Making Rabbit Warren's 28mm

while I had my crafting head on I decided to knock up a couple of Rabbit Warren's for my ECW games. Rabbit Warren's often crop up in civil war battles to the frustration of the cavalry.

These were easily made by raiding my son's Daz bag and spreading the half dead clay over a MDF base. It's important to wet the MDF before applying the clay to maintain a strong bond. I then poked divots in the clay to act as Rabbit holes, this was done with a simple clay tool.

Once these bases are laid across a section of the battlefield, they will cause confusion and disorder to advancing troops. I imagine infantry would be taken down to half move, but cavalry could roll for a casualty on passing over the ground. Heavy horse trotting along knee to knee are bound to find a hole or two.

I also finally got to use some resin tree stumps I bought years ago. These turned out to be too big for my figure bases but seem at home on this weathered common.

Roots were made from snipped off plastic tree branches.

 It's a bit like a 17th Century mine field.

Progress so far, painted and flocked. It's looking a lot more natural now. I've added some brambles at the last minute, these need to be flocked.

I really enjoyed working with the rubberised coconut hair and it gave me the idea for other bases. Here is a area of brambles. This should look good once flocked up and it's another classic piece of the English countryside to march over. This will be classed as difficult terrain.

I left enough room in the centre to put my 60x60mm bases in. I imagine this could be used as a barrier against cavalry if troops managed to get inside. Looking at you Dragoons!

UPDATE: right, all done now. I thought the holes were getting a bit lost in the flock, so added some watered down mud around the entrances. This seemed to work a treat and the treacherous ground became more apparent. It's still wet and shiny at the moment but should dull down when dry.

The Bramble patch was treated the same way as the hedges, sprayed brown and flocked. To make the shape of the Bramble bushes, I rolled the coconut fibres in my palms to crush them down a bit. This made them cigar shaped and quite low to the ground in 28mm.

Fine grit was sprinkled on to add a bit of detail.

Lastly, I sprinkled on some mixed herbs and leafs to finish the realistic look. This was then coated with sealant to fix it all down.