Tuesday, July 19, 2011

On a budget?

If you are on a budget but feel some urgent need for neat wargaming terrain, this might be something for you.

As you might have seen in my last post, I was going to make some bocages. The "soldering" method is nice, but it's looking quite rough, unlovely and unfinished. I was in need of some coverage. Everybody uses this immensely expensive clump foliage... 15€ for a bag with one litre wich will be used up completely on one single bocage? No. Thanks not for me. I'll try something different!

In a forum where I use to roam, somebody posted a link to a model railroad website with some useful hints.
I assume that some of you are looking on sites like this to because railroad modellers are far ahead of us wargamers when it comes to terrain. Well, some of you will surely not have peeked at them yet. So let me share this with you!

What do you need?
An old kitchen mixer (Mine was inherited by my granpa ;-) )
Some green wall-colour (emulsion-paint), maybe some white and some black to shade it.
A bit of foam material (the smaller the pores, the better)

To clearify things: I don't mean stuff like polystyrene-foam, more the foam thats under your bum, when you're sitting on your couch ;) Even better: Foam from an old car-seat! This stuff is pretty fine :)

Ok, lets go!
Cut the foam in pieces of about a cubic inch (2,5x2,5cm).
You won't need very much of it for one mixing run. Compare it with the 1/72 figure ;-)
Now put some of it in the mixer. Not all of it. Split this second step up in 2 or 3 smaller steps.
Now push the button! You'll notice, that the foam will be ripped apart. The longer you go, the smaller the foam goes. As said before, split the above amount up, rip a part up, evacuate it, and do the same with the next bit.

Next step: Colour!
Now put all the mixed  foam in the mixer. Add some colour! You won't need much of it! This mixer filled with a 3/4 litre of foam did not need as much as a shooter glass of paint! It's very economic ;)
 Let it go round and round again. The foam gets even smaller and is almost instantly green...
Now pour it out on some baking sheet and leave it to dry for one day. Clean the mixer, if you like to do this again ;)
What you see here is about a quater of an hours work(foam only, of course :-P):
And here's one finished bocage for you:
Yeah, the colours are somewhat odd... I know. I'll do better next time ;)

I hope you liked it!
Cheers, Mojo

Ahh, stop!
@Thomas: Thank you for the hints! I'll try that next time! 
@Bard: Welcome to my blog :)
@All: Visit these guys' blogs if you haven't already done so ;-)

5 comments:

  1. Very good, nicely done and explained.

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  2. What a fantastic idea, nice one!!!

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  3. Thats a great idea, now I'll just have to think of a way to convince the wife to use the blender.

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  4. Oo great tutorial :D followed :P

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