Faux Fulda More Terrain

 Some time ago someone asked me a question off the blog about how I was doing the terrain boards for the faux Fulda project.  I finally got around to finishing another 2'x2' section, and I actually managed to take photos of most of the steps.  

I'm sure there are a lot of different ways to do this, but this is what seems to work for me.  The more of these tiles I do the more I find myself adjusting terrain to avoid nasty things like hills that cross boards to save the hassle of making sure they line up and are uniform in heigh.

This board is part of the southern extension from the original batch and is centered in the Mechbach region.

Let's start with the finished results.

As I mentioned each terrain tile is 2 feet x 2 feet.  I'm using the foam insulation board readily available at either Lowes or Home Depot that has been pre-cut into 2'x2' sections. I'm using the Lowe's variety, it's 20 min. closer than Home Depot plus veteran's discount, win-win.

If you're artistic you can free hand the outline on the foam.  As I'm trying to keep the scale fairly close to 1" = 100 meters on all of these so I'm cheating.  I found a map of the region with a hex grid of 1 hex = 500 meters, took a photo, inserted the photo onto an Excel Spreadsheet expanded the photo until I ended up with the hex being 5".  Printed it out, taped the various sheets together and ended up with the below.  Shown below is the bottom section as well as the completed section directly to the North to make sure the roads, rivers and railroad line up.

Once I was sure everything lined up, I taped one edge of the map to the foam. board, and dug out the carbon paper.  Given the average age of the hobby, I'm assuming most folks reading this know what carbon paper is.  It wasn't easy to find, but as always, Amazon to the rescue.  

the form board covered with carbon paper.  I really didn't need that much paper, this is a pretty boring tile, just a small section of river, roads and railroads.  The hill won't start until the next tile is done.

Flip the map back down, and trace over the important details.  I used the handle of an old paint brush.  Once that was done, I pulled out the color felt tip markers, and traced over the carbon, ending up with this. Which will by modified a little for ease of creation as things go on,

Being limited to 2'x2' sections, the potential of shifting and other unpleasant things happening where the tiles meet I went with a simple magnet solution to help hold the sections together.

Simple round magnets.

A drill, a 3/4" speed bit, and a new home for the magnet is created.

Obviously a magnet needs something to attach to.  Fortunately I have a supply of HVAC galvanized tin that I use for the base of the my troop transport boxes.  So, out come the tin snips, a razor knife to carve a slight recess for the metal.

You can see above that the river has already been carved into the foam.

After that, it's time for the hot glue gun.  I never was a big fan of hot glue guns, but this project has opened my eyes to their usefulness.  It probably helps that I also bought a decent hot glue gun which makes world of difference.

Magnets and metal plates mounted, hopefully they're all flush with the board edge.  The board is turned upside down in this shot.

Next up we start making progress on the board, putting down the roads and railroad tracks.  A bit of a tangent on the rail road tracks.  When I started the project I agonized about whether I should include them or not, at the scale of 1" = 100meters they are way too big, but they are also a potential linear obstacle, and should provide hull down cover for armored vehicles adjacent to them, so I opted to include them.  

I also make a simple little jig (below) out of chip board so the roads/rail roads are all close to the same size/height.

The roads went down super easy on the first batch of boards, but... That was months ago and the AK terrain asphalt had dried out quite a bit since then, so not as smooth as I would have liked.  For the railroad beds, I mixed up some tile grout and applied that the same was as the roads.  I also coated the rivers with joint compound and applied some paint, which gets us to this below point.

Now it's time for the first layer.  For this we'll need glue, lots of glue, more tile grout, alcohol (the rubbing kind - although since we're done with sharp objects now, you can go to the distilled kind if you want), and spray bottle.

Paint on a health coat of glue.  I water it down just a smidge, but not much. Try to keep the glue out of the river bed, and off the road and railroad.

Apply the grout to the glue.  I've found that using a cheap strainer I picked up at the Family Dollar store to spread the grout give a texture I prefer.

You end up with this.  Let it dry for a couple of hours, depending on how impatient you are.  The soak it down with alcohol using the spray bottle.  Why alcohol?  I honestly don't remember, I saw that on the internet at some point and it seems to work.  Which give you a nice wet look like below.

