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What is the pink foliage from? Your terrain looks cool, by the way.

The pink foliage is model railroad flocking. I couldn't find a white that I liked, or I would have mixed white and pink to make the cherry blossoms.

Short summation and some photos from a Ronin game we ran last Friday. The Sohei, peasants, defending Samurai, lord's house, shrine, some trees, and a farm house are mine. The rest is Mark's kit from our group:

http://wfhgs.com/friday.html

It was a night of some pretty hideous rolls to say the least.

From visuals alone it looks like a fun game.

As noted, I setup the scenario as follows:

Bushi: An Ikko-Ikki uprising had called away the local lord and a skeleton retainer force was left to defend the village. When a raiding party from the main Ikko-Ikki warband arrived unannounced they had to secure the lord's wife and basically half of the population. Secondary objective was to defend the houses/buildings of the village.

Sohei: They needed to rescue an itinerant monk that was in the village. While their secondary objective was to protect the villagers as the lord had allowed them to stay in the region being the practical lord that he is (bushi had teppos, under the rational their lord had converted to Christianity to secure weapons and trade concessions, but being pragmatic had not kicked the Buddhists out so as to keep those of his people who did not wish to convert happy).

Ikko-Ikki: They were tasked with carrying off peasants and the itinerant monk (can't be a real Buddhist, he's been aiding Christian and Buddhists alike!). If they could not capture them killing them would work as a secondary objective.

The Sohei and Bushi were not informed they had similar objectives, as the Sohei were told to bring models to their shrine while the bushi were told to bring models to the lord's fortified house.

I moved the peasants around to keep them as far from any party as possible for as long as possible. Two of which were ninja, who I was going to try and take leaders out with to add a little unexpected/cannot plan for this to the game. The unpredictability worked at any rate, and I swapped out the villagers. One ninja was effortlessly annihilated by the Sohei while the other killed an Ikko-Ikki monto and then chased them around the board.

The Sohei won in the end. They secured the monk and the Ikko-Ikki lacked sufficient control of peasants at game end. As such they had full-filled most of their victory conditions. Bushi came in second, with Ikko-Ikki just not getting where they needed quickly enough (as I said, lots of horrible rolling, the Sohei and Ikko-Ikki archers couldn't manage a roll over a 5 or 6 for shooting for almost the entire game, I think something like 1 light wound and two stuns out of over 20 shots).

Hi all,

It's been a while, but 6 points of done Normans needed to be put onto the table to play. Similarly, 5 points of Vikings plus a partially complete levy unit were itching for some plunder. I sadly don't have a lot of trees, so some imagination is needed when looking at the pics. Everything other than the 4-ground buildings was built and painted by me.

Our historical gaming group again revisited Saga for a scenario involving some Norman on Viking action. Ask most folks about when the Normans were first in England, and they’ll probably look at you like ‘who are the Normans’, but for historical folks, most will say 1066. That is, of course, somewhat misleading and untrue. The events in 1066 were of course predicated on the fact that Edward the Confessor had a lot of Norman advisors in the kingdom at that time, and if you are a conspiracy theorist, he may have been bumped off so that he couldn’t transfer power to them (Duke William at least made that claim, and there is some evidence to believe he was probably right). Edward, though, isn’t their first interference in English politics. When Cnut conquered England he took a Norman bride, Emma. So in a real sense, Edward was Norman, and Cnut was already courting the powerful families in Normandy following his conquering of England.

Thus the plot for the evening involved two Norman lords being called up Cnut for a council following his conquest. In the aftermath, Cnut’s big potential rival was Thorkell the Tall, and Cnut was calling in all lords to assess loyalty. A few of Thorkell’s retainers took it upon themselves to ambush the Normans and hopefully reduce Cnut’s clout enough to keep him from obtaining unquestioned power. Just shy of a river crossing next to a small farmstead in a wood they barricaded the road and setup an ambush in the surrounding woods. Areas in orange, below, are forested.




