La Belle Alliance Part Four

Hello There! I have made some progress on the La Belle Alliance building. The previous part is here. Since then I have washed the whole in a watered down wash of black paint. The tutorial that I have been following suggests using ink. In the past I have found that inks do have a habit of fading a bit. This was a different colour ink and on figures. In this case I presume that a wash of Vallejo 950 black paint would suffice. I applied a wash of watered down black paint to all the bricks and then taken some 400 grit sand paper and rubbed all the bricks down. I wondered what this would achieve but could see that the concave shape of the bricks caused by the embossing process was alleviated. The bricks had a flatter surface now.

I was following the instructions from tutorial by Emmanuel Nouaillier in the January 2026 edition on Continental Modeller.

It was at this point that I realised that I had missed a step out!

After embossing the foam core he recommends airbrushing the surface with two layers of Humbrol 'Neutral Grey' enamel paint. I feel an Vallejo equivalent would suffice. Anyway I inadvertently missed this step out. This did cause a few difficulties later.

When this is dry I then used various colours dry brushed on the surface. They included 982 cavalry brown, (main colour), 909 vermillion, 829 amarantha red, 957 flat red and mixed some of these colours with a small amount of black to obtain a number of different shades.

I would suggest when applying a vastly different shade to dry brush along the brick course as when a wall is built the bricks are usually taken from a pack and different shades of brick are usually present longitudinally. Some brickies do mix the brick packs before they lay them but this does not always happen.

This is the point that I realised what the airbrush layer of grey was for. The bricks, even after being light sanded had a series of groves in the surface. Although this was realistic the black wash was not adequate to fill this grooves in the brick surface. I applied a second black wash, were I could see this problem, to fill these creases. 

Here the end of the building has had a layer of white weathering powders applied and the powder has been pushed into the mortar joints using a dry brushing brush using a stippling action. There are some bricks that have a darker shade. This is a combination of an addition black wash and, as I felt the white mortar was too stark so mixed a black and and dust colour weather powders together to dull this white down.

Here is what the side looked like after just applying the white weathering powders. As you can see the powder, despite having a damp, (not wet!), kitchen towel, dabbed over them, the weathering powder tends to be trapped in the pitted surface of the bricks. I got over this by reapplying the dry brush colours over this. When happy with the finish I applied fixer for the weathering powder.

Here is a closer view of the side of the building before the reapplication of the brick colour. For added realism I picked out the odd brick suggesting that it had 'blown' and the frost had damaged the front of the brick.

I hope to have all four sides of brickwork completed by the end of the week and start the window frames and doors started.

Temperate Modular Scenery, River Sections

Hello There! With the majority of the modular terrain nearing completion I have started the last tiles which are the river sections.

I have already made the frames to fit the styrene into. I had calculated the width of the river and cut that size centrally into the frames. Next I marked out the edge of the watercourse along the tile. I used a router to remove the styrene, (which was a very messy job, so I covered everything in dust sheets to make it easy to clean up. I then started to apply the tile adhesive to round off the edges of the river.

Here is the depth of the river. It has to be deep enough to allow a thin layer of tile adhesive, some fine stones, a thin layer of resin, (coloured brown), and a layer of blur green resin. I opted for a depth of about two centimetres.

I realised that instead of using a scarper to apply the tile adhesive that it would be a lot easier to just use my hands so wore some protective gloves to stop getting the adhesive all over my hands. I took the opportunity to fill in the edges of the styrene and the wooden frame by pushing the adhesive down the gaps.

I you were ever one of those children that liked to do finger painting at school then this is the job for you! I used water to make the finish more smooth and frequently wet the gloves to stop the adhesive sticking to the gloves.

Here the river bed has been covered. I did not cover the river banks or any further as then I would have added grit and sand and I did not want that on the river bed at this point. The vacuum cleaner at the side explains the 'mess' described earlier!

On one of the 600mm x 600mm tiles I made a slow river bend. I decided to build up the inner curve of the bend with more adhesive to make it more realistic. I used a paint brush, soaked with water to smooth the surface off.

As some of the tile adhesive is quite thick this may take a while to set. This is fine as I have a number of other projects on the go at the moment.

Military Prints

Hello There! I have been trying to build up some decorations for the wargaming cabin, and attempting to keep the the costs down.

After searching Facebook market place I found a number of very cheap picture frames. At the same time I also searched through a few charity shops for further suitable frames.