I let this dry for a least 24 hours maybe longer if it still feels damp.  I did this in a couple of sections, mostly due to time issues.

Once it's all coated with grout, hen you think it's dry, it's time to paint on some more glue. Grab your preferred flock, and go wild.  Again, try to keep the glue out of the river bed. For me it seems to work better if I do the flock in small chunks.  Especially since I use a different color flock for the wooded areas, which this board has a lot of.

The sort of cement colored section in the middle of the photo is a town section.  I used AK Terrain Cement for this.

Once the flock is all down I put the tracks on the rail road bed.  I use 24 gauge wire and a lot of super glue.  Any bridges either road or rail, are made from leftover 1.5 mm thick troops bases from my 15mm days. The bases are covered in the AK Terrain Cement.  Rail Road bridges have wire added, road bridges has AK Terrain Asphalt added.

This is a work in progress but you get the idea of how the railroad is represented.

The next step is head outside and seal the whole thing.  I've been using a mat clear paint which seems to work well - so far.

And the last thing, is to add the Woodland Scenics Realistic Water to the rivers.  Depending on how deep you cut the river beds, this may take several pours to the complete. A word of warning on the river, I've found I have about a 50% success rate in the tape I use to block of the rivers where they run off the boards - so make sure you same paper towels or something similar under those areas just in case.

And when that's all done and you add trees, it looks something like the photo we started with.

Whew, that's a lot of photos.  Hopefully I didn't leave out any major steps.  Nothing to earth shattering, it works for me your mileage may vary.

I hope you all have a great summer

So much lead, so little time.

Slow Progress on the Fulda Project

 Things have been slow up here in Vacationland on the gaming front of late.  We had almost a whole a week of dry, warn weather which meant a lot of outdoor work and not much gaming time.  Now that we're back cold, damp, conditions I had a chance to do a little painting.

First up, another U.S. Armor Battalion of M60A3 Tanks, complete with Scout and Mortar platoons.  Figures are GHQ.  I know there should be black highlights in the cammo pattern, but at this scale I wasn't about to try to paint them.

And finally, what feels like the bane of my existence on this project, a Soviet Motorized Rifle Regiments worth of dismounted infantry. Each stand represents a platoon.  I really hate painting 6mm infantry. The stands in the front of each battalion are the anti-tank platoons.

The photo didn't look this washed out on the camera screen.  Not sure what happened there.

Anyway, that it for now.  I hope everyone has a great summer.

So much lead, so little time.

Duchy of Warsaw

 As I reorganize the game room I'm pulling out boxes of troops that I don't think I've touched since we moved up here to Maine.  So just a quick post of some photos of my limited Duchy of Warsaw troops. While few in number, they were intended to reflect the V Corp for 1812.  These were built for the Utitza flank of Borodino, and they did see action in the game the Connecticut group ran at Historicon 2012. I don't remember the troop to figure ratio we based the OOB on, but that accounts for 2 Divisions only having 5 or 6 battalions each.  Sadly, I think that was the last time they were on the table.  Some of them also saw action in our (actual Peter's - we were just the little voices saying "sure we can do one more game")  2009 Historicon madness - I think we ran something like 7 1809 themed games culminating in Wagram, I'm sure Peter can correct me on the exact number.  The trauma seems to have dulled my memory of the event.

The figures are mostly Old Glory, the horse battery is Front Rank (I think) and I'm not sure about the Uhlans.

First up, 3 6# foot batteries.

Next the lone horse battery.

And the Uhlan Regiment.  Somewhere I have Perry Plastic Hussars I really should find and paint up for this Corp.

The 16th Division, commanded by Zayonchek

Oops, looks like I got carried away when I cropped the photo.

And the 18th Division, commanded by Kniaziewicz

If I thought I'd actually ever use them, I'd flesh the Corps out to a more rational strength.  But, I think I'm getting to that age where I need to apply a little bit of rational thought to what I spend time and money on from a gaming perspective - but just a little rational thought.  Plus I really don't have the room for many more big Napoleonic units.

Take care,

So much lead, so little time.

Faux Fulda - Close Air Support

 For the WWIII 1985 project in addition to Tanks, lots of tanks, I also need some Close Air Support (CAS).  I managed to have a somewhat productive painting streak  over the last week and was able to complete the below.  This rounds out the required NATO/Warsaw Pact flights based on the current Order of Battle I plan on using.  I'm sure the OB will change, but for now, I think I've completed the ground attack stuff.  