We played with 4 players, each with a 3 point warband. Norman player 1 had 1 warlord, 1 mounted hearthguard unit, 1 foot warrior unit, and 1 warrior unit with crossbows. Norman player 2 had 1 warlord, 1 mounted hearthguard unit, 1 foot warrior unit, and 1 unit of bow armed levy. Viking player 1 had 1 warlord, 1 unit hearthguard, and 2 units of warriors. Viking player 2 had 1 warlord, 1 unit hearthguard, 1 unit of warriors, and 1 unit of levy bow. The entire board was essentially forested, meaning the milites could not move more than one base off the path or field (small path off the field led to a ‘foot bridge’ over the river, simulating the somewhat dense underbrush that English forests can tend to have. Archers were allowed to shoot through it. The Normans had to get at least 50% of their units off the table (50% being units with more than 50% of their men left, such that if the Vikings killed 3 of 4 hearthguard, as an example, they got the victory point for that unit).

In addition, we used a hidden setup for the Vikings. They had a suite of cards that were turned face-down. All face cards were real units, non-face cards were dummy blinds. They could move each card as if it was a unit, and if a Norman came within 6 inches of a card it had to be revealed. This enabled the Viking players to move about and create some tension in terms of where the attack would fall.



In the opening phases most of the Normans moved up the path into the small farm clearing, being locked into a narrow combat formation due to the path. A lone unit of Viking warriors surprised them near the entrance to the farm, and the Normans struggled to array into formation in time to protect the column. The doughty warriors gave much better than they took, and quickly whittled down a unit of warriors before being finished off by milites. The Viking levy appeared in one of the fields of the farm, and were promptly charged by the surviving milites (who survived with 1 milite left).



Below the carnage in the town, the crossbows and Norman levy were sneaking through the trees supported by the remaining unit of warriors. They just made the field, as their warrior screen was butchered by in coming Viking warriors. At this point things were looking grim for the Normans, they were close to hitting the 50% mark and loosing. 1 unit of milites was almost gone, 2 units of warriors were gone, and the Viking warlords and hearthguard were yet to get into play.

It was here the Norman missile fire saved the day. They effectively wiped out a hearthguard, warlord, unit of warriors, and stymied the Viking movement (essentially denying them easy routes to mop up). It came down to the remaining Norman hearthguard attacking the remaining Viking hearthguard everything being butchered. The warlord’s clashed, and the Normans came out on top with just their warlords and the missile armed levy counting towards victory, winning by the skin of their teeth thanks to some last minute heroics by the missile units and warlord.



1 Vikings warlord against two Norman ones, and a full unit of levy and x-bow at the end.



Some overall comments, milites are deadly in combat, but weak in number. If you cannot soften foes up they will die. The Normans very nearly lost the game. Milites went down in droves because the bows could not adequately support them and the milites had very limited movement. Viking battleboards can dominate melee, forcing refights or bulking up attacks hurts when your Norman's forced to engage to keep from being surrounded. In the end the scenario worked out very balanced, lack of mobility hurt the Normans and the cover bonus of the woods could have saved the Vikings if it had not been for phenomenal rolling on the Norman player's part. The fact that they walked off with the milites and warriors having been wiped out to a man or close to it tells how narrow it got.

Four Warbands are now done for Saga. Six points of Normans, 4 points of Milites Christi, 4 (5) points of Vikings, and 4 points of Anglo Danish. I have two points of Levy Archers in progress, but I am not sure when they will be back on the table as I am busy with a Teutonic Knights Warmaster Ancients army and Greeks for Saga (or should I say Epic?).

Anyways a group shot of the Normans:



Templars/Milites Christi:



Vikings:



Anglo-Danish:



The Danes of course could be used as Vikings if need be.

The group I play with are big fans of Warmaster Ancients. I wasn't sure about 10mm, but the game is fun and I wanted to support the group and so I choose the Teutonic Knights after a lot of list perusing. There were already several crusaders and a Norman player, so I went for the Northern Crusades instead.

