On the Defense

 Just a shorter than normal post today.  Based on an off-line discussion I started looking at my Napoleonic troops again, and realized that I'm short of defensive works.  I have the Great Redoubt and the hill complete with Wolf Pits on the flank of the redoubt for Borodino.  But I couldn't locate any of the Fleches.  I think when we ran it at Historicon we just used Gabions in a roughly 'V' shaped formation (hard to believe that was 13 years ago).

Any way, since I found myself with more time on my hands than brains a couple of weeks ago, I decided it was time to build at least one of the 3 Fleches.

The Flèche is 3 pieces, the gun emplacement, with infantry earthworks on the flanks. 

And here's the proof I actually did it instead of just thought about doing it.

I hope everyone has had a mild Fall, and the Winter is kind to you as well.

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.