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World War 2 Italian Terrain - Vineyards (Part 1)

Hello everyone,

After finishing the Mid-Century boards and playing on them a few times (I hope to put a battle report up eventually), I have once again begun making terrain.

This time its my long awaited Italian board.

So broadly speaking I want to make a board which I can play WW2 games (mostly Bolt Action and Chain of Command) on. I want this board to be a mostly rural setting that looks like Italy but could also conceivably be Spain, Portugal, Greece, Yugoslavia and, at a stretch, greener parts of North Africa (including Tunisia and Cyrenacia). This theatre flexibility will allow me to use the terrain for other games as well like Sharp Practice (for Austrians/French in Northern Italy or Peninsula War) and Spanish Civil War.

Unlike my Mid-Century Board, this will be less like a diorama and more of a traditional gaming table. For instance, where on the Mid-Century Board everything had its place, for the Italian board I am planning on some big green boards/felt mat on which I will place a building here and there, make some roads (in sections) and scatted trees etc. While it wont look as natural it will give me a lot of flexibility to change the layout between games and periods.

So first thing is first! I decided to start on some vineyards as they are quite evocative of that part of the world. Not being the most capable chap I drew heavily from the Infrequentwargamer's instructions.

So to start off I got some fat lolly sticks and drilled six wholes in them. I then bought some 3mm dowel and cut them about 1-1.25 inches and a some supports.

I then got some Woodland Scenics armatures (114 deciduous trees) and used the smaller ones or cut the bigger ones up to make the vine trunk and branches. I then gluded the dowels and armatures into the holes I drilled and put the supports in pace near either dowel.

Finally I covered the lolly stick in textured paint (the same one I used for the Mid-Century board) and sprinkled on some sand and larger pieces of chopped up cork (you could also use a heavier grit of sand instead). Once dried, I cut down some of the armatures to size and bent them to shape (you can see this on the armatures on the textured base, others have not been cut or bent yet).

I am skeptical at the moment, but I think they should turn out okay, I guess we will have to wait and see!



I plan to do about 12 stands of vineyards which will give me a good area of coverage!

Until next time.

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