Well finally here it is, my very first game report and to be totally honest with you if it were to be marked it wouldn’t be a pass and as the title suggests there’d be a personal message in red at the bottom. It started all rather well, the pictures of the table worked fine but by the time it came to play two elements came into town in recording the game. Firstly under the andrenalin fuelled pressure of playing Uncle Focus buggered right off and Auntie Blurred decided to visit for the weekend, and latterly as taking the photos slowed the play the need to take photos waned a little as did the already questionable quality. I apologise in advance for this, it’s left me scratching my head as to just how other folk manage it.
The game itself was a very simple contact scenario in a town with two bridges, the British aiming to take control of at least one bridge while the Germans were to deny them this. The Bridges had been guarded by very poor German troops who had decided to desert after a visit from the RAF, and German reenforcements had been delayed by supply difficulties, so it really was a very open scenario from the start.
The Germans would be starting from the town side, and would be guaranteed good cover for all of their forces.
As they were to have the first turn there was a more than reasonable chance they’d be able to reach the main bridge before the British arrived, and would enjoy plenty of cover in defending it.
The nearby pontoon bridge would be more difficult to reach, but getting it in sight and preventing anyone from crossing it would be quite simple.
The Germans began their push towards the pontoon bridge, getting a pair of Panzer IVs lined up on it, HMG and Mortar teams racing towards position when disaster struck as the commander failed his second command roll. Desperate to gain ground he pushed on aiming to get into the church tower in the following turn.
Unfortunately things got worst on the other side as the commander failed his first command roll with a blunder. This left both armour and infantry units sitting watching as the HQ led just a small armour element forward, with a Puma leading the only Tiger into the town.
HQ then succeeded in getting some of the stalled infantry on the move, with a Stug taking point.
German HQ then failed a command roll but made the most of it by taking a well covered position and hoped to rectify a rather poor deployment on the second turn.
The British arrive and push on and on, a recon element reaches the pontoon bridge in good time and helps in surpressing the pair of Tiger IVs apparently parked up behind a distant hedge.
Meanwhile at the main bridge a scout car and a Cromwell decide to slowly cross the bridge towards what they think is a Puma but is actually a Stug. Hoping to knock it out proves only enough to surpress it.
One of the Puma has actually made a mad dash into a forward position, covered from fire but able to surpress anything trying to cross the pontoon bridge.
While the other has mounted the hill to cover the bridge in support of the stug, while Germany infantry dashes into the cover of buildings all over the town. The Brits dither but do manage to get a powerful group at one end of the bridge.
Suddenly all hell breaks lose. One German command makes it to the church tower and is able to target mortar fire onto the attempted crossing of the pontoon, only to attract tons of fire in return destroying it and leaving the German left flank without command. The Brits on the road bridge advance at a crawl but eventually manage to take out the Stug facing them. The advance Puma in the centre enjoys a number of potshots at various enemy targets, while the Tiger moves through the square towards a supporting position with a Panzer IV following it. With crafty maneuvering the Brits manage to bring guns to bear on the advance Puma and knock it out. Having reduced the British advance to a mix of crawl and traffic jam the Tiger is unsure which way to go and so plays it safe in trying to find a defensive position behing the statue in the square.
Massed on the bridge the Brits decide to test the water by pushing forward with recon, only to lose it as soon as it leaves the bridge while German infantry pours surpressing fire onto the bridge itself from the safety of various buildings. The British infantry at the rear decide to brew-up.
The Brits at the pontoon bridge fare better, managing to take out one of the uncommanded Panzer IVs and sweep towards the square where a Panzer IV has re-enforced the Tiger’s position. Every gun fires at the Tiger, the smoke clears and it is only pinned. Plenty of shots are exchanged without loss, while the German HQ makes a dash to bring the offscreen Panzer IV into play. Just as he manages it there’s a massive explosion as the Tiger is eventually destroyed.
The Germans realise their flank has been turned and despite a brave effort it’s not long before they’re totally outgunned and face the danger of being surrounded and start withdrawing. As the smell of fresh tea spreads across the town the British do not pursue them, choosing to search for biscuits instead.
