Ranville Attack Scenario

 

New Hedges

 As we only have a few hedges, about 18 or so in total from Greg's previous post some years back. We have done very little in actually bolstering the amount. This has always been a bit of an issue for laying out a table, as it severely limits us to how we lay out terrain and even how we play. Having been trying to get back into the hobby, I decided to expand on this.

Using the same techniques Greg used previously, I set out to achieve some similar results. The only issue this time round was the felt that was previously used was bought to cover the table's playing boards, which was some spare bits he used to make the hedges and road bits. I did manage to grab some Green felt from a local textile shop, however, it was not the same Green and was thinner in depth. To circumnavigate this, I had to glue two strips together to thicken out the base.

To make the hedges themselves, I used the scouring pads cut to size like previously mentioned in the older post. However, this time, I decided to give each one a paint over to brighten up the pieces. The issue with this was it matched the colour of the base felt.

To help the base stand out from the hedge, I decided to add flock to the base just by simply adding PVA glue to the base and sprinkling flock over each one. This was a little time consuming, especially since I went a little overboard and created 52 pieces total.. I have a few different lengths, some long, some medium and some short ones which are also a little lower in height, mostly just excess that I could use.

Overall I am happy with how they have turned out and I wish to apply the same techniques to our pre-existing ones to bring them more to life. Either way, we now have plenty more terrain to use for both aesthetic appeal and for cover.

Hurricanes

 I have a small Desert Army slowly building up, but recently finished painting up two lovely looking Zvezda 1:144 Hurricane Mk.I planes. Although cheap, they really are lovely looking planes. Personally, I prefer them to the Battlefront equivalent, and would recommend them to anyone looking to add some planes to their forces. The cockpit, aerial and propellers are a very nice touch. Their only draw back are the decals all being the same for each kit.

Side by side are the comparisons between both companies and their models. The BF Hurricane is the Mk.IId. I also appreciate the height of the Zvezda stand, the ability to place it over other models and the fact you can adjust how the model sits on the stand, making for some nice action shots - if you like that sort of thing..

Explosion Smoke Markers

Fannying around and using the idea of smoke markers from Bombardments I made some pretty simple artillery bits. It's made using the fluffy stuff from inside a pillow and the bases were rubber wall protectors / door stoppers turned upside down. Again, I used some footage for ideas on how they should look. Once happy with how they were, I glued them down and hit them with spray paint and left them to dry.

Knocked out Tank Objective Marker

 Using a PSC Sherman II kit, which have horrible tracks to fit together, I made one into a small diorama / objective marker. It was mainly to make use of the model itself as it was no longer going to be an addition to my own army, and to try get myself back into modelling.

Firstly the tank was stuck onto a base and filled out with spak filler for the texture of the terrain.Using some pictures of knocked out tanks and burial sites in N. Africa for ideas, I decided to make small mounds with the filler and placed bits of gravel around them to indicate that bodies had been buried. The crosses were made of wooden hobby sticks and the texture was painted using Vallejo Dark Sand. Lastly sand was added with pva glue to give the base some detail.

For the actual tank itself, a small heated screw driver was pierced into the plastic to try and achieve the effect of rounds hitting and/or knocking out the tank itself. The tank was then painted as how I have painted my Desert Army and a lot of dry brushing on and around the turret and inside the commanders hatch were applied to give the impression inside the tank had a fire and a lot of smoke bellowed out and stained the outside.

I imagined that when the tank had been hit a number of times, the Assistant Driver, Gunner and Loader/Operator had all been killed, whereas the Commander and Driver had escaped, but their status is M.I.A. presumed captured. Below is a picture before the tank was painted to show where the hits were and what I was trying to achieve.

Still alive