Battlefield Scenery - Part 2 & 3/4!

While making my test piece for 'modular scenery' (see previous post - 'Road to Nowhere') it struck me that if I decide to go down this road (pun intended) it might take me quite some time to make enough scenery to dress my dinning-room table 'battlefield'! 😂

[I still have to work out how to do modular rivers and hills!]

And so... To hold me over until I have proper scenery made I decided to replace all my old crappy - and very tatty now - paper printed terrain (basically just printed-out stretches of textured patterns) with something newer and neater - felt scenery!

My selection of felt pieces and some printed out templates to
act as guides for cutting out my felt scenery.

There are plenty of examples online of wargamers who have been using felt terrain to great effect...

Felt battlefield example by Ronald Bingham.

For me, one of the greatest advantages of felt scenery items and felt battle mats is their portability. I don't have a shed, basement, spare room or garage where I can set up a permanent wargaming table, so my go-to alternative is the part-time use of our dining-room table!

This means that any game I plan has to be something that can be put together and taken apart quickly and easily. I also need all the relevant parts of my battle table to be easily stored, preferably in a number of small or medium-sized boxes. This is why I decided to make my own modular scenery in the first place.

BUT meanwhile...

As I said, until I can make all the bits and pieces I want for a better-looking battle table, felt seems to be the way to go. It's very cheap, very flexible (in that you can quickly and easily cut-out custom shapes to make new designs for any situation), fold-able and light.

Here you see the paper templates I cut out laid on top of my felt pieces ready
for me to trace the outlines of my scenery onto the felt...

But What About the Look?

Felt is a very simple solution - given - but it can look quite nice even mixed into pre-built scenery. But I actually like the simplistic and clean look of an all-felt battlefield, my favourite battle mat is - after all - a simple piece of green baize cloth (the type used to cover pool and snooker tables).

Cutting out my felt scenery was very easy using paper templates as guides...

The main trick to getting nice neat felt pieces is to use sharp fabric scissors (and have a steady hand). I did a bit of Googling and apparently there is a very handy rotary felt cutter that would be ideal for this, but as it was £20 I settled for scissors! 😁

The end product looks surprisingly OK once a few pieces are laid out. I managed to find some nice mottled textured felt that lends itself nicely to fields. These came in a variety of colours so I could make different 'crops' or perhaps use them to indicate marshy land...

I'm still cutting away with my scissors at the moment so I don't have a full table of scenery objects yet, but I thought it would be interesting to post up what I have so far so you can get an idea about what a minimalist looking table setup might look like...

I just have to work out how to do some little hills and bridges and woodland, then I think I'll do a little test game.

Road to Nowhere - Battlefield Scenery Pt. 2

Blimey - I completed something! Par-tae! 😂

OK, it's just a little test tile for a modular road set I'm thinking of making, but it's something. But before I get ahead of myself - here's how I completed the tile...

6... (See previous post for the first 5 steps)... I painted the black primed base with some muddy acrylics colours. I tried to make it quite thin in places so you can see faint patches of the black primer showing through...

I varied the mix of brown as I went along - a dark mahogany with a mid-chestnut - so that it also helped produce
 a patchy multi-tonal effect.

7... Next, I did some dry-brushing to pick out the raised textures to give the road some highlights. I went quite light to create some high-contrast so that - in theory - it would show through the flocking easier. It does look a little messy at this point...

Additionally, I drizzled in some dark wash into the deeper crevasses and around some of the 'rocks and stone', just so they 'popped' out a little more.

8... Onto the flocking. I haven't done a lot of this - just some vehicle bases - and so I was a little nervous about this stage as flocking is seen among modellers as being a bit of an art form! Also, I only have a very limited supply of mainly 'medium' summer green - The Terrain Tutor used a mix of three tones to create shade and highlights to his imitation grass...

After application (above photo) I tapped off the excess then waited for the PVA glue I used to stick the flock to the tile dry. Then I went over the grass with a dry paint brush and carefully brushed off any remaining flock AND to uncover any of the road detail that I wanted to show through - like the track texture pattern and clumps of 'rocks' and 'stones'.

