Taking the Platform

As the 'go live' date gets closer certain requirements can suddenly surface.  One of these was caused by me thinking "what will all of the big guns sit on?".   I have collection of painted heavy artillery pieces for the Swedes and the Imperials, but I didn't have enough artillery bases to put them on.  I could just do a regular base, but I am rather taken with the idea of having my big guns on wooden platforms.   These were used for the normally fixed batteries of heavier guns to provide a more stable platform for firing and to prevent the guns getting bogged down.

The Warlord "Ordnance Battery" boxed set (link) has some nice resin cast gun platforms, which I have, but I needed a whole bunch more and so decided to fashion some simpler ones myself.

The canteen at work provided the planking; wooden drink stirrers seem to be a perfect width for planking.  Here is everything I needed to make the bases.

I started with MDF squares (these from Warbases).  Width 90mm x length 100mm seems to work best to fit a gun with some crew around it.  I cut the stirrers into lengths, about 70mm, using clippers.  I then glued these down to the base.  I used a contact adhesive for speed of drying.

I also added some decorations to each base; a powder barrel and a pile of canon balls.  I think these are either The Assault Group, and/or Warfare Miniatures.  The stirrers were a bit plain so I used a file point to scribe some grooves and nail holes in the planking.

I then added my normal paint, sand, PVA, and filler mixture around the planking.  I painted the planking a dark earthy colour as an undercoat (Humbrol Matt 29), and then dry brushed mid grey to give an aged and weathered wood effect.  Next a wash of Army Painter dark tone, followed when dry with a light dry brush of light grey.  When the ink / paint was still moist I ran the wrong end of a paint brush along the planking to try and give the effect of gun wheels being moved across the planks. I then dry brushed the surrounding mud/earth with beige to finish.

Still need to add some flock, but I am quite pleased with these relatively quick artillery bases.  Your artillery crew will thank you, and I'm sure you'll roll better when firing from a steady platform like this!

Until next time.