Obviously, I want things to have the same 'toy town' look soldiers and this reminded me that I had seen some thing like this done before. All the way back in 2013, Tom Gow invited me over to Sheffield to the Tripples war gaming convention and one of the tables that really caught my eye was by a club who had done a wonderful little 'toy town' themed display...
Now, the soldiers on this table (and I apologise, I have forgotten the name of the club that put this on) were commercially available models and although I quite liked the shaggy little trees that they had used I remember thinking at the time that they weren't quite right. (In my opinion.)
What I had in mind was a simpler design that complimented the caricatured 'naive' style of my toy soldiers. Something more like these designs...
So, I was discussing this idea with my brother and he informed me that he had a lathe and that such designs might be easy enough to turn in wood! Score! :)
...BUT, we would have to work out a suitable size for the toy trees that was in proportion with my peg soldiers (he, by the way, is working on a similar project but based on little people for his granddaughter to play with). So I got to doodling a few outlines in various sizes on paper and eventually developed my sketches down to this design...
As you can see, what I have gone is a sort of cartoon proportion not much bigger than my figure itself (whereas, in reality, these trees should be something like double the height). This is based on what I think might look 'correct' on a tabletop, and taller trees might be in danger of overwhelming the look of the whole thing! (I know what I mean, I'm just not very good at explaining what I mean!)
So, I've sent this diagram up to my brother to see what he thinks and for him to maybe try turning a prototype on his lathe. Then we can actually set the toy tree next to a few peg soldiers to see if it looks right. Fingers crossed.
And What About...?
That sorted, it then begs the question - what about other accessories and scenery? What about houses or vehicles, etc, etc...
Er, well, the short answer is that I haven't thought that far ahead yet. Well, other than my 'peg planes' which I have deliberately created in a reduced scale as a matching scale to my 50mm soldiers would mean that the aircraft would be quite huge! 😀
I'll take each new idea on as it comes along. Let's get the trees and maybe some bushes done first.
Have you thought about using some large wooden beads with dowel 'trunks'? Or what about smaller beads 'skewered', as in pic #5? You could substitute polystyrene if you're not too fussed about them being wood. Childrens play blocks also sometimes throw up suitable shapes.
ReplyDeleteYour tree ideas look rather good. I have a few of these toy soldiers in my 'to paint' pile, and I was thinking that, for houses, I would use childrens coloured wood blocks and woodstrip for walls. Much in the way H G Wells pictures in 'Little Wars'. This would match the style of the soldiers. I look forward to seeing what you do here.
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