We'll start with the American units because, well, I'm biased.

First up, a single flight of the Premier 1980's Soviet Tank Killer.  And I would argue still the premier tank killer in 2025.  (just let that time span sink in, over 45 years of service).  The venerable A-10 Thunderbolt II, or as it is better known the Warthog.

Is that smoke rising from the town in the top right of the photo?  

Next up 3 flights of AH-64 Apache Attack Helicopters.  These had just entered service in 1985.  Gulf War I proved that their HellFire missiles were brutal, but in 1985 they were still untested.

And finally, 2 flights of the AH-1 Cobra attack Helicopter.  It would take several years to replace all of these with the Apache. 

That's it for the NATO ground attack support.

For the Soviet forces we have 3 flights of HIND attack Helicopters.

I know the Soviets had the SU-25 Frogfoot available in 1985, but for my Scenario (at least for now) they are deployed to other fronts.

That's it for now.  Take care.

So much lead, so little time.

Odds and Ends

 As I mentioned a couple of post ago I'm currently in the process of attempting to clean up the gaming room.  During that process I've discovered a large number of forgotten figures, and I actually managed to paint a few of them during my posting hiatus.

In no specific order, below are the results of that effort.  Will any of these actually ever make it to the gaming table?  Probably not, but at least they're painted now.

The below are from Games Workshop, as are many of those that follow.  This is from a box set they released way back when the Movies first came out.  Somewhere along the way I lost the bases, one shield and broke a sword - I guess that's what I get for not painting them in a timely fashion.

More figures from GW Lord of the Rings range that have been floating around for about 15 or so years.  Dwarven archers, not the preferred weapon I think of when I think Dwarf, but useful.

More GW figures, this time a collection of Familiars.  These were acquired probably close to 20 years ago, before the GW business model turned me off of Warhammer.  I do like the walking book and the scroll bearer.

The last of the GW figures, this time the 40K range.  A Chaos Space Marine of some sort.  I wouldn't be surprised if in the 5 or 6 'new' editions of the rules it isn't even a valid figure/troop type any more.  Did I mention I really hate their business model - especially if you're a slow painter.  By the time you finish painting the armor the units have all been replaced in the rules by something new.  But it seems to work for them.

Next a Reaper Miniatures (lead) Druid figure.

And a Reaper Miniatures Halfling Thief... I mean Rogue, we must be PC.

Behold!  The end of the post, a Beholder from WizKids. I could see this being used in Silver Bayonet or Stargrave games, or maybe even in D&D.

I woke up this morning to nice layer of white fluffy snow covering everything, but I hear Spring will start soon. Take care

So much lead, so little time.

Faux Fulda – The Soviet Hordes

 As a follow up to the last post I’d thought I’d touch on the Soviet Forces for the Faux Fulda project.  The Commie Hordes are in no way close to being completed, and may never be.  All of those damn Motorized Rifle Regiments need infantry painted, and I HATE painting 6mm infantry.  The Soviet forces will consist of 4 Divisions, 3 Motorized Rifle Regiments and 1 Tank Regiment plus an Independent Tank Battalion.

We’ll start with the 27^th Guards Motorized Rifle Division (MRD) simply because it’s the only one that I have (mostly) completed.

 

First up is the 243^th Guard Motorized Rifle Regiment (MRR).

The Regiment consist of 3 Motor Rifle Battalions made up of 9 Infantry Platoons in BTR-80 APCs and 1 missile team in an BTR-80, there is also a T-62 Tank Battalion of 3 companies of 3 platoons each, plus a recon element with a platoon of BRDM-2’s and a platoon of BMP-1’s as well as anti-air assets of 1 ZSU-23-4 antiaircraft gun and one SA-13 antiaircraft missile vehicle, and an Anti-tank missile battery consisting of 2 BRDM-2 AT-5.  The TOE also calls for a towed artillery battery, but in Fist Full of Tows 3 most artillery is off board - I haven't decided yet if I'll buy/paint it or not.

