A New Beginning

Hello and welcome to my new blog. I am creating this to document my attempts to build terrain for wargames. I am a complete novice, having only just come back to the hobby after a good 15 years away and never having turned my hand at anything more complicated than two books under an upside down subbuteo mat! I intend to document all my attempts, mistakes and all, for the end result of creating a website with tonnes of information to allow budding scenery designers to avoid the mistakes I will surely make!

I play Lord of the Rings, it is a game which appeals as I love Tolkens world, I have read the books more times than I can count! I am playing just the basic strategy battle game at the moment, I will get war of the rings at some point, but I love the idea of playing with just a few models on game boards packed with scenery. I am also building a Warhammer 40k Dark Angels army, though that is definately on the back burner at the moment.

So how do things stand at the minute? Well I have absolutely nothing, though I have exhausted the internet in my search for information! There is some very good stuff out there, a particulat highlight for me being Hirst Arts, however searching for information on creating hills for wargamers has resulted in a bit of a blank. Most go for the layered flat "wedding cake" approach, which makes for a very playable piece of scenery, but I would like, ideally to be able to take a close up photograph and have people ask if its real or a miniature, like some of the best model railway layouts. Most model rail layouts would not allow the placement of miniatures on them as the slopes are too steep and the foliage is too thick, so I will have to make compromises or come up with clever idea's, to create modular, realistic terrain that can be played on. Perhaps this will be too big a task, who knows!