Defensive Revetments 10mm

Hello There! I have recently finished these revetments which are for 10mm figures. They have been placed on a base and tile adhesive, sand, paint, flock and tufts added. The figure, to give an idea of size, is Perrys 28mm Confederate infantryman.

I am pleased how these came out. They have also had a coat of varnish. I have included pictures of the front and back.

La Belle Alliance Build Part Two

Hello There! I have made some more progress on the build. The start of the build is here.  After starting to cut out the spaces for the doors and windows I found that the width of the gaps for the doorframes and window frames were too small for the front of the building.

Using the grid on the graph paper I was able to widen them both a standard size. I use a sharp scalpel to cut the openings.

During this I made one cut which while it was 'clean' it was not square so the subsequent door and frame would not have sat correctly. In the picture below the left hand cut on the door is misaligned. You can see the mixed Miliputt on the right to correct this.

Here I have put the miliputt in place and fitted the door frame. I waited for this to set and then glued both in place with gel superglue.

I used an engineers square to get both in the right position.

Concerning the timber for the doors and windows, I used a suede brush and then a wire brush to impress a wood grain into the plastistrut. To make this deeper and more pronounced I then ran the tip of a pointed scalpel along as well. This also gave you less chance of running of the side off the plastistrut as the existing small grooves from the wire brushes provided a guide. 

The grooves along the outside edge of the door frame were made using a pointed scalpel again with the plastistrut placed flat on a cutting board and then run along the edge.

The windows are in two parts. The top part is leaded and the lower part is guarded with iron bars which are held in place by horizontal beams against the transom of the frame. I cut the upper and lower parts of the horizontal beams that the bars will fit into. I cut them the same length and held them together while I drilled holes through them so the vertical bars would be vertical. (I had to do this twice so they were parallel!).

With the window bars fitted I started on the doors. These were also made from plasticard and a wood grain finish was added as before. the uprights were added to two parallel beaks, as seen above.

I then peeled off the surface card on the foam.

With all the doors and windows fitted I began to emboss the bricks onto the surface. This was done with the shaped ferrule of an old paint brush . A six inch steel rule was used to maintain a straight line for the bricks.

In the next part I hope to start the priming and painting.

Purchases from Vapnartak 2026

Hello there! I made a few purchases from the show. Most of them were to help me out with projects I have on going at the moment.

The Beach Sand is for the desert terrain I am currently working on with the option to use for the beach tiles which will be used for the Aegean scenery which will go with the Aegean Harbour

In the absence of the normal AK weathering powders fixative I chose something that does the same job. This is for the mortar work on the La Belle Alliance building. 

The Normandy scenery I am making has some static grass along with the fine flock. The static grass I am using at the moment is from another supplier but I will need much more to cover the remaining scenic tiles. 

This is a 20mm ancient ruined temple. This was from Coritani and was only a passing buy as it fitted very well with the Aegean and desert terrain.

Lastly a mix of nationalities for Normandy and the desert. In 20mm these are from Ready to Roll, of Rapid Fire fame, and are in resin. On closer inspection I saw that these are very crisp and clean castings.

Vapnartak 2026

Hello There! I spent a few hours at the above show. Instead of religiously photographing everything I took my time to enjoy the show and talk to a few gamers. 

This first game was one of two AWI games that were on display. The Brompton Bankers were very forthcoming and tried to get my partner involved. They were very approachable and light hearted.

They were using the Osprey AWI rules Rebels and Patriots.

The game was based on a flat battle mat with drop on terrain. While it was a participation game it was a pleasant breath of fresh air to have such an approachable group at a show.

There were some nice painted figures on the table.

Part of the game included a bridge and river in the scenario.

Next was the Yarkshire Gamers display of the Battle of Germanstown. Both the AWI games used 28mm figures. Of particular note was that half of the figures were from a gamer who had passed away and this was a memorial game to him. 

Again the figures were well painted.

Here was one corner of the game where some marshes were represented.

Judge Chew's House was well represented here. 

There were also a number of small vignettes as well.

