hand.
Svennn, between building aeronefs for people and bespoke houses, you could be a Chinese sweatshop all on your own. I'll take your offer under consideration, thanks for that. :)
Edit: Just thought, Redoubt are gonna be at York as well. Crap, I'm gonna have to keep things in the car and sneak them in one at a time when she's out. o_o
You will have to be especially careful with purchases now you are getting married. Just you wait until she gets that ring on her finger lol lol lol
I have some of the Monolith stuff and its very nice, especially the Temple. It features in Grimms pulpy Asia town on the Back Of Beyond Board.
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I was thinking about getting the temple from them, actually. Need one for the hopping vampire and his zombie minions to hang out in...
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Time and time again on the many fora I have defended Curteys range. Probably because I have a Zhou, a Sung, a Han and a Mongol army from them. Must say I have never been tempted by the buildings though. The walls are nice but very simple to replicate and personalise much cheaper though.
I have started, but its well on the back burner, scratching a palace and part of the forbidden city. I have also sketched out a 1930's Shanghai and bought quite a few bits to use but not started it. My other big plan is a Liang Shang Po type fortress. I can dream.
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Svennn make building for Bollyjob to paint if want to.
Oh I am a whore.
Take him up on his offer , his buildings are great , the one in the lead painters competition was ace.
Walls, as Svenn says, are just as easy to do yourself.
You should have a go , I did and I'm cack handed too, I'm happy with it and so will you be. go on have a go its cheaper too.
;D
dodge
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Its actaully Japanese but the John Jenkins stuff if you can get it is the mutts.
John Jenkins is great but I thought they'd stopped producing it last autumn ?
If you're looking at generic eastern, Hovels have some Japanaese pieces, Stronghold/Village Green used to have some bits, Sheltrum have some interesting pieces (especially the suicide wheelbarrow bomber), and Mainly Miniatures used to have some Vietnam pieces (particularly overgrown jungle temple statues) that might fit in.
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Cheers fastolfrus, I had a look at them. Well, I tried to.
Scheltrum have some interesting models, I might go back there for another look one day, and not just for the Chinese stuff. A nice rickety watchtower piece though, that might get bought at some point.
I can't find Mainly Miniatures at all, and Stronghold have the worst website in the world. Its confusing, has next to no pictures, and all the links that I want to open lead to dead pages and 404 messages. I'm surprised they ever sell anything.
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We've found that with Stronghold in the past, but he is often at Vapnartak.
Last year he was selling scenery by weight.
Mainly Military are quite an old firm (dating back to the 1970s) and the Vietnam pieces are listed as 20mm, but the statues are a reasonable size and paint up nicely :
http://www.mainlymilitary.com/
They also have some rice stooks and a rice stack, but obviously most of the Vietnam stuff is sandbagged emplacements.
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Cheers fastolfrus, I had a look at them. Well, I tried to.
Scheltrum have some interesting models, I might go back there for another look one day, and not just for the Chinese stuff. A nice rickety watchtower piece though, that might get bought at some point.
I can't find Mainly Miniatures at all, and Stronghold have the worst website in the world. Its confusing, has next to no pictures, and all the links that I want to open lead to dead pages and 404 messages. I'm surprised they ever sell anything.
I think the guy goes on frothers
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Ah, yeah, its Tardis isn't it? :)
Unfortunately he's not trading at Vapnartak this year because of ill health. Shame. I remember seeing some of his stuff at last years show now, it was pretty good quality. Darn.
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Just a quick question - who makes Chinese terrain?
Grimm! :D
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And as an afterthought - what sort of trees are there in China? Can I get away with a mix of the stuff I would normally use for Europe, or do they need to be a little more exotic? ???
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And as an afterthought - what sort of trees are there in China? Can I get away with a mix of the stuff I would normally use for Europe, or do they need to be a little more exotic? ???
Stands of bamboo, obviously. Remember that they always come with a giant panda lumbering about and a kung fu champion prancing about on the tip of the stalks. I believe its the natural biotop of both.
Cherry and lotus trees seem to abound abound in ink and rice paper paintings and a kind of gnarly fir tree.
China is big and has everything from tundra to desert and jungle but if I may suggest something it is hilly landscape with suger cone peaks and rice paddies in the vales. Nothing says China like that, with perhaps the exception of the Great Wall or Tiananmen Square.
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Good advice Hammers. :) I'll need to invest in some conifers then. And bamboo.
I was planning to do a valley bottom, i.e. a few hills to the sides, with a small river, a village on one side and temple/graveyard on the other. There will hopefully be enough room for a small wood, or at least a few trees among the hills, and if I can work out how to do it, a paddy field. Also a wooden bridge accross the river.
Its only for skirmish games, so I don't want to go too crazy and clutter up a small board, but it would be nice to have a choice of features to scatter about for different scenarios. So I guess I'm thinking everything needs to be modular and easily removable.
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Good advice Hammers. :) I'll need to invest in some conifers then. And bamboo.
