"D" Minus 13...

Take a a couple of sheets of newspaper torn into strips, soak them overnight, and in the morning boil them into a mash after adding a pinch of salt -yum.  (serious about the salt- it is to get rid of any bacteria that could cause mold).

Add some PVA and wall filler and voila- goop. Bon appetit.

The next step was spreading the gunk liberally around the base of the trench pieces and the rocky outcrops, and to smooth out any joins. 

And here it is- looking as if someone has thrown up their porridge over it.  Maybe a Scottish rugby fan after watching France hand them their butts in the Six Nations tournament (Gloat? Moi?!?).

This is a large but relatively thin model which will be prone to flexing.  There is no way to completely avoid some kind of warping on a piece this size, and in this climate (hot, extremely humid summers).  So it seems more realistic to aim at reducing warping rather than worrying about trying to eliminate it altogether.

The white patches are pieces of an old dish cloth soaked in PVA and added to those joins that might be vulnerable to cracking over time as the trenches get moved about a lot.  The PVA-soaked towel will give and stretch a bit as it flexes, rather than just cracking under the strain as would a more brittle putty.    

I learned through bitter experience that one way to reduce warping is to carve out as much of the main contours as possible directly out of foam board. The papier maché is then used only just to texture the surface, rather than being applied in any great depth. In the photo most of the grey gunk you see is over the plastic trench itself or on carved foam. 

Where is comes into contact with the base it is only a few millimetres thick- and it is already drying out nicely. But at some point I need to add glue--soaked towelling to the base, and warping well may be an issue.  When I do, I'll weight down the model again to see if that helps to keep warping to a minimum.

 

"D" Minus 14...

And a three-day weekend for me means I'm able to work on an number of different tasks for my BKC game on the 27th.  

Giovanni has painted the Japanese infantry, and is just awaiting the bases- I need to get them up to him this weekend.

On my end, I hope to finish assembling the Japanese AFV's this weekend.  The weather is the pits for spray painting as it is spitting rain, but if the dry weather comes back I'll be giving them a black undercoat prior to an overspray of khaki green.  

If all goes to plan (hah!) I hope to achieve the following in the next few days;

• finish the lists for the opposing forces and post them here.
• work on the SMG company for the Soviet tank brigade.  Three stands, very "do-able" as they are already undercoated and just need the details added.  
• ditto with a stand of combat engineers.
• work on the Japanese defences.

The latter is going according to plan.  Earlier this week I glued the Kallistra trench sections to a baseboard,  and left it a few days to thoroughly dry.  Then I added some trench ends and outcrops from pieces of leftover foam from my Collina della Formica project (these trenches will be duel-purpose!) and used bits of the same to fill in the gaps where the trench sections meet.

This will have to wait to dry out again, but on Sunday I will fair in the gaps with acrylic wood putty, and then add my own home-brew  papier-mâché "gunk" to the baseboard to texture the whole thing.  That should all be done by Monday- I took the day off from work just to do this as it can take a while, and is best done without others looking on and freaking out at the mess it creates!

Then it is a matter of adding the wood to the trench sides, some sandbags to the parapet, and adding a detachable observation post using a plastic kit I have lying around.  

 

I picked up this kit for a pittance at a hobby shop years ago.  I'll use it for the observation post and pillbox.  Simple to construct, and they should look good. 

 

The kit comes with two rather Germanic-looking pillboxes.  I've glued them together and cut out an embrasure on the end of the trench- one will be covering the approach to the front of the trenches, the other will cover the flank.  

Later the pillboxes will be blended into the works with putty and rubble, so they should look much more menacing- as well as hiding their rather "Teutonic" heritage so that they will appear more generic, and not look out of place when I use 28mm minis with it.  

Although designed for 28mm, the Kallistra trenches certainly work with my based 20mm figures, as this photo shows.

 

If I can get the texturing out of the way by Monday, I can then work on the details a bit at a time on weeknights.  This hopefully means  being able to paint the whole thing next weekend- well ahead of schedule for the game.

Having worked on the anthill last year means I have a pretty good idea how much work in involved, and this is a comparatively much simpler project.

If time allows, I'll also work on some barbed wire belts, but I don't want to bite off more than I can chew.

 

Manchuria, 1945

A bit of background for our upcoming game...

There are 10 episodes in all.  Worth watching, as generally there has been very little coverage of this brief- but breathtakingly successful- campaign.

Given the numbers involved, and  the nature of the operations, the butcher's bill on the Soviet side was remarkably low.   The distances covered were vast, and the campaign was fought over a surprisingly varied terrain; from desert and mountains to inhospitable marshland.  It involved sweeping tank manoeuvres, resupply from the air, urban fighting, attacks on fortifications, and amphibious landings.

In fact it seems to have a lot more wargames potential than would at first be apparent.

Countdown and Progress: "D" Minus 19

Rolling up the shirtsleeves and getting to work for our game on Feb. 27th.  Managed to work on three things over the weekend:

1)  Chose scenario from BKC rules, and made up a preliminary force composition list for both sides.  Will type it up tonight. 

