Scenery and terrain

I just subscribed to your channel on youtube. Enjoyed watching your shipwrecks, sandbanks etc video.
Great job.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by Craig.

I really enjoyed your videos as well. Your rocky structures came out fantastic!

I’ve looked at a few options for terrain;
1) The Black Seas Scenary Pack – I really liked all the pieces in this set. I ended up buying a second to chop the base of the light house and Martello tower to allow better integration with my other terrain. I’m also really excited to get my hands on the new cannons/mini terrain items that just popped up for preorder this week.
2) Spanish style village pieces from Model J Ship were great for making a real carribean feeling Spanish port town.
3) Dry Dock from Brigade Models – I thought it would make some fun scenarios like destroying a strategic shipping yard.
4) Mini Palm trees for arts and crafts – I painted the trunks so they were not shiny and put them on to bases covered in a 50/50 mix of fine and medium grain sand
5) Islands from Amera – Same covering technique as used on the palms with some green turf mixed in.
6) Carribean game mats from Table War – I think they islands and shallows set is a great and space efficient way to have a great game of black seas at a local game store without carry too much.
7) I’m also scratch building a star fort based on Fort McHenry (Baltimore, MD, USA) using a modified mdf kit, Green Stuff, and plasticard and matchsticks. I thought this year it might be fun to celebrate American independance day (July 4th)/last day of British rule (July 3rd) with a recreation of the war of 1812 battle. Also another another reason I’m excited for the new cannons added to the black seas line!
8) I’ve also used Woodland Scenics realistic water to create waves for bases with a bit of white dry brushed on afterwards. I liked this a lot but couldnt find bases that worked well for first rates without affecting game play so reveted to the Warlord bases.

So for Black Seas, they model at approximately 1/700th scale (most of the boxes have this in the top right corner).
When I do models based on actual places, I used Google Earth’s measuring tool as my guide. When measuring from the gate house to the opposite point on the star I get approximately 4584″. Divide that by 700 and I get 6.55″ as my perfect model dimension. The mdf kit I used as a base came in at 6.375″ after I added details, so I considered that close enough with a ~2.5% margin :).

Also, the large wreck in the scenary kit is actually a 3rd rate – I’m really hoping Warlord will eventaully add frigates to their sprue program :/. I’d say by far frigates are the most fun to paint!