Sharp Practice - ACW for Pennies on the Dollar.

Hi everyone,

As I wait for the bases to arrive from Warbases.com, I realized I had no terrain for this period in 1/72 scale.  I looked around and did not find a lot in 1/72.  Most of the ACW is in 15mm or 28mm.

Since I am playing in a 1:1 scale I really wanted my terrain to be in scale.  The underlying philosophy of this project is to get it on the tabletop cheaply, therefore I decided to make my own terrain as cost-effectively as possible.

I already made the skirmish bases with cheap materials, so I decided to make the rest in the same fashion.

The first piece is a small house.  I have never built anything like this before so it was a bit of a challenge.  The materials I use were off-cuts of foam-board, thick cardboard and pieces of Styrofoam.  The only thing I bought was bag of wooden stirrers for 5 euros.

After looking at some photos of ACW period houses, I drew one to scale on paper and copied it onto the foam-board.  I cut out the shapes and glued them together and placed them on a base (this is the same stuff the skirmish bases are made from).

The next step was to glue the wooden planks to the structure.  At first I did a lot of measuring, but I realized later I could just glue them on and cut off the jutting pieces with a scissors and trim down the planks with a blade at a later stage.

The last step was the most time consuming.  This was the roof and details.  Cutting up the tiles individually and gluing them on one by one was a headache. Adding the window frames and the patio fence was very finnicky.

The chimney is made out of Styrofoam and covered with card to mimic brick work.  The bricks came out a little too big but I did not realized the mistake until after I primed the chimney with Vallejo’s White Stone.

Thankfully I only want three houses.  So one down, and two to go.

I made a lot of mistakes with this first attempt.  I also learned  a lot.  So things balance out. All I need to do is paint it up.

The next building will be a barn.  If the bases don’t come by Tuesday, then I will start it, otherwise I will continue painting up the Confederates.

I also want to make some trees, fences, hills and fields – which I will also document here.

Until next time, stay safe and have fun.

NR