Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Meanwhile back at the ranch.....

OK, so its not the ranch. The centenary of the start of the First World War (or as my granddad called it "The Great War") got me thinking about my long languishing trench project. I dug it out and resolved to add the sandbags to the trench parapets. After that all that was left was flocking and it was ready to go.........that and I have to paint the minis!

I made the sandbags by rolling sculpting clay out into 1/8" diameter sticks, then squishing them a bit with my thumb and slicing them into sections about half again as long as they are wide. I then pinched the ends to create the "bag" shape and stacked them while they were still soft. After they had dried I painted them with a 50/50 mixture of wood glue and water to ensure they stayed stuck in place. I was going paint them but I think I like the color just as they are.




flocking 24 square feet of surface was a pain

but I think it turned out pretty well

I might add some sand to the craters, they look too tidy




an Airfix Mk I for size

9 comments:

  1. Those are very nicely done terrain boards.

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  2. Outstanding work John. Glad to see you finish the trenches at last!

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  3. Very nice indeed! Are you going to dirty the trenches up a bit? It looks a bit to clean and orderly as it stands.

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  4. AWESOME! What a fantastic project. Would love to play on that table.
    cheers

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  5. That is a stunning table setup! Very nice work!

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  6. I do intend on "scruffying-up" the trench areas but the sand I have is too coarse, I will have to get some chinchilla dust for the job.

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  7. Anton: Barbed wire. Suggest something that will lay on the surface and can be moved or removed. Will have to look at my wire. I know I have some "plastic" barbed wire I haven't used yet. I have a lot of wire already done but it is based on 8x2" plastic FOW bases. I am thinking wire in rows with the rows fastened to each other so it is like a blanket, say 8"x2" or 8"x4" with some 4x2" or 4x4" mats as well.
    Looks like I need to pull the A7V tank and the field guns and crews out again. Have 3 guns done.
    Russian Front 1941 or 42??? 28mm

    Or better yet 1944-45. I have 2 Rifle and 1 SMG Platoon plus Pioneers, NKVD, and a squad of Soviet Naval infantry with SMG, as well as heavy weapons and lots of tanks. Want to try SGT Steiner's platoon. I removed the SS paint job and repainted thm to match the movie.
    Found some more senior gamers interested in FOW, zombies, ACW. They have a nice ACW Johnny Reb set up. Loaned them Gettysberg Soldiers. Had me over for one game to teach me how to play. Invited me back.

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  8. I will be running a Flames of War Great War demo game at Michigan Toy Soldier in Royal Oak early in October using these boards and 20mm figures from a host of different manufacturers. I will update when I get a firm date for the game.

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