Home Forums Terrain and Scenery 6mm Spanish Hill Town

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  • #27815
    Avatar photoAngel Barracks
    Moderator

    Another old post from 4 years ago this time.

    Crikey my Total Battle Miniatures Spanish samples have arrived:

    AWESOME

    TBM do a series of tiles for their buildings to sit into, which creates a nice piece of scenery as well as clearly defining the area the terrain piece takes up.
    They have done a similar thing with the Spanish set only this is so much better.

    It is a sculpted, brick built, rocky, overgrown full on hill!

    There are a variety of various buildings that sit into the pre cut spaces.
    It is simply awesome.

    Here are some shots showing the base and buildings separately and then some with the buildings in place.
    The buildings need a slight trim to ensure they fit into the spaces, something I have not done yet.

    A final shot showing some British marching down the street to give you an idea of the size of this piece.

    I am excited.

    Right.

    I have managed to stop drooling for a bit.
    The first choice was which church to use, the lead or tiled tower one.

    Here you can see the two choices:

    I much prefer the tiled one, so that is that sorted.

    Here are a few shots that show the layout I have chosen.
    Sods law that the bigger buildings all fit into the spaces just fine except for the one that I chose in a certain space.
    As such I had to do some shaving of the base and the hole to get it to fit.

    I trimmed a few of the bases just to make sure they were nice and snug too.

    The way these are done you could quite easily change the buildings between games and even insert buildings from the other ranges as they use standard footprints.
    However, I would not be happy with hairline cracks around the buildings so I MUST stick them into place and then fill the teeny weeny gaps where present.
    This does mean the flexibility of the piece will be lost but I do not mind.

    I will do some proper detail shots once I start painting but wanted to point out a few features that I think go to show the care that the sculptor lavished on them:

    The detailed paving on the balcony and inside the archways.
    Cracked plaster showing brickwork underneath.
    A drinking fountain on the wall of this row of buildings.

    So many nice touches that help make this AWESOME.

    There is a quite large space on one corner of the tile:

    I am debating what to put in it, I am thinking some of these:

    vineyard/vines
    wagons
    barrels
    pig pens
    etc

    or should I leave it as it is?

    I have sprayed them in undercoat.

    Did the tile in brown as it is a good base colour for dirt, hedges and bricks.
    As yet I am not sure if to paint the hedges or flock over them..

    I did the buildings in white, as they will be mostly white!

    One thing about TBM buildings is how they seem to absorb the paint.
    I did a few buildings at first by painting them white, but where they seemed to suck the paint in I gave spraying a go – same deal, they suck the paint in.

    I am not sure what to make of this.
    On the plus side the paint will not chip off at all, but I like to do a lot of ink washes on my buildings and am worried the wash will not work as well.

    I have managed to complete a building!!!

    I have been finding it tricky using my normal painting style on these due to the aforementioned tendency of the resin to suck up the paint.

    Anyway, after much messing about the first one is done.
    I was looking at the Timecast site and they say that Spanish would often paint around the windows and doors in yellow.
    This is as they thought the devil was afraid of the colour yellow, odd but gives me a colour to use.

    I decided to paint the plants growing up the wall.
    I was debating flocking them but thought a paintjob may do the trick, which I think it has.
    I used a brown undercoat on the plants and then dry brushed 3 shades of progressively lighter green on top.
    Then picked out some raised leaves in a further brighter 2 shades, all told it looks quite good in the flesh.

    The yard was another puzzle, grey or brown slabs.
    I opted for grey as it looked a bit more dramatic.
    Again, painted them the basic grey, dark grey ink wash and 4 or so shades lighter for painted highlights, can’t dry brush in that small yard so the stones had to be painted one by one.

