Monday, 31 August 2020

Terrain 12 14' of hedges! Wargames Terrain Workshop Challenge

I agreed to take part in Dave Stone 's( of Wargames Terrain  Workshop) terrain challenge at the beginning of July, two months to get stuff done, easy,maybe not!
 Going back to work in July probably impacted and of course starting a number of terrain projects was probably not the way to go. I also realise that the majority of my hobby time is in the evening sitting in front of the TV ,which tends to preclude terrain, really just prepping and painting figures, so shed time becomes limited, however I have managed to finish before the deadline, last minute, me? Yes!
For the ACW and AWI you need lots of fencing, for the WOTR and War of three Kingdoms (ECW), got bored of initials! You need lots of hedges, the hedges I had for our King and Parliament games were inherited pan scourers or makeshift bits of door matt, neither cut the mustard as far as I was concerned.  Driving through the highways and byways of Hertfordshire for work ( what is it about satnav and single track roads ?) I got to see a lot of hedges this summer, mostly they're pretty messy and I wanted a fast ,easy ,cheap way of doing them. I had a look at the lead adventure forum and a chap called Charlie did some nice messy hedges but they looked time consuming . I ended up on Erik the sheds blog showing his hedge making, which didn't appeal to me, however there was an anonymous comment saying, pretty much"you don't want to do it like that, glue wire wool down, spray it green, cover in clump foliage, job done" I  suppose that's what I've done more or less.
I cut up a load of mdf off cuts of varying widths uhu'd bits of wire wool down ,did my usual pva/ sharp sand basing,sprayed it all with some halfords matt camo green ( although I could have used black looking at the results) and then sloped pva all over and chucked some clump foliage, some of the basing that had been swept up from the floor when I based my boards and then topped with my usual basing material. I quite like that you can see into it in parts and that it's pretty messy.
 Sprayed on sticks ,then roughly based.

 Basing materials, it got messy!
 You can see the basing tray underneath.




 Variation with some bits of doormat and fake grass plus stuff on top
 Some of the cut off Christmas tree bits found their way into the mix to give variety.

 I stuck some little sticks in to be dead trees etc
 With some Irish riders for scale


 Looking along you can see the variation in width as well
It's fast and dirty but it still seemed to take up a load of time at least I've managed to get done in time,just!
Next up, probably ECW cavalry, it won't be tomorrow, it's only the deadline making me post today!
All the best  Iain 

48 comments:

  1. Outstanding! Impressive to get something looking so good done on such a big scale.

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    1. Thanks! In a way it was almost as easy to do lots as it would be to just do some, economies of scale, well that's what I told myself!
      Best Iain

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  2. Well done, very impressive'quick n dirty' method for hedges - I'm still a great fan of rubberised horsehair (old school, I guess).

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    1. Thanks Joe,horsehair sounds good, it was just in my drive for economy it had to be built from what I had,fortunately I had a glut of wire wool!
      Best Iain

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  3. Excellent work Iain,the fact that no two hedges look the same makes them all the more realistic, all the extra touches were worthwhile and add to the overall effect

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    1. Thanks Dave! Yes, they're all different, which I'm happy about!
      Best Iain

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  4. An impressive amount of hedges Iain... they are certainly going to come in useful.

    All the best. Aly

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  5. Iain, very nicely ‘right’ looking and having just done 4’ of fencing myself, I find 14’ of hedge hugely impressive.

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    1. Thanks Norm! Nice and messy, I think economies of scale works better on hedges rather than fences!
      Best Iain

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  6. Nice work! My hedges are similar but made from clump foliage by Woodland Scenics. Yours are better.

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    1. Thanks Jonathan! There is aome clump foliage by woodland scenics,just not as much as I thought they'd be!
      Best Iain

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  7. Looking great...my hedges are looking a bit tired now ☹️

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    1. Thanks Matt! Having to refurb 25 year old trees at the moment, not just tired,rusty!
      Best Iain

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  8. Great job! Each looks wild and free and distinct. Nice method of construction. If you’re like me, you had a lot of the basing materials and flock and stuff just lying around already. Reminds me of when I built my hedgerows, which are maybe the same thing.....maybe. 😀

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    1. Thanks Stew! Yes,it had to be built from kit I already had, in the contract I signed with myself! I'm sure yours are similar with more flair!
      Best Iain

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  9. Great work Iain, they look excellent. I like the fact that they're totally un-uniform. Makes them look way more realistic.

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  10. That brought back memories of driving around Bucks for me, and hoping a pub would be around the next corner so I could have a sneaky pint on my way home. Great work Iain.

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    1. Thanks Lawrence! Ah if only, difficult to grab a sneaky pint when you have to book it ahead!
      Best Iain

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  11. Well you've certainly resolved the hedge problem for your games - excellent job Iain. Cheers Greg

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  12. Hedging your bets?

    That's quite a lot of hedges and they look great, nice and varied and much more natural looking than the scouring pad ones I made long ago.

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    1. Thanks Fitz! Always room for those kind of jokes in this slice of the blogosphere!
      Best Iain

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  13. Rows of Hedges for hedgerows...
    They are very effective, Iain!

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  14. Very nicely done Iain, I can just imagine the mess but the end results were well worth it!

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    1. Thanks Lee! It was a bit messy but I do wear an apron, it just saves me covering my clothes in krud!
      Best Iain

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  15. Wow, there is a lot of dedication there, but the work most certainly paid off.

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  16. Nice work Iain - good to see terrain made "on the cheap" like an old school hobby, using left overs and bits n pieces, but still coming out with a good result!

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    1. Thanks Keith! Yes there was certainly an element of bits and bobs,make do and mend,kind of satisfying!
      Best Iain

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  17. Oh, my! That's a forest there you created, Iain. Very impressive.

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    1. Thanks Dean ! Not a forest of pikes ,but good enough!
      Best Iain

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  18. I'll admit I was skeptical part way through, but those turned out really well. Nice work - now you need to show them off in a game.

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    1. You and me both Marcus! But I'm glad they worked out alright, good for ECW, WOTR or dark ages, hope to get a game in soon!
      Best Iain

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  19. nice work the scenery is as important as me the miniatures in a game

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    1. Thanks Ronin! I couldn't agree more!
      Best Iain

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  20. Really nice hedges Iani. They look very picturesque.
    Apart from blogs content, it's worth reading other comments, isn't it? :)))

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    1. Thanks Dmitry! Yes it's always worth reading the other comments isn't it?
      Best Iain

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  21. Great ideas! Will now have to make more hedges!

    Best wishes,
    Jan

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    1. Thanks a lot Jan! You've certainly got room on your enormous table!
      Best Iain

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  22. Very natural looking! Great job on keeping the whole project to stuff you already had too. I'm rather impressed indeed in these.

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    1. Thanks Dai! Yes,economy drive on here, so no new purchases allowed!
      Best Iain

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