This is the start to my forces. One general, two sub commanders, a unit of Teutonic Knights, two crusader units (one as a block of mounted Teutonic Sergeants), three Order Spear (one as a block of knights on foot), two crossbow, and a unit of light cav.

Still to come is a fourth unit of spear, two more crossbow, one or two units of light cav as mounted crossbowmen, and one or two units of Teutonic Knights. Basing is snow, as winter combat was the norm due to the swampy morass the terrain became in the summer. A few units still need based, but I am saving up to do a large block at once as the snow is a pain to make and you make a lot when you do it.

My crusaders were fun as they represent towns we used to go to often when I was a boy in Germany. Front row, left to right; Garmisch, Karlsruhe, Sindelfingen (had an awesome pool complex), Vaihingen (where we were stationed), Esslingen, and Hohenzollern. Back row, left to right; Freiburg, Ulm, Schwabisch-Gmund, Tubingen, Heidelberg, and Ludwigsburg.

I have finally finished some of my Greeks for Epic/Saga. I have based them somewhat on the great Ray Harryhausen film Jason and the Argonauts. The hearthguard and Warlord are in the blackgold armor and the warriors are in a white/black linen to still cover some of the colors but still be a little different.

The slingers will serve as mercenaries, Rhodian Slingers.

Warmaster castle nearing completion:

Saga, as a system, has great core mechanics, and if you are willing to dabble can be made into a robust system for any small scale unit action. Case in point, the fens and swamps that Hereward the Wake's soldier's used surrounding Ely after demise of Harold and most of the ruling elite in England. Now this could be played straight up, with no twists but we decided to add a little wrinkle. Hereward was the leader of Saxon resistance after William had conquered Southern England. He withdrew into the fens around the town of Ely (with the backing of the bishop there), and made repeated sorties out to run a guerrilla war upon the Norman invaders. The fens posed a problem in both attack and defense. Large bodies of troops were difficult to move through the territory, and both sides spent time looking for paths in and out to enable or deny successful conquests.

We used a standard scenario from the book, where both sides started with 6 points and then bid to see who would defend. The lowest bidder defended the 'town' while the other team attacked. As the fens were notorious for shifting pathways, fetid swamp, and thick gorse any unit that wanted to move would have to roll a D6. On Evens they could move as normal, on odds foot soldiers moved short (instead of medium) and mounted troops moved very short. The attacking player had to find a pathway off the table, while the defenders had to stop them. We used simple stones to delineate good and bad paths across the board. Blue stones meant solid footing/clear land while red indicated muck/swamp/other slowing troops down. Anything withing very short of a path counted the same as the path, meaning a player could moved successive units up a path and branch off in new directions depending on how things went.

The Normans underbid the Anglo-Danish (Saxons) and thus the scenario was the Normans guarding a known farmstead on the outskirts, attempting to keep the Saxons bottled up inside the fens while the Duke prepared his soldiers for the assault on Ely. The Anglo-Danish had to get their soldiers off the opposite table edge. For a full victory they needed a continuous path, for a slim victory just getting off the board would do. The Norman player took two units of Mounted Hearthguard, a unit of crossbows, and a unit of foot warriors. The town would count everything within medium as firm ground with no rolling needed to move.

The Anglo-Danish spread out across the table and started a slow slog across it, with only moderate success for mobility. The Normans likewise slowly trudged out to counter at a few key points on the table. At several points the pathing meant both sides failed to get into combat. In particular the Normans failed on a few key charges, and the Anglo-Danish we able to slog across slowly but steadily. The Norman crossbow shooting ensured the 'Saxons' did not go unmolested however. In the end though, the Anglo-Danish order countering ability saw a single unit of Anglo-Danes get off the table, though not with any connecting paths. By that point the Normans had been whittled down, but the Danes couldn't get the job done for a full win.

Now this can be connected for a future game, in which the 'Saxons' are attempting a break out, but due to the slim victory the Normans might have an ambush lined up and ready to go. A simple mechanic, in this case to represent boggy/marshy ground, made for a very different version of the standard scenario, where no one could be certain of how things would play out.

