German Artillery Crew and Grenadiers

Completed a few figures for the German defenders of Brecourt Manor.

Artillery Crew

Grenadiers

The artillery crew are Warlord and the grenadiers are Artizan. I used different colours for the gun crew uniform, more as an experiment. The grenadiers are all painted in pretty much the same uniform colour scheme.

I intend to post up progress on painting these figures by having what will really amount to a photo diary. More for my benefit so I will have an idea how long it takes to paint them all. So apologies in advance for some future boring posts.

Thats it for now more to follow.

Workbench for Brecourt

So here we have the obligatory 'workbench' photos. First up a lot of grenadiers plus a few US airborne...

These figures are all mounted on 2p coins, and represent the last few US Airborne I need to complete and the German Grenadiers I will need to play out the Brecourt Manor scenario. Or potentially will need. I have enough models to represent the infantry who are mentioned as supporting the guns and should be able to replace the gun crew figures with a suitably armed equivalent should it be needed. Next up gun crew and friends.....
    

The gun crew are mounted on 1p coins. I normally use the 2p coin to base individual figures for skirmish games but decided that placing the figures around the gun itself would be easier if they are on smaller bases. The other figures are the MG42's and crews in sustained fire role, for the MG nests. Plus US Airborne .30cal teams in deployed mode. The latter are not really necessary but I believe it will be nice to have the option replace the moving teams with bases representing the MG's deployed. The MG teams will be mounted on suitable larger bases once painted. Whilst on the subject of .30cal teams....

I've used two different colour schemes for these teams. The team on the right is painted in the 'Green Ochre' scheme. The one on the left in  a scheme based around 'US Tan Earth'. Both are Vallejo colours. I originally used to paint the US Airborne M1942 uniform in a scheme based on GW's Desert Yellow. When that colour was withdrawn I changed over to Vallejo Green Ochre which I think is quite a good match for the old GW Desert Yellow. But following a recent suggestion from one of the forum members on LAF, I tried US Tan Earth as an option.

  
I like both and plan to use both colour variations to represent the M1942 uniform. But what do you think?

Quite a bit of painting to do. So that's it for now more to follow.  

  

Brecourt Manor......Part 11

A short update to highlight only a small amount of work completed on the boards. I've added Woodland Scenic's; Coarse Turf and Foliage clusters plus Silflor; Grass Tufts and Flower Tufts to the edge of the hedgerows.  

The intention is to make them a bit more interesting and add a splash of colour. I'm hoping they will make the foliage appear more natural, rather than a blanket colour across the whole boards. I've not gone mad with the tufts and such like, just enough .

The 'gateway' between the fields I've added some tufts to the central ridge of the track way. I was going to use static grass, but decided on using Silflor tufts, mainly because I do not have a applicator for the static grass which apparently should make it stand up better. If anyone has used such an item could they let me know their thoughts, is it worth the expense, does it make a difference applying static grass?

I've also added a small amount of coarse turf to the main board areas just to break up the bleakness of the grass.

I'm probably going to concentrate on cleaning up and basing the figures required to play out the scenario. So may be a slightly longer pause until next update.

That's all for now more to follow.    

It's Green...(or Brecourt Manor Part 10)

Ta Dah!

Finally the boards have some green on them. I've completed the trees, then the hedgerows. Used rubberised horsehair for both. Then added the flock for the grass. It is actually quite green, maybe too green for me. For someone who prefers muted colours the boards look bright. Anyway here are a few more pictures...

There is still work to be done. I need to add more foliage. Particularly along the hedgerows, and tidy up the grass here and there. I then can start to add more detail in and around the gun positions. I'm quite pleased with how the tree line came out in front of the gun positions. The artillery pieces are suitably screened by the flora to hide their position, which is what I was hoping to achieve.

