BSC2022 Dolmot's Covert Cossack Camp

[Dolmot]

Alright, I have many other things to do, but looks like a few events calling for my participation have been postponed to April or May. Therefore I might be able to complete a modest gaming project in this time slot. At least I hope so.

After staring into emptiness for a week or two and then considering a few major projects that I have kind of active (albeit on hold), I concluded that I want to make something reasonably small and actually useful for the games that I'd like to re-start. Then I ruled out a few options which didn't seem to make much sense regarding this theme. (For example, something for gladiators? Well, they rest at the ludus but it would be a major stretch to keep that compact and/or really usable for games. Games take place on the arena and there's no rest there, other than the final one.) But then...

I still have the Zaporozhian Cossacks project, which could use both reinforcements and terrain. Among the distinguishing features of Cossacks is their use of open formations, mixed weapons, and the cover of terrain. As the vast majority of their troops moved on foot, reconnaissance and raids also depended more on stealth than speed. Because I don't want to build a huge camp for the main army with wagons and whatnot but for a smaller party on a mission, where would they rest? Presumably not in the open but somewhere out of sight.

So, let's see if something emerges from this concept. I have various ready-made bits like tents and trees, but I'd assume there will be plenty to scratch-build and to decorate too to make it all come together. How is it going to look like? Well, that depends on the terrain. Cossacks have to improvise on their way.

[marianas_gamer]

Sounds interesting. Good luck.

[FierceKitty]

I presume you are familiar with the painting showing a rolicking group of Cossacks writing the (sadly apocryphal) insulting letter to the Sultan? That would be a winner if you could model it.

[AKULA]

 Very original idea.

Will Yul Brynner be making an appearance 

[Bearwoodman]

Sounds interesting, wherever the concept takes you! And that is a lively, fascinating painting too, Fierce Kitty, I was certainly not aware of it before. Then again I had to Google the term "Zaporozhian Cossacks". Very educational, this competition!

[Dolmot]

Right, I've probably managed to disappoint everyone, especially myself, with this thread. This month has been tiring in many ways - 1:1 scale building projects, start-of-the-year bureaucracy, blizzards and shit storms. The good news is that I've managed to clear a lot of the general backlog, which has been sapping my creativity for ages with its seemingly endless length alone

Now there's apparently a week left to complete this. Well, I think last time I started after the deadline so if I manage to beat that, it's an improvement.

Still not that much inspiration to be found, but I feel like I must do this, for reasons. Currently the project looks like this, in all of its glory (including hasty photography):



Cool, huh?

One key question was obviously the whole concept. What to include? How elaborate to make it? That kind of solved itself already, because I won't try any majestic waterfalls or other diorama-level epicness in this time slot. I'd say the overall profile will be fairly flat with some obstructions. Relatively flat central area will be needed anyway, because I'm trying to place a few tents in there. As you should know, bumpy ground under your tent totally sucks. Nobody would camp there, given any choice, and Cossacks should always know the best spots.

Another key aspect was the basing. Should it be one big element, only the edge pieces, or something else? For gaming purposes and storage, I prefer modularity. However, this year we're back to the three-piece limit, ruling out any totally scattered approach. After staring at a blank piece of paper (pictured above as no-longer-entirely-blank) for a while, I came up with a plan, where a roughly elliptic area is split into three pieces. Maybe this will allow the camp arrangement, covered to some extent from all directions, or separate pieces which all have the slightly elevated area for units and the cover on one side. (Don't ask how they act for uphill and cover rules. I'll figure it out, eventually.)

I'm still not entirely sure about the height of the central area and thereby the material to use. Maybe it will be fairly low and foam core. Camping in a clearly elevated area is not that credibly covert, unless the covering terrain is also massive. Also, it might be difficult to make the three-piece split look good if they're too high. So, probably the higher, covering bits will be on the edge only. For that, I have many options. One of them could be bark pieces that I bought in the last Tactica that really happened.

OK, it's late, I have to be somewhere tomorrow at noon, and then there's the build to start as well. No more chit-chat, except...

I presume you are familiar with the painting showing a rolicking group of Cossacks writing the (sadly apocryphal) insulting letter to the Sultan? That would be a winner if you could model it.

Yes, it has a special place in my heart. When the original painting left its home and visited my city last summer, I absolutely had to be there and see it. And I did. There were many others too, but this was the main attraction for me.

However, I think modelling it would essentially produce a diorama or possibly a command stand, rather than a practical (terrain) piece as requested in the contest rules. Interestingly, Irbis Miniatures produces a 75mm vignette of that with seven of the main characters. I've seen one of those painted too. Maybe I'll get one some day, or try it somehow in 15mm. Who knows. But I digress. Let's just say that it's a great source of general inspiration and amusement for moments when those are otherwise scarce.

[Dolmot]

Hello

Thanks to the gracious deadline extension, there's some hope for this project again. I took a few steps last week and now I'm dumping the photos of them here because they could even lead into something... Nothing spectacular yet but this is what I've got.

1.

First cut of foamcore, 3mm thickness, maybe? I have plenty of this stuff. Long time ago there was one guy who had to dump his study or profession related stock in a hasty removal. I got a couple of large sheets. I've moved at least twice myself since, sometimes kind of hastily, but I've managed to bring those sheets with me anyway.

Now I used the sketch itself, seen in the previous post, as the profile because why not. Therefore this project is about A4 sized, which should be pretty good for a terrain piece in game systems.

