I can’t stop thinking about ancient Rome – De Bellis Antiquitatis edition

Got all the terrain out to get some finished pictures and I’m quite pleased how it all comes together. I see some stuff I want to tweak for the future but they are minor and doesn’t stop me from enjoying it as it is.

Up next is working on the additional Romans I picked up along with the Gauls. I have more tans paints to use on the Gauls to make them look less uniform. I’ll be taking a break from the next phase of the project to work on something else for a bit to change things up.

Big update on the project over the last two weekends I pushed through and finished what I have for terrain for my DBA project!

I started with Vallejo Brown Earth Texture medium to make some roads and put texture into the middle of my Build Up Area. The road pieces are just some plasticard leftovers cut to a single base width of 40mm and varying lengths. The idea is you can layer them up on the ends to make the road turn or connect. I spread a small layer of the texture medium to add some grit and color to the plasticard. Quite pleased with the end result. They are a bit rectangular but I’m glad to used up all of the plasticard scraps for this. I also applied texture medium to any of the areas that are build ups of dirt embankments on the Build Up Area and Camps.

Next I moved onto the stone work and for that I started with Dark Stone but found it was too dark. I switched to Uniform Grey as a highlight over the Dark Stone. All of the stone work around the Build Up Area and two Camps were painted.

On to the tents. I found among my old Warpaints set didn’t have a tan or light brown I liked so I dipped into my WW2 Vallejo set and brought out Khaki and this was a great match for the color I wanted. I applied it to the tents. I also used it on the ropes that tie the log walls together.

Moving onto the cut wood sections I wanted to bring it shades up in color but again didn’t have the color I wanted to use so I used Vallejo Flat Brown. I’m going to come back and revisit the log ends with some new tans that I put an order in for today. All of the plank runways and frames for the walls were painted and it did bring the brown up a few shades from the primer I had used. I’m happy enough with it to continue. This was the largest area cover and it was a challenge to the attention span. I’m used to tiny tiny models and not big pieces like this.

That brings up a need in my hobby supplies to get some bigger and flat brushes to help with terrain. I also think for large areas switching to a non-hobby paint to get a larger amount and not pay the hobby tax for 18ml at a time. I also picked up some Soft Tone dip to wash these and bring out the shading as things are quite flat in color right now. I’m going to be using a lot of Soft Tone for my Roman buildings for Gangs of Rome as well so just going to brush this on rather than the dip and shake you’d usually use the dip for. Lastly I got some tans and blues to round out some gaps in my colors. I also put an order in for some textured clear plasticard to help make some rivers in the same way I did the roads though I’ll be painting the smooth bottom side and leave the texture on top to give the illusion of current. I also picked up some brush cleaning and conditioning supplies as I need to restore a brush I might have ruined by accidently getting paint in the ferrule.

This project at this point has several firsts for me. My experience with painting was 15mm WW2 airborne for Flames of War. Now I branched out to Romans, made some terrain using resin pieces, used plasticard, used flock to create grass, and made some tree and hill sections. Next time I’ll get some foam and cut it at an angle to make some more visually appealing hills but for DBA these are perfect for the game set approach I’m going for here. I learned a lot and I have more to learn about shading and highlighting so I will likely revisit these pieces as the new supplies come in and I get more hobby experience. Now I have a variety of pieces to make a few different DBA table configurations and it feels great. I’m going to get a table all set up and show the final result in another post.

Took a break from hobby over the holidays but now I’m back at it to get the terrain side of this project finished. Time to flock the terrain bases. Originally I was going to go with static grass but with how flat these “hills” are for DBA I wanted to see the elevation lines still, so I went with Fine Turf from Woodland Scenics. Using their Static-Tac as well as the price wasn’t much more than getting some PVA and then watering it down. I liked the viscosity of the Static-Tac and it was easy to spread onto the bases.

I started with the forest bases and slathered on the PVA much like a shed floor. No worries about moisture here. I avoided covering up the magnets to make sure the trees still make contact without too much obstruction. When those dried I moved onto the gentle and difficult hills. I have two of each size. It was about this time I realized what a mess the flock was making and I had the idea to lay down a sheet of paper and tapped the flock onto the base while on the paper. Once dry I could just pick up and tap off the access, roll up the paper and put the flock back into the container. Much easier to clean up.

It is getting late now so I’ll pick up the rest tomorrow I have some 40mm wide strips that were left overs from the plasticard that I will be turning into roads with some Vallejo texture medium to muddy them up. After that is texturing the Roman camp and then painting that. Will see how much I get done on Sunday while listening to XLBS. Until next time folks!

