The first try to paint after my eye surgery - some more 15mm Mediterranean buildings completed

Since my eye surgery back at the beginning of August I wasn´t able to paint or build anything for a long time and I will struggle to paint miniatures for much more weeks to come as I still largely lack three-dimensional vision.

This means I cannot properly judge the distance between the tip of the brush and the surface, amongst other things. That´s why painting details becomes a real challenge for me.

Novertheless I could complete my mediterranean buildings for my "Gela 1943" project, but these can (and will) be used for the complete mediterranean area of course.

Painting the individual roof tiles was extremly time-consuming with the current handicap, but also a good practice for adapting to the new circumstances.

After all but I´m pretty happy with the result 😊

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Eye surgery – hence a forced break from blogging for the time being

As I had to undergo surgery on my left eye last Tuesday due to a detached retina, I will not be able to paint any new models or update my blog for at least the next 2-3 weeks.

I hope that I will be able to continue working on my projects after that, and then there will be updates here on my Blog again. 

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Terrain - Building an Oasis

My next project - a model an oasis for our wargames set in North Africa and the Levant including a water basin, water channels and of course showing it´s agricultural use:

Overview of my Oasis.

I was not aiming for 100% accuracy of detail, for example in terms of the plants depicted.
On the one hand, terrain for wargames has to be reasonably robust, which means that many techniques from diorama modelling cannot be implemented, and on the other hand, the scale itself sets its limits when it comes to realising it in the model.
The main thing for me was the modelling of the different levels/storeys into which the cultivation of the different types of fruit and vegetables in an oasis are divided.

Schematic illustration of the layers of an oasis

The inhabitants of the oasis developed a three-layer farming system: The tall date palms sheltered shorter trees, and below these trees grew even smaller shrubs and plants.

Date palms are widespread and there were grapevines, pomegranate, and fig trees. Also found here are annuals, including lentils and cereals but also simple grasses, which are needed as fodder for the cattle (mostly goats).

And before I get to the photos of the terrain pieces I built, one more note:
I am aware that the use of wooden buckets for drawing water in oases was the exception rather than the rule and that bags made of goatskin were used in the majority of cases.

In my example, the bucket simply arrived at the oasis with a caravan and was exchanged for dates etc. - which is quite plausible if you look at the following drawing of an oasis near Suez from the 19th century:

And here are completed terrain pieces representing my version of an Oasis that is very far from perfect.

Palms are cheap China plastic ones completely repainted - I will post a link to the WiP post at the end of this one:

Well, water basin and wooden water crane - a housing for a diesel pump will be added later to the platform next to the well.

The central water distributor and 2 seperate water channels

Date palms provide shade for the underlying fields of fruit ...

pumkins ...

vegetables and even just gras to fodder the cattle.

and some additional bases with more Date palms to fill gaps.

There will be follow more bases over time but together with all my palms I finished over the last year I will be fine for now 😉

Some more detail shots of the pieces:

And a few shots with 28mm and 15mm miniatures for size comparison:

Information and pictures of the WiP stage can be found in this post:

https://utgaards-blog.blogspot.com/2025/06/terrain-work-in-progress-constructings.html

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Terrain work in progress: Scratch building an Oasis agriculture - last update 29.6.2025

One of the intended uses of my newly painted palms is to depict an oasis agriculture - usable for settings in North Africa and the Middle East, especially in the Levant for ‘Operation Exporter’ (Palmyra etc.).

In my case, it will be a well oasis, of which I want to schematically depict the well itself, a water collection basin directly adjacent to it and the distribution via canals to the individual fields.

In order to be able to use the fountain in different eras, I will build both a wooden water crane and a small stone platform next to the fountain on which I can place a housing for a diesel engine for more modern times.

Update 29.6.2025

Moving on with growing even more plants for my rising oasis 😎

Update 25.6.2025

My desert oasis starts taking shape

Update 24.6.2025

Scratch built some more vegetables:

A few Citrus trees

Tomato shrubs

and a few pumpkins modelled out of Greenstuff

Update 23.6.2025:

Prepared some plants that together with the already finished palms I will use to represent the three-layer farming system. Made from cheap China plastic plant I completely re-painted them using my airbrush.

Update 22.6.2025:

The stones of the water channels are set and painted, to depict the water I use ModPodge Glossy, which now has to dry for 48 hours.

Well and water basin made from Styrodur.

Bucket for the wooden water crane under contruction ...

... and finished.

The centrepiece of my planned oasis is finished and waiting to be painted: the fountain, water collection basin, wooden cradle and the bucket for the fountain, as well as the water pipe.

For size comparison with 28mm and 15mm figures.

My oasis starts taking shape slowly but steady - centre piece is the water distribution and on the right the first fieldd to grow fruits and vegetables, grass to feed the goats and so on.

Pictures and information regarding some background of my completed Oasis can be found in this post:

https://utgaards-blog.blogspot.com/2025/07/terrain-building-oasis.html

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