On The Workbench: River Sections

A long overdue task, now underway, was to complete the refurbishment of my original Purbeck Terrain river boards. The river banks have previously been improved which had been painted to a basic standard. This was done by adding texture including random rocks etc.

An example of a 9" x 9" board with textured river banks. The task now is to repaint the river to make it look a little more realistic.

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On the Workbench: Rorkes Drift

The start of a short series of "On the Workbench" covering painting and modelling undertaken over the past few months.

I will begin with completion of Rorkes Drift which signals the end of the preparation phase of this project and the action is now ready to be played.

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On The Workbench: Pony Wars Terrain

More terrain pieces have been completed for Pony Wars. My first use of cork bark was used to make rocky terrain pieces which will also form rocky passes.

My terrain modelling skills are basic to put it mildly and much of this was trial and error together with guidance from various Youtube videos.

One side is sheer rock face with the rear sloped to allow access for the ambushers!

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On the Workbench: Iron Age Hillfort

There has been a lull in my gaming allowing me to concentrate on terrain in preparation for forthcoming tabletop action. An additional reason being my holiday abroad for a couple of weeks from this weekend and did not want to leave a half-completed game on the table for this duration. 

With regard to terrain. I have completed a batch of buildings for Gettysburg and I am cautiously optimistic that I have enough. All being well that will be good to go this year.

Another long overdue item is the iron-age hillfort for the next action in my Roman invasion of Britannia campaign:

I normally shy away from scratch-building terrain unless there is no other option. Mainly because of the time it takes and my limited ability in producing good looking pieces. 

The walkway behind the palisade is 15mm wide allowing for the accommodation of my 15mm deep bases. So far it is shaping up ok and miraculously without warping of the softwood base. It is being built in slow time alongside the painting of Japanese warships (in the background) to keep my sanity intact with the gluing of numerous toothpicks. It is actually quite therapeutic doing it this way!

Another priority for terrain on my return will be to add to my desert collection for both my WW2 North Africa campaign and Pony Wars. All this has meant figure painting has come to a standstill following the completion of ECW units for Edgehill. It will be a miracle if I manage to complete my target for the year! 

On the Workbench: More use for Rubber Steel sheets and Dirt Roads update.

Casting my eye around other uses for the recently purchased Rubber Steel sheets (see previous posting) my attention was drawn to my collection of 6mm rail tracks. I always intended to base these at some point but had not settled on what sort of base.

As with the dirt tracks they proved to be simple and quick to produce, in fact even more so. Cutting them in 15mm widths the track was merely pushed onto the adhesive side of the material. 

I did not trust the adhesive to adequately hold the Woodland Scenics blend turf so painted PVA glue along each side before application.

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On the Workbench: Dirt Roads

Over the Christmas holidays I noticed an interesting Facebook posting on how to make roads. The poster cut his roads from a thin rubber steel sheet. He attached felt to the self-adhesive surface which he then painted. The result was impressive and not something I had come across before.

I am in need of dirt tracks/roads and had it in mind to make them from decorators caulk as I had done for my existing roads. The downside with caulk is maintaining a consistency in thickness and can be messy. My thicker pieces are less flexible and therefore more difficult to bend over terrain. Some have also frustratingly developed a camber.

This method looked tempting so a couple of 'Self Adhesive Rubber Steel Ferrite Ferrous A4 Sheets' were purchased from Amazon. They are 0.5mm thick and magnetically-receptive (magnetised versions are available but thicker).

 The reverse side is adhesive and the material is easy to cut.

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On the Workbench: Airfield Buildings

My fictional WW2 campaign in the Aegean, Op Nostalgia, that I was to start with one of my sons has stalled due to his availability. I have therefore decided to continue my solo version. In my campaign the British are about to land on Rhodes. 

All the figures and vehicles are ready but more terrain is needed - specifically airfields.

I have therefore pressed on preparing for the next campaign action. Aside from airfield buildings, I have completed several jetties, a few carts, and the large 2 storey building at the back is destined for the main port. 

Most are Leven Miniatures apart from the two wooden road blocks (2D6 Wargaming) and the 3 carts (Perfect 6). 

On the Workbench: Terrain Tile Road Upgrades.

As readers of my blog will be aware, my terrain tiles are commercially built products that I acquired in the 1990's from the now defunct 'Purbeck Terrain'. The road system was designed ideally for 15mm and is something I have been planning to change since switching entirely to 6mm. 

Although the original can look striking when laid out I was never entirely happy with it. The designers sank the road into the board a few millimetres which was not very practical for wargaming purposes. Even less so for 6mm!

I was recently scanning the 'Rapid Fire' Normandy scenario book and the battle maps had the look of something familiar about them. The road networks depicted were the same as my terrain boards! The scenario maps were in square feet for 15mm/20mm figures so would be a simple matter of transferring to my 9" square boards for 6mm. This would provide for more realistic distances as an added bonus.

With the Cristot scenario beckoning it gave me the impetus to finally do something with my road boards. 

 The above is the original with H&R Shermans. I would need to narrow the road and raise its level.

