Been busy at home during this corona virus lock down
adding bits and pieces . This is a simple large, fallen
oak tree made from wire wrapped in woodland scenic flex
paste. The canopy is made from a floor cleaning pad that
was ripped up and the roots are a combination of sponge, real
dirt and rubberised horse hair. Basically anything spare lying
about was included in the build.
Just a small update of progress being made during these strange and worrying times.
The picture is of a mock up for the front entrance of the chateau before I start
gluing things in place. I have an excellent contact who is able to make most
things from laser cut mdf and he is responsible for the brilliant doors and windows.
I now have a large ready made supply of doors and windows for the project so things
should start to get a move on shortly.
The stretcher bearers are from Black Tree Designs, otherwise known
as EOS Orbis Black Tree Design.
These guys are for my Commonwealth Crete force and are made of metal.
A word of warning. The figures are quiet nice but the company is
completely useless. Don’t just take my word for search around on the
internet and read the tales of disappointment. I gave up waiting for my figures
to arrive after numerous emails and phone calls which never get answered. Luckily
Paypal came to the rescue and got me my money back and eventually I bought the figures
off fleabay from a private seller.
These are the Cretan Police force on Crete in WWII. They fought for the resistance and
the Germans depending on local and personal loyalties. This bunch are on the allied side
and are a conversion of Gripping Beast Ottoman Turks with French kepi heads.
Armed with basic rifles and looted German kit.
After the success of my foam card French house project in 2019 I have
decided to be a bit more adventurous and go the whole hog and build
a chateau. I love individually built terrain as it brings something
unique to the table top, that combined with a desire for centre piece
for the table fits perfectly with the idea of building a chateau.
On top of this a lack of ready made buildings is driving me on and
the strange discovery of a beautiful abandoned chateau online has
aroused by creative curiosity.
I discovered the beautiful abandoned chateau online while searching
for images. It turns out there is unique bunch of urban explorers who
specialise in discovering and photographing derelict and abandoned properties.
The details of many of the places are kept secret as once a location is
known it often becomes vandalised. Luckily with a bit of research I was able
to locate the said chateau on google maps helping me get a better idea of
the layout. Sorry the chateau location stays a secret and my chateau name
is fictional.
So progress so far is slow, but its a start and I’m finding the scale
and complexity challenging for my basic ability.
I have measured the whole thing out and drawn a master diagram. I have
also started cutting out the ground floor walls. On top of this I have
started on some of the internal room features such as fire places etc.
I am presenting working on the internals wall and will post up pics
shortly.
Chateau diagram
I bought these two very different glider kits for
wargaming Bolt Action on the island of Crete. The larger
kit is by Sarissa and is apparently 28mm and made from a
combination of mdf and card board.
The smaller kit is made by Hobby and is a 1/48 normal
plastic kit.
Pros and cons, cons first. The Sarissa kit is huge, compared
to the 1/48 scale Hobby kit and to be honest is an incorrect size.
It has also started to come apart along some of the joint lines
and will warp if left near a heat source. I also had to reinforce the
wings to support the weight.
The Hobby kit was quite difficult to assemble and the glass windows
were a royal pain to insert into place. The Hobby kit was nearly twice
the price of the Sarissa kit.
The positive points were that both kits look excellent when painted
up and really bring the wargaming table into the lime light. They are
also an essential part of the Cretan terrain if your wargaming the
invasion of Crete.
If your an avid wargamer and you like building terrain, then this
is the book for you. I bought Volume 1(Winter Wargaming) about two years ago and loved the
book so this latest book(Volume 2 Mediterranean Wargaming) was a must buy and Im not disappointed.
The book is a detailed guide to the work of Pat Smith and all the work he has completed over
the years. To cut a long story short a number of years ago Pat decided to collate all his
fantastic work on the wargamingwithsilverwhistle.blogspot.com and put it into a book. Volume 1
was so successful he decided to do another and thus my blog post.
Ok, so what exactly do get for your £20 of money ? You get a 148 page book of glossy pictures
to drool over and in depth step by step guides to building and painting terrain. There is also
information on painting figures and vehicles.
The exact contents includes the chapters:
What really sells this book is the straight forward descriptions and methods
of how the terrain is created and with such everyday tools. Nothing in this book
is unachievable to the average model maker/wargamer and is a true inspiration to
just start building and gluing.
I cannot wait for the next volume, well done.
If your interested in buying the book, just click on the .link..
I’ve been wanting one of these for my Bolt Action table and finally somebody
has decided to make one . A company called,”paintandglue”
have made a 3d printed version which is ok but low on detail. Saying that I’m not complaining its
better than nothing by a long way.
The Challenger A30 was developed because of a need to have a tank that could mount a 17pdr gun
and take on the German armour. Unfortunately its slow development and cost(it was much easier and cheaper to
build a Sherman Firefly housing the same gun) made it almost obsolete by D-Day.
Even so a limited number(less than 200)reached the battlefield serving with the Guards Armoured Division and
11th Armoured Division in Normandy. The vehicle was unpopular with crew because of its large turret,
lack of armour and faulty suspension, but it was able to take on any German armour on the
battlefield.
My A30 is a an 11th Armoured vehicle with the 2nd Northamptonshire Yeomanry used in the reconnaissance roll.
This was my first real adventure of using foam card to scratch build a bit terrain
and I think it went really well.
Ok, so why scratch build your own terrain ? Your fed up with the lack commercially available
terrain on the market and you want something different, a piece of terrain that will stand out
on the gaming board as something special. Plus you get the satisfaction of doing it yourself.
I choose foam board as its the cheapest(its cheap if you buy in bulk) and easiest material to work
with. I used Kapa lined foam board as it has a simple outer layer than can be peeled off and then
sculpted. A word of warning, there are lots of companies that sell foam board but I have yet to
find any that easily peels off the outer surface, thus making it useless.
The sections of the house were easy to cut with a very sharp knife and glue together using simple
pva glue. The stone texture was created by stripping off the outer layer of the foam card and using
a pencil to gently mark the individual bricks.
I had the windows and doors made in bulk from laser cut mdf(£20 will get you 30 doors and 60 windows of various sizes),leaving me plenty spare for additional projects.
The outer wooden panelling is made from balsa wood strips, the lower barn type building roof is a scalecast mould
and the taller house roof is made from embossed sheets.
The chimney is also foam board and the chimney pots are 1/48 scale dolls house chimney pots.
Right, a big update on what I have been up to so far.
First up I have completed painting 13 Fallschirmjager from Foundry and another
six from Warlord, all metal. There is a nice mixture of postures and the two manufacturers
go well together. Please note the flame thrower and Panzerschreck figures came with the group so
I painted them up as well even though I am not aware of these types of equipment being used in the
invasion of Crete but they would of been present with the occupation force later on.
Next is two small buildings from Charlie Foxtrot models. Both come from the pan tile Italian range but
fit perfectly into any Mediterranean setting. I added a scratch built trellis for the outside of one
building as I found a really nice picture of a similar building being used as make shift field hospital
with injured troops recovering under the shade. It also gave me a chance to finally use the pink
scatter and create a beautiful Bougainvillea climbing up.
I have also started on two DFS 230 gliders. One is from Sarissa(28mm laser cut) and the other is plastic kit by Hobby in 1/48 scale. The strange thing is that the 28mm kit is bigger than the 1/48 kit and I have measured both and the 1/48 is very accurate for scale.
Finally I have started converting a Sarissa aerial kit into a radio transmitter station.
musings of a fat old bloke on tanks and wargames
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