9... Now, just to finish off my road I added some extra highlights (as the PVA I sprayed on the road to 'fix' the flocking in place has dulled down my previous highlighting). Also, because I only had one shade of grass flocking - medium summer green - I added some dry-brushed highlights to this as well using a ochre-beige (a light mustard shade) just to give the grass some tonal variation.

And bob's your aunty...

Conclusion...
Well, technically the test tile turned out 'OK'-ish. I'm both pleased that I have actually completed a bit of modelling AND that I think I did a decent job...BUT (there had to be one)...

As to it being the answer to my need for a modular road system for my 1/100 GF9T games, I am less happy. The main fly in the ointment is that the tile is warping - I managed to hide this fact in the photos I took BUT there is a noticeable bow in the middle... This annoys me as I notice it (it's an OCD thing)!

The whole point of reinforcing the foam board base of this tile with wooden lolly-sticks was to prevent warping...And this clearly hasn't worked. Also, this is project has been quite a lot of work so if I'm going to do it I want it to be damn near perfect with NO niggles.

So, what to do...?

Well, I think I have two options:

Option 1: Find a sturdier board on which to base my road WITHOUT it being too thick, heavy or expensive...

Option 2: Do some mental calculations about just how long a complete roadway set is going to take me to make and decide whether it would be more cost-effective just to buy a pre-made set from Fat Franks...

'Fat Frank's' 15mm Wargame Dirt Roads Set is £7.50 - taking into consideration
how much work it was to create my test tile, is paying £7.50 a better deal?

...To be Continued!

Road to Nowhere - Battlefield Scenery

As said in a previous post, I really wanted to create flat tile modular scenery - like rivers, woods and roads - for my 1/100 scale war-game table...But, typically, I couldn't find a good printable system that would allow me to make up some roads (for free).

Yes, there are quite a few commercial solutions - like the ones from Deep Cut Studio and Fat Franks - but I wanted to keep this 'on the cheap' (the wife is watching my hobby spending like a hawk)! 😣

Deep Cut Studio's Roadway Tile Set - almost exactly what I wanted, but €25!

So, I'm trying to come up with some ideas for home-made flat roads... Then I found this video...

Good old Terrain Tutor, he never lets you down. But I was a little unsure about how flat the roads were using TT's methods and was concerned as it does look like quite a lot of work. So, it seemed like the only way to find out was to knock up a quick test...

1... I cut the base out of 3mm foam board - though I'm not quite sure if that's exactly the same thing as the TT used - I think it is? (Is foam board the same thing as 'expanded PVC'?)

...And I reinforce the edges - to help prevent warping - with some lolly-sticks.

2... Next I cover the board with a thin layer of quick drying PollyFilla, I love using this plaster filler as it lends itself to making natural textures (I threw in a few bumps, just because)...

3... Using diluted PVA glue I stick lightly sprinkled fine sand and 'budgie grit' onto the textured base. It's a bit hard to know when to stop or how much grit to add, but it's a kinda 'less is more' situation...

4... Once the PVA is completely dry I try to create the texture of track lines - the groves in the dirt road made by wheels and tank-tracks - by spreading two thin lines of Pollyfilla the length of the road...

I then run a stick along the lines of filler to create - hopefully - the wheel track patterns. Were this 1/72 scale I would actually go to the length of rolling a spare wheel I have from one of my truck kits over the hardening filler to get a tyre pattern (as TT does in his video tutorial).

5... After yet another period of drying, I depart from TT's instructions and do what I normally do when making vehicle bases and that's to prime the textured base with black primer...

...End of Part 1!
I'll stop here before I move onto the painting and flocking of my road. But even at this incomplete stage I'm a little unhappy with the way this is going...

Overall, the road is thicker than I wanted - filler and texturing on top of 3mm foam board and lolly-stick has resulted in quite a tall roadway. Not huge, but when you remember that I originally had in mind a flat printed road mounted on a 1mm piece of card stock the 5mm tall structure I have now is a bit of a chunky monkey!

...That said, I am enjoying getting back into terrain making and it is fun! So let's see how it turns out.

Get Real? Tabletop Battlefield Design.

I'm at the stage with my GF9 TANKS! Kursk project where I'm thinking about the design of my battlefield. Now war-gaming is such a developed hobby/industry now that - to be honest - you can get most anything you want to make a really fantastic and realistic looking miniature battlefield without having to do any real work (aside from clicking on an online store's  'purchase' button).