It could be the buzz of a Mosquito, or the hum of an Auster but no the strange noise in the skies above is that of a Slug using technology which isn’t quite in keeping with the period on the table. We set up this evening for an afternoon of playing BKC tomorrow, and I can’t help thinking the tiny swine is pre-plotting mortar fire, interlocking fields of fire and making my half of the table one large killing zone from turn one. Time will out of course, but if anyone has any reenforcements they could force march to my aid overnight it’d be gratefully appreciated.
Having bought a pile of Irregular Miniature trees from Angel Barracks the other day it didn’t take long for me to think of something to use them all up in one go, even if I’m getting short of bases for scenics. So on my last 75mm square base I decided it was time to make an orchard, made incredibly simple by using the metal trees from Irregular which, along with all their trees and bushes, are some of my favourite bought-in scenics.
Next I’ve slopped on the Basetex, which is one of the fastest ways of getting a lot of texture across a large area. Bastex is another product available from Irregular. You can make your own by mixing sand and paint, but I’m far too lazy for that nonsense. At this rate the whole scenic is becoming a gaming equivalent of a three minute omlette and having buggered about with nothing but bases of infantry the other week hurrah for that.
Next it’s onto the hedging, and I’m using up Javis flexible hedging to hedge the entire orchard. Now I’m a big fan of most things Javis as it’s typically good materials and well-priced. However this flexible hedging, along with their flexible walls, is awful from the moment you start to touch it. The flocks falls off at every opportunity so there’s bits everywhere as I cut this about to make it look less regular. I keep the off cuts though as they can make good small patches of even rougher hedging.
Right I’ve painted the textured base brown, given it a wash, stuck the flexible hedging on and flocked it roughly, stuck on the gate, another Irregular gem, and flocked the base itself. I’ve done the last stage as if it’s a regularly trodden orchard, city types probably imagine orchards are visited once a year to pick the fruit, but it’s not so, there’s always plenty of pruning, pollenating, wandering around shooting the rabbits and even visits around Christmas to collect mistletoe if it’s an apple orchard.
Here’s the finished piece, I’ve made a point of making the greens of the grass, the hedges and the trees three distinct tones as this is how the countryside looks to me. Had I used the same tones for all three it would look quite flat and more like a 
Ah the humble model railway tree, once such a joy but now looking rather dated. There was a time when you could take a box of these to a game and they would impress everyone. “Wow, trees!” folk would cry as if they’d rarely gamed with such a thing on the table. Over the years my box of fifty-or-so have seen a fair amount of action but as gaming standards rise beyond all recognition the reaction has dropped off to barely concealed loathing. Okay they’re metal brushes with flock on them, and aside from variations in colour they’re incredibly samey. Sure you can get some with coloured bits on them to make them look a little like fruit trees, but those are a bit questionable and ultimately you’re fooling no one. Compared to the 
So now I’ve started to mangle them to look more like the one above. The first step is to cut chunks off to get a less balanced shape. Then glob some PVA over them and add flock. It’s a simple way to make them look better and doesn’t take too long if you’ve a good pair of clippers.
One thing to bear in mind is when you’re letting them dry you want to change how you store them to avoid having the PVA being misguided by gravity and ending up all at one end. To start I store them top down in a small amount of flock, and after about half an hour turning them and sticking them into a box or similar.
Here’s a selection I made earlier. From left to right, a larger finished one looking much more like a tree, an experimental one with some basetex applied to be flocked later, two after a single flocking, and one with two coats of flock and just waiting to dry. They’ve lost the look of trees cloned from a single seed.
Here’s two rows of trees, the back ones have been hacked but still look samey, the front row have been hacked, flocked and look much more like trees too. It’s a shame the makers of these don’t catch up and just add a little more glue and flock and help us all out. Until then I think this is a handy tip for the perfectionists amongst us, which by my current estimation is about 99% of us.