    The roof was the last bit to do.
    What colour to use out of the pot?
    Normally I would mix the paints but as I am going to be doing a lot of roofs I wanted something ready-made.
    I undercoated the roof in cheap craft burnt umber paint and then dry brushed on some Coat d’arms Horse Tone – Bay.
    A few coats of dry brushing and then picking out the odd tile and bingo, one of 20 or so buildings done…

    Here are some piccies.

    Woohooo

    Three buildings complete so far.
    Here is a shot that shows the three completed buildings from all four sides.

    You can see that they are done in different colours, the first is a dwelling of a rich family who can afford to get new stucco on their walls and they also have painted their window frames a bright yellow.

    The second dwelling is of a poorer family who cannot afford to get the entire house done so instead they have decorated the arches, doorways and windows by painting bright white markings around them.

    The third building is one of the largest in the town and is in a medium state.

    Here are the four shots:

    Next we have a close up of the richer dwelling.
    You can see their freshly painted window frames.
    Downstairs they have shutters to keep the riff-raff from peering in.
    They also have some fruit bearing vines growing on the small wall that surrounds their own little private yard.

    Next is the poorer building.
    You can see the decoration around the doors and windows and the extra decoration on the balcony and the arches.
    The stairs leading up to the door are worn and dirty and trodden in the middle, suggesting much traffic.
    Maybe the residents let the locals sit in their arched area and drink sangria in the shade?

    Last we have the bigger house.
    You can see it is quite a large sturdy construction and that the whitewash is of varying coverage, in some parts the render is very much still fresh and in place, whilst in others the underlying brickwork can be glimpsed.

    Well that is it for now; I hope you liked the little tour of a few of the locals of Pueblo de Oro.
    Hope to see you again soon.

    After many weeks of being too ill to do very much I have this week finished some buildings for the hill town.

    I have tried to make these a bit more weathered than some of the others.
    Steps are worn and dirty in the middle, walls stained, the fountain on one has moss and gunk around it etc.

    They are all complete now apart from the church.

    Here is a front shot:

    Here is a rear shot:

    Here is the workshop:

    Here is the building with thatched tables:

    Here is the row of houses:

    And here are the houses with arched veranda:

    Church next and the massive job of the tile….

    I was hoping to get the whole thing finished for my trip to the Legionary show on Saturday, I will have to make do with the buildings complete but not the tile..

    🙁

    The buildings are done.
    Huzzah!

    Here is the town from various angles:

    Here are a few shots showing some of my favourite touches:

    Flowers on the vines at the church.

    Moss and shiny water in the fountain (alas the shinyness of the water used by applying lots of gloss varnish is not that apparent in this picture.)

    Stained glass window (all shiny and reflective) thanks to gloss varnish.

    Some decorations on the arches and house to keep up with the jones’s.

    Once back from my show I can get started on the actual base/tile.
    That will be a job and a half, I have many things I want to add to the tile.

    Right then, buildings done.

    The big tile next.
    I am very much thinking about adding some extras to the open space on the tile.
    I was tempted with some sort of village fiesta, tables, bunting, people etc but to be honest whilst that would be cool it would be more effort than I feel like.

    So, I am thinking either a few rows of fruit trees or some vines and a haycart.

    Really not sure what to go for.
    Either way the final result will look better than the shots.

    If trees then I will drill holes in the tile so that I will not see the circular tree bases.
    If vines I will cut out some slight trenches so that the lead vine bases are not standing proud of the ground.

    Started on the tile.
    Also been working on a TBM bridge.
    I am trying to create a brown sandstone look for the bare rocks and brickwork on the tile so decided to paint my bridge at the same time.
    I have been guilty of the normal lazy grey stone approach in the past but decided to try and go for brown this time.

    I started with a cheap craft paint as the base colour “Country Maple”.

    On the bridge I slapped this on all over and then applied a medium brown wash all over.
    Then I did a bit of dryvrushing with the base colour of country maple.