2.

The three sub-bases cut out. In principle, they can be put back together quite tightly, but it's not mandatory.

3.

Then I chopped the leftover corner foam into second and third layers to add some three-dimensionality. I don't want to add any massive height difference or a full barrier at this point for a couple of reasons:

• This is for 15mm and the edges should provide some cover yet not exactly elevated position or total LoS block.
• Overdoing the edge would make this "too good to be true". It's a good camp site but not an elaborately built fortification, just a (nearly) natural feature.
• There will be other material on the edges too. This phase just makes the underlying shape more interesting.
• Keeping it reasonably low also helps with storage and transport.

All edges were beveled. The centre will remain almost flat for tents and troops.

4.

Then I started adding layers of filler while cutting and sanding the steepest parts into a smoother shape. There may be a tiny bit of warping, but nothing serious yet. This kind of foamcore can even be bent back gently.


I'm already a few steps ahead with this general shaping, but the pieces are drying under weight right now, thus I cannot take very fresh photos yet. So, see you in the next post.

[Golgotha]

Good start - looking forward to seeing this one develop.

[Dolmot]

Hi, folks. Today I only have one photo for you, showing a couple of components planned for this entry:



What do we have in here?

1. The bases: Actually, very little to be seen in this pic due to filling, sanding, and the photo angle and lighting. The layers are still in there, but only as smooth shapes, which was pretty much the plan anyway. I could make them even smoother, but probably no point in that because the next steps will probably hide a lot.

2. The large rocks: In reality, some kind of bark that I bought as a last minute grab from Tactica. There has not been much hobby activity since, but now I felt like it would be a good time to try them for something. I selected a couple of good ones for this purpose. Some seemed fine almost as-is, other needed a bit of cutting and filing for either flat or curved bottom (the latter for the slopes). Six pieces doesn't sound like a lot, but I suspect it could be enough. Remember that the central area will remain flat, thus I'm only covering the edges with different materials while still avoiding the "too good to be true" fortress effect.

3. The small rocks: The pile on the right is also bark, sold for reptiles. (It's only an example batch. There's really a lot more but I didn't want to make a huge mess for this photo.) Traditionally I've used real stones for many things, but now I want to try something new. I also suspect that real stones would make this inconveniently heavy and also very prone to breaking in spectacular ways if accidentally dropped. So, bark it is.

I'm spray-painting both of these bark types black first. In one earlier stone wall project I built first, but it became apparent that:

• Even after fairly thorough spray undercoating and brush painting of the built piece, the brown colour can be seen from any gaps, and it's surprisingly striking.
• The gaps are extremely hard to reach and cover afterwards.
• If you try with a wet brush, it starts to detach pieces when natural bark layers and PVA turn soggy.

This time I'm not planning to make that big stone piles, but some kind of clusters anyway, thus better ensure that those pesky gaps will be properly black. Undercoating may also reduce paint consumption when there's no totally porous surface to swallow it.

4. The tents: These are "eastern style miniature tents" from Wargamer (the publishers of By Fire and Sword). Unfortunately, this type may be the largest of their tents, which goes a bit against the concept of a covert camp. However, I had already painted the smaller types for other projects, and I probably don't have any others unpainted (or if I do, they're not in the first two boxes of BFaS stuff I managed to find). Anyway, they're neat, and four largish tents is still a reasonable compromise between adding a bit of noticeable detail and keeping the quota of ready-made parts acceptable for the contest.

The bark undercoating is already underway. The tents need washing, filling and filing. Then I can hopefully start decorating the bases properly.

[ichwillauch]

Looking very good!

[Dolmot]

OK, I think I owe you a few progress photos again. Hasty photography, hasty posting, but it's better than nothing, right? Better spend my precious time on the project itself, after all. This is going to get really tight...

Bark bits undercoated and glued on the bases. Now it's black and white. I didn't bother with adding any extra filler at this point, because there will be other stuffing. However, I used two-part epoxy instead of PVA or superglue to get a really solid (and waterproof) grip.


Bases need a basecoat. I love the tone of burnt umber in the evening. Now it's black and brown.


Then, a couple of drybrush rounds to the bark-rocks. Now it's grey and brown - almost inverted from the original materials. Funny how it works.


(BTW, I boldly assume that this doesn't count as painting yet for the competition rules. Almost everything will be covered with scatter material, and the few bits remaining visible will get further washes and highlights.)

I probably won't be able to add as much detail as I'd like, because there are about three other tasks I should finish before Saturday. I'm not even 100% sure if I manage to complete this, but let's see. All of these steps must be taken pretty carefully to allow sufficient drying times and to avoid warping from too greedy coverage. Luckily, the carefully selected assortment of scatter materials for this project should be precisely where I left it after BSC2021.

No major news regarding the tents. They were actually pretty good casts. I didn't spot any bubbles to fill, nor any noticeable mould lines (although they usually appear sneakily in the painting phase). One of them had about 2mm of overfill so I had to start the dremel. Now they've been undercoated basically to the very same shade of grey, and I've started basecoating them too. I undercoated a couple of twigs as well, to act as fallen tree trunks as in the BSC2021 entry.

That's it for now. I'll try to get some sleep and continue tomorrow. There's something new drying already. We're gradually reaching the limit of what can be posted as WIP so another update is possible but not guaranteed. We'll see.