Showing posts with label Terrain. Show all posts

Thursday, January 8, 2026

Terrain: Making templates for my 15mm buildings out of scratch

This is my first post of the new year, so I would like to wish all my readers a happy, prosperous and, above all, healthy new year!

When I moved to Bavaria and switched from 28mm to 15mm (and 10mm), I wanted to keep my buildings playable, as I was used to with my 28mm buildings before.

However, this quickly proved to be very impractical at a scale of 15mm and smaller, as they are simply too small and awkward to handle, especially when my preferred multi-bases come into play.

So I created templates of the floor plans and storeys, used wooden strips to represent the walls, and voilà, you can now easily place and move figures in buildings and immediately see which figures are positioned where – without having to constantly remove roofs and storeys.

A small and quick craft project that didn't strain my eyes and marked my start to the new year in terms of my hobby.

Terrain: Some more Fields and Grasslands

11:46:00 AM Utgaard No comments

Over the last couple of days I added some more pieces to my growing terrain collection; nothing spectacular, just a few wheat fields and grasslands.

A 28mm AWI figure on the left with 15mm in support - works for both sizes.

Terrain: Testing new versions for a terrain mat

8:21:00 AM Utgaard 4 comments

Even though my last terrain mat turned out well, it still has a few disadvantages for me:

The acrylic-sand mixture on fleece is flexible in terms of adapting to the ground, but the mat can only be stored and transported when rolled up.

Combined with its size of 2.40 m x 1.40 m, this naturally makes it quite bulky in terms of transport and storage.

In short, I am testing other versions/solutions, and here is my next mat - for testing purposes in a size of 1,80m x 1,20m.

The base is a 5 mm thick fleece used in pond construction. I brushed this fleece with a hairbrush from the pet accessories section and then treated it with various acrylic paints, designing both sides of the mat.

One side represents more fertile areas, while the other side can represent arid regions or even desert.

Side One for the fertile regions:

The other side - arid and desert regions:

This mat also turned out quite well, but after I had painted the fleece, it became quite stiff once the paints had dried and like it's predecessor can also only be stored/transported rolled up only.

The next version is therefore already in the works 😎

Self-made weathering powder

10:37:00 AM Utgaard No comments

Just a quick update Today.

Since I run out of weathering powder while weathering the last houses (The first try to paint after my eye surgery - some more 15mm Mediterranean buildings completed), I made some new mixtures using different pastel chalks creating my own mixtures for weathering roofs, walls, dust on vehicles moss, rust and so on.

It´s quick, fun, the colors are exactly how I want them and it´s also much cheaper than buying the ready-made stuff.

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

6:55:00 AM Utgaard 4 comments

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 😊

Terrain - Building an Oasis

4:47:00 PM Utgaard 2 comments

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: