The Writing is on the Wall

Of all the bonus rounds, ‘Home’ seems to have really fired my imagination. This was to be a terrain build and from the outset I was keen to construct something more tangible than my usual vignettes – something that could be picked up and placed on the table, something with purpose.

All very noble sentiments, but what to build? What was home? All manner of starting points sprang to mind from a colonial farmstead to a hunting lodge, a Māori Pā to a Zulu Kraal, but in the end I decided that I would go for man’s first home – the cave! Now it won’t have escaped the sharp eyed visitor to ‘28mm Victorian Warfare’ that I have a love of all things prehistoric and a hankering from some Pulp/Lost World gaming and so this became my focus. After some initial ideas and sketches the build started to take shape, further enhanced by a chance find of Patchy the Pirate’s prehistoric home on the infoweb; thank you Spongebob Squarepants!

The base is a ‘Warbases’ terrain base to which I started to add chunks of blue Styrofoam to build up the sides.    ‘Windows’ and a ‘door’ were carved using a hot iron and before long the dwelling was stating to take shape.  I had an inkling that I wanted to have a roaring fire in situ and used a 'Ristul's Extraordinary Market'*

  *imported to the United Kingdom by 'Bad Squiddo Games'

camp fire as a starting point.  This was fixed to another Styrofoam off cut that I had hollowed out in order to site a flashing red and orange Blinky LED; for this to make any impact though I needed to drill some holes in the resin campfire and fill them with clear resin flames from ‘Zinge Industries’.

The interior just required the addition of some cave paintings and then my attention turned to completing the outside.  A ramshackle door made from coffee stirrers has been included along with some ‘Steve Barber’ prehistoric trees and plants, before the final adornment of two Mammoth Tusks framing the entry point.  

All the time that I was slicing, hacking and painting, I kept wondering who would live in a place like this and decided that what it really needed was some inhabitants.  Some ‘Copplestone Castings’ Cavemen Elders and a ‘Lucid Eye’ Neanderthal was duly primed and painted along with a Sabre Tooth Tiger from DeeZee Miniatures, available through Arcane Scenery and Models.  The final addition came in the rather voluptuous shape of a ‘Bombshell Babe’ Cave Girl complete with  a couple of little companions.

I imagine the three chaps all sitting around the fire telling tall tales of great hunting exploits and daubing them on the wall, much to the annoyance of the lady of the house who has clearly had enough and finally sends them on their way with a strong word and a wield of her club.  Silly, impractical and historically inaccurate it might be, but hugely entertaining to build nonetheless, now to find some Fred Flintstone miniatures to use it as a holiday home!

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