I have also done some more weathering on the wooden flooring and revetments, mainly using washes. I tried Devlan Mud, oils thinned with white spirit but I found that the MIG enamel washes were best. Also added in some more mud. Two different techniques were used for this. Firstly I made a paste of PVA, powdered filler, suitable weathering powder and a small amount of water. This obviously produced clumps of mud, I was attempting to simulate dry mud. I then placed MIG pigment fixer directly onto the wooden flooring, put weathering powder onto an old brush and tapped the brush above the pigment fixer to scatter the powder. I did then add a little more pigment fixer to hold the powder. I haven't gone mad with the mud effect, restricted it to were people would be moving on and off the flooring.

I will now probably concentrate on painting up the guns and figures needed to play out the scenario. Thats it for now more to follow.    

Trouble with Trees

It's been one of frustrating times on the wargaming front. Do you ever start a project (or a project within a project?) and it does not go quite according to plan? I decided to start making trees for the Brecourt Manor boards over the weekend and in my minds eye I knew exactly how they would turn out, or so I thought!!!

Now I've mentioned previously I'm using the woodland scenic trees for the bases, for two reasons mainly; I've used them before and I think they are okay; they are easily attainable from local shops should I need more foliage/armatures etc.. Plus of course the tree armature plugs into the base and this meant I was able to adapt them to make them removable from the boards should I so wish. So it begins.....

So I sat down with armatures and clump foliage intending to spend Saturday afternoon making the twenty or so trees I need for the boards. Firstly I decided to apply the clump foliage with superglue. I had previously used Woodland Scenics own Hob-e-Tac glue and was not particularly impressed. It quickly became apparent that the superglue was great for holding the foliage BUT I was going to need a lot of it and it was not very cost effective. So I turned to the Hob-e-Tac. What I produced was this;

Now I was not too happy with the result and since I wanted to build up the amount of foliage on each tree, I was not too sure Hob-e-Tac would be upto the job. So I considered bulking out the tree with a 'packing' material. I considered using steel wool and then gluing extra foliage to that. Now I couldn't find the steel wool but did find a few pieces of rubberised horsehair which I had bought from Antenociti's Workshop a couple of years back. I had intended to experiment with it for making hedgerows but settled on using clump foliage instead. So I added it to a couple of the armatures;

This one had no clump foliage added, but on another a stripped back the clump foliage and added the horsehair over that.

In each case I used PVA glue to stick the horsehair to the armature. Now I had a dilemma. How to stick the foliage to it and what foliage to use. Now if you are UK based (and probably a few who are not will know the company I'm referring to, judging by a few TM posts I read over the weekend), you will be aware of the 'Last Valley' terrain. Never bought any of it myself, but see it quite a lot at shows and the club, 'Wyvern Wargamers', has quite a bit of this terrain. So looking at my trees thats what came to mind. So from what I could remember of that terrain the trees seem to be horsehair covered with flock.

So a hunt on the internet and I found a few references on model making/railway forums to using hairspray to fix the flock to the rubberised horsehair. Then I spotted this which I should have remembered markswargaming-anythingbutaone. Mark's very fine tutorial goes into detail about making some boards for Saga and using hairspray has an adhesive to hold the flock. Can also be found here saga-scenics. So grabbed my can of cheap hairspray (no laughing please, gentleman) and sprayed away. I also used Daler & Rowney fixative (just because I could) and then sprayed the tree with Woodland Scenic Cement glue. I was not entirely convinced hairspray would hold the flock. So I was left with this;

It was rushed and a little bit messy. It will need tidying up. I also did not paint the trunk. Mainly because they are not really noticeable when being used and the area around it will be covered in foliage/flock. But I was not entirely happy, it looked like a clump on a stick. So having already glued rubberised horsehair to four other trees I ripped it all off and started again. This time I was a bit more selective in placement of the horsehair.

I have, after spending a few minutes looking at real trees, placed the horsehair much more carefully on each individual branch rather than covering the whole tree, also painted the trunk though it may not be obvious in the photo. Flock was applied as before but no glue used this time. I did three trees in this fashion and this was the result;

Please ignore detritus in the background.

