Of Olives and Grapes

Lee and myself agreed to split up the terrain pieces for FoG between us. Off he went and bought most of his agreed bits, oh and lots of other bits we did not discuss (roads, rivers hills.....) I think he thought we were playing in Sherwood Forrest judging by the number of trees he bought. Note to self, must pick a forest in the next game, don't want to see a grown man cry!!!)

My plan was a little more reserved, I planned to build some pieces so all I had to pit against Lee was a few bits of Plasticard! Well time marched on and due to the painting challenge I decided to put the idea on hold whilst I concentrated on getting the lead out. Not that it stopped the idea's flowing and the prep. At last I started with just the one test piece. First up was the vineyard (which also doubles as olive groves), we are allowed a max of 4 of these and I plan to do 6-8 bases as these also act as open fields or can be made into rough ground with markers. The base is simple enough and no reason to buy them. I will also make a few with walls around them to act as enclosed fields as well. The vines (which make better olive trees) are a simple modeling clay bank (DAS terracotta) mounted on lolly sticks that I have stuck cut down grape storks into. The grape storks need to be very well dried out (put in the oven as it cools after Sunday's joint has been removed) or like me just allow to dry out over a few months. These are rather tough and really look the part. Look great as 6mm dead fall and shattered trees. I then painted the banks and lolly stick base, I did this with Vallejo Saddle Brown but a little on the thin side as it allowed the red of the clay to come through which made it look a lot more earthy. I have mixed colours of Woodland Scenics foliage and just cut it into strips and bunches and stuck to the limbs and allowed to dry. When I flocked the base I also added flock around the base of the banks which hides the stick and any gaps that are caused by the shrinking of the clay.

The end result is a little rough and ready but I felt looks the part well enough. From a gaming distance they actually look better. The vines bases are not glued in place so can be moved around to allow figures to move through them. In fact I will use one less bank per terrain piece as it is a bit too crowded. I did mean to add some 15mm figs for scale but forgot in the rush to get Cath to snap them. Wait till we get a game in and I will make sure they feature.

Time wise it took much longer than I expected but I did a lot of it whilst I was ill so that will have slowed it down a fair bit. I will do the rest in one go once I have reloaded on the storks, it takes up more than you would think.