I was planning to do a valley bottom, i.e. a few hills to the sides, with a small river, a village on one side and temple/graveyard on the other. There will hopefully be enough room for a small wood, or at least a few trees among the hills, and if I can work out how to do it, a paddy field. Also a wooden bridge accross the river.
Its only for skirmish games, so I don't want to go too crazy and clutter up a small board, but it would be nice to have a choice of features to scatter about for different scenarios. So I guess I'm thinking everything needs to be modular and easily removable.
And there was me thinking it was going to be a small 4x4ft table with a temple and the edge of a town... Scale creep by anychance? ;)
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Its not all to go on at once! lol
It will still fit on a 4x4. I just like having extra options. And you can't just have a flat board with a couple of buildings on it can you? Needs some local colour...
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Its not all to go on at once! lol
It will still fit on a 4x4. I just like having extra options. And you can't just have a flat board with a couple of buildings on it can you? Needs some local colour...
8ftx8ft more like lol lol
Sounds great though, must start to think about organising my warband and that panda ;)
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Willow trees.
You must have willow trees by the little bridge and the pagoda.
Paint all the built up scenery blue and leave the table white.
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China is big and has everything from tundra to desert and jungle
Yes!, they recently imported olive trees and now are making chinese olive oil !?!?!?!
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Pet Smart..? Or online.. see link..
http://www.aquariumguys.com/asian-decorations.html
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I've always had this idea of china regarding landscape:
- rice fields and steep hills:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/Rice_field_china2.jpg
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I've been looking around for years and haven't found anything I particularly like. I ended up making my own. You can get some excellent results quite quickly using foamcore, plastic roofing tiles and milliput/filler
(http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x200/sukhe_bator/Chinese%20fortress/Chinese%20Caravanserai/caravanserai-1.jpg~original)
(http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x200/sukhe_bator/Chinese%20fortress/Chinese%20Caravanserai/caravanserai2.jpg~original)
(http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x200/sukhe_bator/Chinese%20fortress/Chinese%20Caravanserai/mongol003.jpg~original)
(http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x200/sukhe_bator/Chinese%20fortress/khovd019.jpg~original)
(http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x200/sukhe_bator/Chinese%20fortress/khovd010.jpg~original)
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AAHHHHHHHHH !!!!!!!!!! NICE !
must copy some stuff
thanks sukhe_bator
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And there I was thinking my stuff was broadly ok, :'(
You are a consumate model maker what an excellent set of buildings
awesome, need to nick some of your ideas here :-*
dodge
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Oh they are really nice, thanks very much for posting them! :-*
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That is very nice indeed. I was thinking much more "rural" though, more villagey?
(http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w198/svennnthedhnut/Tang026.jpg)
(http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w198/svennnthedhnut/Tang020.jpg)
Never used fur before (and this was bright purple) and learnt a lot but would use it again. Need finishing but wanted to show them.
Svennn
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Excellent use of fur fabric for thatch. I've also had some success modelling 28mm thatch in milliput, simply by using a thin skin of milliput and them making the layers from the eaves upwards with quick cutting motions with a scalpel or craft knife... though I think more 'natural' materials have the edge in 28mm
(http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x200/sukhe_bator/Men%20of%20Gondor/thatch.jpg~original)
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With the greatest respect, would everybody please stop showing me how much better they are at making terrain than me? lol
Those rural type houses look great Svennn. Not sure I'd have the patience to carve milliput like those of sukhe-bator's though, but thats a nice effect.
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With the greatest respect, would everybody please stop showing me how much better they are at making terrain than me? lol
Those rural type houses look great Svennn. Not sure I'd have the patience to carve milliput like those of sukhe-bator's though, but thats a nice effect.
I think what everyone is saying is 'stop being such a girl (sorry girls) and have a go' :D
Its not that hard look :
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_eONwCIOtTO8/SQ3JvODDfKI/AAAAAAAAAIo/eTB14LrE1V0/s320/close+up+centre.JPG)
This is what I have done with foam core, cardboard and a kitchen roll tube , with a splash of polyfiller.
Not as good as the others but serviceable, I reckon you can do that? Then again if you want to pay somewhere between £10 to £30 for building instead of £2 ish then ok :D
I hope I haven't offended, but think you should have a go ;D
Svenn where did you get the teddy fur?
dodge
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Never used fur before (and this was bright purple) and learnt a lot but would use it again. Need finishing but wanted to show them.
Svennn
Really , really nice, very effective, I must have a go at Teddy bear fur thatching.
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Dodge, I do intend to have a go at scratchbuilding some of the terrain myself, but, I also know exactly where my talents in this field lie, so when I end up with wonky walls, roofs that don't fit and no thumbs, it would be nice to know where I can cut my losses and buy some stuff from.
No offence taken though, I know everyone's just being encouraging. :D
The major problem I'm facing at the moment though is just getting started. Really, really cannot be bothered. :(
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I'm not sure if I have posted these before but I am intending to use John Jenkins Japanese Terrain for my BOB Chinese Army (when I get around to painting them) This Gatehouse was a scratchbuild using a JJ roof.