A lack of interconnected paths slowing things down:


Norman Crossbows and the killing field.



These milites and Danish (Saxons) failed several charges right before this show down.



Crossbows finally get locked down and taken out



Off the table, but without a clear path

Interesting bit for Arthurian fans, apparently there is more to the story of Tintagel than previously thought:

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-36967147

There is more to this story that is fascinating. Tintagel castle was built when a British Bishop had a vision that said it was either the birth place of Arthur or Camelot (I do not remember which, it has been a few years since I was there). The English King was persuaded to build a castle there, as it had little to no strategic value at the time, to connect himself with the legend of Arthur. There was no evidence at the time beyond the Bishop's claims

For years this was thought to have all been hogwash and that the Bishop had pulled a fast one on the king. However, during modern excavations they started discovering that there had, in fact, been a very wealthy and lucrative international trading center in the 6th/7th century. Items from as far away as Byzantium and beyond were found. Indicating that a king of some sort did in fact use it as one of his key ports and possibly towns. Someone, who may have been used to form the Arthurian legend, had in fact had troops, trading, ships, and people living on the site that was believed to have been a flim flam story.

Prime target for when a 'historical Arthur' would have lived AND fits with the legendary descriptions of who Arthur traded with and who paid him 'homage'.

Not proof that Arthur is real, but proof that someone, in that area, sure fit with a lot of the less fantastical parts of Arthurian legend.

I have recently finished up some levy and another block of warriors for Saga. The shield maidens were originally going to be for a Space Marine army many years ago. That plan never fully finished and so I stripped and repainted a few of them. Most of them are Shadow Forge, but there is a Foundry and Red Box figure in there.



The levy are all Artizan vikings. Hard to get them all different while keeping the color palette low/common. A few have blue or black garb to show wealth they have garnered on past voyages. Most have blonde hair not because the vikings were all platinum blonde, but it appears they liked to dye their hair pale blond. In India you see a lot of poorer people with red/orange hair as it is considered popular/attractive. So my levy mostly have followed suit. Dying their hair to seem more 'noble' or 'handsom'.

I have recently completed a number of terrain pieces for Saga:





A modified 4ground building (combining two buildings into one L shaped building)

Excellent scenery. Must be an absolute joy to play on.

EDC

So I haven't quite finished my Greeks for Saga, but I have built up a modular terrain board for them. I have finished two fields, and two trader stalls (one food and one a fletcher/bow maker).









I have an Olive press and Bread or pottery oven in the works. I also want to make wine merchant stall with some amphora I picked up.

The Peloponnesian War is a rich source for wargamers. As the conflict spanned a number of Greek city states and colonies both on land at at sea, you can fit it into almost any style of game. Whether you are a skirmish gamer, a naval buff, or like to play the general, there is something in it for all styles of play.

I have slowly been building terrain and forces to adapt Saga into an Ancient Greek skirmish settup. This has been done before, and is typically refered to as “Epic” by those clubs who have done so. I recently finished up a modular 4x4 table with 1'x1' floor tiles. I hope to use them for Greek, 15mm WW2 Pacific, Crusader, and Pirate themed games. For the game in question, we went with the Greeks as I had finished up enough to get a reasonable game of En Garde! (perhaps best referred to as 'The Push!' given the setting).

Now, you might say En Garde! for Greek skirmish? Greek gaming without hoplite lines? That seems silly! However, it is perfectly in keeping with the war. Athens adopted a naval raiding strategy as they tended to loose to Sparta on land in a strait up slug fest. Athenian triremes spent years attacking the Lacedaemonian coast line with lightning raids meant to burn crops, raid temples, and otherwise demonstrate that the Spartans could not provide effective protection to their people or allies. It was a frustrating period for the Spartans, who would march up to Athens only to have the Athenians refuse battle and hide behind their walls.

These Athenian naval raids could be many ships, or small incursions. Very much hit and run affairs, designed to scorch the earth and then fall back. Perfect for a skirmish game. Such raids would have involved small groups of men with varying kit meant to harass the populace. Thus for the scenario each side had 10 models with a similar break down.