However, for many war-gamers, part of the enjoyment of the hobby is the crafting of scenery and accessories and making a little historically accurate piece of Waterloo or Normandy or whatever your choice of battle is that you wish to recreate. So, much crafting ensues!

Just how far down the rabbit hole of 'authenticity' you want to go is up to the individual and, certainly, I have seen some amazing examples of realistic looking and beautifully landscaped battle tables...

An wonderful example of some beautifully constructed and realistic landscape!

A magnificently atmospheric recreation of Normandy for
some war gaming, the town painstakingly crafted.

Looking at some of the breathtakingly intricate terrain models that some war-game clubs have taken months to build I find myself brimmed full of admiration BUT at the same time asking myself  this question - how 'realistic' does a game table need to be?

The Galeforce 9 TANKS! Battlefield Philosophy...
One of the things I liked about GF9T was that you could jump straight in with everything you needed by buying one of their starter sets. In the box you got all the bits and pieces you needed to start playing the game immediately, including some tanks and some flat 'scenery' with which you could make your battlefield...

My very first game of GF9T - straight out the box, with the 'scenery' provided
and the tanks aren't even painted yet! LOL

My first few games of GF9T were played on the dinning-room table with just a length of green felt thrown over it and using the flat printed 'scenery' that came in the box. This was perfectly adequate for learning how to play the game AND easily portable if you wanted to set-up at a friend's house.

However, I eventually found that ALL flat scenery had some disadvantages. As you can see from the above picture of my very first game the set-up leaves something to be desired by way of atmosphere - you'd have to really stretch your imagination to feel immersed in the idea that this was supposed to be France in 1944! 😂

Additionally, as I have mentioned in previous posts, GF9T's base mechanic is tank combat using 'line of sight' - in other words, if you can see it you can shoot it. Therefore, the intensive to add some proper 3D scenery becomes desirable, if only to help resolve instances of 'you can't see me from there' disagreements (which are a little more problematic when using flat scenery).

The most important view in GF9T...Line of sight to your enemy. But is that
flat 'cottage' tile blocking your view? Hhhhhmmmm...

So, 3D scenery was the way to go - for me at least - but then did I want to start building little miniature landscapes? The quick answer is 'no' and here's why...

Terrain building is an art in itself and once you start down that slippery slope you have to be very careful to balance your original intent - just to play a quick hour long game - against a project that could then blossom into an obsessive modelling project that could take up weeks of your time!!!

While full-blown wargamers who play games with rules that mean that their games could stretch into days long play (if not longer if they are playing a campaign) might want to have a immerse battlefield because they are spending so much time playing on it, I - on the other hand - just want a quick fix of blast 'em up fun and action.

I very soon began to add simple 3D objects to my games to make the task of
determining line of sight easier and to add some decoration. Adding objects also
adds an extra tactical element to the game as the intelligent use of 'cover'
becomes an essential aspect of the battle.

 I don't care so much if a certain house does't look like the one in the photo reference take in 1943 or whatever, I'm not - generally speaking - out to recreate an historic engagement in order to resolve some armchair general's academic 'what if'.Whether a building is of the exactly correct architecture or whether a particular model tree is exactly native to that particular environment is not so important... Me just want go 'boom boom'!!! 😈

Horse's for Courses...
So the driving force behind my need for scenery is simple, practical and is based on fun rather than on what is strictly factual. I'm make some effort to make my board look pretty - but I'm not going to spend enormous amounts of time planning and making a replica battlefield when I already have three or four (or more) ideas about the next battles I'd like to play banging about in my head.

I'm looking at scenery that can be quickly laid down to create a general sense of landscape but which can just as quickly be dissembled and packed away.

This attitude formed the fundamental requirements for how complex my scenery needed to be. It needed to be quick and easy to construct - I might only use it a couple of times so no weird and niche items that will just end up as draw fodder - and they should be rather generic and so re-usable.

Your requirements may differ - it's a sort of sliding scale.

