During the much needed breaks in my writing schedule, I have been playing around with different shades of green paint to see which looks best on some examples of Heroscape hexed terrain. The results so far are as follows:
I am tending towards the use of a lighter rather than a darker shade, but I have not yet made a firm decision.
It is something for me to think about whilst I am toiling away at my keyboard!
For those of you who are not aware, there is an old Irish folk song entitled FORTY SHADES OF GREEN ... and it has been around for a lot longer than new, slightly larger, similarly-named, grey upstart that seems to have gained a spurious literary notoriety over recent years.
The lyrics of the song are as follows:
I am tending towards the use of a lighter rather than a darker shade, but I have not yet made a firm decision.
It is something for me to think about whilst I am toiling away at my keyboard!
For those of you who are not aware, there is an old Irish folk song entitled FORTY SHADES OF GREEN ... and it has been around for a lot longer than new, slightly larger, similarly-named, grey upstart that seems to have gained a spurious literary notoriety over recent years.
The lyrics of the song are as follows:
I close my eyes and picture the emerald of the sea
From the fishing boats at Dingle
To the shores of Donadee
I miss the River Shannon and folks at Skibereen
The Moorlands and the Meadows
And their forty shades of green
But most of all I miss a girl in Tipperary town
And most of all I miss her lips
As soft as eiderdown
Again I want to see and do
The things I've done and seen
Where the breeze is sweet as Shalimar
And there's forty shades of green
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If you're collecting audience votes my top 3 are:
ReplyDelete1. Upper left
2. Upper right
3, Lower right
Ross Mac,
DeleteThanks very much for your helpful comment. I had hoped that regular blog readers would express their opinions ... and your choices seem to be not that dissimilar to mine.
All the best,
Bob
I'm with the upper left as well - good for the Leprechauns to hide in!
ReplyDeleteStryker,
DeleteThanks for your vote. Those hexes were painted with Humbrol matt Grass Green ... the colour I have been using for my Napoleonic figure bases.
All the best,
Bob
I vote for the lower right. If the sun hits flat ground, the green will be more vivid. If you Google "green fields" you will see that most of the pictures are closest to that green. I have tried different greens and find light, bright greens make figures stand out more, IMHO.
ReplyDeleteJhnptrqn,
DeleteI take your point, and I have held examples of each colour at arm's length by the window so that I could compare then with the colour of our lawn. The grass was lighter than I had expected, although it was quite close to the colour on the top left tiles.
All the best,
Bob
My only advice would be to look at them all under both natural light and whatever lighting you have where you're likely to use them most; some colours look surprisingly different. I remember doing something similar when we were choosing colours for decorating.
ReplyDeleteNigel Drury,
DeleteVery true. One only has to look at some of the painted figures one sees on tabletop battlefields. They make be painted in the correct colours (i.e. they match colour swatches of real material) but look too dark because colours tend to look lighter the great the distance you are from them.
All the best,
Bob
Another vote for top left, which minimizes the distinction between the hexes and their surround, followed by top right.
ReplyDeleteArthur Harman,
DeleteThat is an excellent point ... and one that I will give serious consideration to.
All the best,
Bob
Possibly not that helpful...... I would favour a mix of tiles painted in the top two colours,just to break up the look of the board.
ReplyDeleteBarry Carter,
DeleteAn interesting idea. I might play around with the painted tiles that I have to see what a mixture of different shades of green looks like.
All the best,
Bob
Barry Carter might be onto something.
ReplyDeleteThe lower left looks dry to me; the lower right makes me think of jungles; the top 2 make me think of temperate climates with some rain. But then, I think it's true that we often misjudge colors if we're not comparing directly - I know that's true for me anyway.
Fitz-Badger,
DeleteI am coming to a similar conclusion regarding the possible 'mixing and matching' of different shades of green. I will give it a try later today ... if I get a chance.
All the best,
Bob
Actually, I like them all. Perhaps a mixture of different shades and patterns would do--after all, most fields are not all that uniform!
ReplyDeleteChris,
DeleteAnother good point and another vote for 'mix and match'! I'll definitely have to try the ideas out to see what the effect looks like.
All the best,
Bob
The headline reminded me of a song, too:
ReplyDeleteOver the Bridge of Sighs
To rest my eyes in {forty} shades of green
Under dreaming spires
To Itchycoo Park, that's where I've been...
Like you I prefer lighter shades for playing surfaces, that the playing figures stand out. For that reason I tend towards the upper right and lower left from the way they look on my screen.
Archduke Piccolo,
DeleteNow there's a song that brings back memories ... all of the non-wargaming type and with a romantic connection!
Green seems to be one of those colours that does not reproduce well on a computer screen. It must be something to do with the way the colour balance is set up. My wife - who is colour blind - cannot see any significant differences between any of the examples!
All the best,
Bob
Yu have inspired me to buy some Heroscape terrain, although I already have Kallistra customised for 6mm & 2/3mm, and another terran system built on 6cm MDF hexagons from Warbases allied to a cloth terrain mat.
ReplyDeleteWhiskers,
DeleteI hope that you find it as versatile as I have.
It sounds as if you have as many different terrain systems as I do!
All the best,
Bob
I would pick top right - the 'strip' of hexes rather than the hexagonal block. I take all the other comments - but just look at any playing field in the summer that doesn't have a sprinkler system - yellow patches, brown showing through - and then think about any battlefield that has had lots of men, horses, vehicles, etc. driving over it. Anything that is really green just doesn't look right to me. I picked out the colour scheme I use after looking at my own lawn several years ago after the dog, my daughter and her friends had all been playing on it....
ReplyDeleteIan Dury,
DeleteI know what you mean about grass not being consistent in colour, especially after people have marched across it or it hasn't rained (or it has rained too much).
That effect on the top right group of hexes was achieved with a thin wash of green paint over some of the original green, sand, and grey-coloured hex tiles. I don't know if I could reproduce it ... but I can certainly give it a try.
All the best,
Bob