Playtest session May 6th.

We had another playtest session in the HQ club house.  A nice opportunity to put my new buildings on the table, as well as my as yet not completely painted river tiles.

The surface of the table is not ideal, but it does the job.  Here is the right flank attack developing.  A Sherman on the right has already been taken out by a Panzer IV on the hill.

The Panzer IV has been eliminated.  The two remaining Shermans cross the bridge and start firing on the units they suspect are hiding there.

Meanwhile, the left flank is a mess.  Every attempt to cross the ford and cut the wire is repelled, and there is next to no advance.

The tanks break through.  The one in front is about to be ambushed by a Panzerfaust hiding in the rubble.

After fifteen minutes of intense casualty taking, the CO has an idea:  let’s fire some smoke.

Look at my bocage!

I finally managed to throw together a few strips of bocage for our Normandy campaign, and I have to say I’m pleased with them!  Just a strip of plastic board, bit of hardfoam on top, sprayed army green, and used the hot glue gun to flock them using the wonderful thick flock from Woodlands!

10 mm bridge

In order to complete the 3+ meters of river tiles I made, I started working on the special features: a bridge for a ground level macadam road, a bridge for a raised earth causeway, and a lock.

First step is making the two bridge sides, and make them equal.  I went for a 7 mm height, to compendate for the unit bases.

A narrow strip of plastic to support the deck is glued in,

The deck is cut out too long, and then sandpapered to size so that the road to bridge transition is smooth.

Penciling in the road and river boundaries.  Using foam and card I build the river banks.  Tomorrow I'm basecoating and brushing the earth tones mix on.

Set of 10 mm river tiles: phase 2

All of the regular tiles have been constructed, plastered, based and painted in a mic of browns and greens, and then covered with a thick layer of home made burnt umber terrain wash - and STILL there is some foam peeking through - but nothing that the subsequent flocking will not take care of.  But before flocking I am going to carefully paint the river bed white, and then gently wash with greens and blues, topped of with a good strong gloss varnish.  Some pieces are still in the pipeline:  The bridge + road crossroad, the river + stream junction, and the lock for the Carentan scenario (and any other scenario where a lock is needed, of course).  All  combined that's over 3 m of river!

Some Pendraken 10 mm ruined houses painted

Here are house #1 and #2 from Pendraken after cleaning up and painting.  This turned out to be simple and straightforward.  The houses both feature a narrow rim which I suspect was originally intended to support a remnant of the second floor floorboard.  I'm definitely going to make a bit of floorboard and try that out.  Apart from that, the pictures reveal some details I have got to take care of, and then these are ready for battle!

Fieldworks 10 mm ruined buildings pre-flock

Still have to paint in a few details and flock the macadam around the houses, but that's about it.

WW2 10 mm Rubble etc. review

One of the things I brought home from Salute was a selection of 10 mm terrain items: mainly rubble, but also some walls, fences, and a few bridges.  I got stuff from three different manufacturers: Pendraken, Time Cast and Field Works.