Battlegames issue 17 - Diane's article

"Diane Sutherland gives us "Have you seen my Neil Diamond CD?", another witty offering, this time with a recycling bent to create jungle scenery on old CDs."

A selection of plastic aquatic plants and plant mats.  Most are sold on a large sprue but can be pulled off making the construction of the terrain much easier.  None of the plant mats in this picture cost more than £7 each for 100 plants.

Our venerable hot glue gun, along with a pair of scissors (to snip the plant mat sprues), a craft knife to score the CDs and a plundered selection of ISP installation CDs.

Games Workshop’s original jungle plants, now out of production, but still in wide circulation on the second hand market.  These are the green and brown ones, they have simply been washed in soapy water (a hangover chore from painting plastic figures and not strictly necessary), then washed with slightly watered down Renaissance Inks.  You could also wash with watered down dark green paint or simply dry brush.  It’s much easier to do this with the plant parts still on the sprues.

Four finished jungle terrain pieces.  The paint and sand mix has been added, then dry brushed and some static grass stuck in place with white wood glue. You can get considerable variation with just a handful of different plant types and different “planting” schemes.

 Some CDs with a selection of plastic plants fixed in place with a hot glue gun.  You can see the square of card over the centre and the sprues of the plant mats.  Scoring the CDs is just a minor precaution to help give the glue and the paint a key.

Bamboo plants, these are based differently, just on a square of 2mm MDF.  We bought a “chain” of bamboo from a home decor store which provided us with 150 individual bamboo shoots.  Three or four have been hot glued to the centre of the MDF.

Twig and plant mat trees.  Each of the plastic plants has literally been pushed onto the “branches” of the twigs.  Each twig has between three and five of the plastic plants. For solidity, the twig has been hot glued to an old coin.

Seed pods with a plastic plant mat plant stuck to the top to make palm trees.  The natural shape of the seed pod was ideal for the trunk.  These add a bit of extra colour to the Indian village featured in issue 14 of Battlegames.

Battlegames issue 16 - Diane's article

"Diane Sutherland, entertaining as ever, gives us a wonderful wargamers' travelogue, pinpointing all the wargames and modelling shops in Athens!"

Presenting Ippokratous Street in Athens, your wargame destination.  Well worth a visit, lots of kits, railway stuff and a proper wargame shop - a dying breed these days.  All of the locations are within a few metres of one another.  
A word of warning - the street is long and there is a distinct incline!

Battlegames issue 14 - Diane's article

Chocolate teapots

"Diane Sutherland reveals the unusual things her husband John does with decorative china."

In this article Diane looks at using pottery houses for the wargames table.  Apparently, some deluded souls actually collect Leonardo Tes Pots.  Have a look on Ebay for them, people want mad money for some of them.  The best option is to go to a car boot or "yard sale" and pick them up for next to nothing.  I didn't pay more than 50p for any of them.

A selection of smaller (15mm) pottery buildings.  These were part of a Christmas village scene.  Note the building centre left with the large hole in the side.  This was designed to take a tea-light, roughed up its better with a 75mm anti-tank gun.

A selection of Leonardo collectible tea pots, a door replacement was needed for the one on the left.  Where the remainder of the spouts and handles were too obvious, the sides of the buildings have been covered in Woodland Scenics turf.

Close up of the side of one of the Leonardo tea pots, with no detailing on the walls, the only option was to fill and then cover with Woodland Scenics turf.

Waffen SS mortar crew deployed in a 30p farmhouse money box yard.  There was a narrow slit in the top which was filled and textured with Milliput.  The farm had a thick pottery base, so half a low TSS hill has been stuck on to MDF base and textured.  The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed the repainted Britain’s walling.

You can get a hard copy or digital copy of Batlegames from:

https://subscribeme.to/battlegames

Well worth a read.