No I’m not on the wacky baccy, above is the mix of flocks I’m currently using for bushes. The photo doesn’t show the tones well but take my word for it there’s two tones of Javis bush material and one of another make which I can’t recall. I thought I’d take the opportunity to show how I make bushes, either for bases of miniatures, or scenics.
Here’s the base I want to put a bush on. I’ve chopped the bush mix really quite fine and have it nearby, so I’ve added a blob of superglue gel near the fence post on the base. Then I take a very large pinch of bush mix and squeeze it between thumb and finger to really compress it, then press the whole lot down onto the glue, hold it briefly in place and then whisk my digits away to avoid becoming glued to the base.
This produces a reasonable looking bush as you can see. It can be left like this or pushed and prodded around with the point of a pencil. Often this produces a bushier than bush look but you can tell it’s won’t hold for long.
To make it set in position I then add a single drop of liquid superglue, which the material then sucks up and when dry is much tougher. If you do add this second touch and add too much liquid superglue there’s a danger of the bush drying out with a white finish to it. It’s very much a matter of putting on too little rather than too much, and the only way to figure that out is to practice.
Well I’ve finally finished what remained of my armies for this WW2, and about bleeding time too. Every thing after this is a luxury, so I can concentrate on a few scenics and the whole point of this activity tons of games. Hurrah! There’s a bit of work due on the storage front but by all estimations I should have these all stored away in time for… well in time to get them out for a game next weekend so long as tine is willing as we’ve off to the 
The best of the latest are the command bases above, again going for more of a mini-diorama look than a typical base.
This is the British Para Command base, with them taking cover behind a fence.
Likewise for the German Infantry Command, well I had half a fence section left, plus the luxury of a Kettenkrad.
Meanwhile the German Paras have choosen a more rural setting, covering behind a haywagon.
One of the regular bases with a bit of detail is this of a Tommy HMG crew legging it through long grass. As nice as these and the others look, and as happy as I am to have them finally finished I must admit I’ve grown sick of basing infantry over the past week.
Web savvy tabletop gamers are used to regular and wonderful excess, usually it’s pretty predictable such as great paint jobs on miniatures, a stunning scenic or a massed combination of both in a great tabletop layout. However Dutch 6mm gamer Patrick Van Gompel has taken one enormous step beyond this, sure he’s got the well painted figures plus a collection of great scenics and yes they’re all combined into a layout – then he’s turned it into an animation which runs at over eight minutes – a truly stunning effort which can be seen 
Following a comment from fellow blogger 
If you want to add a little more depth to the brown, like you might on a very muddy base, add a dark wash. You might have noticed how I’m using brown before adding the grass, whereas a lot of folk use green. This is a personal preference borne of knowing how after a few years flock can fall off and this way it reveals the mud below, combined with liking quite rough looking bases with a lot of soil showing.
For flock I typically use three different types based on the palette I want to use across an entire project. Given that this project is Europe ’44-’45 I decided to go for a high summer look. Above is a blurred image of my dark green flock, but it still functions to give an idea of the colour, which I mixed from three bags of rather posh flock from EMA. It’s meant to represent the best kept lawns you might find.
Here’s my light mix, a combination of several bags of Javis flock which is typically spongier, mixed with a little of the EMA dark stuff. This is meant to represent sun-bleached grass.
Here’s my mid-range tone everyone’s favourite static grass. It comes as this wide spectrum of colours ready mixed.
Back to the wagon and here’s the first coat of PVA glue sparingly dotted around. Now I’m after a patchy effect, so I add each layer in patches. For thicker or more regular grass you use thicker or more regular coats of glue.
Then as speedily as you can pile on the first layer of flock, here it’s the darkest one. I’ve gently tapped it down, and then tapped off the bulk of the excess. Now at this stage, before the glue dries, if you leave it as shown the glue will spread and when dried most of this flock will stay on the base. It’s totally acceptable as it is, but I want a bit more soil showing.
So I wait less than a minute and then blow off the whole of the excess flock. This is much more what I’m looking for.
Having let the first layer dry completely, I now add the second coat of PVA glue. Again this is patchy, some on bare soil some on the flock already there.
