An uncharacteristic foray in DIY terrain for the Meanderer: stacked log piles.
Greetings, dear reader(s). In this post, I will show not only the latest bit of hobby production 'round here, but how a trip down the rabbit hole brought me to the "need" to create such an eclectic bit of terrain. As you can see from the above, these represent limbed and stacked logs. Read on for why and how I wound up doing such things.
Well, doctor, it all started when I completed my "Jager" project: a contingent of Prussian and Austrian Jagers (left and right above, respectively). Although certainly suitable for other scenarios in my One Hour Skirmish Musket to Rifle variant, I wanted to pit these two contingents against each other as a classic confrontation of the 1866 Austro-Prussian war. It didn't take me long to find a suitable battle and sector where direct action between Austrian and Prussian Jagers did indeed happen... ...in the heavy, back and forth fighting in the Swiepwald (above) during the Battle of Koniggratz (above image of one phase of the fighting from the superb Battlefield Anomalies Blog: highly recommended). ...this is another view of the Swiepwald as shown on the Kriegspiel map. The Austrians were pushing in from the right (east) and the Prussians from the left (west). I wasn't really interested in a fight "in" a forest as a game. So, upon first blush, I was thinking of looking at the fighting near the Swiepwald as opposed to in it. But upon further study (it's always good to have books and references)... ...I found that the Swiepwald was not a monolithic piece of forested terrain, but variegated, with some open meadows (in green), new growth and old growth areas, a gully (shown in brown in the upper right), and most of all, an area that had been cleared where the trees had been harvested and stacked into log piles (shown as the lighter green area at the lower right with the stacked log piles in brown). The above map came from the Prussian staff study of the battle (the image was found in the Wargaming in History series, Volume 12, Koniggratz, 1866, by John Drienkienwicz and Andrew Brentnall) This cleared area became known as the "Meadow of Death" as the units from both sides were fed into it and fought back and forth across the stacked log piles (the above image was found on the aforementioned Battlefield Anomalies blog--it is a motion picture still from a movie on the battle). My sense is that during the battle there were few if any standing trees in this sector (as opposed to the above picture--which is a good representation of the action, otherwise).
So, now I had to find me some stacked logs suitable for 28mm gaming. Being a lazy sod, I first scanned the model railroad terrain sites for likely subjects: long story short, there was only one, and it was expensive and consisted of plastic logs that I would have to paint, anyway. Confronted by the fact that I couldn't buy these ready made, I contemplated the sober realization that, one way or the other, I would have to fabricate them myself. I then thought about all the articles, blogs, and youtubes I had viewed of more industrious fellows than me who gathered sticks and whatnot from 'round their houses to use as scatter terrain. It was then that the 40- watt bulb of inspiration started sputtering above my head...
...and looking at the "back 40" behind our house, I came to the astounding realization that I had my very own Swiepwald out there... ...complete with ready made log piles (well, piles of branches and sticks that I had stacked to clear the paths: but you get the idea). I then went through these and picked out sticks of likely suspects with similar diameters and reasonable straightness (not as easy as it sounds). I then cut them into 6" and 4" lengths (for longer and shorter log piles). Then--when the wife was out--I baked them in the oven at 250 degrees for 15 minutes to kill any creepy crawlies that might be lurking... ...and from these, I created a series of two-level log piles, with the base level consisting of three sticks and two sticks for the second level. Knowing that white glue itself would not be sufficient, I pinned the top level sticks onto the lower level by drilling holes in both and using snipped lengths of florist wire for pins: and then slobbering white glue all over the pins and any parts that contacted each other...
...For the lower (base) level, I drilled three horizontal holes through each of the sticks and threaded florist wire through them, pulling them together tight and tucking the wire out of sight on the underside (shown above). Once completed, I sprayed them all with a generous coating of Scenic Cement (lazy man's white glue mixture) to seal them and help keep the bark and other bits from flaking off through use (or at least to minimize shedding).Of course, I had to produce enough of these beasties to sprinkle over a 4 foot by 6 foot area, which took me about a week (sheesh). When this all started, I didn't even know that I needed (or wanted) a single log pile, much less a bunch of them. But now I am outfitted to set games in the Swiepwald--and I reckon that I may be able to find other uses for these as well.
