So far I have 3 platoons of Waffen SS done and some localised support weapons prepped i.e. tripod MG34's and 81mm mortars. I don't intend to go to town on this one but I do intend to get some Russians at Derby to face them. What I had in mind was a reasonably small affair with tanks taking second place to infantry scrapping it out. Don't mind the odd Hanomag or equivalent but I'm trying to concentrate on the smaller aspects rather than a refight of Kursk. Company level at most.
Included here are some pics of what I have been up to.
The first two platoons of infantry. Figures are Flames of War that I bought years ago at a Manchester do and have only just got around to painting -using Vallejo acrylics, gloss then matt varnished. Bases are from a bakelite type of stuff that I was given by an electrician about ten years ago -I'll be using MDF for the next lot. The orange bits are my first experiment with the coloured sand that seem to be prevalent at the mo. tufts are cuts of painted sisal string.
First squad
Squad LMG
Now here are some pics of a couple of pices of terrain I've made.
A Russian thatched, wooden barn. As you can see from the first two pics, the barn walls are made from scored foam board which unfortunately doesn't show up too well on the finished article so that's why I had to highlight the planking effect. The door frames and hinges are just thin cuts of cereal packet card. The staves sticking out of the roof were a common sight on this type of building and were made from the copper wire found in two core flex and run the whole width of the roof. they were superglued onto a folded piece of card and when dry, another piece of card the same size as the first was glued over the top. Any gaps were filled with either Polyfilla or the thatch was brushed down to cover. The thatch itself is made from a cut down piece of children's play felt, glued onto a base and covered in watered down Polyfilla or similar to harden it. (TIP. If you use a stiff brush it combs out the felt as you go, making it look more realistic.) Fencing is made from unsharpened cocktail sticks for the horizontal bits and modelling matchsticks for the the uprights. Holes were drilled through the base with my trusty Dremel for the uprights for greater strength. Bases done in the usual way.
Pictures of the completed barn
Next up is a log cabin.
Made from cocktail sticks glued to a backing piece of the ubiquitous cereal packet card; these were a bit tricky because I tried to get the extended corners look by interlocking the sticks. Smaller, fiddly pieces of stick were cut for the door and window shape. Upright sticks made up the door frame and card outlined the window. Thatch made as for the barn only in horizontal, overlapping strips rather than just a single piece. Roof is detachable. Hedge is clumpy stuff hardened with a PVA/water mix and then dry brushed. Flowers are more of the coloured sand.
The two buildings together
I'm halfway through making a couple of simple thatched cottages and I've even got two Timecast? models to paint. That will give me a total of 6 buildings so I suppose I'll have to make a church to go with them.