Rest of the hills and roads the paint is still drying so I figured I could attach some trees to the woods sections. I was also going to flock with static grass but after watching some videos on application getting a static grass applicator is really handy. I’m new to all of this so I started at the Woodland Scenics and got some major sticker shock. $80 so I looked into some DIY options. I saw someone taking an electric bug swatter and wiring it up to a mess strainer. A nice idea but a bit more janky than I’d want to use for a first time. Got a suggestion from SoapDodger on Discord to look at some other applicators as they are much cheaper. One Amazon shopping trip later I have one coming in for $21 that should get the job done. I’m just flocking some smaller items so don’t need anything fancy.

Back to woods I grabbed my non stacked bases and trees. I have some magnets that I ordered for another project that were the wrong size. I figured these would be perfect to attach the trees but still allow them to be moved when minis are in the woods. Made sure to match the polarity on each of these so they are all interchangeable. The end result is not too bad and will look a lot better with the static grass on it. Next I’ll work on the roads and rivers when the primer is dry tomorrow, or start on painting the Build Up Area.

Over the week I managed to cut out the plasticard I needed to be the bases for my woods, hills, and roads. The hills in DBA tend to be very flat to keep the minis from toppling over since then tend to be metal and top heavy with spears. I have some railroad trees I’m going to attach to the bases with magnets so that they can easily be moved for movement. I can also use this terrain for Flames of War boards as well so double win. I still need to cut my textured acrylic sheets for my rivers. Painting has been slow as the weather has been unco-operative. I have a makeshift spray booth made in the garage so I can get these painted up with some brown primer and get them ready for flocking. Never done any of this before so slow going but I’ve been happy with the results. I’ll feel a lot better about it all when it is done and table ready. I can always make more terrain if I don’t like how this turns out.

Today I do more work on the DBA terrain and the compulsory items. Previously I put the Build Up Area (BUA) together and is ready to prime. The other option for compulsory terrain is Ploughs or Fields. I bought some field matting from a model railroad site and realized once it go her that it is just fine corrugated cardboard with flock. I could have made this myself but at least I could cut this up and use it. With the amount I have I could make three 120mm by 160mm fields and two 160mm by 200mm. Plenty for my needs and these can do double duty as fields in Flames of War as well so win win.

I open up the molded rocks and cobblestone walls I also bought. These will let me show Difficult Hills and an Enclosure. The Enclosure uses Walls or Hedges to well enclose an area. Difficult Hills will use the same structure to represent hills and then the rocks signify that they are difficult movement. In DBA at 15mm scale most just use flat flocked card to represent hills to keep the tiny bases from tipping over. For now I will go this route but I like the idea of actual elevation. I need to get some foam to make better hills.

I have some Trees from my railroad order as well. I will cut out more plasticard to make bases. Those will get their edges rounded off. The sizes of these bases are going to be nine base widths of 40mm of area. Lots of cutting plasticard in my future.

Terrainfest is upon us and my DBA armies are in need of some terrain elements as well as 2 foot by 2 foot board. I’m still figuring out if I want a roll up mat or something like those foam core mats that you push fit together like puzzle pieces. I want to make something portable. For now I’m going to focus on the Build Up Area or BUA as it is known in the rule book. This is an option for compulsory terrain along with some ploughed fields.

For the BUA since I’m Romans I went for a nice Roman fort using pieces from Baueda Wargames again. When the box of goodies came in I gave everything a test fit before cleaning up the mold release agent with some warm water. I used some plasticard to make a 180mm square base to attach all the pieces. Now with that ready I need the weather to cooperate so I can prime this along with some Roman buildings for my Gangs of Rome project.

Hard to believe we are at the end of the Spring Cleaning Challenge. I hit my painting goal and painted all the figures I had in the above cigar box. I expanded the goal to fit in the rest of the DBA elements for the Romans and picked up some Gauls for an opposing force. I got new storage boxes that have more room to fit the camps and extra elements. While I had the best intentions to finish them by this time I also was working on another project as well that took up more time. There was an illness in April that also snuck in and stole some hobby time but I don’t feel bad for taking the needed break.

I thought about marking this project complete as it reached the original goal however with the expanded goals I really want to see them finished and document it for those that are following the project. I know DBx systems aren’t as popular as other games but this was a bit of a passion project for me and if one person came away curious about the game or enjoyed reading and seeing my progress then my goal was accomplished. Let me show you the current result.

This isn’t the end for this project or for my love of Romans I have some figures for Saga and Gangs of Rome that are next on the desk. I’m thinking I want to work on something smaller skirmish style so Gangs of Rome will likely be next to take a break from 15mm for a bit. I still have my Warhammer Quest project ongoing which is going to be a very long term project. It has also sparked an idea that I’m going to save to reveal for Dungeonalia 2024 and quietly work on in the meantime. More project updates to come soon until then happy hobby time everyone and to those going to UKGE have some fun for me, I’ll get there one of these years.

So for Summer we are building Rome, right? Right?