Brécourt Manor - Part 7 - Hedgerows and Trees

I am now all but finished on the Brecourt board with just some minor experiments and finishing touches to go. Today I will describe how I created the hedges, hedgerows and trees for the model.

Hedges

I already had the hedge lines defined on the model - I’d laid out a line of cork board early in the build. I began the hedge build with brown walnut scouring pads. Each pad was 6mm deep so I  cut strips about 3mm wide. Each strip was then shaped roughly with scissors to make the height variable.

No matter how I tried each of these strips ended up looking like waves on the sea

I then pipetted liquid glue onto them until fully absorbed and flocked with Woodland Scenics Weeds (dark green) fine turf.

Once dry I applied PVA to the base and glued them onto the hedge lines on the model. Gaps were left for gates and I made sure to place lower sections opposite the gun emplacements. Smaller bits were cut and inserted where there were gaps.

To create a somewhat wilder hedge look I tore strips off the Woodland Scenics foliage range and using scenic cement and a brush applied it to the strips, gluing tops and sides. I varied the colours but used more dark green than mid green with light green applied only sparingly. 

By the vegetable patch I only placed and glued the foliage on the top and other side as I figured the small holder would trim the hedge on his side.

To create a proper hedgerow though I then took a selection of bush and longer grass products from a range of manufacturers and cut them into thinner strips and pieces and glued and pushed them into the bottom of the hedges.

Fence

A small section of the border of the vegetable patch seems to have had a wire fence. I used cut down toothpicks as posts and some barb wire from army painter to create the fence and then glued some bushes through or across it.

Trees

I decided to try an experiment with this model and to try using sea foam moss for my trees. I think the moss is frequently used by railway modellers and diorama builders but I had never used it before. I’ll insert a warning here to those who are thinking of using the sea foam on their wargaming tables that I have found it to be very realistic but quite fragile. My board is designed to see only a small number of battles, to be carefully transported and for the action to take place generally away from the trees. Be very careful using on your war games tables!

I found another wargames blogger who had used them before - although at a larger scale than I needed - including detailed instructions..

I started with Plastidip spray. This spray, camo brown, coloured the sea foam and helped strengthen it, making the smaller sprigs more resistant to knocks and breaks. I didn’t bother cutting the foam before spraying - but I would recommend doing so if you are using this for bigger trees as the sprigs easily glue together.

I cut the sprigs into a variety of sizes - I needed some trees about 6cm tall ranging down to 1cm.

I then dipped the sprigs into scenic cement or watered down PVA just covering the upper parts of my tree. I mixed dark and mid green coarse turf, about 2/3rds dark, and the pushed the sprigs into it or dropped the turf onto it. A quick shake to remove the excess, the odd touch up and then clamped in a peg to dry. 

I repeated this a number of times sometimes varying the turf mix and on some of the trees applying another layer of glue and sprinkling mid green fine turf on it.

I used a modellers pick or bradawl to make a hole into the hedges and the gently inserted the stem of my sprig trees into the hole. Scenic cement helped secure it in place and often I used the glue to fix the foliage of trees to another tree for greater stability.

The trees are much stronger than the base sea foam and are fairly robust but I doubt they would last a long time if used on my normal wargaming tables. They look pretty good and are absolutely worth the effort that it took to create them.

Next time I’ll look at the troops that I’ll be using for the refight.

Hopefully it won’t be long before the lockdowns end, until then stay safe!

Charles the Modeller

Brécourt Manor - Part 6 - Flocking, vegetable patches and a truck

It’s been a while since my last update on Brécourt Manor but there has been a lot going on worldwide. Hopefully this will pass shortly. I have managed to make some progress on the board so here goes.

Flocking

I decided to switch flocks for this model. Previously I have used the sawdust type flocks by Jarvis and others. This time I switched to the foam type using Woodland Scenics fine turf. The fine turf is, well finer, than the sawdust flocks and gives a better representation of grass at the ground scale I’m working at. Whilst I’d use the fine turf before I had only ever used it for highlights so this was a bit of an experiment for me.

Taking advantage of the rest of the family heading off for a few days I was able to secure the dining room table giving me plenty of space to work in.

The whole board was covered in a layer of earth and tile grout mix to act as a base layer and given 24 hours to dry.

I used grease proof paper to cover the vegetable patch and trenches and coins to cover the machine gun pits

The whole flocking was a frustrating learning experience but having completed it I am very pleased with how things turned out. I just needed to try things out and find out what worked and what didn’t.

I purchased the woodland scenics glue and their spray bottle specifically for this project but unfortunately the spray failed fairly quickly. Maybe I hadn't shaken it enough but the nozzle got blocked and no matter how much it soaked, it wouldn't unblock. I switched to a back up spray bottle and sprinkled my flock, darker layers first, gradually lightening up. I failed to spray glue after each switch of flock - my bad - and so my flock wasn’t properly glued down.

I tried spraying more woodlands scenics glue and then a diluted PVA mix and whilst I got the turf in place it just wasn’t war games secure coming off easily when rubbed. After an internet search Luke APS offered a way forward. I had some 100% isopropanol alcohol cleaning solution. I mixed this about 50/50 with water and sprayed this onto the board. It quickly soaked into the flock and acts as a flow aid. I followed this up with the War World Scenics glue. I sprayed lots and lots of the glue which hit the flow aid and dispersed quickly. I sprayed until the board was a pale white. Then I just had to wait - about 36 hours - for the glue to dry and clear which was quite unnerving.

Finally the last of the white bits dried and the foam turf was solidly glued to the board.