The basis of any tabletop battlefield is the battlefield itself - by this I mean the base on which you place any other scenic items. And for me, my ubiquitous green felt cloth (other colours are available) is the ideal multi-national, all-encompassing 'moderate climate' theatre of war. That said, I have of late been tempted by off-the-peg battle mats that have texture patterns printed on them...

Might one of these printed battle mats finally replace my trusty felt cloth as
my go to battlefield? This is a Deepcut Studio 'Grass Plains' mat.

These seem to have all the advantages of my old felt cloth (you can roll them up and stick them in a draw) while at the same time adding the illusion of real ground texture. The downside is perhaps the expense, although I have noticed that they are getting cheaper all the time. A 3x3' mat - the basic standard size for a GF9T skirmish - is 26 Euros plus shipping, a bit more than the £7 I paid for my felt cloth cut-off! 😊

KISS - Keep it Simple Stupid!
...And having established my preference for a simpler and more 'stylised' approach to making my battlefield everything else sort of just falls into place...

I have already desired that I really like the quick build paper-craft buildings I have been making, they fit right into my 'cheep and cheerful' ideal. Because of this pared-down 'psudo-realism' all my other scenic items sort of need to follow suit. They have to be...

- Cheap
- Easy and quick to make
- Preferably modular and usable in different ways
- Unfussy and simple (preferably not multipart things I have to assemble)
- Portable and kinda disposable
- East to store

Because of my new love affair with papercraft models I am keen to carry this on for different parts of my terrain, such as rivers, roads, etc. In this way I can have a sort of unified aesthetic, so I'm now on the hunt for different pieces I can collect to make a 'battlefield kit'...

I've already found a modular 'flat' printable river kit by Fat Dragon Games. Although this is a stylised 'fantasy RPG' scenery I'm fine with the aesthetic as GF9T is a sort of cartoon caricature of armoured warfare itself. Also, it fits in well with the tiled scenery items that came with the basic starter kit, all I have to do is print out the river tiles I need and mount them on card and place them on my battle mat. Simples! (Do people still say that?) 😆

And so the search for papercraft terrain begins!

1/100 Kursk Project - Scenery Pt. 3

I finished off the 'Rusgorov' paper-craft hamlet models yesterday, and I have to admit that I am quite pleased with them. I was a bit unsure about them at first because they seem to lean towards the fantasy rather than historical end of the hobby, being a little on the stylised and colourful side.

But, in the end, I don't think they look too outlandish or unrealistic...

Building these paper and card models was very enjoyable and I look forward to making some more when the opportunity presents itself. (Predictably, I already have an idea for another project in the back of my mind.) 😊

The purpose of these little buildings are to provide some scenery and tactical cover for my planned Battle of Kursk war-game. GF9 TANKS! is intrinsically a 'line of sight' game and therefore having scenery and objects that can obstruct a direct view between a tank and it's target can help to make the game more interesting and challenging. Well, at least this is what I have come to believe from the games I have played so far and this is why I wanted to include a little Russian hamlet as a key objective in my Kursk themed game.

Well, what else will I include on my game table? I can't just have a village in the middle of nowhere.

I've had a good look at a lot of photographs of the landscape on which the Battle of Kursk took place in 1943 and what strikes you most of all is how well suited the countryside was to 'The Biggest Tank Battle in History'! I suppose that's probably putting the cart before the horse as it was as likely as it was the flat and open nature of the region that made it a obvious choice for a set-piece tank battle.

Obviously, I don't think I'll add rolling hills, dense forests or lakes to my battlefield, rather I'll be constructing a pretty flat board with large grass plains interspersed with the occasional hovel and field. Therefore, any obstructions to line of sight will have to be artificial.

Natural landscape 'To do' list:

- How to make 1/100 scale fields.

- How to make some small dirt roads.

What these obstructions ill be will be the next challenge.

Trains Are Big... VERY BIG!

OK, I had this idea that I would like to add a locomotive to my next GF9 TANKS! game as a bit of battlefield bling. A sort of set-piece that would also act as cover for the moment of tanks, I thought this would be quite novel and look cool.

Long story short - I eventually managed to source a 1/100 scale locomotive model (ready built display ornament) and it arrived the other day. It looked great BUT it also looked really BIG!