The Athenians had a rank 4 Commander with the Commander and Lucky Trait, medium armor, a shield, spear, and hand weapon. A Rank 3 sub officer, with Agile, spear, medium armor, and a hand weapon. Then four rank 2 Hoplites with shield, light armor, spear, and a hand weapon, 2 peltasts with a shield, hand weapon, and javelins, and two Cretan archers (rank 2, but with the Archer skill to denote the fact that the Cretans were widely regarded as some of the best mercenary archers in Ancient Greece).

The Spartans had a rank 4 Commander with the Commander and Tough traits, medium armor, a shield, spear, and a hand weapon. They also had a rank 3 sub officer with Powerful, spear, medium armor, and a hand weapon backed by 4 rank 2 Hoplites with shield, light armor, spear, and a hand weapon. Two Helot peltasts with javelin and shield backed by two Rhodian slingers (given the Sharpshooter trait, as the Rhodians were famous for their slingers).

This provided two similar, but slightly different forces. I deliberately kept them simple and straight forward so that the game wouldn't get bogged down, yet still have a few twists to mix things up. The scenario objectives and deployment served to shuffle it up a little further.

Demosthenes was deployed with the Athenians, just on the beach, a little ways from their Trireme. If the Spartans could capture him, he was worth 5 victory points. Meanwhile there were two fields that the Athenians were out to burn (two victory points per burnt field or 2 per field that the Spartans kept from burning), 2 merchant stalls to plunder (1 vp for plundering or saving them), and a Temple to Ares that could be attacked (the Athenians could plunder it or attempt to steal the statue of Ares, though stealing the statue was not reveal to them unless they got into the temple) for 5 points (or 10 if they stole the statue).

The Athenians were deployed using face down cards with two jokers used as blind/dummy cards. The Spartans then deployed having to guess how to come at the Athenians. The basic premise being that the main raiding force was elsewhere, and these Athenians were mopping up near the ship. The Spartan patrol had stumbled on them and was rushing to hold the line until reinforcements could arrive. The game would last 10 turns.



The Spartans won priority and moved their hoplites and commander up the middle of the table while their hero/sub officer moved down the left flank with the peltasts and slingers. The Athenians cautiously moved their hoplites, commander, and sub office up the middle with the archers and peltasts on their right flank.

Shooting opened with a spate of missile fire between archers and slingers, who manged to stun and wound each other, but only superficially. The peltasts engaged in petty squabbling while the Spartan sub officer slowly worked his way forward under covering fire.



For several turns the main lines sat facing each other in a scene straight out of a Sergio Leone movie which seemed somehow appropriate. Meanwhile on the flank the archers whittled down the slingers, eventually killing both while being wounded in return. The peltasts managed to start to maul each other, but by then it was too late as the Spartan rank 3 hero hit the Athenian peltasts like a sledge hammer. Without even trying he mowed them down in true Spartan style. Given their merciless treatment of the Helots, it is perhaps fitting that the Spartan thrashed what would have been considered the side show soldiers in Greek warfare of the time.

By the time the second Athenian peltast was down the two lines had clashed home and proceeded to give each other a mauling. The Athenian decision to keep their rank 3 with the main group proved to be key, as the Athenians slowly turned the flank and began to roll up the Spartan line. This was perhaps fortunate, and eventually the Athenian light infantry would be killed to the man with a greviously wounded Spartan peltast, one fresh peltast, and a fresh rank 3 moving into their backfield.



While the commanders did not anchor their lines, in true heroic fashion the combat came down to the two of them before the rank 3 Athenian also came into the fracas and attacked the Spartan commander from behind. That combo proved to much, and despite a valiant effort the Spartan was hacked down. At this point the Spartans failed their morale and shifted to wavering, but perhaps showing proper historical spirit they passed all of their rolls to move their men anyways.

Surprisingly, the Spartan rank three moved in with the peltasts to try and avenge their leader, when they had a clear run to Demosthenes for an easy 5 points given how few turns were left. Instead, it was their turn to get butchered and ultimately fall to routing.