So next time I do this I will

 start with a PVA/ water mix

 spray after each flock layer

 follow it with the alcohol mix flow aid

 liberally spray  WWS glue as a final glue layer

 leave it for 48 hours to dry

Vegetable Patch

I have created a large vegetable garden. A vegetable patch is clearly indicated on the various maps of the battle. It also briefly features in the Band of Brothers episode as Winters and the Easy co advance towards the guns. I am not sure how big this was historically but I have made it quite large - covering most of a field. The board is otherwise all grass and so this helps break up the terrain and is a nice feature.

I kept this area bare when flocking and then added a number of grassed paths around the various beds.

I laid additional lines of glue down and added more of my earth and tile grout base mix to create furrows.

Additional furrows created by adding additional lines of base mix.

I couldn’t find much in the way of 6mm products designed specifically for vegetables so it was a case of adapting other things. I have only a vague knowledge of crops and vegetables so my adaptations are very much representational.

I cut the tops off bushes to give me individual stands. I cut static grass and trimmed it down. I repurposed bushes and strips and I glued down some light foam.

I also used some cut down and snipped apart staples to create wooden frames for growing beans.

The Rusting Truck

The end of the vegetable patch seems to have been used as a bit of a dump. There is a rusting truck marked on the maps and again visible in the TV episode. I selected a GHQ Russian truck. I painted it white and then added a variety of rust colours. I also half buried it in the board and surrounded it with longer grass.

Nearby was a garbage dump made from my earth/ tile mix. I painted it white and then added a watered down fur brown in patches before giving it a dark tone wash. It looks like building rubble and I was quite pleased with the result. I used a remaining bit of the corrugated iron from the trenches and cost a wheel off another model to add more variety to the rubbish pile. 

Finally I figured the small holder would also use this area to dump grass and other excess plant cuttings so placed some dead grass static grass in piles. I also put in the remains of a bonfire and various other bushes to  complete the scene.

With that all done it’s onto the hedgerows and trees!

Everybody stay safe.

Charles the Modeller

V1 Launch Site Model

A quick diversion from my Brecourt Manor project to a small diorama/ terrain piece I entered into a light hearted competition in one of my Facebook groups, 6mm wargaming and terrain. The challenge was to create a terrain piece on a credit card/ store card inspired by some outstanding work done originally by Ben Fiene.

Ben Fiene's original which inspired the whole thing

After casting around for a while I came across this image and page linked to Flames of War for a V1 launch site. 

The FoW build which inspired my copy

It’s a simplified model of a genuine site which would have had more buildings nearby but I thought I could recreate it fairly easily and it could provide a neat objective for a WW2 game. The one I built is not true 6mm scale but it’s a terrain piece and it fits with my approach to buildings (and indeed with Ben Fiene’s approach which is about 2mm scale).

I started with the V1 itself. I wondered if I could make it out of a long grain of rice but decided instead to use a cocktail stick. I found one with more rounded ends and smoothed them a bit more before cutting them off and glueing them together. I applied liquid green stuff to over joins in several thin coats and smoothed it down. The fins came from plastic are strips and were glued on. Finally a thin point section from another cocktail stick was added as the jet burner.

The base consisted of an Icelandic card obtained I think to pay for fuel on a holiday some years ago. I used air drying clay to make the concrete paving with a small amount of PVA folded into it. I rolled it flat on top of grease proof paper and then cut the T shape to the correct dimensions for the card. I then impressed plasterers scrim tape into the clay to get the outlines of paving squares.

I glued the clay onto the card and waited for it to dry. Results were mixed as it shrunk slightly and I got two cracks. A bit of liquid green stuff later and I wasn’t massively disappointed as it helped break up the pristine look. Earth and tile grout mix gave me the full base layer

I dabbled with the launch ramp and made several unsatisfactory versions before I added a thin cable tie to a strip of plasticard, with a number of plasticard supports to give the ramp its correct launch angle. I created the blockhouse using some MDF bases glued together and sanded smooth. The walls were plasticard strips.

I created the blast walls from some N-Gauge brick card glued back to back.

The V1 was painted and glued in place.
Finally I added a fine turf covering for grass, added bushes and a few trees.

I was pretty pleased with the result.

I didn’t win the contest - there was a beautiful Napoleonic diorama of the aftermath of the battle of Vitoria and an awesome Californian skate park - but it was fun to get involved and to have to think small.

Stay safe everybody

Charles the Modeller

Brécourt Manor - Part 5 - The Guns

This is a quick post in my series on my build of Brécourt Manor. Earlier posts have covered the trenches. This time I’m covering the guns themselves.
I’m using GHQ models, G54 105mm Howitzer to represent the guns. The models are pretty pricey - 2 deployed guns, 2 towed guns and 2 tractors in each £12 pack. For the 4 guns I needed two packs. Costly but very detailed and quite beautiful. I also can’t justify gluing them permanently on the model - I need them for my other battles.

GHQ model and painting, copyright GHQ and Magister Militum

To use them on the model I cut bases to fit into each of the gun pits. I used 1.5mm plasticard cut exactly. To represent the prepared position I decided the guns would be mounted on top of wooden planks. I had a quick go at scoring balsa wood but the narrowness of the lines made the whole thing very tricky.

However I found a pack of staples in our stationary drawer. I simply cut the staples into 3 and using some gorilla glue and laid them out roughly on the bases.

These were then painted with desert yellow and a strong tone ink wash. I used Adler extras including spent shell casings and ammo boxes. The base was then covered in an earth and grout mix.

The guns themselves were sprayed with a sand undercoat, heavy desert yellow drybrush, military shade with skeleton bone highlights.

Next time I’ll look at the rusted truck and vegetable patch.

Roll dice responsibly

Charles the Modeller