The eBay listing definitely said '1/100' scale but when I saw the model it looked like enormous and I thought I might of bought the wrong scale (perhaps HO). 😟

Before getting too upset (the model was only £2.50 so I hadn't wasted too much) I thought I would check online to see if I could find out what size actual locomotives were compared to a WW2 tank. It took a bit of Googling but eventually I found a photo that seemed to answer my question...

Wow! Locomotives are BIG! I never realised...

Now, just to be sure I decided to take a comparative photo. I have a M4 Sherman in my 1/100 collection so set them up side by side like they are in the above picture. Let's see if this engine is the right scale as my tanks...

What do you think?

It looks like it's right - I think - and maybe it's just that I'm not used to seeing steam locomotives that has me surprised at their sheer size? OR, maybe I had in mind a smaller tank engine (like Thomas the Tank Engine, LOL) which might not have dwarfed my Sherman quite as much?

Incidentally, the train is exactly the sort I want for a WW2 diorama. It's a German P8 class which was active throughout the Second World War, so that was a piece of luck.

It will be a big piece on the game table (which will be either 3 foot x 3 foot or 4x4), but will definitely be eye catching! I will, however, scratch build my own rolling stock - a few flat-bed transport trucks with some cargo aboard. And to justify why a train would be in the middle of battlefield I will model the train as being derailed, which a section of blown up track.

Lots still to think about.

1/100 Kursk Project - Scenery

I'm pretty much clear on what tank models I need for my GF9 'TANKS!' Battle of Kursk scenario. And what's more I half almost all of them and about 60% of them built...So...

Just what kind of terrain, scenery and scatter should I put together for the battle table?

A lot of the photos I've seen of the battle makes the landscape of the battle look fairly desolate, with large empty plains. But, the battle was actually a series of battles over an enormous front so whatever I produce will simply be a generic representation.

That said, I would like to add some cover - my past games of GF9T! has proven that adding obstacles in a line of sight tabletop war game greatly increases the tactical aspect and excitement (in my opinion). Hills, patches of trees, buildings and even destroyed tanks all provide sneaky patches of cover for tank duels.

Photo source: German Federal Archive. Photographer: Britting

My first thought is adding a Russian hamlet as both a sub-objective and area of cover. And so, the hunt for 1/100 Russian buildings began.

Note: GF9T! comes with some generic flat printed scenery in the starter box set and technically flat scenery has it's advantages, for starters you can drive your tank right over it easily! BUT, while perfectly serviceable, I found in the games that I played having proper 3D obstacles took a lot of the guess work out of determining just what or was not in 'line of sight'. So I prefer 3D models.

So, then the choice is: 3D printed, MDF laser cut, scratch built, resign moulded or paper-craft buildings???

Some rather nice Red Vectors laser-cut village buildings, but £18? Hmmm.

Out of these scratch built and paper-craft are the cheapest (maybe I should add 'can be the'), while unless you have your own 3D printer (I don't) the other formats mean forking out some dosh (boooo)! That's not to say it would cost a fortune to buy a set of 3D builings in 1/100, the resin ones, in particular, are pretty good value...

Peter Pig's Russian Timber Church (supplied unpainted), just £3.50! Not bad!

But, I'm of the mind that why should I fork out a sum of money for a set of buildings I will only use a couple of times and then have to store away. I'd much rather go for a cheaper and slightly more temporary solution. But that's a matter of your own opinion and choice.

As if to prove me a lair Paperterrain's Russian Hamlet is $20! For a papercraft
set...Mind you, it is a good one, but still. Phew!

After much Googling I eventually came across a rather nice little papercraft set that was definitely in my price range. On Wargamevault.com I found Finger and Toes Model's 'Rusgorod: Medieval Russian Hovels' PDF in 28mm scale.

Now, despite being in 28mm and being described as 'medieval' buildings this attractive little set was a very satisfying $5 - I could go for that, I thought! 28mm 2D models scale very nicely at 50% when printing and even though it says 'medieval' I didn't see much that differentiated them from a 20th century Russian hamlet...