2)  Assembled the chassis of the Fujimi Shinhoto and Ho-ni models. 

3)  Began work on "tarting up" the Kallistra trenches; chopped various offcuts of thin wooden strips to 30mm lengths and started gluing them to the trench sides.  Somewhat monotonous work, and lots of these to do, but a little every day should see them done by the end of the week.  Then I can then work on building up the parapets  and adding sandbags using putty.

Amboshan Hill

The clock is ticking down to February 27th; on that day the West Tokyo Wargamers have their first games day at the local community centre, and one of the games slated for that day is our first try at Blitzkrieg Commander in an August 1945 scenario set in Manchuria.

The scenario is basically a simple one to try out the rules (the old edition rather than the new revised set, which I don't yet have).  

A battalion of Japanese infantry is dug in along a trench line on the Amboshan hills surrounding the city of Hailar, which is a strategic objective of the Soviet forces in the region.  

The Forward Detachment of the 36th Army has been sent to reconnoitre the area, to disrupt the Japanese defences and to make sure that the initiative is siezed and held by the RKKA.  A battalion of the 220th Independent Tank Brigade, with supporting infantry and other assets, has been tasked with trying to winkle them out.

The Japanese force is basically infantry.  They can count on on-board support in the way of a section (1 model) of Shinhota Type 97 tanks and one of Ho-Ni SPG's.  

Additional support may consist of two sections of Ha-Go tankettes and some guns and mortars.  But this will be subject to the fog of war (and the post office- I just ordered these today from SHQ Miniatures in the UK). If not,  then we will just use off-table artillery.

Giovanni and I sat down yesterday and commenced work on painting the Japanese.  Plastic figures from Esci and Atlantic which, while they will not be contenders for any painting awards, will do the job.

The more fortunate Russians will have an overwhelming advantage in armour in both numbers and quality,  not to mention support weapons, but the Japanese will be entrenched and will benefit from hidden deployment.   I've no idea how this will play out in terms of balance of forces, but that is not really the purpose of the game; we want to see how the rules work!

So what needs to be done before the day of battle?  A fair amount still!  

1)  The 1st Battalion of the 220th Tank Brigade is ready to roll, as is most of its infantry.  I still need to paint the SMG stands and a 76.2mm ATG, but essentially they are chomping on the bit and ready for action at last.

2)  Trenches and terrain- I will be using Kallistra trenches which I bought for some WW1 Italian theatre games intended for 28mm figures, but 20mm miniature stands will fit nicely.  I need to add some wooden parapets and sandbags, texture the trench tops and paint them all.  Straightforward, if somewhat monotonous (and messy!) work.  

Other terrain will be a bunker or two and maybe a building, but as the game is set on a mountain side there is not so much need for buildings, as there is for rocky outcrops.
 

3) Japanese tanks- I need to build and paint these this coming week.  Not difficult models, and they will simply get a coat of khaki drab rather than the more intricate camouflage schemes used in the Pacific.  

But whatever colour I paint them, they will look sadly inadequate when placed next to the T-34/85's.  The Russian tanks are not only qualitatively light-years ahead of the Japanese vehicles, but operate to a doctrine developed by an army which had  just a few months earlier whipped the German Wehrmacht- the previous masters of armoured warfare- and which had learned to beat the Germans at their own game.
 

 

I was hoping to field more tanks for the Japanese, but Fujimi has- rather treacherously!- taken them both out of production, so a single Shinhoto and one Ho-Ni is all the Japanese are going to get unless SHQ come through with the tankettes in time for the game!  

Not that they will have the Soviet tankers trembling in their boots, mind...

If anyone out there has any of these two kits surplus to requirements, I'd be glad to take them off your hands!

Tanks, a lot!

My friend Dave Morgan sent me some pictures from a Kursk game he had recently in Sumas, Washington state.  15mm Flames of War figures.  

I just love the sight of those massed Russian artillery batteries!  Warms the cockles of any oh-so-politically correct, socialist heart...

  

 

It looks like it must have been a great game, Dave, and I'd have loved to have been there kicking Major Bundt's pasty white posterior across the steppes.  

Ah well, there in spirit!

Forward Detachment- Organization and Point Chart

A quick post before I'm away on business for a week.  

Not much visible progress, but I was able to assemble a bunch of road wheels, work on the engineer's halftrack, sand down some join lines and putty, and most obviously to add the decals to the commanders tanks now that I got that order from HLJ.

I thought I would put up some screen shots I took of my organization and point chart that I'm working on for my Forward Detachment.  Points are for Blitzkrieg Commander rules.  Click on the charts to enlarge.

First, the Motorcycle Battalion.  I have everything I need for this now that I have the BA-6's, and all the models are being built- the battalion as a whole is about 40% done so far.

And here is the chart for the 220th Tank Brigade.  This one is really taking shape fast.  The only things I still have to get are the Lend-Lease AA halftracks, which I will order soon.

Once I get back and into the hobby groove again, I'll continue work on the models.