Where we are going we need roads….

As you will have seen from past posts I’ve been getting into 6mm ‘Cold War goes hot’ gaming recently. However I’ve been unhappy with roads I’ve used for my games: I just used the thinnest dirt roads from my 20mm collection. Whilst they did the job I’ve been on the look out for a more suitable replacement and after considering a few options I’ve made my own (kind of).

 

Firstly I purchased this rather nice  PDF from Wargames Vault:

http://www.wargamevault.com/product/196057/Roads-1-285

Being multilayered you can selected the different types of road marking and road surfaces before printing them out. I went for European markings and dirty asphalt dry before getting them printed out (Cheers Brian). I then used the technique I had previously utilized to make megagame counters and stuck them on to self adhesive floor tiles (4 for £1). You can get thicker more durable tiles from places other than pound shops but they need to be cut with a blade and ruler rather than scissors that slows down production.

I went from this:

To this:

I tidied up the edges and added a bit of weathering with marker pens and pencil crayons to give a bit of variety:

I did plenty to give enough variety to the road layouts. The vinyl tiles give them a bit of flexibility but I don’t know how well they’ll drape over hills… Gentle slopes should be OK.

I made up a quick layout so I could see how they look:

You get a decent selection of parts although I’d have liked to see a single into dual carriage way connector. I grabbed some 6mm toys to see how they scaled (Heroics and Ros based on 50mm and 30mm squares for 5core Brigade Commander):

 

Overall I’m really pleased with how they look. I’ll get a game in with them as soon as possible to try them out.

 

Cheers,

 

Pete.

 

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Some 6mm terrain.

MDF laser cut terrain has really taken off in the wargames world in recent years, I’ve been buying the odd bit for my 20mm collection for a few years now but have only just got round to getting some for my 6mm games.

 

I bought three buildings from Blotz to try. The bigger buildings come in sections and it is a nice touch that you are able to buy ruined levels to have the same building with different levels of destruction.

Construction was simple enough using PVA glue and following the online instructions. I took my time and let sub assemblies dry before moving on to the next stage. MDF can soak up paint due to its porus natures so the buildings got two coats of spray paint (from pound shop cans) before I went at them with hobby acrylics.

 

Overall I’m impressed with them and will order some more further down the line.

http://blotz.co.uk/

 

I recently pick up some small pieces of 6mm scatter terrain from Leven Miniatures to use as markers and objectives. I went for the fuel dumps, supply dumps and the sandbags.

 

The above strips of sandbags are intended to be put just infront of a company base (50mm square for 5core: Brigade Commander) to show that it is dug in. I’ll be after a few more bits from Leven next time I see them at a wargames show.

http://www.levenminiatures.co.uk/

Cheers,

 

Pete.

 

 

Assorted vehicles and terrain bits.

I’ve got these finally finished off since the new year (I’ll also do a looking forward/ looking backward post tomorrow) so I thought I’d do a big photo dump of a post to get them out there:

First up- a 6mm sized ruined factory made from bit of resin I got from a private seller on the Lead Adventure Forum.

A small house from Leven miniatures, again in 6mm.

A barricade from S and S model scaled for 20mm. I’m tempted to give the bus some more weathering.

A Armourfast 1/72 Valentine converted to a Bishop with an S and S aftermarket part; the short coming of the Armourfast suspension are evident in the photo more than in real life. I may yet do some remedial work on them.

A cheak FAI 1/72 diecast repainted and decaled into a Finnish scheme.

A trio of 1.72 Rhodesian Bush War vehicles from S and S.

A Rhodesian SAS conversion of a Unimog,

 

 

An armoured lorry.

Another Unimog conversion; this time a mortar carrier. I’ll add the crew at a later date.

Three diecast 1/72 BTR60PBs.

Firstly a simple repaint.

One converted into a command variant BTR60PAU, conversion kit by S and S.

Repainted with infantry seated on the outside Afghan style (they considered mines a bigger risk than snipers). Infantry by S and S again.

Cheers,

 

Pete.

The last bits of scenery…?

Whilst I’ll never say never the shed is rather full so space is at a premium (and I’ll have to wait for some better weather before I can have another big tidy up) but I’ve no plans for much more 20mm terrain other than the prison and a few ruins for my desert set up.

These few bits have been finished over the last week or so:

The ruined bridge section from the Matchbox/ Revell Firefly kit.