Next we have the 28th Tank Regiment.  The Regiment has 3 Battalions of 3 Companies with 2 platoons of T-80 Tanks in each Company, they also have a Motor Rifle Battalion equipped with BMP-2 Infantry Fighting Vehicles organized in 3 Companies of 3 Platoons.  The Regiment also has a Reconnaissance element consisting of BRDM-2 and BMP-2's plus an anti-aircraft element of ZSU-23-4's and SA-13 self propelled anti-aircraft missiles.

Next is the Divisional Independent Tank Battalion.  This consist of 3 Companies of 3 Platoons each, equipped with T-80 Tanks. At least this doesn't require me to paint any dismounted Infantry.

Next the 244th MRR. The Regiment consist of 3 Motor Rifle Battalions made up of 9 Infantry Platoons in BTR-80 APCs and 1 missile team in an APC, ( you will notice that there are no Infantry completed for this Regiment yet), there is also a T-62 Tank Battalion of 3 companies of 3 platoons each, plus a recon element with a platoon of BRDM-2’s and a platoon of BMP-1’s as well as anti-air assets of 1 ZSU-23-4 antiaircraft gun and one SA-13 antiaircraft missile vehicle, and an Anti-tank missile battery consisting of 2 BRDM-2 AT5. 

And finally, the 68th MRR.  This Regiment is equipped with T-80 Tanks and BMP-1 Infantry Fighting Vehicles.  The Regiment contains 3 BMP Motor Rifle Battalions consisting of 3 companies of 3 platoons each, There is also a T-80 Tank Battalion comprising 3 companies of 3 platoons each, it also has a recon element of 1 BRDM-2 and a Recon BMP-1, a anti-tank missile battery consisting of 2 BRDM-2 AT-5 stands and anti-aircraft of 1 ZSU-23-4 antiaircraft gun and one SA-13 antiaircraft missile vehicle.  Again, none of the Infantry has been completed yet for this Regiment either.

As you can see 2 of the MRR still need to have their infantry painted and then after that only 3 more Soviet Divisions and I'm done.  Orrrrrr, maybe I'll just scale back the scope a little, or a lot.

We had snow over the weekend and as I look out my office window the meadows are still covered in a nice layer of pristine white, but I've heard a rumor that Spring may actually arrive at some point.  Take care.

So much lead, so little time.

Maybe I am dead?

 Wow – it has been like, forever since the last post.  No lame excuses, I just haven’t felt like posting.  That doesn’t mean that I haven’t been busy.

 

After 3 or so years of actively trying to find a D&D group I’ve managed to find 2.  One is just down the road and very old school playing Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (AD&D) which was the rule set when I was in college and in the Army.  The other is a couple of towns over and plays 5^th edition with the 2024 rules updates. It’s really interesting to see how the game has evolved.  And more importantly, both allow a chance to indulge in fantasy and get away from the real world for a while.  And let’s face it, who doesn’t enjoy taking a sword and hacking up a monster now and then.

 

On the painting front I’ve been busy with micro armor for the Faux Fulda, WWIII project.  And I haven’t forgotten that I owe a post on the construction of the terrain boards.  I’ve also been trying to clean up/organize the gaming room – which is feeling like a lost cause.  But I have stumbled across some odds and ends that needed painting, more on that in a future post.

 

So, onto the photos.  Europe 1985ish, NATO and Soviet forces.

 

First up, a West German Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion.  I’ll be using the ‘Fist Full of Tows III’ rules, which has each stand representing a platoon.  The Battalion has  Two Heavy Recon Companies consisting of 2 Leopard 1A4 tank platoons and one  Luchs recon platoon each, one Light Recon Company consisting of 3 platoons of Luchs, and one Recon Infantry Company consisting of 3 platoons of Infantry mounted on Fuchs.

 

 

Next up, 3 Squadrons of the 11^th Armored Cavalry Regiment. Each Squadron consist of 3 Cavalry Troops each containing 2 M1 Tank Platoons and 3 M2 Cavalry Fighting Vehicle Stands, and 1 Tank Company consisting of 3 M1 Tank Platoons, and 1 self-propelled mortar platoon.  (These are the original M1’s with the same 105mm gun as the M-60 series tanks, it is 1985 after all)

And lastly for this post, a couple of U.S. Tank Battalions.  Each Battalion consist of 4 Companies each with three platoons of M60-A3 tanks, plus a battalion Scout Platoon in M-113 APCs and a self-propelled Mortar platoon.

