Terrain Project: Bamboo Thicket

Skirmish games such as SAGA and Ronin are a compromise between wargaming and miniature roleplaying.  Models become characters whose individual actions or successes can affect the course of the game.  With that sense of individuality, interaction with terrain is even more exact.  For Ronin, a bamboo forest is necessary to instantly evocative of East Asian landscapes.

I started with a number of round wooden craft sticks, about 1/8" in diameter.  They seemed to actually be real bamboo, not that it makes a difference on a scale miniature.

At first, I placed the stick in the chuck for a hand drill and then held a small file against the "bamboo" while turning it. This created the segmented nodes on the stem. Having three hands would have helped in this process.  If one has a drill press (second photo below), there is less chance of breakage and the notches are better defined, but it is a slower process to change out.  

 

The notched bamboo was painted light green with craft paint.  Next, foliage from an aquarium plant was glued to the top and sides.  I detailed the cane with a black wash to highlight the segments, then some drybrush highlighting. 

The bamboo was attached to a CD base with Miliput putty, and then covered with a glue/paint/ballast mixture.

With a couple of these on the table,  the terrain is evocative of so many settings in samurai and wuxia films.  Maybe on my next piece, I'll figure out a way to let my models do this: