Battle of Gloucester Point 3rd October 1781

Hello There! I have managed a visit to my local wargames club and played a great game of AWI. This game was put on by Chris and was thoroughly enjoyable. 

The table was not massive and the game was a good way of showing gamers that you do not need to have a massive game with loads of figure to have an enjoyable and challenging game.

The scenario was a foraging party of British were retiring back to their lines and were discovered by a Franco American force which had almost caught them up. the wagons were under guard and a mixed Loyalist cavalry and British infantry force was hurrying the forage back to their lines.

The cavalry also comprised of a small unit of 17th Light Dragoons.

The baggage train was an eclectic mix and something that I would like to add to my own collection.

The British lines also had an artillery position which during the actual battle took no part in the action and so for the purposes of the game was 'Fluff' However during our refight the artillery played a prominent part.

The initial engagement consisted of a cavalry battle when the French Lazuns Legion caught up with Banastre Tarletons Loyalists. This ended when after a number of melee rounds, which saw the Loyalists pushed back, Tarleton was wounded and the French took the entire unit prisoner as they surrendered.

As the baggage train moved off the table the two Virginia Battalions moved to the centre of the table t engage the British. They put up a good attack, considering they were militia but eventually broke leaving the wagons to escape off the board.

The rules used were a club set which were modified from the Bruce Quarrie Napoleonic rules from the 1980's. These were written when some of the club members attended the Coltishall Cowards Wargames Club in the 1990's. 

Further photos of te game are on the Club Facebook page here.

Modular Terrain Part Two

Hello There. Here is the next part of the modular terrain tutorial. The first part is here

Before I get to the plastering, I had some old off cuts to use up, (Again being stored 'In case I need it'!). I glued them in place using the expanded foam. When it had set I cut the edges with a Stanley knife and used this cut as a datum line, so when I reached it with levelling I knew I had reached the correct point to stop.

I then had a point to cut the protruding surface of the styrofoam tile and could use a wood saw to cut the extra off and not make so much mess. I could also use the flat sheet for other tiles.

Once it had been sculpted to shape I could then fill any deep gaps with tile adhesive and leave to dry.

Next cover the surface of the scenic tile with tile adhesive and level by drawing a 600mm long steel ruler across the surface. Then brush over the surface with a wet paint brush. This levels the last of the surface and smoothes out any ripples in the surface.  Then brush over a layer of PVA and add small stones and sand to taste.

When dry, this may take a day, remove the excess sand and scatter sawdust where required and then add thinned PVA to the sawdust. This can be stippled in place with a paintbrush and levelled.

Again, when dry, paint brown. As I require a large quantity and needed a colour similar to Vallejo English Uniform Brown I mixed some acrylic artist paint. I used raw umber and yellow ochre to get the required shade. I added some PVA glue and water to thin to the required consistency.

When dry I dry brushed the surface with a mixed version of Vallejo Iraqui Sand. I made this up using the English uniform from above and added plenty of white to get the shade I wanted.

This is a subtle step. Above the un-dry brushed scenery is on the left and the dry brushed  scenery is on the right. I admit it is difficult to see in the above photograph but this step does make a different.

The next step will include adding the flock and sealing.

Aegean/Mediterranean Harbour PartTwo

Hello There! I have continued to build the harbour. The first part is here.

Here is the wall for the harbour, complete with the arch over the entrance. I am planning to round off the top of the wall and after impressing the blockwork into the foam wall I will cover the wall with a thin sheet of air drying clay. I am using the clay because if you mix it with a little water and then dry it quickly in the sun it will crack. This is the process I used on the refurbishment of the Airfix desert fort here.

The top of the wall has a length of airdrying clay, rounded off to give the round topped wall when the next layer of clay is applied. There will be two posts either side of the entrance to support the arch. The corners have already had a mitre cut to join the corners.

The floor of the harbour has been covered with Slaters plasticard and two recessed squares were cut out of the base using a router. This is because the two disparate periods of history, that this scenery is intended for, will require a change of accessories. The WWII scenario with have a brick hut, (above), and a crane to help unload fishing boats. For the Napoleonic scenario I have a number of barrels, baggage and boxed muskets. These will be fixed to the plywood inserts and swapped as required.

The Hut above was scratch built, by me, many years ago and I have been looking for a use for it ever since. It was a practice for emulating Emmanuell Noilierre, a French model maker who specialises in ultra realistic derelict building facades.

He uses canson foam board and impresses brick and blockwork into the soft surface. His painting is very realistic and while I may not get to his standard he does have many useful techniques which are worth learning.

The next part should see the wall and accessories fitted and the result of an attempt to build a rig to hang fishing nets on to dry. 

Desert Wadi Part One

Hello There! I wanted to add a desert wadi to my desert terrain and have been planning how I would do this for a while.

I made the base and sides in the same way as the modular terrain, here. I was able to use many styrene off cuts from the rubbish bag, that I had kept., 'just in case'!

I had drawn out the sides of the wadi on the plywood base and filled the sides out with the styrene off cuts.

At first I was planning  to score the face of the rocks, like here. But I had a large amount of Woodland Scenics plaster rock faces made and a large bag of plaster left over from another craft project.

I cast a number of rocks and then started to fit the most suitable parts in place. There would be some overhang, where the rocks would be taller than the styrene but I can make the height difference up later.

I included a slope on one side to aid access to the bottom of the Wadi and have plans to add a few more sections to this scenery later.

I made it all fit together and then will glue up in the next part.

Mediterranean Church Part One

Hello there! Along with the other scenic items I am working on, I have taken out of storage the Shellhole Scenics Mediterranean church that I bought during the 1990's!

As you can see it is massive. That is a 20mm figure on it.

It comes complete with a separate tower which I shall keep with the church.

There are some small damages which have accumulated over the years as it has endured a number of house moves, as have I.

The main building lifts off and has a subfloor in the base and a separate pulpit and second floor. I do not normally keep lift off roofs as they can easily get damaged and putting figures inside model building can 'give the game away' so I keep such figures off the table until revealed of spotted.

Also, unavoidable with such a large resin casting, the sides have bulged out a bit. I hope to take this into consideration while upgrading this building.

The separate tower is in three parts and again had a lift off roof. It also has interior detail.

I was planning to keep the tower in one piece and on the same base as the church.

Like the church it has to have the windows hollowed out.

As the top of the walls bowed out past the edges of the cast roof, I cut a sheet of platicard to the correct size and added a bead of quarter round around the edge to hold the roof in place when it is glued to the roof section.

Here is a better view of this work and the detail on the walls.

I had drawn an ellipse on a sheet of 4mm thick plywood and cut it out using a scroll saw. This would be the base for this large model.

I had some small walls which could be put around the base.

They were originally straight sections but I bent them to shape by holding them in just boiled water and bending to shape. When I had them how I wanted I dipped them in cold water to hold their shape.

This gave me a surrounding wall but it was a little short in height so I used each section of wall as a profile and cut out plywood sheet packing to cut out with the scroll saw again.

Well that is the end of this part. Next the surrounding wall has to be fixed in place and will look into the difficulties of fitting the roof squarely and adding some more detail.

Aegean/Mediterranean Harbour Scenery Part One

Hello There! Along with the modular terrain and the Walled Vineyard I have also started a harbour for the above.

This can be used for the Aegean and 20mm figures and also Napoleonics in 28mm.

This is based on the Wargames Illustrated Feature, 'Operation Nostalgia' which was in issue 74, in November 1993.

This is the basic shape. After drawing a plan of the proposed design I measured out a 600mm x 600mm scenic tile.

I had drawn out the layout of the harbour and used some timber I had stored in the garage, 'in case I ever needed it'! I cut it to size, using a cross cut saw,

 

I then made sure the surface of the floor of the harbour was all the same height by using some thin off cuts of styrofoam glued in place using non solvent gripfill.

The tool on the left of the picture is a Stanley Surform. It is a hand held plane which is perfect for moulding styrofoam. It makes a big mess but is easily hoovered up. It enables you to mould the styrofoam and be more precise with your measurements.

The block and brick work for the harbour walls and floor are from a railway model supplier called Slaters Plasticard. They supply many different scales and sizes of brick and block work.

I found it difficult to keep the steel rule in place while cutting the sheet to size so devised a system to hold the ruler in place which I had hands free to cut the sheet accurately.

I used a quick release clamp to held one end of the ruler in place while cutting and was able to keep my fingers out of the way while cutting.

I planned to represent a number of large timber logs to fit next to the wall as retaining and a way to protect the wall against careless fishing boat captains who could hit the wall while mooring. I also wanted a length of timber along the corner of the wall and floor of the harbour.

Both of these would be made from plasticard, scored with a suede brush and then marked with a wood grain with a sharp No 11 scalpel blade.The plastic strip is the start of this.