Now I have been round these trees with a pair of scissors to trim away any straggly pieces of horsehair both before and after flocking.

Now follows a comparison shot the two different types of trees;

See what I mean about the one on the left looking clumpy? The second batch I feel look more realistic, and I'm far happier with them.

Now I hadn't used glue on these three trees since the Woodland Scenic spray cement can be messy. So a further trawl of the internet brought up this trouble at the mill, another excellent tree tutorial but that led me to this Treemendus Models. So I have ordered some of the glue to give it a go, after the good reviews on Trouble at the Mill.

So trees with rubberised horsehair for the foliage it is. A couple of things to mention before I finish. I did spray the horsehair black before applying the tree. The stuff I had was a light brown colour, so I dusted it with black spray paint, rather than smother it. The tree armatures I sprayed grey with Halfords grey primer. Then washed with Devlan Mud, followed by Thaka Green, drybrushed with Rotting Flesh and Catachan Green and a final wash with Badab Black. I'm using up my old GW paints on terrain. I was just trying to achieve the grey/green colour that most bark seems to be (at least in the UK).

Horsehair can be found at these suppliers;

Treemendus models

Antenocitis Workshop

4Dmodelshop

Unless you know a re-upholesterers. Thats it for now, more to follow.

    

Brecourt Manor...Part 9

Not really a full post just a tidy over until I can really move things along. But carrying on from last post, I did add a few more sandbags to the boards. Not very exciting, I'm sorry.

I did not even add that many! I didn't want to spend too long making sandbags out of Milliput once again, so I added a few here and there just to add another feature to terrain. I also decided not to re-paint the other sandbags. What I did do was add a wash of Devlan Mud thinned with Klear and water.

This mixture added a level of griminess which I am happy with and what was lacking from the original sandbag emplacements. I'm not sure if it is evident in the photos.

That should be the last on sandbags. Probably like me you are bored to tears of 'em? More to follow soon.    

Brecourt Manor....Part 8

The boards have been painted.

I've airbrushed the earth colours on and then gave them a final light dry brush with a Home Base emulsion 'Soft Pebble'. The rocks/stones have been painted too.

The grey of the 'stones' is really there to break up the brown. Since this is a field used for agriculture having large groups of boulders scattered about the area may not be entirely accurate but adds another feature to the boards. I've also weathered the boards in the gun pits and trenches.

I've used weathering powders to dirty up the flooring. My initial application may have been slightly over zealous. I used the Forge World powders, and used the earth colours finishing off with the Dark Sand powder. Between each application though I sealed the previous one with MIG Pigment Fixer, applied via the airbrush. I've restricted the weathering to the outer part of the boards, to represent were the crew would stand. To illustrate;

I've also dirtied up the sandbags a little more but I'm not too happy with the colour which has resulted. In fact there are two things which I'm not happy with at the moment;

• The sandbags which I'm really considering re-painting. 
• The roof of the command bunker has warped slightly. I'm putting this down to the use of DAS clay which when it has dried has contracted causing the warp in the plasticard base. The roof is still useable but may need to be re-made.

I've pretty much convinced my self that I will add further sandbags along the edge of the trenches. Not many but enough to add another feature.

So thats it for now more to follow.  

Building Brecourt Manor ...Part 7

More of a general update, this post. The sandbags have been painted;

At the moment they are probably 'nearly' finished. Once the ground work is completed I will see how they look and maybe add some more detail, to the colour. I airbrushed the airbags which speeded up the process; first Vallejo Air, 'Khaki Brown', then 'Sand Yellow'. I then applied a wash borrowed from Forge Worlds 'Modelling Masterclass Volume 1'. This consisted of mixing Vallejo Flat Brown (substituted for Scorched Brown, which I have run out of), with Brown and Yellow Ink. The book does not give a ratio so a did roughly one third of each*. Then added Klear floor polish (so beloved by aircraft modellers, for use on their aircraft not their floors!*) to thin it out. N.B. Klear is now called Pledge Multi Surface Wax in the UK.