That's it for now.  Who knows, I may not wait 4 months for the next post.

Take care.

So much lead, so little time.

 

 

Finally!

It took about 5 months longer than I planned on, but the first set of 6 2'x2' terrain boards for my Faux Fulda  project are finally done.  In hind sight it was probably rather foolish (or stupid) to take on something of this scope for my first attempt at terrain boards.  Oh well, live and learn; That which does not kill us makes us stronger; etc. etc.  But the first 6 are finally done!

I'm hesitant to post the photos, they really do look better in the flesh.  And the fact that the two folding tables that are my gaming table aren't exactly level makes the areas where the tiles join look a lot worse. Actually, the section of the house that the gaming room is in is 274 years old, so nothing is level.  That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it.  I will go back and reflock the edges of the boards, which will hopefully make them less obvious.

Next up, I need to build the boards going South down to Bad Hersfeld.

But, enough with the words, below are the photos.

North is at the top, Bebra is the larg built up area at the lower left. The scale is 1 inch = 100 meters.  The cement looking areas are the footprint of the towns, the buildings are just to indicate it's a built up area.  Roads were made using AK Terrains Asphalt paste.  Rail Road embankments were built up with Grout and 24 gauge wire glued down, somewhat, in parallel. 

View from a spy satellite 

A Battalion of T-80 tanks advances west towards Solz.

On a side note, I tried to order some more spaceships for Project Z, only to discover that Shapeways apparently has gone out of business.  That's probably old news to most of you but it caught me by surprise.

Enjoy the Holiday Season.  To everyone in the U.S., have a great Thanksgiving and eat lots of Turkey.

So much lead, so little time.

Trees, lots of trees

For my Faux Fulda project I need a lot of micro armor scale (6mm) trees.  Having the woods adequately represented is even more important at this scale, (I'm using 1" = 100 meters), as a lot of the ground detail gets lost and the heavy woods help convey the importance of attacking through the Fulda Gap.

You can buy trees that are supposedly made for this scale, and I have som but I'm not overly happy with how they look and they aren't exactly cheap either. Given the number of trees I'm going to need I decided to tax my limited modeling skills and make my own.  I made some pine trees using the quick tutorial over on Little Wars TV, and while they look ok, it wasn't really the look I was going for.  

So, throwing common sense to the wind, I took stroll on the front deck of the house after a breezy day and started collecting supplies.  Below is how I went about making these, I probably still need between 50 to 100 more.

I hate trying to paint tree trunks, so I opted for the easy route, and started picking up twigs from my yard.  Finding the right look and diameter took a while.

Ok, so that takes care of the tree trunks.

For the leaves I used Reindeer Moss.  I thought about using tree moss from the property, (we always have some laying around after heavy rain/wind) but wasn't sure how it would age.  So I spent $10 on a couple of bags of moss.

Just waiting to be combined into a proper tree.

The first 40 or so trees that I made were done using Elmer's Glue/white glue on the 'trunk' to attach the leaves.  

That was more of a hassle than I wanted to deal with so I went to a hot glue gun.  I've never been a big fan of hot glue guns, probably because I always used the cheap ones you can buy for under $5.  It worked, but it was messy.  I eventually upgraded and spent $12 on a variable temperature hot glue gun with a rather fine nozzle that allows some precision when applying the glue.

Apply a ring of glue to the top of the 'tree trunk', apply the 'leaves' and you end up with this.

All it needs now is a base.

Again, on the basing I took the cheap approach.  I originally thought about ordering some round bases from Litko, but then I started figuring out what that would cost and decided I could come up with something that would work.  

My solution was good old fashioned air drying modeling clay.  I used the cap from a dried out magic marker, applied a little pressure to flatten the base a little (there is still an issue with the bases curling as they dry) and used a paint brush handle to make an indentation for the tree trunk/hot glue.

Once dry, I painted them with a sort of earthy looking light brown craft paint and fired up the hot glue gun again.  

Which resulted in this.

To give you an idea of the scale, here's a picture of a tank under the tree.

And to finish the tree, paint on a little water downed glue to the base and flock.

And there you go, simple, cheap trees.  

Now I just need to repeat another 150 or so times.

Take care.

So much lead, so little time.