Wargames Terrain & Buildings: North Africa and the Middle East

By Tony Harwood

“Master terrainer Harwood offer[s] advice on 10 projects, from the mosque on the cover to mud-brick buildings to grass huts . . . he knows his stuff.” —Historical Miniatures Gaming Society

The Middle East and North Africa have been the backdrop for many conflicts through the centuries, making them a popular setting for miniature wargames. Whether you are fielding your Parthians against invading Roman legions, Crusaders against Saladin’s Saracens, recreating Lawrence’s exploits in Arabia, or trying to halt Rommel at El Alamein, this book will help you set the scene for your games.

Expert terrain modeler Tony Harwood takes the reader through a range of projects step by step, from selection of materials to the finished items. Each stage is illustrated with color photographs. The projects have been selected to provide a useful range of features but also to introduce materials and techniques the reader can then apply to further buildings and terrain pieces. Included are a range of traditional mud-brick dwellings/shops, mosque, well, palm trees, rocky outcrop, Bedouin tent, El Alamein railway station, Sudanese huts, colonial river gunboat. They are easily adaptable to different scales. Suited to novice and experienced modelers alike.

“Soon your DAK or Desert Rat themed builds will look right at home in their natural setting. No matter your skill level, the information in the book will give you all you need to dive right in and give it a try!” —AMPS

 “A lavishly illustrated how to book full of full color photographs detail[ing] the construction of 9 buildings and 1 gunboat in a spread of 15mm and 28mm scales . . . full of useful tricks and tips.” —History of War

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Jun 19, 2020
• ISBN: 9781526716446

Book preview

NOTES ON PAINTS USED

Itend to use whatever paint I have to hand, artists’ tube acrylic, craft paints, students’ acrylic, Games Workshop (old and new pots), Vallejo etc. Even household emulsion paints! Throughout this book I will try to detail the exact paint brand and name in detail, but where this is not possible, I will always revert back to either Vallejo Game Color or Vallejo Model Color. Hopefully the images will be a guide.

This is not an attempt by me to hide my ‘magic paint-mixing formulas’; it is a case of I don’t use paints straight from the bottle/pot. Instead, I mix my own colours, adding a little yellow here or red there to get exactly the colour I want.

I prefer acrylics to oil or spirit-based paints for two reasons: 1) they dry faster, and 2) they don’t smell. Well, most of them don’t.

I use a Flow Improver – Daler Rowney flow improver – although you could always add a tiny drop of washing-up liquid to your clean water pot.

I also have a confession to make: I don’t change my water nearly often enough, so even these mixes can be polluted with dirty water!

I do use washes. Some are branded washes, for example Citadel or Games Workshop washes, others are home-made using Future and distilled water as a base. I regularly water down these washes and have no issues with mixing different washes’ colours or brands.

My preferred palette is the wines and spirits guide from Waitrose. The pages have a premium glossy finish which acts like a mini ‘wet palette’. When I have finished for that session (or colour) I simply tear off the page and I have a new palette. Best of all, they are free!

TOOLS AND MATERIALS

Most model-makers will have the essentials: a knife, a steel ruler, sanding sheets, tweezers, files, a drill and clippers. In addition to these, I have a couple of specialist tools or home-made items that I would like to recommend.

The first is a simple dart: yes, from a dartboard! My own brass-barrelled dart was my father’s and has been ground to a much sharper point than normal. I have attached a short plastic handle and use this to score plastic, add detail and punch holes. The dart was one of a number of modelling tools that were part of Dad’s own modelling tool box and have been handed down to me.

The second is a small wire brush. My brush is actually a tool used by golfers to clean their golf balls and clubs. This simple tool has both a nylon brush and a wire brush. The nylon brush is very good for cleaning up scored plastic card and for texturing blue foam, while the wire brush is ideal for adding wood grain effect to plastic card or for deeper texturing on green foam.

The next set of tools I find useful includes sanding sticks and a large flat sanding plate. For the sanding sticks you can use simple emery boards (those used for shaping ladies’ nails). These are OK, but I also have some home-made versions that have different grades of sandpaper stuck onto strips of wood with double-sided Sellotape. A similar sanding plate is constructed by applying a larger sheet of sandpaper to a glass chopping board, but make sure it is toughened glass. Once again, I use double-sided Sellotape to hold the abrasive paper in place. The sanding board or plate is ideal for sanding larger pieces of plastic or resin and can be used on smaller pieces to ensure they are perfectly flat and square.

I use sanding sheets produced by 3M, particularly the P60, P80 and P120 grades. I find that they don’t clog and can be cleaned with a stiff brush. I admit to having lots of different sheets of different grades. I also have some foam-backed sanding pads that I bought through the internet. These come in different sizes and grades and can be used in the same way as the sanding sticks mentioned above.

Glues

I am very particular regarding the glues I use. Years of experience have taught me that the right glue or glues for the job make life so much easier.

For general work I use PVA glue, Unibond PVA being the best quality for most jobs, but Resin W (a super-strong wood-working glue) also has its uses. I also have cheap school or craft PVA glue. Be aware that some PVA glues are water-soluble and can peel off when painted; particularly if, like me, you use washes or watered-down acrylic paints to paint your terrain.

For many years I successfully used cheap shop-bought superglues. However, I now use a specialist glue called Mitre Fast by Everbuild, a professional glue used to bond PVC cladding or double-glazing window frames. Be aware that this glue will bond flesh and because of this you should be very careful when using it.

Mitre Fast is a medium gel-type glue and comes with its own accelerator: a small aerosol can which you apply to one exposed side and the glue to the other. You do not always need the accelerator. However, when it bonds, it really bonds. I usually apply it by squeezing out a portion onto a scrap of card and then applying the glue with the tip of a wooden cocktail stick. I purchase mine via the internet.

I also have a hot glue gun which speeds up building time. My advice with these guns is to heat them up fully before using as the glue flows more freely when the nozzle and glue are at the right temperature.

I regularly use a razor saw. However, I am aware that these can be expensive and therefore I would suggest that for many uses a simple junior hacksaw would be OK, but if you can afford a specialist razor saw then I would recommend a Zona Saw.

It would be wrong to even suggest that after forty years of model-making these are the only tools I have; oh no, I have hundreds of tools. However, these are the essentials and, for a beginner, the ones that I feel should be the basis of a very good tool box.

As I build the structures featured in this book, I will detail any other tools that I have used.

Paints and Brushes

I tend to use a wide variety of acrylic paints, having pots from all the major miniature paint manufacturers as well as cheaper craft paint and some artist-quality tube acrylic paints. I prefer the older Games Workshop metallic paints, but if I had to choose just one manufacturer I think I would go for Vallejo Game Color for its dropper bottles, smooth flow and wide range of colours. Throughout this book I have tried to include either the actual Vallejo Game Color name or the closest equivalent. I also make use of washes, both shop-bought