Vietnam jungle terrain WIP

[Garder]

I have wanted for a long time to create a jungle terrain for playing Force on Force Vietnam games, but was daunted by the task because I consider jungle terrain to be the most difficult type of terrain to replicate on a tabletop.  It is very difficult to find the right balance between realism, playability and visual appealing.

The examples I could find on-line were mostly bases of aquarium plants placed on a green mat, and did not give the visual effect I was after.

I looked at a lot of pictures of jungle, both Vietnam War-era pictures of the Vietnamese jungle, and more current and generic pictures. I found that I wanted to make the illusion of a canopy jungle, with lush underbrush.

Because of playability I decided to make tree trunks, without a canopy. I sculptured master models of tree trunks and made silicon putty molds, in which I could cast tree trunks in resin plaster. The tree trunks are placed on bases and covered in Woodland Scenic grass and foliage scatter. As a last step I sprinkled dried basil onto the bases.   

To make the underbrush I used aquarium plants mounted on bases, which was covered in the same manner as the tree trunk bases.

I plan on making 60x60 cm. and 60x30 cm. terrain boards, which will allow me to cut streams, rivers, and fighting positions into the boards. These will be covered in the same manner as the bases.

This is very much a work in progress, but I have attached a few pictures of my progress. I haven´t made the actual terrain boards yet, so I sprinkled Woodland Scenic grass and dried basil onto my cutting mat, and placed some terrain bases on it together with a few TAG US grunts for size reference.

[Arlequín]

As you say, it's going to be really hard to balance playability and visual appeal. I think you're on the right track though (no pun intended). I look forwards to seeing this progress.

 

[Mason]

Jungle terrain is next up on my agenda so I shall watch this with much interest for ideas to steal.
I like what I see so far so it should be promising.
 

[juergen c. olk]

Great job ,love the tree stumps.

[Elk101]

I like the tree stumps too, very effective.

I have several boxes of bits to start a jungle setting for Vietnam but ive never really figured out how I want to go about it.

Jungle terrain is next up on my agenda so I shall watch this with much interest for ideas to steal.

What is he up to next, eh? 

[von Lucky]

Another one for the tree stumps - very effective.

[Garder]

Thanks for all the comments

If anyone has any ideas for this project I would love to hear them fx. what would be typical jungle terrain features to model etc.

[ichwillauch]

I like the idea for the tree stumps. Another idea might be mangroves for a jungle river setting

[Garder]

Thanks, mangroves is a good idea. I am planing a river board, and mangroves could be cool. Should probably be made with steel wire and green stuff/plaster.

On a different note I found this great video clip showing the jungle in Vietnam and a brief fire fight:


Note how thick the jungle is, and the almost total lack of those "exotic" jungle plants, which I have tried to represent with aquarium plants. The jungle is more just trees and leaves. But I have no idea how one could represent that and still retain playability...  

[Arlequín]

'Hero' mentions that the track they are on looked 'more used' than when they went up it, so I guess they were travelling between dense sections of undergrowth by recognisable and semi-recognisable animal tracks. With that in mind I would imagine clumps of dense undergrowth of varying sizes might be the way to go, with movement confined to the gaps between them.

From what I recall (and was the case in rainy season Rhodesia too), such contacts took place at 40 metres or less, with visibility as low as 10 metres sometimes. While the M60 gunner seemed to be doing a great job of killing that bush, it was likely that he was firing at something he could hear but not see.

[Garder]

I agree, but I think that kind of restrictive movement would make a boring gameplay in the long run. So I think I will include more "open" areas on my board, which is also realistic since triple canopy jungle often let´s so little daylight down to the jungle floor that there is relative little ground vegetation.

I have taken a few more pictures of items I have made.



The two tree stumps I have made.



I have made four small trees. I just need to finish the bases.



I think I need to put a little more paint on them.



On the left a smoke grenade marker. I plan to make different colours of these. On the right a Viet Cong tunnel entrance marker.