Cabbage Patch - A 28mm Terrain Article

Written by Tony Harwood Friday, 29 April 2011 10:14

The Flora of Valon

Modelling Materclass: A 28mm Scale Cabbage Patch

Part 1 - Building the Cabbage Patch

With this latest piece of terrain I am going to attempt to build a generic piece of Flintloque terrain using scraps and recycled material.  I will be building a small vegetable garden – or Cabbage Patch which will hopefully be used with my Sauerkraut Wars background, see my Blog for further details.

(The second part of this article where Tony paints the cabbage patch is now available online here. - Craig, Barking Editor)

Materials
3mm thick plastic sign, used for the base, I have cut it to a rough oval and chamfered the edges.
Blue foam, a scrap piece which was about the size of a cigarette packet.
Wood strips, from a wooden tangerine packing case.
A broken twig (from the garden).
A couple of pieces of Balsawood, again a couple of scraps.
A resin cast barrel, the original of which was modelled by me and cast by Grand Manner.
A strip of corrugated cardboard.
A broken cork (from a bottle of wine).
DAS Modelling clay.
Green Stuff.
Filler (Spackle in the US).
Split peas.
Cocktail sticks.
Card decoration artificial paper roses.
uPVA glue.
Superglue.
Sieved sand.

Construction

The first couple of photos show the wall being constructed from the Blue Foam. I have cut the foam with a ‘snap-off’ bladed modelling knife, first into thin strips and then individual bricks about 4mm x 6mm x 10mm, the corner posts were cut a little bigger and the upright capping stones are about 6mm x 6mm.  Some variation is actually better than a uniform brick size.

I have used undiluted uPVA glue to glue the wall together, it’s a little fiddly as the glue takes time to fully dry, but once set the whole structure becomes very stable.  I have not worried too much about shaping the individual stones as I will be painting them with some textured paint later.

To the outside of the garden area, I have added a number of individual and loose stones, as if the wall is in disrepair.

The base is a piece of 3mm thick plastic which was originally used as an estate Agents For Sale sign, the walled area is 160mm long x 130mm wide and the wall is 25 – 28mm tall.

The wooden fence is made from one piece of scrap wood which initially came from a wooden box in which tangerines were sold.  This wood is ideal for modelling and can be picked up free of charge at any traditional greengrocers, the uprights are 26mm tall and the horizontal fencing is 90mm long.  I have used thick superglue to glue these pieces into position and detailed the joints with small slivers of sliced plastic rod to model rusty nails.

The cost so far has been minimal, the plastic sign was a road-side find, the blue foam, a free gift which was left over from a school project and the tangerine box (loads of modelling wood) given free of charge, by a greengrocer in Stourport-on-Severn, just tell them what you will be using it for and you will be surprised what they are willing to give.  In terms of time, this simple wall and fence has taken about one hour to complete.

One modelling hint that I have not used is;  when building model walls or fences, to construct them on to a thin foundation, for example a strip of card, the same length as the wall but slightly wider, say 3 – 4mm wider both sides, this has two advantages, the wall can be better blended in to the groundwork and as Flintloque miniatures are slightly taller than your average 28mm figure, the proportions look better.  As I said,  I have not used this technique on this section of wall.

In addition you can replace the blue foam with cork, try cork tiles or cork coasters.

The field was sculpted from strips of corrugated cardboard, where the top layer had been removed and the remaining ridges were modelled to look like a ploughed field or ridged field, the joins were built up with both filler and DAS modelling clay.  The random effect was caused by only having a small strip of corrugated card and therefore I had to stagger the ridges.

I have added a small twig, taken from the garden, which was cut flush on the base and superglued in the corner.  The roots were built up from Green Stuff while the top was left rough and broken.

The small wooden trough is modelled from a small scrap of Balsawood, literally a small piece about the size of a playing card, the design is a simple tapered box raised on two legs and further detailed with some slivers of plastic rod.  The barrel is a resin casting, however the original was sculpted by me and later cast by Grand Manner.  The modelling of a similar barrel is not difficult and should be within the skills of most modellers, however it is time consuming and I would suggest that a bought barrel is a better option.

In an attempt to add some texture I mixed up some filler, fine sand and uPVA glue.  The mixture is loosely painted on to the walls, the ploughed ridges and on top of the areas modelled with DAS, when dry I painted on a second coat to which I added some white acrylic paint, this helps to fill any small impressions and ‘tie’ everything together.

In an attempt to cram as many modelling hints and tips into just one terrain piece, I have added some broken cork (from a bottle of wine) to one corner of the field.  I will be adding more surface texture later, but for now you can see a number of different techniques on this build.

Prior to starting the painting, I once again made up a mix of uPVA Glue, Filler, fine sieved sand and Acrylic Paint then with a large brush, I once again painted the walls and ridged field area. The dry glue/filler/paint finish is very strong and a perfect base for painting.

Once this mix was fully dry, I painted on some diluted uPVA glue to the ground areas and then sprinkled on some sieved sand.  To seal this sand, I used a dropper to add some water to which I had added a tiny drop of washing up liquid.

I would hope that the wide variety of modelled features and the use of ‘scrap material’ would inspire others to try building their own terrain pieces.

Related Articles

Painting the Patch - In the second half of this article Tony Harwood explains step-by-step how to paint and finish the Cabbage Patch ready for play including the all important addition of 28mm scale cabbages.