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On The Workbench: Trees Finished

Finally I have completed the tree upgrades:

I did not count them but there are a lot! To give some idea, there are 30 pine trees in the bottom left. These are all cheap trees purchased from China and can be seen in their entirety in the ACW Battle of Seven Pines. They have been bulked out using Woodland Scenics clump foliage. Their bases have also been improved with various foliage hiding the sharp edges of the mostly mdf bases. A number of them, including the pines, have penny coins for bases which I will be using in the future. Their weight gives added stability.

In time these will be added to, especially the pines - you can never have too many trees! For the time being I will be placing terrain on the sideline as I concentrate on completing my Wars of the Roses figures for the next game in the Kingmaker campaign. With only 2 weeks to go before my long 5 week break I will also be suspending my games to get as many figures painted as possible beforehand. So please bear with me as there will be no AAR's for a couple of months.

As an aside I have been listening to the back catalogue of podcasts by the comedian Al Murray and historian James Holland called "We have ways of making you talk".

https://www.history.co.uk/article/we-have-ways-of-making-you-talk

If you are not aware of this podcast I highly recommend it. It began earlier last year and concentrates on WW2. Great to listen to as you paint.

On the Workbench: 6mm Streams or 2mm Rivers

A few months ago I converted several river sections I had made for 15mm ACW to streams/runoffs for 6mm. These were acetate with one side painted. I am now adding to them and include here a short tutorial on how these were made.

It is a very simple method, cheap, quick and quite effective:

The first stage is to paint one side of an A4 size acetate sheet (I apologise for the slightly blurry image but hopefully you get the idea). 

I used a mix of cheap artists acrylic paint. Black, Chocolate Brown and Tan. A dark shade was maintained using the brown and tan to create an irregular look. To protect the paint I gave it a coat of spray gloss varnish.

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On the Workbench: Trees

The size of the Battle of Grissburg in my room was such that it was rather cramped at my painting table. That, combined with allocating time playing the battle, meant that painting and modelling has been restricted over the past month. I did though manage to complete a couple more 2mm Napoleonic bases and some 6mm for my WW2 campaign. 

On the terrain front, aside from continuing to update my river sections, I felt something had to be done with my collection of trees. These are all the cheap variety from China which had been hastily based to get them on the table. Some are reasonable enough but others are pretty dire. The motivation to do something to improve them began with my pine trees which had been used on the Grissburg board. I avoided including them in my early photos as I had already decided to do something with them. They were caught in the distance in one shot -

I apologise for the out of focus shot but you get the picture. They have also featured on previous 'On the Workbench' posts.

They are rather spindly affairs and once on the wargames board it was obvious that they would have to be replaced or modified in some way. A look around ebay and various online model shops revealed very nice but very expensive pine trees primarily for model railways.

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On the Workbench: 6mm Napoleonic Redoubts

I thought I would give a quick run through on how I completed the redoubts supplied by Total Battle Miniatures. To recap these are the medium, large and extra large redoubts. A small redoubt is also available which I did not purchase on this occasion. 

I completed the medium redoubt using it as a test for the larger versions. 

The large redoubt comes in 3 sections and the extra large redoubt in 5. Having washed and cleaned up the models I cut out bases from hardboard (not needed for the medium redoubt).

Top is the extra large redoubt with 2 large redoubts and the medium redoubt at the bottom. I surformed the base edges and glued the redoubts using PVA glue. The 6mm batteries give some indication of the size of these models.

Once dry I applied filler to the joins including to the bases blending in with the models.

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On the Workbench: 6mm Lutheran Seminary, City building & Redoubts

Two more buildings completed for Grissburg, one also for Gettysburg:

A city (hall) building and the Lutheran Seminary of Gettysburg fame. 

The 6mm figures illustrates the size of these buildings. 

Another view of the Seminary. Both buildings are from Total Battle Miniatures. Although the design of TBM's buildings make them easy to paint, the Seminary was a pain.... all those windows! Satisfying in the end though.

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On the Workbench: More Medieval buildings, 2mm Naps and new deliveries.

On my return from holiday I found some very welcome home parcels:

In the foreground my largest 6mm Baccus order to date. Zulu Wars and ECW mark the start of those projects plus more Spanish Napoleonics and some river sections. Top right is a Heroics & Ros order which almost completes all the figures and vehicles I need for the Landing on Rhodes. There is more stuff also for Op Market Garden.

The unopened packages are buildings and earthworks from Total Battle Miniatures for Grissburg (Nap campaign) and Gettysburg. A few paints, some D10's and flock completed the collection of goodies. 

Unfortunately real world matters restricted my wargaming since return but I did manage to complete these that had been started before my break:

A couple more medieval buildings and another 2mm Austrian brigade base. A slightly different configuration from my previous bases and again represents a 3,500 strong brigade.

These represent the last of the medieval buildings for now and I intend to concentrate on completing the terrain required for Grissburg. The 2mm will continue in slow time including various buildings. I have also prepped an ECW regiment of foot. Could not wait to get started on these being one of my all-time favourite periods that has had little attention over recent years. 