In the end, one Athenian Hoplite, their rank 3, and their commander were left standing. However, the Spartans had successfully defended all objectives and at this point the game was called a Spartan win as the Athenians had to flee back to their ship as the Spartan reinforcements were arriving.

However, it wasn't a total route as each commander had a secret secondary objective. The Athenian leader had to kill 3 enemy models to prove himself a hero (The Spartan Commander had to end the game on or in the temple with no Athenians on/in the temple), which he nobly accomplished over the course of the game. Thus it is only a minor Spartan victory. They saved their crops, but the Athenians setup a trophy and the fame of their commander would spread to rally other cities to their cause and spread fear along the coast.

Very cool! Can we get a better look at the troops involved?

I wanted to do something similar but with Lion Rampant instead.

 Easy E wrote:
Very cool! Can we get a better look at the troops involved?

I wanted to do something similar but with Lion Rampant instead.

Sure, I'll take some photos tonight.

Peltasts or Light Hoplites:



Spartans:



General:



Hoplites:

It is getting close to Christmas and this year I decided to paint up some Late Roman cav as presents. One will go to my daughter, one for my Mom, and one for my wife's mom. These are Footsore Late Roman heavy cavalry.





I think that I will have to build up a Late Roman Warband now. Studio Tomahawk is releasing a Late Roman Saga supplement. My daughter is turning 7 so perhaps I will try and teach her to play and help her paint up some Goths to oppose the Romans.

This is the start of an expirement for me. I've had a Japanese Tea House in mind for a while for Ronin, and have decided to give it a go based on some stuff I've read around building out of balsa struts and a first foray into lighted terrain. I bought some model train window film a little while back, and this is a chance for me to try it out (granted they did not have glass windows, but it will work for velum or paper windows). My walls will be wood and paper, which is 'traditional'. The main concept is an L shaped building with a small pond/garden enclosed by a courtyard with two entrances.

The initial concept drawing I developed is below.



To start with I cut struts to make the two ends of the L, and cut out the windows which I will put the film behind. I will likely need to put down a second layer of paper or paint the back of the paper that isn't a window so that the light doesn't shine a whole lot.



I've designed the walls so that the window will indicate a raised floor, and will be making steps up into the house. I am still trying to decide on tile or thatch for the roof. I may do both as I want an awning over the steps/porch, with the main roof in thatch and the awnings in tile. I also have to figure out how to hide the battery and switch for the terrain. I have a push button switch that I am thinking about trying to make a shrine or lantern out of, but I haven't drawn anything up yet. Perhaps the battery hidden in a rain barrel?




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Slowly building up my walls here. I think that I will not go with the L-shaped stairs, and just do flat stairs. I will cut a notch out of the bottom strut/frame to run the wires either along the bottom of the L or through that wall. Funny how glue/time can ever so slightly warp things. It won't be noticeable once I put a roof on, but the rear wall is slightly skewed, perhaps due to the balsa itself.

For my daughter's 7th birthday, I have purchased her a set of Onna-Bugeisha to paint up for Ronin. While rare, there were female Samurai in combat, and if she wants to paint them pink or purple it will actually be okay. I think she is probably still a little young, but I thought I would give it a try. Adding up the modifiers will be good for her, and the small model count will make it useful for simple gameplay. They (both my son and daughter) show a high level of interest in my modeling, and both like to craft. Should this go well in about 2 years I'll try it with my son, and then I'll have gamers to play with at home!

It also means, by myself, I have insufficient Japanese terrain. So I have joined the current League of Extraordinary Riveters Terrain Contest. I will be building a small peasant cottage, and lighting it. This will be a good place to try out some ideas I've had for the tea house seen above. I want to use an electric tea light, and thus have to make the building removable so that I can fit it in the building. It will also be a good excuse to try and make some bamboo trees.

The contest is giving extra credit for putting it on a CD, so here we go (actually good in that it will encourage me to keep the cottage smaller).