Never used the original 'Klear', but this new version works just the same; dries clear with a slight gloss finish. Its basically a cheap gloss varnish! Don't worry about the nice fresh pine smell that wears off once it has dried. The sandbags were then drybrushed with Vallejo 'Dark Sand' and finally a glaze of 'Flat Earth' was applied over them. The glaze was to pull the colours together. The base area around the sandbags was tidied up with the base colour to hide any over zealous airbrushing.

The ends of styrofoam which will serve has the base for the hedge row banks have been capped off.

I used thin plasticard cut and shaped to fit. I did have to slice away a thin piece of the styrofoam to fit the plasticard. Which was glued in place and then filler applied to hide gaps and act as another adhesive. I should have do this earlier, but had hoped that covering the ends in filler would protect them from wear and tear but was not entirely happy with that option.

I've also added in some more tree bases. These will be for the Woodland Scenic tree armatures approximately 2-3" in height to give variety. The cuts made in the styrofoam have been filled and painted with the base colour. Finally all the boards have been pretty much covered in watered down PVA glue to give them protection. I say pretty much, since the only pieces not covered in it were the sandbags and the crates/boxes etc..

   
It has left a 'shine' on the boards still painted in only the base colour. But this is not evident on the board which had been airbrushed. Not sure why? Not that it really matters, since more paint is to be applied. The PVA has left a sheen on the wooden boards which were not made from balsa.

I can only guess the balsa being more porous soaked up the glue better. Again not that it matters, I intend to do some more detail work on the trench floors and sides. So that its for now, more to follow.

* This mixture made a dirty yellow/green colour. With hindsight I should have added more brown to darken the colour and make it a richer green. The effect is to create a moss like colour which you can see on old sandbags left to the elements.

*Maybe they do use it on their floors aswell. I don't really know!
 

Sandbagtastic!!.....Brecourt Manor Part 6

I slight dip in productivity over the past week since I've been adding the milliput sandbags to the boards. Never a chore always a pleasure!

Having reached 136 sandbags on Gun position 4 and the two MG nests, and they were still not quite finished I stopped counting.

I found it easier to build the levels one row at a time which meant I could shape each sandbag individually and then leave them to dry before putting on the next level. They also got slightly smaller over time, as I became more comfortable and proficient with the process.

Though I did use sculpting tools, it eventually became easier I discovered to use one's fingers to shape the little rascals. By using a suitable piece of old cloth, in my case an old t-shirt, each milliput bag could be moulded accordingly and fingernails are great for pressing in folds to the putty (pressing through the old piece of rag of course).

Consideration was given to adding a small number of bags along the tops of the trenches but if I'm truthful at this moment in time I'm all sandbagged out, so that will have to go onto the 'to do' list for the future. Next will be to paint the sandbags and then the rest of the boards.

More to follow.      

Dog Company

Inbetween painting and building the boards for Brecourt Manor I have been painting a few figures. First up are some US Airborne who will represent Dog Company, who came to the aid of Easy Company during the attack.

Dog Company was lead by Lt Ronald Speirs, who was a platoon leader, during the assault. Speirs arrived with five men and they captured the final gun. During the action, Dog Company had one man killed and one wounded (source; Winters) or two men killed (source; Ambrose). The entry on Wikipedia makes reference to two men killed, and one wounded in the assault of the fourth gun. What they all agree on is that one of the men who was with Speirs and lost his life that day was Sgt Julius 'Rusty' Houck, of Co. F., II/506th. In memoriam; Sgt. J. A. Houck .

In his book Winters makes mention that Sgt Bill Guarnere took part in the assault on the final gun with Co. D.; or at least alludes to the same. This is not mentioned by Ambrose or Koskimaki. Unfortunately I do not have Guarnere's memoirs and the material on Mark Bando's site Trigger Time appears to make no reference on this subject. This is unusual since Mr. Bando does seem to like to point out Mr. Ambrose's errors or potential errors.

The figures are from Warlords excellent Bolt Action, US Airborne range.