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]

Royal Navy ship's crew...

Finished some 20mm Royal Navy ship's crew (figs mostly Gunthwaite Miniatures plus some SGTs Mess),

They make an nice addition to my large ship model..

Crew for MTB..

 Finally got around to making up a crew set for my water-lined Revell MTB..

[A couple of figures from Gunthwaite Miniatures, a Britannia Figure and a couple of modified ones from Seargent's Mess]

British Landing Craft ....[LCAs + LCM(s)]

For use to pick up off a beach or part of a small coastal raid on France, have put together enough for a small landing ...I bought 3 resin LCAs from Grubby Tanks (Britannia Miniatures range), 

while looking at historical pics of LCAs came across the small LCM(S),  armed with mortar and dual machine guns. I thought it would be a nice addition, so made one up from cardboard, foam board and oddment bits of plastic....

Finished it off in the same paint scheme as the LCAs

 For troops in the landing craft I have painted up some Airfix commandos...

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....

Work in the shipyard ....(3) Launches & ships finished

A number of items finished this week...

Two small cargo ships...

a small tug....

Harbour Defence Motor Launch,  added side machine guns and depth charges before painting. Crew are on Sally 4th 15mm clear bases..

A harbour patrol boat ...

A basic launch ... 

The quay surface spruced up from green to cobbles using Metcalfe O/HO Cobblestone sheets...

I have most of what I need for harbour based games - a few more things to add - a couple standalone warehouses perhaps; then best to add items for specific scenarios.

Work in the shipyard ....(2)...Small Cargo Ship & Tug

Still ship & boat building ... on a bit of a 'build it bender'.

I made a sort of sail barge a couple of years ago, it always looked wrong, so I decided to convert it into another small cargo ship...  sail replaced with derrick and a new cabin/wheelhouse added...

I made up three generic harbour launches, too many for what I needed, so I decided to rework one to be a tug...

Next on my list are some fishing boats and a small trawler; with those and what I've built I've got enough to cover most harbour setups. An added advantage is that most items can be re-used on my 1920/30s adventure games as well.

Work in the shipyard ....

Finished first build on armed motor lauch

 a little coastal puffer ship, modified styrene kit from Sarik Hobbies

also arrived are three LCAs and a sinking one ( Britannia Miniatures, sold by Grubby Tanks)

Making motor launches...

 I've been building a couple of basic motor launches; hulls under construction with 3mm thick card for bottom and thin card for sides...

Nearly done, built to suit 20mm and 28mm figs, along with my basic scribble plan and card templates used

Roof added, check that 20mm figs on bases look about right

On the left side of the above pic are a couple of scratch built small guns for my next build - a Harbour Defence Motor Launch (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harbour_Defence_Motor_Launch); it won't be fully detailed model but just a game piece so will truncate the length and keep the essential features

Playing with Harbours and Ships etc

Got out all my small ships and boats plus stuff I could make up a harbour with for games...

enough backdrop buildings for warehouses etc; a couple more ships alongside the wharf would be nice plus a couple of harbour launches or patrol boats... plenty to do .. may make a couple of things ... challenge will be to make it all work for 20mm and 28mm figs 😕

Some civilians and french resistance...

 A few more figures finished to be used for various story line and small games..

A couple of generic civilians and some seated figures (lorry drivers)

A small group of french resistance...

German Patrol and Civilians....

Some newbies completed...

A small german patrol, made up from free plastic sprue which came with recent issue of Wargames Illustrated..

Along with some generic civilians, useful dockside or elsewhere...

German Officers...

A few more items completed, Some figures for out in the field, plus kubelwagon

 and some for inside & story lines - on clear bases

German sentries ...

Foundry german sentries pack painted up and ready for duty...

Submarine model - hull and deck improvements

After thinking carefully on how best to improve the submarine model I made some time back, I decided on the following
- raising the out of water height by 3mm
- add a wider curved shape to the central section to represent the top of the ballast tanks.
- improving the look of the deck

I got the sub out for modification, plus a couple of reference photos ....

 I used some paper and a bendy ruler to mark out a template for the new central part shape...

New parts cut out of 3mm card and stuck to the underside, the height 'out of water' look is much better

 new side shape created using plastic wood followed by a light sanding down...

deck given a new surface using some strips of textured wallpaper...

New deck painted and the hull given a new coat of grey paint

I'll have to think of a game I could use it in ....

Coastal Tanker - finished

The tanker completed, a quick simple paint job on the new deck...

Coastal Tanker (WIP) ....

I've been sorting through my reminder post-its by the modelling desk, one of which was ship with tanker deck.  I'd watched the film Above us the Waves the day before (which includes a sub taking on oil from a tanker) so I decided to make an alternate deck for my small coastal ship...

I cut a new deck base out of cardboard and put in a central walkway with a handrail from thin wire, then added some detail using oddments from the plastic bits-box...

I got out my home-made submarine to put alongside asking for a refill....

the sub also needs some work to give it a better look,  its a bit narrow  (showing a bit more of the hull would be nice)

A few german figs...

Been painting a few oddment german figures ...

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'

Arrival at the de-briefing location....

The spies, recently returned from England arrive at their de-briefing location ...

[Note: story line posts will switch over to 28mm figs, once I get sufficient figs painted....; games will continue using 20mm]

A special flight lands .....

Linked to Somewhere in England blog post .....
 https://dorset1940.blogspot.com/2020/02/where-sparrows-fly.html

---oXo---

The German spies extracted from southern England, crossed the channel safely. After reaching the French coast their ME109 escort peeled off to go back to its base and was replaced by a Storsch. A while later they arrived at an airfield somewhere in France....

The Lysander lands.....

 and taxis to nearby the control tower; while the Storsch escorting it landed & parked up...

 A car drew up near the Lysander, Smith and the Robinsons headed for the car ...

they would be taken to intelligence HQ for a de-briefing, once they'd finished their written reports they would meet with General von Tiddenheim .....