My concept pic:



I've already come to realize that the bi-fold sliding doors will have to go on the back side of the house, and I'll be putting windows in where the doors are on the drawing.

Top down scale:



Some initial raw materials:



Ironically, bamboo skewer bamboo tree start:



Initial attempts on the bamboo:



I have the old GW How to Make Wargames Terrain, and their bamboo is actually colored in reverse. So if you have it, buyer beware. The joints should be dark green with a lighter green band around them, not a light green band with a dark body as GW does it. I couldn't find my book, and went to look at some trees for ideas. I have some sea moss that I've been making trees with that I want to try and make some side shoots/off shoots with. Not a lot, but something to dress it up a little.

http://www.hd-wallpapers.com/download/bamboo-trees_1920x1200_230-wide.jpg

this is a very nice and productive (for a change^^, compared to mine) thread!

and a good looking project for the comp!

will be watching this for sure!

cheers, vik

Had a look through the blog, beautiful work sir, excellently painted minis on fantastic looking terrain, great stuff.

And welcome to the competition, nice to see you will stretch yourself, having seen your work in the blog, looking forward to this, particularly love the oriental style you have done, really nice.

Good luck, oh and subbed.

PS I did bamboo for a previous contest in the LoER, maybe not up to your standard but maybe a hint or two...

Thank you guys, hope to live up to your expectations. I like that bamboo, did you use straws or coffee stirrers?

Alternately, and I didn't think about it until looking at yours, one could pull some wild grass/thin reeds. Varnish/glue would stiffen it up enough that you could paint it and use it for terrain. That would give you some of the knobs/joints plus off shoot/leaves. With the snow in I likely cannot try it out, but I might have to look into that next fall when the wild grasses all start to dry out.


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I spent quite a bit of time tonight working on the cottage. Pardon the glue in spots, it was still drying and will be hidden once done.

First I built up my rain barrel using spare slotta round bases. This makes it big enough for a bath if the peasant so chooses. Given the high degree of bathing in Japan it can thus be viewed either way (though not as both, I grant you). Card for the boards and paper for the hoops. When I paint it I will fill the top with faux water.





Then my first two trees. I am quite happy with them, but the moss is fragile like this. I won't do all the trees like this, but a few will add flavor.





Lastly, I have my walls roughed up so that I could double check the tea light and the fit on the CD. It will just make it, so next will be to bust the legos out and glue the wall together.

I've made some progress with the base and walls. The cottage walls are all glued together, and I've started running the planking and framing around. I've also got all the trees together. I need to add a little flock to the off shoots of two, but here is a mock up of what this will look like in the end.

The walls are essentially done now. I will have to do a little gap patching, and smooth the Windows, but otherwise complete.





I have decided to glue the cottage down to the base and make the roof removable. This will make it easier to access with the bamboo on the base.

Still a great blog - so much variety on offer. Your LoER entry is looking mighty fine so far. Will be watching for updates

Thanks! The group I play with has been amassing stuff for 30 years, and thus has a wide range of games they play or are willing to play. Makes it fun to have variety but can mean that we get systems confused sometimes.

This is what I will be filling the windows in with.



Also, paint has started going onto the walls. I also have the roof mock up so that I can cut out my thatch.



Hopefully I will get this most of the way through over my break here.


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As can be seen above, I have slowly been working on small bits of terrain for my Greeks. As olive oil was central to Greek society, I wanted to build an olive press to add to my table. Manor House makes a very nice one with a large millstone and that was apparently common. That would have been problematic to make, and while searching I came across example of some stone plates with a rope or hemp basket that had a weighted arm running across the top. Apparently this was a common type of press whereby the olive where inserted into the rope/hemp basket and a lever arm was weighted down so that it would press the olives. The oil would run into a recipticle and from there it could be transferred into amphora.

Here is my take with a column in the background to add to a board.



The faux water spilled a bit, and I have some clean up to perform, but it is otherwise ready.


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I also have a kiln or bread oven in the works. Puttying the tree has been a bane for a while now, but the half of an easter egg was too good to pass up.