Harbour raid game - planning and initial setup....

 Initial setup for a harbour raid game....

I'm still fiddling with setup. The central area will be the main game space. Commandos to come ashore along the small mole to the left side of the table, while resistance launch a diversionary attack from the town side.

Dockside Crane ...

 For harbour set ups I didn't have a suitable crane; on a visit to a local Toy&Train fair last weekend I got an already built unpainted OO/HO Dapol crane. I gave it a wash over with some light grey paint and it works quite nicely on the dockside.

Submarine Pen - Internal (trial setup)

I've used some of my harbour sections and made some wall sections to represent a small submarine pen - could be used as part of a game, surrounded by scenic elements (with the roof omitted).

German supply dump....

 Near the German HQ ammo and fuel dumps have been setup in a wood....

[ New items: Camouflage netting pieces from AnyScale Models 1/56 range]

Making a vineyard ....

Can't be somewhere in France without a vineyard, so decided to make one. The plan was to use only stuff I had to hand (and buy nothing new !) I'd looked at some examples online of others who made vineyard bases for inspiration.

I decided on 12 bases, each about 8.5 inches long.

First up was the base, thin card with a top part made from coffee stirrers. The holes for the posts and vines were marked out and drilled. Then first job was to put in the posts.

After that I added two training wires using some thin scale ship rigging rope (cotton thread would have done)

Next step add the woody parts of the vines. For this I cut up some old plastic trees into suitable pieces ...

I had just enough to do all 12 bases... 

All the pieces got a wash of brown on the posts and the vine wood painted brown too..

Adding the foliage, I decided on using the pieces off old plastic trees ...

Having added all the plastic tree pieces, one problem a gap along the top ...

the gaps were filled in with loads of little bits of left over foliage clump

to blend together the plastic pieces and foliage clumps, painted over with leaf green

Finally an earth mix for the central part of the bases of the vineyard sections and some static grass round the outside... all done...

French Buildings ....

The 1/72 Valiant and Amourfast buildings finished ....

The church (3d Print), painted up ....

a row of four 3d printed buildings....

A barracks or single storey wooden industrial building .... (made from card and printed sides/roof from a free file downloaded in 2016 from the Ebob website, took me a while to get round to using it ! )

Chateau HQ for the germans, trying out a small setup ...

Some French Buildings (4) .. Shop ..

 I used the left over shop front bits from the Valiant 1/72 house and combined them with an ArmourFast 1/72 Farm House to make up a shop...

Some French Buildings (3) .. Church

Had to have a suitable church, rather than faff about and scratch build one to suit I found a nice 3d printed one. I went for the iconic one from St Mere Eglise - printed for 15mm.

Why 15mm ? Any bigger for 1/72 or 28mm and it would dominate the table too much. It is about a foot long and nice inches tall (no bigger in footprint than the church I use for Somewhere in England).

I had to tweak the main door to make it larger, by filling in with cardboard - works ok for 20mm figs - a bit small for 28mm figs, but will work well in game as a backdrop item ...

Some French Style buildings ....

 Needed to add a bit of French style housing stock, I've had a  look at the Amourfast farmhouse

I bought two, easy to assemble (reasonably priced). The plastic is a bit thin, but when built it holds together well - extra internal bracing for robustness could be added, but otherwise fine.  They also have possibilities for kit-bashing.

Although 1/72, it is a good size and looks OK with a 25/28mm figure; since they be used with 1/72 (20mm) figs as well then they'll do. 

I have a couple of Valiant 1/72 houses on order to see how they'll size up. I have been ogling some 3D printed items too.

Airfield - hard standing area...

 Things are going slowly on the french resistance game plans, however I've been looking at improving the concrete hard standing areas for airfields.  I found a nice image online with some texture, one of the images from the following https://spaces.hightail.com/space/7UNLYEEs21.  I printed out a few pages and stuck them onto my existing my existing hard-standing board (small MDF sheet)

and also made some smaller sections than can double as a taxi way

if I need more for a game scenario, I can easily make some up

At a cafe in ...

In a little cafe somewhere in Nouvion, a lady in a beret speaking in hushed tones tries to persuade the proprieter to help her ... the cafe is is moderately busy ...

[a quick setup to see if I had a enough items for the interior of the cafe...; the upright piano in the corner is from Petite Properties 1/48th range]

Oil Storage Terminal ...

For a possible target for a raid,  a small oil storage area and docking point for a tanker....

I struggled initially to find something for the fuel tanks, I had a spare tall'ish one - for a couple more I used large reels of sticky tape and cut some tops for them from cardboard.  

all items painted up....

some scenic bits - buildings and cars....

Picked up a few bits today at a local toy & train fair which could be useful for future story lines and games. A standalone small square factory building, a larger low relief one. Also a couple of cars, two are 1930's Peugeot 1/43 scale ones made my 'Miniatures de NoRev'

Airfield control tower and concrete apron .....

Things do eventually get finished... the Airfix control tower has now been painted up ...

 I wanted a section of concrete apron for aircraft display and also for use for story lines and games. I had a spare piece of MDF 16" x 24" in size to use up, I managed to find a suitable concrete texture image online, tweaked it and printed out a few; cut and stuck to the MDF looks quite reasonable

taxi-ways and runway next ? maybe ....
storage space is the enemy of modeller's - I wish I had a Tardis . 😃

Airfield control tower - WIP

I picked up a cheap Airfix airfield control tower kit at a Toy&Tain fair a while back. I built it recently an left it for a while to let all the glue go off before I did the hand rails. I was going to use thread but after a try this was way too fiddly, I did consider some thin plastic rod but hadn't got any so I went with some thin wire - fixing it with super glue..

few more bits of wire to add then I can get it painted...

Fighter dispersal pen ...

Airfix fighter dispersal pen from the Airfix A50015 RAF Battle of Britain Airfield diorama set, with an Easy Model spitfire....

Scenics: Station Buildings ...

Have done up a couple of old plastic buildings I picked up at a Toy&Train fair.

An old Triang station building to be used for a french station ...

 this just had a quick paint job and a couple of french 1930s poster adverts added...

For a british station building I found an old Airfix item, I added extra height of about 1cm and made a few repairs ...

then a simple paint scheme with the odd advert poster,

these buildings will make a good addition to my gaming and story line scenic items.

Building a small railway station - WIP

One thing missing form my scenic railway items is a small station. I have enough OO/HO rolling stock for a small continental or british train.

I went to a model railway exhibition last weekend and got some cheap bits to make the station with,
- Ratio platform fencing
- Peco platform edging

- Hornby platform station building extension.

Pieces cut to size as needed and a trial layout done

Bases for the station made, on MDF base with cardboard riser - a thin piece of cardboard overlaps the railway line section base ...

 Platform edging stuck to section boards and thin card used to make a platform surface, on top of which will be stuck some Metcalfe paving sheet ...

 Need to pick up a few item:
- station building, if possible a french style one as well as a british one
- line side fencing
- a couple of signals
- some telegraph poles
A nice little shopping list for the next local Toy & Train fair.

Trenches completed...

All the trench sections and associated bits & bobs have been finished off....

The gun emplacement

 a trio of pill-boxes

 the long trench set, with some of my home-made barbed wire in front