On the Workbench: 6mm Citadel and Church

A couple more buildings have been completed for the 6mm ECW, WOTR and Napoleonic campaign projects. These are again from Total Battle Miniatures "Walled Town Set".

These are the citadel and church. 

I have begun laying out the table for my next ACW battle, 'Front Royal'. This will be the first outing for my refurbished rivers, new streams and rail tracks. I had been hoping to play this battle out before I go away on holiday next weekend but it does not look like I will get the scenery finished in time. I do hope though to get the board set up for a preview before I abandon my wargames room for a few days.

On the Workbench: More 2mm, Medieval buildings and new streams.

More 2mm bases have been completed this week. This time it is Austrians:

These are the first Austrian bases. As you can see I have been experimenting with formations and base groupings. Rather than have generic standard bases I am aiming to very roughly represent the varying sizes of different brigades. This will be based on a 1:20 figure ratio. In the examples above, the massed columns on the left represent 3,500 men, as does the centre base. The base on the right is 3,000. 

In this scale the challenge is making each figure stand out. For the French I painted a blob of grey on the tops of their shakos. For the Austrians I have added a dash of gold/brass representing the front of their helmets or can be shako badges. 

Also for 2mm, I have completed my first buildings. These are from Irregular Miniatures and consist of a small village on the left and a farm.

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On the Workbench: Industrial Buildings and New Projects

Several buildings have been finished for the Napoleonic campaign battle of Grissburg:

Together with another building I completed earlier, this should be enough for the industrial suburbs plus one or two for the town itself. I will need to complete scenic bases for them in due course. These buildings are all from Leven Miniatures. 

With my 15mm sale progressing I have begun to plan for their replacements in 6mm. This will create two new projects, the ECW and Zulu Wars. Orders have been sent to Baccus for the figures so now a little more about these projects:

When casting around for suitable rules for the ECW a few years ago I found these, coincidentally by one Pete Berry of Baccus. I have yet to play them but at first glance they appear to suit my wargaming style. I particularly like the way in which pikemen and musketeers in the same regiment are treated as a single unit. The higher the ratio of muskets to pikes increases their firepower and more effective in melee if the opposite is the case. So often they are treated separately in rules resulting in muskets acting independently of pikes in the same unit. 

Eventually it is my plan to start a campaign for the ECW as in all the periods I play. Initially however, I will play some historical scenarios to get the ball rolling. 

This particular book, while for any game system, was primarily written for Forlorn Hope. A couple of factors attracted me to it - it has a campaign element - and the location for many of these battles are not far from where I live. In fact the first two linked battles: Glastonbury and Chewton Mendip, are only 20 or so miles away.

Those two battles will be the start of the project and the appropriate figures have been ordered.  

For Colonial I have opted for the Zulu War of 1879 and Chelmsford's campaign. Again, I intend to fight this as a campaign in time but to start with I will refight Isandlwana and Rorkes Drift.

And finally, an update on my 2mm Napoleonics. I should have my first test bases up on the blog tomorrow evening and I am impressed! It is a surprising challenge painting such small figures in a way to make them look attractive on the tabletop. I agonised over the bases trying to strike the right balance to make the blocks of figures stand out rather than detract from them. I will cover this in more detail tomorrow.

For the first battle I have chosen a fictional scenario designed for Grande Armee as a test battle called 'Austria 1809', set around the time of Aspern-Essling. I have re-read parts of the Blucher rules and I believe I can get around the command and control solo problem without too much difficulty. When the time comes I may well test them out versus Grande Armee. 

The 'Collections and Projects' page has been updated with the latest developments. 

On the Workbench: 6mm Napoleonic Spanish Line and a delivery from Leven

Three 6mm Spanish battalions completed this week:

For Talavera, I need a 72 figure Mallorca battalion. Rather than having one large battalion sat in my collection I decided to paint 3 x 30 figure battalions with identical, or near identical facings. These are the Mallorca, Cordoba and Guadalajara in 1805 pattern uniforms. Collectively they will form the large unit I need. They will also form the nucleus of a newly raised Spanish division in my Napoleonic campaign. 

All the figures are from Baccus. 

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On the Workbench: Fallschirmjager & Rivers

Another batch of Fallschirmjager have been completed together with a British para engineer stand. 

The Fallschirmjager are primarily for the Op Market Garden project. They are part of Kampfgruppe Walther being 3 reduced battalions of Fallschirmjager. I therefore needed 3 extra HQ's but decided they should be fighting HQ's on normal stands. Here I have completed 2 x MG42 stands (front row), 3 x HQ stands (2nd row), 4 x stand platoons with Panzerfausts (3rd row), and at the rear the British para stand.

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On the Workbench: 6mm 30 Corps and Dugouts

Completed this week was the armour for the 2nd Armoured Battalion of the Irish Guards, XXX Corps together with a bunch of QLT trucks for the Op Market Garden Project.

This is the Rapid Fire organisation from their Op Market Garden scenario book. In the lead is the HQ company that includes an OP tank (FAO) and Air Link half-track (FAC). Companies A - C follow each with 1 x Firefly and 2 x 75mm Shermans.

A bevvy of QLT trucks also completed. All models are from Heroics & Ros. 

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