Arnhem- a post script

Over a year ago I was asked to make a number of buildings unique to the Arnhem campaign.
There was the hospital, museum, a church, a couple of generic buildings and a tall but narrow building that I can't remember the name of.
They were sent off and recently I received a pile of photos of them in action. I love getting things like that as I very rarely get to see them this way.
The table is very impressive and I am very pleased that some of my buildings were involved in such a large project.
Here they are:

the church was massive

an unusual shape structure- very interesting to make

This game was set up in Australia and I hope it plays as well as it looks.

Salute 2013- the end of alot of hard work

I always enjoy Salute but this year was a biggy for me with 4 big tables of terrain as well as a number of smaller games on the Crooked Dice stand.
I had been commissioned to do the Wargames Illustrated table this year and was of Little Round Top and Devils Den. This was an 8ft x 6ft table in 28mm scale. It was great to be able to sculpt the terrain so it was rolling and undulating. It came over very well on the day and was fortunate enough to walk away with the Best Trader Sponsored game at the show.

The latest edition of Wargames Illustrated features it quite heavily and next month tells you how I did it.

The next big table was 14 feet long and was Normandy 1944 in 28mm. Neil, whose table it was had Artmaster paint the figures and Troop of Shrew painting the vehicles as well as me making the terrain so the whole thing looked spectacular and as a result won best game at the show.
I had made the table up over a period of two years so it was great to see it complete at last.

The last big table I had there was the Alamo in 40mm commissioned by Gringo 40. This was a participation game and I think everyone enjoyed it. Ged had got 700 figures painted and based and along with the 7ft x 5ft Alamo the table was a real success.

This game will feature in future Wargames Illustrated magazine editions so keep an eye out for it.
So overall a very successful day for me. It was great to talk to so many people and the whole day was over in a minute but I am already looking forward to next year.
You may see more posts of these games in the future going into a bit more detail but for now that is it for this one.

15mm Arnhem part 3

The next three buildings in the project are not on the same scale as the church but were just as interesting to make.
The Arnhem museum model is the third time I have made it (but the first time in 15mm) and the only source I have worked from is of the original model by Colin Rumford of Rapid Fire. The main block is hexagonal and two stories high and there are two wings coming of that to make a very odd shaped structure.

a good view of the shape.

Once I had the hexagon shape worked out, using some school boy geometry everything else came together pretty easily.

The structure was made from the usual foam board and the windows were more laser cut windows specially for this project. They are simple casement windows suitable for lots of uses so I fully expect to use the design again in the future.The museum was to be stuccoed (is that a word?) or covered in a plaster coating so I like to add a bit of depth to the walls so I stick on mounting card around the walls. I think this makes a big difference to the look of the finished building. A flat wall is not very eye catching but adding depth and 'contours' to a wall adds interest and gives you opportunities to add extra painting detail.
When everything is dry I then cover it is Quick Drying Pollyfilla (Spacal or something like that in the USA). This gives you time to work with it before it goes off but soon stiffens enough for you to be able to smooth it off or add a bit of texture.

Although it say Quick drying I do tend to leave it for half a day at least before I paint it. In this case, white. I then cover it in a wash of raw umber and then dry brush it again with white before finally adding water marks and other weathering.

finish model based.

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the fencing is by Ratio- n gauge railway

The next building was made just like the museum but is a fictitious building. It was to be on the large side for a house and similar to a photo I was given of a model my customer liked so here it is finished..

I used the same windows as in the museum.

The final building was a representation of St Elizabeth's hospital that was in Arnhem.

This was again the third time I had built this piece but the first in 15mm. The most challenging part of the build was the roof.

There are two levels to it with dormers to the front and the customers needed to get in the building so the roof had to come off. The dormer windows are attached to the front wall so I didn't want to make a join there so I designed it for just the back half of the roof to come off. I find this works well with buildings that have complicated roof lines. Gaps and spaces in the roofs very quickly spoil the look of a model so you want to minimise these when you can. It isn't a problem on a straight forward roof as the whole thing can come off but when you have dormers, corners or different heights then I think it is best to consider the half roof option.
The hospital is brick built so once I had the foam board frame and the windows cut out all I needed to do was cover it in brick embossed plasticard. There is some decorative brick work on the front of the house so I was able to just paint a lighter line of bricks on the plasticard and add a small half moon of bricks above each window. Mentioning the windows, again they are the same design as used in the museum and large house above.

the front

the rear- you can just see the join in the roof

There are now 4 buildings complete and just one to go. I am making this now so should be able to post the final episode in this project withing the next week or two.