Next up was a pulp alley game. This was of particular interest as the club I attend have a project to put on a Roman colosseum game in the near future. They have an arena already.

This also had some spectators and some sun shades as well.

The game from the east Leeds Militaria Society was in a very small scale, but looked very good indeed. It was an amphibious game with what appeared to be 1/1200th ships. It represented the Battle of Hakudate in 1869.

The buildings were well detailed,

As were the ships and harbour.

The fortress of Goryōkaku, headquarters of the rebel army.

This game got my attention as I recently played a 'Cold War Gone Hot' at the club recently

I like the ASDA complete with a tiny car park, like most ASDAs!

Overall a very enjoyable show with plenty of gamers who were very approachable and happy to talk to you.

I have seen a few blog posts since saying that the show left them underwhelmed. I felt that the foot fall was the same as usual, although you will have to speak to the show organisers for a more accurate account.

The show face book page had a few trader call offs and some of these were at the last minute, but the show organisers did fill some of these positions.

There were some spaces but this made the show a little less crowded and easier to get around.

Minster Gate Bookshop Revisited

Hello There! The day before I visited Vapnartak 2026, I had a tour around York and revisited the Minster Gate Book Shop again.

Again there was a noticeable change in the stock in the History and Military History sections.

After a while I walked away with the following.

While these subjects are not my usual interests for less than four pounds each I added these to the collection.

I have a few publications on the Roman Army and I had a look through this and felt it would be a useful addition. Also the Towton book was also interesting, especially as we passed the battlefield on the way home.

I originally had a creeping feeling that I had this already but thankfully I was incorrect.

I have a small force of  Resistance, which could be the basis of a good game. I do not have anything specific on this subject so was pleased to find his. Also another couple of additions concerning Normandy. This time from the German and British perspective.

This last item came from an Oxfam shop on the high street. It was hidden behind a number of other books and not easy to find. I already have the first part and this concentrates on the large Capital ships in the Kriegsmarine, some destroyers which were formally from other nations and an errata from volume one.

La Belle Alliance Build Part One

Hello there! I have started revamping some buildings associated with The Battle of Waterloo. I have begun with Napoleons headquarters so that I can judge how best to do this work so that I can progress with the other buildings, Hougoumont and La Haie Sainte. 

I started off with this. I started by stripping the doors and windows and removing the roof and end extension.

This gave me the bare bones of the foam board shell. Here I have added some depth to each end as I had completed the next step below.

I searched the internet for reference material. I found that some representations of this building had made a number of mistakes as there was a few differences to what the building looked like during the battle and after a number of changes had been made.

The sepia illustration above was the most accurate I could find which was contemporary with the battle. I was completed a few months after the battle.

The black and white picture is from Adkins 'The Waterloo Companion' That shows some smaller windows under the eaves which were a later addition. Lastly on the front facing the road the left hand doorway was bricked up. In most models it is a door.

There does not appear to be any detailed pictures of the rear of the building. There is a well and a separate building behind but this is not included in this work.

I obtained some graph paper and started a scale drawing with the reference information I had. I also needed to take into account the dimensions of the foam board model I had to work with and the spacing of the doors and windows to make them look right.

Once that was done I then photocopied the plans and glued them to a sheet of Canson Foamboard. This is a much higher quality foam board than what is available from the likes of Hobbycraft. It is denser and is sandwiched with two sheets of cartridge paper. It is much easier to peel of and leaved a clean area which can be impressed with brick much more easily.

The wider dimensions, between the above plan and the foamcore shell was different. The plan being much wider. I added some further width by cutting some cheaper foamcore board a little smaller than what was already there and glued them to each end. The final ends where cut in Canson foamboard so I could impress a brick end to it later.

This also gave me the final width for the front and back and ensured that it would all fit together with no overlapping.

As you can see above I have started to cut out the doors and windows. This gave me the opportunity top enlarge them, to suit 28mm figures more easily and take into account the thickness of the plasticard which will be the door surrounds.

Next I will fit the doors and windows