Friday, April 10, 2015

Chinese Village in 28mm

Having cleared the Spanish from the paint table time to turn to one of the long term projects sitting on the drawing board.

Much of my gaming over the past few years seems to have a Chinese feel to it, Boxer Rebellion, Russo-Japanese War, the terrain in use has been adaquate but I wanted to give it more of an obvious Oriental feel to the table top and onlooker.


The photo above was one of the first images that inspired me to re-fight the RJW period the farm in the background seemed perfect for what a typical rural hamlet might look like in 1905 Manchuria.
With a planned all dayer game in June at the Wyvern Wargames - Lardy Day. It seemed like it was time to put the plans in motion.

There is plenty of Samurai type buildings on the market, but the Chinese architecture is very different, several hours on the web delivered some very suitable pieces sourced from Curtney Miniatures and John Jenkin Designs.


Curtneys excellent resin buildings are designed for Ancient China they are well cast, light weight and with detactable roofs and bases gives me the most flexability between playability and style.


 
John Jenkins Designs have some wonderfully detailed buildings in 28mm, but are largely focused on the Japan and are near impossible to obtain in the UK, now appearing to focus mostly on 54mm figures, I was able to pick up some stone walling and a stable which will be useful for the rural compound sadly everything else is out of stock.


The 4 Ground fences from their Samuari range took longer than anticapted to construct with each section coming in a several sections all of which needed to be constructed in order and allowed to set before the next piece is added, but they are perfect for the walling each building and some small enclosures.


I figured mounting the buildings on boards would make them a little more durable and allow me to add some finer detail such as static grass and smaller terrain items, besides some of the fences pieces are only 2" across and were likely to fall over on the table during game play.


Securing the building bases to boards also gave me the flexibility to swap buildings around but also gives me the options to create "toppers" which can replace buildings if needs be with say ornamental gardens or vegatable patches...

Plenty more to do.... 

19 comments:

  1. Looks like a really good start...good idea with the modular basing.

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  2. Looking forward to seeing them all painted up!

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  3. An excellent start. Look forward to seeing these completed.

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    1. Quicker I get them done Mark the quicker they can hit the game table.
      Cheers
      Stu

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  4. Off to a great start with this terrain.

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    1. Make a change from the finer detail.
      Cheers
      Stu

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  5. Great stuff Stuart! That same picture provised me with some scenic inspiration of my own.

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    1. Next up gun enplacements Mark after seeing your post.
      Cheers
      Stuart

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    2. Watch my blog for another artillery position. Finished it last night and hope to get some images done today.

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    3. Will do Mark.
      Regards
      Stuart

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  6. Hi Stuart,
    Will you be putting magnets on the bases they often help holding buildings, blanks and terrain in place (well at least in 15mm !) you must have a lot of storage with all the terrain you have .
    Regards Furphy .

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    1. Good shout Gav, the lip on the house bases are pretty deep, guess time will tell on whether I need to add some magnetic tape.
      Managed to bag half the garage (nerd centre as the kids call it) so storage is not to bad.
      Cheers
      Stu

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  7. Nice work Stu and look forward to seeing the finished products.

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    1. Cheers Steve.
      Should have a further update tomorrow.
      Stu

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    2. Should have an update tomorrow Steve.
      Cheers
      Stu

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