Quick and slightly cheating adobe walls

I have an ongoing project of a Mexican/South western town for my 28mm old west figures. I am slowly building the town bit by bit, buying the odd building here and there.

When placed for gaming something was missing. It just appears all a bit open.  So I decided it needed some walls.

First I thought about making some.  Unfortunately I do not have the time, space or an understanding wife to be able to have an ongoing workshop!  So decided to buy some. The only ones I could find at the time were online and with adding postage it all started to look a bit pricey!!!

Then in my local railway model shop I found some Jarvis sandstone garden walls.  I then remembered that on one of the classic spaghetti westerns I had seen similar shaped walls.  Presumably made from mud bricks and white washed.

I brought 6 walls at £1.35 a piece.

Original Jarvis sandstone garden wall

The first thing was to give them a heavy dry brush of white, leaving the original sandstone colour in the cracks.



OK simple job done.

Now Jarvis scenic pieces always come with their trademark static grass on and sometimes all over them!

Not good for a desert western type setting.

The way I got around this was to apply a liberal coating of PVA glue over the static grass then sprinkle sand over the glue.

Once dried I painted with a sand colour and dry brushed with a cream/bone colour, as above.

I decided to add some lichen, to look like dry scrub.  Also found a couple of wooden wheels and a jug to liven up some of the walls with.

Now my gang of despicable desperadoes have something to hide behind, climb over, or stumble into!

Unfortunately this little job is not quite finished as Jarvis do some broken sandstone wall sections, which my local railway model shop had run out off.  Once re stocked, I will purchase a couple and put them through the same treatment, to add a bit of variety.

Once all the walls are done I will post some pictures of them with the rest of my small town.

Get To The Chopper - Again!

Last year at Reveille, I decided to put on a fun little game called, wait for it 'Get To The Chopper'.  It was originaly and still is a board game based on the first 'Preditor' movie.  I decided to go one further and develop it into a 3D game!

First of all I needed some suitable figures. Searched high and low but alas none that I could find looked sort of over the top Hollywood style or had the weapons similar to the characters. Then one Sunday at my local wargames club (Lincombe Barn Wargames Society) a fellow gamer was selling off some Warhammer 40K figures.  Just what I needed. Some Slight filing here and cut there made their weapons somewhat similar to the film characters. I also had an old plastic Warhammer 40K figure that I added a bow,wooden spear and arrows to.

           Blaine                 Billy                  Mac          

Butch (boy scout) with mud                Butch      

Next a Predator figure was need.  BIG problem!

I already had some Ground Zero Games figures of said alien (under a different name), but these were 25mm and were just too small up to the other figures.

Copplestone does some nice figures, but a bit pricey and I only needed one figure.

E-BAY my saviour. Some one was selling a limited edition 'Hero Clix' predator for £2, bargain!

Now I know it's bigger than the other figures, but the film predator was and It also gives a more menacing feel to it!

The Big guy

As you can see I tarted up his base to hide the 'Hero Clix' numbers etc.

OK now needed a target to reach. Yes the chopper. Nothing special just to visualize the extraction point.  Well on the way home from Turkey last year I found just the right thing in the duty free shop. A plastic helicopter attached to a tube of sweets (which were pretty tasty as well).

Placed on a wire stand, to simulate hovering and a quick paint job and done. Also made some medi-packs out of round base and couple of old ammo crates.

Chopper and medi-kits x2

All I needed to gather then was some tokens to use as life tokens, couple of hands full of D6's and the original character stat sheets from the game, which I laminated.

The terrain belonged to the club and was set out as per the original game map/board.

The games went well and especially the kids loved it.

It says in the rules that either none or only one of the characters will 'Get To The Chopper' and in all the games this was true. The game needs team work and it took some time for the kids to grasp this!!

Anyway a great game and I recommend it for beginners and seasoned wargamers alike.

Here's some pics of the game - sorry about quality as forgot camera and had to use mobile phone!

The four are ready to make a run for the chopper

There may have a bit of a way to go, as it's at the other end of the table!

There's something hiding in the undergrowth and it's not David Bellamy (one for the older UK readers).

"If we can just get across the river, there maybe a chance." You wish!!!!

The original free, yes free boardgame can be found HERE at Board Game Geek.

I have also designed a new character card.  Take a look HERE

 

Hi

This is the first time I have used a blog.
Hope to bring you pics of wargame figures and terrain.  Also a good links section, with interesting and free wargames stuff!