    After this dried I spotted a few places between the bricks where the paint had not reached, so I got my cheap craft paint “Burnt Umber” and dabbed these spots.
    I also dabbed a few other areas in the burnt umber.
    Then I started painting individual bricks in the original country maple before the washes were applied.
    Two coats of the original colour really brought some bricks to life as it were.
    I then added some cream paint to the country maple and selected a few more individual bricks for painting, I also highlighted the bigger bricks on the top of the wall using the lighter colour.

    I then went and painted a few bricks in different browns and greys just to make the whole bridge less samey.

    Round by the centre support and the bottom of the bridge (and also the underneath of the arches) I applied a series of green washes to go for that dirty, mossy look.

    So far so good.

    Just a bit more work on the weathering and then the road to do for the bridge.

    The tile itself next.

    Very much the same method was used.
    I slapped on the country maple all over the brickwork and the bar rocks.
    I then washed the rocks in grey-black.
    I drybrushed them in the country maple and then dabbed the recesses and random areas in the burnt umber.
    Then dabbed a variety of shades, all starting with the country maple but adding different browns, these were just dabbed on here and there.
    Another wash in brown to try and glaze over it all and blend it together.
    Next some drybrushing starting with the base colour and adding cream to build up lighter shades.

    Then I attacked the tile and cut/carved/hacked away some sections for the vines and the haycart.
    This is so that the bases that these miniatures come on will be sunken and allow the terrain to appear flat and flush.

    I broke one of my needle files in the process, I got over zealous with the hacking

    🙁

    The vines and haycart were primed in white and once dry a black inwash was applied so that any missed areas did not show as bare metal.
    The vines were then painted in cheap “Forest Green” craft paint.
    Once dry another wash was added, this time in brown/green.
    Then drybrushed in the base green, then again a few more times each time adding a bit of yellow to build up the highlights.

    Not sure how happy I am with the browns, but then I am not sure I had a specific brown in mind when I started…

    In a moment of weakness I decided to have a quick nap with my daughter on the sofa.
    3 hours later I woke with a start, eeeeek missed much needed painting time!

    Small update then.
    I have pretty much finished the rocks and bricks around the village.
    Here unlike the bridge I did every brick on its own where as on the bridge I just picked out a few bricks after drybrushing.
    It did not take tooo long to paint each brick by hand including the various shades of highlighting.

    Hedges around the village next.
    After much deliberation I have decided to paint the boundary hedges.

    They would look better by being flocked but they will not match the few bits of foliage on the buildings.
    That and the tile will be picked up by the edges, this handling would cause the flock to come off.

    So painting it is.

    Hedges have always been a problem with me, in that I always seem to overpaint them.

    You will see what I mean.
    First they are painted in cheap craft brown.
    Then once dry a thinner mixture is applied over the hedges to fill in the deeper recesses so it all looks brown.
    Below is the base green and one hedge left showing the base brown.

    I do this on vegetation to represent the branches and wood underneath the foliage.

    Then I drybrush a base green over the hedges, once dry I apply another indentical coat.

    Then I add yellow to the green and add several lighter shades in smaller and smaller areas.
    This creates a rough bumpy highlighted look.

    It is not the most realistic way of doing hedges, I think scatter material would be better for that, but it is more hardwearing than scatter and visually more impactful.

    Like I said, possibly overpainted but it is the way I do them.

    Well the hedges and rocks are done.

    Next was the path/road.
    I slapped on the cheapo craft brown all over as a base colour.
    Next was an initial drybrush of the country maple craft over the road to give me a rough idea what it looked like.
    I have decided it will need quite a bit of drybrushing.

    Here you can see the base brown and the lighter drybrush around the edges where I used a smaller brush for better control.

    I painted the vines and stuck them one by one into the trenches I made, here you can see the middle one before I filled in the gaps.
    I used Vallejo white pumice for this, a product I find extremely handy.

    Here you can see the filled in vines and haycart.