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3506/3231245842_eede7b5306_o.jpg)
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3123/3231245892_d53a07cbeb_o.jpg)
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3096/3231247526_b0b27d0207_o.jpg)
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Plus a Temple and some statues I picked up when travelling through Hong Kong and Thailand.
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3434/3230399471_9ede936773_o.jpg)
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3504/3231247544_a5b7d46cf7_o.jpg)
Looks like I will have to scartchbuild the rest of the houses now John Jenkins seems to be out of production. :'(
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Dodge, I do intend to have a go at scratchbuilding some of the terrain myself, but, I also know exactly where my talents in this field lie, so when I end up with wonky walls, roofs that don't fit and no thumbs, it would be nice to know where I can cut my losses and buy some stuff from.
No offence taken though, I know everyone's just being encouraging. :D
The major problem I'm facing at the moment though is just getting started. Really, really cannot be bothered. :(
The just getting started bit is the worst bit, its nice to be going to do it and to have done it, its just the bit in the middle that is the bit that I don't like, I just have a crack at it leave it do something else come back to it have another go leave come back to it have another go.................
However now the wife has really noticed what I've got going on and is turning the you haven't had a game screw really hard so now all terrain projects on the go must finish.
dodge
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Dan, the gatehouse is fantastic. what did you use for the base? Is it railway cobbles from Wills or similar?
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Great stuff guys.
Seriously, don't be frightened to have a go at building your own terrain.
If you reckon youll only make wonky walls to start with try adobe/mud walls using foamcore/expanded polysterene and polyfilla. The best thing though is to find a photo of an actual building and adapt it, rather than try to conjure up a more generic building. Its the little attention to detail that makes the model stand out. Start small and simple and add to it - scenic stuff like walls, ruins, etc. It was years before I plucked up the courage to do brickwork. Also little tricks like making your own modelling tools. I have one for doing brick courses. As for the thatch - its a very simple process thats cumulative. It took me an hour (20mins per side and 10 mins for the edges and top). These are tools I used to model armour on my Mumakil. Makes the whole process much quicker
(http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x200/sukhe_bator/Haradrim/Mumakil005.jpg)
(http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x200/sukhe_bator/Haradrim/Mumakil004.jpg)
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I had seen articles on using fur and did not want to use modelling putty on such a large area so decided to give it ago.
Local dressmaking/craft store - cost me £3.00 for which I got far too much but they would not sell me less - two square metres o_o and it is bright purple and makes a fantastic mess when you cut it ::)
Walls are foamcore covered in wall filler, balsa frames and doors. Probably spent 2 hours on them start to finish but then you have to factor in the hours and hours of drying time on the fur inbetween.
Will put textured bases and a few details when I can get to buy some suitable sheets.
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Svenn do you pva the teddy fur with a watered down solution?
and where do you buy your balsa wood from? I see it at hobbycraft down the road from work but am not sure whether its too expensive or not
dodge
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Dan, the gatehouse is fantastic. what did you use for the base? Is it railway cobbles from Wills or similar?
Thanks , I was hoping someone would ask . :D
The base was made from the old plastic doors from a shower unit I had ripped out from the bathroom when renovating . I have three sheets about a foot wide by six feet tall . I sanded the high points off to get a better look . Its quite brittle and needs lots of scoring before snapping in two . Hence I'm unable to get very accurate results .
I'm going to try and make some embankments and houses out of it eventually.
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Thanks Dan but thats not very helpfull is it :) You show us the perfect textured material and then tell us we cant get any of it :'(
You even tell us you wanted asking so you could give us this useless information :D :D
Dodge, I get balsa from a local model/rc shop. It varies in price but the precut strips about 3ft long are around 50p and sheets,4"x3' about £1.00.
I attached the fur in strips and did apply watered down pva. Because you are adding a lot more moisture which has to evaporate before the latex can kick in and set it takes hours to dry out. The fur is not condusive either being man made but it works eventually.
Try and get good air flow as this helps. Warm air flow even better but air is better than warmth. I resorted to sticking them in front of the tumble dryer outlet hose. I probably would try a stronger pva solution with less water next time myself. It should work neat but it would be hard work to apply. My mate in Southbourne keeps telling me there is a decent model(railway?) shop near him and a better one in Poole?
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That would probably be Boscombe models then, seems close to southbourne.
And setchfields in Poole I expect.
I will check them out.
dodge
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Thanks Dan but thats not very helpfull is it :) You show us the perfect textured material and then tell us we cant get any of it :'(
You even tell us you wanted asking so you could give us this useless information :D :D
:D I'm a sick bastard sometimes ;D but I guess it makes up for all the stuff I cant get here .
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Mainly Military are quite an old firm (dating back to the 1970s) and the Vietnam pieces are listed as 20mm, but the statues are a reasonable size and paint up nicely :
http://www.mainlymilitary.com/
Now under new management :
http://www.chilternminiatures.co.uk/catalog/
But the Vietnam pieces still look good