DBA Roman camp

After the Roman watchtower (https://flowersinyourcannons.blogspot.com/2018/05/wip-roman-watchtower.html), here comes my second camp for my DBA Roman armies. It is also intended to be a first piece of a modular Roman fort. Never used a BUA in my battles: I need one.

Below, how I built it, step by step.

9x9cm base of balsa wood, a piece of insulation foam carved 

to the purpose. The front wall made with a ball pen.

cotton candy stick for the palisade

 coffee wood stir stick used for the terrace

 oil colors used for painting the palisade, as they better penetrate
the wood. Then dry brush with acrylics (ochre first, then bone white).
Wood filler mixed with sand for the soil, also dry-brushed
with bone white.

A touch of static grass. Game over.

Now painting few Roman auxiliaries to bring a bit of action
to this mini-dio.

WIP Roman watchtower - Update #2

26 June 2018

I am now painting some sentinels to put here and there on the tower, using Roman auxiliaries from the Strelets Set M033 "Roman Auxiliaries Before Battle". It comes with interesting poses for a watchtower. A first attempt here below. Shield yet to finish

25 June 2018

Watchtower is 95% completed. I am really happy with result! Finally, may DBA Roman armies have a camp. I painted the tower with oil paints, as I read somewhere that it better penetrates the wood. It is true. I made a test with both oil and acrylic, and the oil is far better (after you find the right dilution with turpentine :-P). Only it takes long to dry up, more than two days on the shelf (maybe if I put outside, it would have taken less. Who knows?). After that a quick dry (very dry!) brush with Vallejo Game Color Bonewhite made the job.

31 May 2018

It's moving, slowly. Time for ladders.

 And then I got the idea of a modular Roman fort, which friends at the Benno's Figures Forum support. Let's see how it evolves.

16 May 2018

After so many battles with just a piece of paper 2BWx2BW to represent their camp, time came for my DBA Romans armies to have a proper camp. Considering that most of the battles were fought on the limes, I thought that a watchtower would have been a nice addition to the usual palisade.

Inspiration came from some pictures I found online of the plastic Zvezda Roman fort, now out of production and out of stock almost everywhere. Good thing is that the pictures come with the size of the tower and its components, which made easier the design of my wood replica.

I used cotton candy sticks and coffee wood stir sticks, which I looted here and there in the city at no cost.

A razor for cutting, white glue for assembling. It is shaping up pretty well.

 

Medieval tent

Snooping around in Paul's blog (an amazing and fantastic journey!), I found pretty easy and clear instruction on how to scracth build a medieval tent in scale 1/72. I just needed a camp for my Medieval French DBA army. I went pretty fast, without paying much attention to measurements and details, but it turned out nice. It also impressed wife and daughters; and my brother followed right away with a camp for his 100 year's war English DBA army. Quite a success I would say. Thanks Paul!

Scratch building roads for DBA

Inspired by this post on the Fanaticus site http://www.fanaticus.org/DBA/guides/roads/bscarlett.html, I decided to give it a try. Here is my way towards Roman roads for DBA battle in 1/72 scale.

I started from a 0.99 € A4 black craft rubber sheet that I cut into five 20cmx5cm modules. I carved the stone patterns in the first module using a ball pen.

 

I then dry-brushed it with Adeptus Battlegrey, Codex Grey and Ceramite White in sequence, and washed with Devlan Mud.

At last I glued grass flocks on the hedges, and here and there on the pavement.

Yeap, you are right: it doesn't look much as Roman road. I did then the search I should have done earlier,

and carved different stone patterns on the next modules. This time for carving I didn't use a ball pen, as it took too long to get a sharp and deep line on the foam. The tip of a blackhead remover did it much better and faster; disgusting maybe? But the only proper and handy tool I could find around at no cost.

You would agree with me that they are much better. I am happy with results, and going for grass flocks now and some curved modules.