Friday, December 4, 2015

Eastern Front Terrain: Russian Windmill

So I've started in earnest on terrain for the Bolt Action Tank Wars Kursk event for Adepticon 2016. This is a piece I've been wanting to do for awhile - originally in 15mm for Flames of War, now in 28mm for Bolt Action. 

Colloquially, windmills tend to evoke images of Holland, Belgium, perhaps France or even Spain. But on the wide open plains and steppes of Russia, windmills were often the only way to grind the massive amounts of grain these agricultural areas produced. Unfortunately, few survive today (probably due to massive industrialization and "progress" in the post-war Soviet bloc) and there is little information about them in English. So I used several pictures as inspiration.




The stacked timber base is 5/8" poplar rod cut to length glued to a base of 2mm MDF (pre-primed on the opposite side to prevent warping). The base is hollow and opens up, allowing several 28mm figures to be placed inside with the mill still being able to be placed atop that. The basic mill structure is built from 2mm MDF for sturdiness, with basswood and poplar stripwood laid vertically over that. I used O scale windows and door (the door was cut down somewhat) and the thatched roof is made out of faux fur fabric, textured with glue and roughly weathered with acrylic paint (also removable so you can place figures inside). The blades are all basswood covered in thin fabric for the sails and are removable for storage.

I weathered the whole structure using grey and black acrylic inks, with a light drybrush of white acrylic paint. Next up is an Orthodox Church!







1 comment:

Unknown said...

This windmill is fantastic! Very, very nice