Here is a print that I found in a second hand book shop in York. As I was painting some French Light Infantry at the time. It is entitled 'Infanterie Legere 1809 - voltigeur - carabinier'

All the bare wood frames have been stripped and painted in  dark green to blend in the fittings in the cabin which are the same colour. This print and the next came from Bastion Books in Berwick on Tweed.

It is entitled 'A corporal of 13th light dragoons killing a French colonel Campo Mayor, Spain 1811'

This last print was an illustration of the Royal Norfolk Regiment advancing at the Battle of Roleia. Entitled 'Ninth Regiment of Foot Battle of Roleia 17th August 1808'

Being the local regiment I felt it was a good portend.

Normandy Game

Hello There! Here is another game played at the New Buckenham Historical Wargamers Club recently. This used 10mm figures along with a number of buildings, some of which you may recognise from the collection of building from the Battle of Waterloo.

Here is the overall table and the Britsh were attacking from the left, across the board towards the German defences.

The painting on the building was highly effective. I have painted some of these for a wargaming friend and can vouch that these are very well detailed and almost 'paint themselves'!

Here is another Waterloo building.

The buildings also fit very well with the figures used.

This was the rules used. I know very little about these, but the game appeared to run smoothly.

Some of the buildings had a few contemporary posters for the period. 

Commando Game

Hello There! While escaping from some family commitments, for a little while, I managed to visit the wargames club and take some quick photos of the commando game which was being run.

It was played using 28mm figures and Bolt Action rules. Here is the overall view of the table. The commandoes had to get from the far side of the table and sabotage the railway station before the end of the game. 

I have been considering making a train and wagons for years but have never got around to it. There are plenty of damaged models or stand in trains and wagons at the local model railway shop and I have a few old Dalpol models in the stash of shame. These examples from a fellow wargamer have pushed this project forward somewhat.

Also a scratch built bridge. This reminded me of the Slaters Plasticard that I also have in the plasticard stash. A basic construction but highly effective.

Between the commandoes starting point and the railway station was a few building. On the far left is the ubiquitous Hovels damaged building. The others are scratch built.

Here is the rear of the railway station. The German player had a machine gun in the top window which caused the Commandoes a lot of problems.

The figures were very well painted.

The Germans entered along the bridge at the side of the board.

The railway bridge was also scratch built. It is very stimulating to see the work of other wargamers.

The train was painted black and dry brushed.

Here is a close up of the Hovels building.

Obviously the commandoes had not read the fieldcraft book which began, 'Dont bunch up'!

The River was plaster and multiple coats of paint and marine varnish.

I have started to make some trees from rubberised horse hair, but prising the horse hair out to make a much less dense tree, before I flocked it.

Various pieces of 'fluff' were also present.

The game was very popular and was enjoyable, for all of the players. Further photos can be found here.

Cobbled Roads

Hello there! I have started painting the cobbled roads, from Early War Miniatures. Their website is here.

I started by painting them a dark grey, as per the instructions that came with the purchase. 

After they had dried I used a dry brushing brush to add a lighter grey. I gave the roads an uneven colouring overall.

Next I painted the edges an equivalent to Vallejo English Brown. This would help to make the roads blend into the existing scenery.

I started to add the same flock that was already on the modular terrain. In the above picture I have added the first 'burnt grass' flock to the top right hand corner.

I finished the roads off with a few patches of Woodland Scenics grass mix and some grass green static flock and they were all done.

Overall I was very happy with these.

I shall post some pictures of these in situ when I have completed the scenic modular terrain.

La Belle Alliance Build Part Three

Hello There! I have now started to emboss the foamcore with bricks. Part two of this build is here. 

I rectified my first mistake today! I fitted the window frames as far forward as I thought was required. Then I peeled off the paper on that side of the foamcore and realised that the frames were too far forward. I have since trimmed them back and and replaced the wood grain with the tip of the scalpel.

For the door and window frames of the other side of the building I remembered what had happened with the other side and removed the paper around them before I fitted everything. I also cut the walls for the end extension and got some blank pieces to act as stiffeners for the buildings.  

I found an easier way to emboss the bricks on the end of the building. Usually I use a steel ruler to act as a guide but as the end was already glued to the end of the main building I found I had 'run out of hands' to hold the building, steel rulers and the brick embosser. 

Instead I used a pencil to mark a guide line so that I could see if I was deviating from a straight course of bricks.

After making the bars which go across the lower part of each window I had to cut the protruding bars which stuck out of the top and bottom of their frame. I had to wait for the plastic liquid glue had set and dried. This picture is purely descriptive and I used the scalpel again. I did hold the piece as I cut it!

The next part will include fitting the building together and starting the painting.