I like the style of these particular models. Yes, they a bit more 'creative' in their decoration, more akin to a fantasy style than a historic one, but I appreciate that extra splash of colour. Some of the 'more historically accurate' models I have seen are a wee bit dull. I concede that's just a realistic fact of life as it was in Russia at this time, extreme poverty saw to that, but GF9 'TANKS!' isn't a serious game - it's war-gaming lite - and a bit of poetic licence in style is in keeping with the spirit of the game.

Anyway, I bought and downloaded the 'Rusgorod Hamlet' set and have done some test printouts to ensure that the scaling from 28mm - 50% - works, and it does.

The original 28mm scale design filled the A4 page. This is what the 50%
reduction looks like, it is now 15mm (1/100) scale and ready to cut out.

Battlefield Deleterious - Scatter Scenery
Quite apart from terrain and buildings, 'scatter' items give the tabletop battlefield a little flavour and provide some extra obstacles or cover.

From the beginning I knew I wanted to maybe add features like a railway line, a fordable stream or a road. While not obstacles in the true sense - being transversable - each of these features does have an effect on vehicle movement. Crossing a wide stream or railway line would slow down tank movement and a good road would speed up movement. However, these are not the the only reasons I wanted to add these - they also allow for the opportunity to add additional 'scatter' objects to the table...

Burnt out GAZ truck convoy by Peter Pig.

Again by Peter Pig, a knocked out Russian T-34 tank!

Something I really fancied putting together was a burnt out truck convoy on the road, this would be very atmospheric, provide cover BUT also stop either participant from doing a rush all the way up the road. Similarly, a destroyed train could provide a good means of tanks crossing otherwise open countryside.

How cool is this? A 15mm derailed train transport. 26 Euros, but so tempting!

This is all going to sound like it's a LOT - houses, destroyed trucks, etc - and there is a danger that I make the table too 'busy', especially if I start adding trees and small hills. So, there will have to be some thought put into what I add with a view to game balance - remembering that the Soviets fought defensively so they will probably need some in-placements for their AT guns and maybe some mine fields.

A lot to think about... (But THAT train, eh?) 😁

Next: Sketching a battlefield plan.

15mm Smoke Marker...Quick!

Probably the quickest project I've ever done!

Bloomin' things...I never know what to do with these packing
chips I get in parcels!

I was just about to bin a load of those annoying polystyrene packaging things (the squishy 'void chips') when I stopped and thought 'I wonder if they would make small smoke clouds for my Tanks game'?

In particular, I wanted some quick and easy smoke markers to indicate knocked out tanks. But I didn't want to spend loads of time sculpting and painting 'realistic' clouds of smoke, so I wondered if I could get away with a bit of a fudge.

Ten minutes later...(Literally, the black spray paint wasn't really dry!)

OK, it's a wee bit rubbish, but it'll do until I have more time to attend to these battlefield extras (I'd rather spend my time modelling vehicles and playing games at the moment, scenery will go on the backburner for now).

I also had a thought that these might make quick 15mm trees and bushes as well! :D

Star Fort 1/72 MDF painted European cottages

What to do if you want buildings for your battlefield?
Having begun some basic wargaming with Bolt Action I wanted to make my own little 'training ground' with which I could learn more about the rules and become familiar with the tactics of the game.

My brother had put together a lovely little 'French Village' for our introductory game with buildings made from card, the designs downloaded from the web - cheap and cheerful! And while that was great for our demo game we both soon began to crave the ability to place our little soldier inside the buildings (if we had been able to do that he would have probably have won the game).

Armourfast's plastic battlefield cottage is typical of the mid-priced kits
available, but the facility to open up the building so as to place soldiers
inside is restricted, without doing some modification to the basic kit.

So I have been doing some browsing for some pre-fabricated scale buildings that have accessible interiors. It turns out - not surprisingly - that there are plenty on the market, though while my first port of call was the Plastic Soldier Company store the MDF painted houses for sale there (by 4Ground) turned out to be very expensive!

4Ground's 1/72 (20mm) Pre-painted MDF European pair of semi-detached
cottages. Very nice but at £20 a pop a village could get very expensive!
Picture source: Plastic Soldier Company Store/4Ground

However, of all the options - card, plastic, MDF laser cut, etc - I took a shine to the pre-painted MDF 'flat pack' kits. If only I could buy some like 4Ground's MDF cottages, but a little cheaper!

Read on...