AB's 6mm Redoubt

[Angel Barracks]

I have not always done 6mm sci-fi, I used to do 6mm ‘Napoleonics’.
By that it was very much Sharpe flavoured Napoleonics rather than anything too serious.

Here is something I made a few years back.
The contents are taken from an old defunct forum so there may be the odd bit in there that seems odd.

The first is a fortified artillery battery.

The idea is to have it near a bridge or other bottle neck and the attackers must take the battery to allow the rest of the force to advance.

The artillery crew are dug in and have been for a while; they have used whatever they can to make their jobs easier.

For example you can see apart from the earthworks some gabions out in front to slow down any enemy should they get close enough.

Wagons drawn up close to the guns, they have also liberated a pontoon boat from the engineers and have filled this with water to use on the guns, boxes and crates lie around the guns etc.

Here is a shot that shows the main products in place and how it looks before the ground is textured and built up.

I have just slapped some clay on it to build up the base and have covered that in pumice to make it muddy / earthy.

It will be mostly muddy/earth with a few bits of grass left intact and patches here and there from all the digging.

I have visions of the English dying in droves trying to capture it.

The scenario shall be called “The Forlorn Hope” as a result.

I used Vallejo White Pumice to make the mud/earth.
This is for me a great product, I use it on all my bases for the men and most of my special pieces.

The only downside is that when it has dried out it shrinks as the pumice has quite a bit of moisture in it which means that once dry it tends to sink a bit.
So before painting I applied another lot to the areas where shrinkage would be obvious such as round the gabions and equipment.

Next – I spray brown as most of the model will be brown, seemed like a good idea for an undercoat.

I have slapped on the base mud-earth colour.
At this point true to form I realise I have lots more things to add on the base.

Alas some needed to be added before the pumice..

I will bodge!

Once that is dry I cover the base in an inkwash.
Watered down black vallejo paint.
Once this first wash has been slapped all over and almost dry I apply another ink wash.

This leaves us with quite a messy looking base:

Once lft to dry (overnight) I then begin the ardous task of drybrushing.
Here we can see the state of affairs after 2 coats of the same shade and one coat of a slightly lighter shade.

I will probably do a few more applications over most of it in a lighter shade and then pick out some nice bits for a final highlight.

Then onto the rest!!

Two more slightly lighter shades applied to the bare earth areas.

Then we have some muddy and richer brown inkwashes applied here and there.
These will be more subtle when finished.
This is to add a bit of variety and also to be used as the undercolour for when I apply my water effects to the ground.

I will be doing some muddy puddles here and there from the spilled water and what not.

I have done a bit more on the redoubt.
The various features have been picked out; planks, crates, gabions, etc.

I wanted the planks to look a bit old and sorry so did not go for a typical brown but more a pale wood and then dirtied them.
That was done through a series of various dirty black and brown ink washes and then some dry brushing of mud later on.

The gabions were painted in a similar fashion but in a more traditional brown with a black ink wash or two and then dry brushed highlights to pick out the weave.
Then dirty mud painted on near the bottom.

The pile of stuff has a boxes and bags and things of indeterminable origin so they are generic supplies dumped in a pile.

Need to paint the wagons and the boat.
The boat will be filled with a water effect which the lads defending the redout will use for the guns.
There will be a puddle or two also.

Once the last few bits are painted onto the flocking!

Flocking next.

For the most part I use pretty much just 5 basic colours of static grass and a couple of normal flavours of regular scatter.
Below are my staple 5.

SUMMER, SPRING, AUTUMN, WINTER and HAY.

Here we can see that some normal brown scatter has been added first.

Then the base green (Autumn) static grass.

Then in various areas a mixture of all 5 shades.
I want to create a varied grass effect that attempts to show some grass that is drier, some that is lusher, some that is just simply different grass etc.

My tiles I play on are a uniform green so I like to make the terrain pieces a bit more varied and interesting.
That and I think it looks better if the ground is not all the same colour.

Each of the 5 shades is added twice using a water/pva/washing up liquid solution.

Then once I am as happy as I can be seeing it is 22:00 and the piece needs to be finished and ready to use tomorrow I add some tufts.
The tufts I have are in 4 colours that match the 4 seasons listed above.
So we apply tufts around the areas of the matching grass.

On the front where the gabions are and there is bare earth/mud/dirt I thought dried out looking grass tufts would make more sense.
After adding a few I applied a few last minute ones on the front slopes of the earthworks themselves..

Here are a few shots, the glue is still wet so you may see it in places…

I also finished the wagons and added some water effect to a few holes/gaps in the mud to create puddles and filled the pontoon boat up with water.
These will be glued into place in the morning once the scatter is dry.

Once complete I will take some better shots and get it used in a game!

Not as perfect as I would like but time is the enemy.
I can always go back and add things later.

Here are a few photos of it before I packed it up for todays game.

I added a few drops of water effect to a few places on the ground to make some small puddles and filled the boat with “water”.

Will use it in a game at some point and show the pics with men around then.

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