Adventures on the Wargames Table

Perusing the bits box the other day I found this lovely greenhouse kit from Warbases.  I wanted to build it as part of it's own little scene rather than a free-standing building on the table, so I dug out various bits of scenic scatter or 'clutter' to add to it. Rather than have an empty greenhouse I scratch built a potting table from coffee stirrers and found some other bits of resin ( Debris of War ) to fill the space.  I've not glued the roof panels in place as I want to be able to place figures inside, although you can't get too many figures in it! Outside is a small raised bed and some more DoW resin clutter.  The plant pot by the door is a cylindrical lego brick.  The planter trays are window frames.  Base from Charlie Foxtrot. Painting was quite simple: spray with AP army green primer, then paint the wooden frame in Foundry Forest Green, the bricks in Foundry Slate Grey or Stone then give it a wash with...

A chap in the office is a member of a book club and recently received this book instead of one about British Plants & Flowers.  The club said he could keep it and he very kindly thought of me and my interest in history.  Needless to say, I was delighted! The maps are amazing. It also has plenty of dramatic photographs too. Should be some useful information for scenarios.

Buildings don't just stand around on their own (well, sometimes!) so I've decided to add a yard to my recently built Tabac from Charlie Foxtrot Models . Top chum Colin custom cut the 'L' shaped base for the yard plus he also made an additional storey for the tabac itself as I wanted it to look a little different to the 'standard' model. The walls and outbuilding are made from 5mm foam-core.  The gates are made from coffee stirrers (again!). The gable boards and door are also coffee stirrers, with match sticks as the door frame.  The roof is made from an offcut of Wills textured plasticard. I found some spare window frames (possibly Warbases ?) in the bits box.  The walls are capped with individual pieces of thin plasticard with the edges carved slightly to give a more stone-like look.  A bit fiddly but fine for small quantities.  The cobbles in the yard are textured wallpaper.  I trimmed out a couple of small areas so as to give a sligh...

Game 2 of the Kampfgruppe von Luck Pint-Sized Campaign for Chain of Command For this encounter I could call on a whopping four points of support.  No prizes for guessing what I opted for, yes a Rifle Team and a Bren Team combined (with freebie Junior Leader) to form a whole section.  Re-organising the lads I now had three full sections (incl the support) with one of the platoon sections having an extra bloke. All Dave has to do is get a team off my table edge! The outskirts of Ranville (Para table edge at the top) The cobbled track denotes the sunken lane - up to the buildings View from the Paras side The Patrol Phase resulted in the Paras having jump off points on the left flank by the fields and amongst the buildings on the right.  The Germans did well to push one right forward alongside the narrow track with the other two in the orchard (upper mid left in the pic). JOPs in place Dave brought on plenty of troops in quick succession so as to ...

I’ve been investing a little time in sprucing up some of my scenery items and I felt it was high time that my chateau got a new paint job!  I never particularly liked the original finish on it (NB – it wasn’t painted by me, lol!) as it was (a) quite untidy in places, and (b) the colours were too ‘pink’ and didn’t really go well together, especially when placed in the grounds I’d built for it. The original looked like this The original chateau (not painted by me) Yeah, it’s “o-k-a-y” but it sort of looks a bit like custard, which is a trifle annoying 🙄  Anyway... I think it could be improved quite a bit. The first step was to re-paint the ground floor brickwork to actually look like bricks.  A solid base coat of Foundry Conker shade was a good start, then I picked out a few bricks in darker brown tones and one or two in a much lighter red (go steady with these tho!).  Next, I applied a wash of GW Agrax Earthshade to pick out the brick edges.  Then I...

It's been a busy few weeks recently hence the blogging has rather tailed off.  However, things are still moving along gently in terms of hobby fun.  A recent (and fantastic) holiday to France has inspired me to add to my scenery collection.  So I've made a start on the splendid " Banque de France " kit from Colin at Charlie Foxtrot Models . This will probably feature as a more up-market residence with gardens, etc, or I might make it in to a " Mairie " for the forthcoming "village" project.  I'll do a couple of proper blog posts on this as it develops. I also want to build a small garage / workshop / petrol station so I've ordered the workshop kit from Warbases.  Additionally I bought some cold frames and a greenhouse for the grounds of the larger house.  I've ordered the petrol pump set and a 30's style car from 1st Corps too. But it's not all Normandy!  My DAK forces will get some hefty reinforcements in the shape ...

The George Washington pub does a fantastic meal, plus the locals are a nice bunch too.  So, suitably fortified, we returned for our third game of Bolt Action. Game 3 - Assault at Chateau Wartone This would be a straightforward fight representing the Allied push inland on the 7th June. As George had won game 2 (by a whisker!) he, as the attacker, would have a more flexible deployment.  We also swapped sides for a bit of variety.  I would be leading a large gruppe of Panzergrenadiers whilst George fielded his lovely British force. The field of battle with our initial deployments. A Stug and a Churchill play cat and mouse... Being a huge piece of scenery I don't often get the chateau on the table.  It's okay, but the grounds need a little more "shrubbery" and the chateau is definitely going to get a re-paint - it's way too pink and the painting is a bit shonky in places. Chateau Wartone :-D I decided that I would quickly invest the cafe and make it a ...