Joshua "ZombieSmith" Qualtieri just confirmed that my Quars order is underway. The All Quiet on the Martian Front vehicles are getting closer (trans-Pond shipping being what it is, I'll try to wait for everything I want to be released - or at least available for pre-order - before I order them). My TO&E is finalized. Time to have a look at terrain options...
The obvious choice for this not-WW1 force is a muddy noquar's land full of trenches, shell craters and other obstacles... But I don't intend to use my Quars in a closed Quars-only background and want to use them against and maybe even along my other, higher tech, 15mm sci-fi forces... With, in my opinion, means that while their equipment remains decidedly low tech, their TTPs will have had to adapt quickly to the dynamic warfare conducted by other forces. Asymetric warfare and guerilla tactics anyone? So while I can imagine the odd remnant of defensive positions from a war before alien contact, I don't want to pin this forces in a (fox)hole and want a more versatile board. But I still want it to be indubitably Quar!
 |
| Jaw-dropping board by Sidney Roundwood from Roundwood's World. There plenty more goodness where that one comes from! |
Somehow I see the Quar world (or at least the region I want to model) to be heavily forested with conifer trees. I want green vegetation, brownish mud, greyish stones, blueish water... So natural features aren't going to be the "this is not British Columbia" elements of this board!
Wich leaves us with the quar-made structures... Leafing thourgh This Quar's War I get an idea of partially troglodyte squat buildings with round windows... That would work for a "this is not Verdun somewhere around 1916" look. A bit too hobbity maybe? But a couple of age of steam items or details should take care of that.
Option 1 is to use regular houses and add round windows... I've been looking at the Kerr & King Russian kolkhoz and Karelian village (I learn what a kolkhoz was in high school but had to google Karelia, not enough WW2 eastern front wargaming I guess) for a while (although I was more thinking along the line of pimping them with solar panels, A/C and the odd satellite dish and call them high tech but rural homes for Tomorrow's Wars Republic of Arden).
 |
| Medium Karelian House. Picture from Kerr & King website. |
Either playing with a hole puncher and card or finding the right size of washers should give me nice round windows to cover the existing windows (the Karelian houses seem better adapted than the Russian ones for that purpose: the windows look to be flush with the walls while the russian protrudes quite a bit). Maybe add (or replace or supplement the existing one) metalic piping chimney for that age of steam look and voilà!
Option 2 involves (unless I'm mistaken, and I would LOVE to be proven wrong on that one) entirely scratchbuiling pretty much everything but cares for a more alien look. Take the round pattern further and make the building themselves round. Brandlin sells sheets of laser-cut styrene designed to dress a tube of Pringles into this... Too bad they're designed for The World of Twilight and 28mm miniatures. I wonder if Joshua and that kind could have a chat about making 15mm sized official Quar buildings on the same principle!
Again, add just a bit of coal powered zortiness and Bob is you uncle! I'll start eating Pringles! That World of Twilight game seems to be a faily good source of inspiration for those kind of cylindrical buildings...
 |
| Haft-Oob Stables. Picture from the Manufacturer website. |
 |
| Picture grabbed from a Salute 2014 album on someone's blog I can't seem to track back, sorry. I can definitely see the Quars living in such a coumpound. I love the stacked smaller and smaller cylinders structure. |
Finally, with a bit more Google Fu, I came up with those two nice structures that would link cylindrical Quar houses with All Quiet on the Martian Front vehicles very nicely...
More posts about this project:
 |
| Water Tank by Owen from Far Far Away. |
 |
| And Coal Store, by the same offender. |
We use Brandlin's buildings, no reason you shouldn't! If he wants to make some in 15mm he is more than welcome to do so!
ReplyDelete