A scrap yard made from a couple of railway modellers kits.

Another view.

A pair of Dutch style ruins from Airfix.

The rubble and the back came from a mixture of Linka casts and cat litter with a few matchsticks too.

A French style cafe or shop, again from Airfix.

The rubbles was made in the same way as for the Dutch pair.

Cheers,

Pete.

Tracked Land Rover and swamps- fresh from the Shed

I’ve finished the Land Rover conversion that I was working on. I’m rather pleased with it- though I’m unsure about how I painted the windows. I’m not sure whether they look too cartoon-y or not…?

Still, it should look decent enough on the table top.

I’ve also finished the swamp sections. Not much to say about these really, just a combination of paint, varnish then flock/ static grass/ bristles for reeds/ flowery tufts in that order.

They are of a decent size so plenty of room to have Partisans hide in them in a Pripet based game… should make for an interesting scenario….

Cheers,

Pete.

Mine.

Recently I’ve have been working on a large terrain piece of a mine. It started as an OO plastic kit from Knight wing models, I based it on a 30cm square piece of 5mm MDF with a small section of OO railway that I’ve had lying about in the shed for ages. It was finished with the usual assortments of paint and flock.

Sometime in WW2 Heer soldiers and a Nashorn move through the mine buildings.

Close up shot.

As usual I made all the roofs lift off.

Oddly for such a big piece of terrain I hadn’t got a specific scenario in mind when I built it. I tried to make it as anonymous looking as possible so it should fit in pretty much anywhere from the 1930s onwards. It has been suggested to me that I could use it as a centerpiece for a skirmish inspired by the 1936 film ‘Things to Come’, the attack of Everytown against the mine workings of the Hill People….

I think a few more bits and pieces to go with it would look good- especially some slag heaps and dumps. I’m sure they’ll get done in the fullness of time.

Cheers,

Pete.

Down and dirty Sewer fighting.

Or scatological combat spelunking.

Over the years I’ve been buying up the Ainsty produced sewer section, I’m pretty sure I’ve bought them off all three of the companies different owners. A while back I got round to drafting some rule amendments specifically for their use. Evan had come round for game night so we got the blocks out came up with a few different layouts and ran through a couple of different scenarios.

The first one was a Stalingrad affair with plenty of SMGs and each side using lanterns (with gave a pool of light) or torches/ flashlights (a cone of beam) to light their way. The second game was slightly more fantastical as it was a Berlin 45 set up. It was chosen so I could use a handful of my IR equipped figure to test out those rule modifications too.

Sorting out the bits and pieces: I had made sure I had kept a note of the paints I had used to ensure continuity.

Layout one. Each side approached the other from a ladder entrance.

Soviets advance forwards.

The Germans move up too.

The Soviets (me) come off worst in the ensuing exchange of fire.

As the Germans had torches they could turn them off and just shoot into the areas illuminated by the lanterns of the Soviets. A wise tactic which completely halted the Soviets advance.

At this point we quickly reset the layout and moved forward a few years to Berlin 1945.

Layout two. This time I took the Germans and Evan the Soviets.

This time the Soviets had flashlights of their own as well as heavy steel plate body armour.

The Germans had come prepared with state of the art weaponry.

The Germans rushed forward and with the IR sights slotted the Soviets as they appeared.

The second game was rather one sides so only ran for a couple of turns. To be fair as games the 2 scenarios were rather unbalanced though that wasn’t the point of them. Given that they were to test some rule modifications they worked well, though the rules seems to favour which ever side has the technological edge. I did balance that by having the ‘home’ or defending side be the only force who could move quickly through the tunnels, representing local knowledge so it did go some way to balance this.

I never really intended to sewers to be a game within themselves rather than an adjunct to an above ground game, literally adding an extra level to fight across. Future candidates for this will be Stalingrad and Berlin as well as Warsaw. If you haven’ t seen Kanal http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050585/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 you are really missing out on a classic. Also I’m pretty sure I’ll work in some modern counter- terrorist action int to. Pulp games would be option too. I’ll get round to working out some scenarios and getting them played over the summer- given the action will be on two tables I’m pretty sure they’ll be good for multiplayer games too.

Cheers,

Pete.

PS- apologies for the extended gap between this post and the last. A period of ill health has meant I directed what energy I had into my studies.