A Vineyard

Mark and I were discussing what type of scenic representations we could develop for the project. We decided that as well as the usual woods, hills, etc we wanted something different that would evoke the late Roman world. What better item than a vineyard. We also thought that an orchard would be sufficiently different, bit that is another page! So this is what our vineyard looks like.

Materials

Cork tile
Thick scouring pads
Fine sand and paints
Hot glue gun
PVA glue

Method

Construction

    1. Using the cork tile for the vineyard's base, cut out an appropriate size base (in this case 225mm x 150mm). Don't forget these measurements are for 25mm figures.
    2. Next, take the scouring pads and cut them into strips about 20mm high. Now take these strips and cut pieces out of them so that you remove all the smooth edges. I also cut out curved sections on the bottom of the scouring pads. This was to represent the main stems of the vines. I think the second image below gives you a better idea of what I did.
    3. Next I glued the pads, using a hot glue gun, in a diagonal direction across the base.
    4. I then painted the base with a diluted solution of PVA and water and immediately covered it with sand. After about 30 minutes I shook the base to remove any unsecured sand. This was then coated with another diluted solution of PVA and water and left it to dry overnight. The construction phase is now complete.

Painting and Finishing

    1. I gave the whole thing a heavy spray of matte black paint. Once this was dried I dry brushed the sand and the scouring pads where they touched the base with red-brown, then earth and finally buff. For grassed areas I painted the sand NATO green followed by a drybrush with yellow-green.
    2. When it was time to paint the vines I drybrushed them in the following order:black-green, green, yellow-green and finally yellow. All paints were from Tamiya's range.
    3. If you used green scouring pads the simplest way to finish the vines is to just drybrush the pads with yellow-green followed by yellow and you can get a respectably looking finish.
I hope that you like the finished product.


Return to the Dux Bellorum Australis Scenery Techniques and Structures page.
Return to the Dux Bellorum Australis Contents page.

Maintained by Greg Kelleher. Last revised 15 April, 2001.