The Long Road to Partizan-The Hills!

 

The Hills! The Hills!

In January I began preparing for Partizan, poor, ignorant, happy fool that I was, I figured five months would be plenty of time to get everything ready. I knew I wanted to do a Reivers themed game but didn’t really know what we would use or what the story would be or what any of it would look like. I had a full set of Flags of wars Reivers figures bought for me by my lovely wife the previous Christamas, a few of which I had painted, and the one bit of terrain that I wanted to use- a big hill that I have had for years and was created by an old friend way back in the late 80’s from plaster and wallpaper.

pic : the Big Hill back in the day- before its first face lift

The Big Hill has evolved over the years gaining more and more foliage and character and has been used in many games of all scales memorably a Peninsular game in 15mm where the rock face presented big problems for my British opponent. It doesn’t get a lot of use because it is so big, it takes up half of a Ruckus table and dominates any game it is used in! Perfect, I thought for Partizan.

Great… we have a hill! But I wanted second hill, a slightly smaller brother of the Auld Hill and a rocky tump for the tower to sit upon like Smailholm does. 

The “small hill” Box cutters work well enough to cut out the XPS even the 25mm thick sheet but for chamfering and shaping you can’t beat the old carving knife. Keep a whetstone nearby, this stuff takes the edge off any blade very quickly

The Tump! How things have changed! No wallpaper and plaster here! XPS is a delight to use, light, strong, easy to cut and carve it’s a modellers dream!

A smaller kitchen knife is a useful tool for roughly hatching the craggy cliff faces

I filled the gaps and smoothed the edges with some polyfilla. 

and painted them with a mixture of Burnt Umber and Mod Podge

and let them dry in the sun…

…before covering some areas with sand glued with PVA

The road to the tower gate. I was not really happy with this, it seemed too small and had a wicked camber 

I tried them on the mat. And then I tried the Tower on the tump and I did not like it much. So…

…I started again. This time I left some space at the foot of the Tower walls, and I made the road longer with less of a slope which necessitated making it snake down the tump.

a compact ball of tin foil is an excellent tool for creating a rock face look on the XPS. This one, like the Auld Hill, has been built up over time. 

the rock face after being battered by the ball of foil

Rock painted in various greys dry brushed in lighter and lighter shades

Road sanded and all flattish areas and ledges earthed with Krautworks Copious Earth, all my Reivers figures are based with the same stuff

The Noo Hill getting its first static grass application 

The Noo Hil after it has been grassed and planted with vegetation including a few clumps of heather appropriate for the Border Country

The Tump vegged out. I thought I would tart up the tower while I was at it.

  A drybrush highlight of Citadel Ushbati Bone on the road finished it all off nicely

My daughter did most of this while I carried on with some other bits and pieces. I think she did a great job, look out Two Shed Fred, we are getting ideas.  

The Tump vegged out. I thought I would tart up the tower while I was at it.

  A drybrush highlight of Citadel Ushbati Bone on the road finished it all off nicely 

I couldn’t resist greening up this little window.

I dirtied up the rooves of both buildings with Citadel Moratorium Grime

the View from the Tower! 

A little embellishment for the hill...

Now I am nearly ready. My trees are in a sorry state and need a makeover and there is all the fluff to write! Crack on!