Also the foam and plywood sandwich is the start of the boundary wall of the harbour. This will be covered in air drying clay later.

On the left hand side is masking tape holding the Slaters plasticard on to the sides of the harbour walls.

This is the end of part one and in the next part I hope to complete the plasticard cladding and add a couple of extra features.

Modular Terrain Part One

Hello there! With the completion of the cabin and the transfer of most of my 'stuff' to it, I now have the space to progress some projects.

The first project will be the start of the modular terrain that I have started many times over the years and has produced desert terrain and the start of some for North West Europe, which will double for my ACW games.

Like the other projects I will be starting at the same time, but will all be related, I will not wait until completion then publish them on the blog, but do them in linked parts

I had already decided that the overall dimensions would be based on 600mm x 600mm squares. To house river sections and smaller features I would also make a number of 600mm x 300mm and 300mm x 300mm tiles.

The plywood sheets are 3.6mm thick and can be cut using a Stanley knife. Now this is obviously fraught with danger so I devised a system where a couple of quick release clamps held a premeasured sheet on to a cutting board, in this case an old sheet of 12mm thick plywood, and also held a 600mm long steel rule in place so I could score a line in the plywood using the steel rule as a profile. It also meant that I would shed any blood for this project if the blade slipped or jammed.

I have used the thinnest and most easily obtainable timber for the surround of the modular tiles. In this case 19mm x 50mm PSE timber. This was cut to the desired length using a cross cut saw and then I cut a 45 degree angle at both ends.

The picture above shows how I held the sides in place with quick release clamps and used solvent free gripfill to glue it together. I also had an engineers square to make sure it was all square.

If it set in the wrong position I used a carpenters plane to square the sides and make sure the 600mm x 600mm dimensions remained.

The styrofoam was glued in place using expanding urethane foam. I recommend wearing some gloves while doing this bit. Do not use too much expanding foam and stay with the job once the styrofoam is in place as it may continue expanding and rise up. I also sprayed the surface with water first to make up any large voids that needed filling.

Here are the tools I was using to shape the styrofoam board. The item with the red handle in a Stanley Surform. This has been invaluable in getting the shapes of hills and to make things fit without having to get the knives out again. Also the kitchen bread knife is also very useful.

The expanding foam which has set and hardened and managed to creep out round the edges of the styrofoam can be cut off and shaped with the surform.

Once the shaping has been done then the worst of the holes can be filled in with water proof tile adhesive. This does not have to be mixed and is a consistent thickness and texture. I prefer to do this separately because the thicker the next layer of tile adhesive is applied the longer it takes to set.

So in part two we will have the layering on the surface and application of texture.

Walled Vineyard, Part One

Hello there! I found a long forgotten purchase in a box in the loft. It was some bagged walls and opening suitable for the Mediterranean or Spain. These came from Hovels and were obviously an impulse buy!

On closer examination I found that all the pieces did not quite line up properly. I had enough for a square walled enclosure.

I decided to fix them to a base board so it could be a drop on item.

I fixed the gate in place first and then could join the separate section together in a more eye pleasing manner. The joins were filled in with milliputt and glued to the base using gripfill. 

On section was very far out of alignment so I had to place milliputt under the wall section and start to make up the difference with more filler.

Here it is all assembled. I left this overnight to set thoroughly so I can start to paint next

Cemetery Completed

Hello There! This is my latest completed painting work. It is a Total Battles Scenics cemetery. It is in 10mm 'scale'

The model came with separate grave markers which were intended to be fixed with a butt joint onto the base. This was obviously not going to withstand much handling on the wargames table. The only solution I could think of was to add some milliputt mounds in front of the head stones so that they had a little more area to adhere to the base. I realise that graves are allowed to settle over a number of months before a head stone is put in place but a little artistic licence was called for over accuracy.

The finish on the grey paving slabs was an unintentional effect as I painted then and then did a wash of thinned acrylic black paint. they came out like this and I felt that it was realistic so kept it. 

I picked out the block work with a brush and used some off white weathering powders for the mortar. This was held in place with fixative.

The ground was painted in Vallejo 921 English Uniform, dry brushed in 819, Iraqui sand. Then used thinned down PVA to glue some fine Woodland Scenics flock. I added some small tuft.

I varnished this after the paint was dry but before I added the flock. This is because I have found that the spray varnish I use tends to accumulate on the tufts and form bubbles.