    The next bit was the trickier bit…

    TBM design all their tiles so that the buildings can be removed.
    This is great for when a unit enters the building as you can simply take it off and put the figures in the little recess to show they are inside.
    It also means that you can swap buildings around whilst using the same tile.
    I could for example in one game have the village as shown and in another replace the church with something else.

    Or I could take off all the Spanish buildings and use some of their “European Black Powder” range, or their “Americana” range.
    The only issue I have with this is that should you do this you will see hairline cracks around the edges of the buildings.

    This for me will not do!

    So I decided to stick them in place.
    Supergluing them one at a time and then applying more pumics around the edges to fill in the tiny cracks.
    I also took this stage and used it to make a few bumps and things just to make it a little more ‘mine’

    After not very long they were all stuck in place and all pumiced up, here is the shot or two of the work so far.

    Next time may be the last post, all that needs to be done is paint over the pumice and complete the road drybrushing.
    Then flock the rest of the tile.

    Though those of you that followed some of my other projects may well know a simple bit of flocking can evolve into a whole new sport with me, so it may not be the last one next time after all……

    Huzzah it is done!

    After filling in the edges around the added terrain features they were painted in the same base brown.
    Then they were highlighted to the same shade as the rest of the main roads.
    After this I continued to highlight in certain areas to try and create a worn area where the rocks are more visible due to constant traffic.

    The flocking next.
    I used my seasonal static grass mostly hay and winter with a bit of autumn to create a grassy slightly dry area.
    This involved painted the tile the country maple rock colour as a base and then before dry adding the scatter.
    This sticks to the paint and provides a base for the rest of the layers.

    Several various shades and layers were added using PVA/water/washing up liquid until I was happy.

    Done?
    Noooooo!

    After the static grass come the tufts, I add in strategic spots tufts of grass to try and create an overgrown rugged untended look around the outskirts of the town, especially in the crags and nooks of the rocks.

    A quick bit of touching up and hey presto, here it is:

    Pueblo de Oro

    #27822
    Avatar photogrizzlymc
    Participant

    Absolutely bloody majic!  It just looks like a little town in rural Bolivia!

    #27838
    Avatar photo3rd95th
    Participant

    AWESOME is an appropriate adjective. I wish I could get into the mindset of using 5mm buildings with my 15mm figures, but I must have some severe psychological block.

    Neal

    μολὼν λαβέ

    #27845
    Avatar photoBandit
    Participant

    Their stuff really impresses the hell out of me. I think the move to large “footprint” bases for several buildings is an obvious one but oddly one that only they have really ran with. TBM does a fantastic job with it though as the bases aren’t just a flat footprint but add to the model. I’m honestly hoping they cause other model manufactures to move in the same direction.

    Downside is I haven’t found these available in the US – anyone aware of them being offered through someone over here?

    Cheers,

    The Bandit

    #27846
    Avatar photoMike
    Keymaster

    Downside is I haven’t found these available in the US – anyone aware of them being offered through someone over here?

    No, but order enough and the postage is free…

    #27847
    Avatar photoBandit
    Participant

    No, but order enough and the postage is free…

    Only on UK orders according to the sidebar of their front page.

    Cheers,

    The Bandit

    #27849
    Avatar photoMike
    Keymaster

    Try here:

    UK & Overseas Postage Rates

    Also on their front page

    😉

    #27868
    Avatar photoMr. Average
    Participant

    That is one FINE looking set.  And the rest of their series looks great as well!  They’d make wonderful Quar settlements for the 6mm scale miniatures… which I just happen to have. 😉

    #27870
    Avatar photoAngel Barracks
    Moderator

    That is one FINE looking set.

    Thanks, it took forever to paint!
    Kind of wish I kept it now…

    #28183
    Avatar photoMcLaddie
    Participant

    Ack!  You didn’t keep it?!~  You did a beautiful job on it.

    #28937
    Avatar photoAngel Barracks
    Moderator

    Thanks!

    No, I sold off all my historicals when I moved to sci-fi…

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