On goes the light mix, follow the same procedure as previously to get the look you’re after.
I decided on a bush, which I added before the static grass, using Javis bush material. Again this is a mix of two tones from seperate bags, chopped roughly together. To attach to the base I use superglue gel, into which I press a large pinch of the Javis hedge mix. When dried you can, should you choose, pluck and form a good looking bush which you can then set with a little liquid superglue gently poured onto the top branches. This, like the PVA glue will produce some shine, all of which will vanish once you matt varnish the base in it’s entirity.After the bush I put a few blobs of PVA around for the final layer, the static grass.
Here’s the near finished base, it just needs a matt varnish, which I’ve not done as I spray my bases en-masse. Obviously using three types of flock triples the time it takes to finish each base but I think the finished look is worth it. It is worth experimenting as you go along, to get the kind of finish you’re after, one thing worth considering is mixing near identical shades of flock, for 6mm scale it produces the kind of detail you need for realism on such a delicate scale.
Most 6mm gamers would agree how GHQ produce a lot of great looking models, typically they’re small bubble packs of five vehicles, however they do produce a series of 
The instructions suggest a number of ways of putting them together, depending on your preference be it for the Horsa in flight, on the ground, or on the ground with the nose opened to get the bigger gear out. The most fragile part to start with is the tail assembly which did need a slight bend to set everything square. To start I decided I’d go for Horsa in flight, as I’d prefer them all singing all dancing.
Lo and behold within minutes there’s your basic Horsa, very simple and to be frank I wish I’d just gone for this level of modelling as it got fiddly and frustrating very quickly.
Thankfully GHQ supply spares for the fiddly bits, some you might need because you get it wrong, others because not all the parts on all the sprues are complete.
Next are the main wheels either side which are quite fiddly too. The small indentation to the right of the skid-plate is where you need to drill your hole if you’re going to mount it on a flight stand. A bit of a must-do as I see it.
Once an in-flight version is completed this is what you’ll have, and the keener eyed might have noticed a problem, it sits arse heavy, mainly because of the skid-plate. Even without it the model will be arse heavy, and although there’s some space inside where you could try counter balancing don’t bother trying like I did with later attempts as I estimate the weight needed to make it sit properly or nose heavy is around the eight gram mark. Of course this won’t be noticed when it’s in flight, and for deployed after landing it’s not a great problem, although I found it frustrating and put the project in a corner for a while as if it were a sulky child.
A quick splash of paint later and it was onto putting the invasion stripes on, just to prevent the Yanks from shooting them up by mistake. I’ve gloss varnished the wings for this to make it easier, and also bought the GHQ invasion stripes decals. I wasn’t too chuffed to realise how despite the decals being the official ones none of them were big enough for the job in hand. Just why the invasion stripes aren’t, like wallpaper, long strips which can be cut to size is beyond me but hey ho…
On goes the first stripes, I’ve put them slightly out of place because I didn’t want to have to deal with the sloping edge of the wing.
When it came to put the second set on another difficulty made itself known, basically the stripes aren’t of equal width either. When I started this project I laughed when a chum suggested painting these on, preferring as I did to use decals, but it was at this stage I wish I’d listened. These decals are manically fiddly to start with, and it doesn’t help to have that multipled, especially when I believe it’s fair to assume using GHQ decals will make it easier.
Here’s the trio finished, the one atop is the one with wheels, etc, the others don’t have them. A lovely little set fit for anyone’s tabletop, and still the sexiest of the Battle Command series. Considering they’re really just a four piece kit GHQ would do well to address the invasion stripe problem, as for me that alone was the longest part of the entire assembly and painting. I’m still scratching my head at how I’ll fit these into the storage box supplied.
One of the most positive effects the web has on the wargaming community is how competitive it makes us all, and just how that increases both the effort we all put in and the quality we strive for. I’m not exempt from this feverish mix of one-upmanship and public display of the Protestant work ethic. For a couple of weeks now I’ve regularly had my gast flabbered over at the 
Obviously it’s good to get so much done in a single sitting, but in such a large number it did become a mite tedious. One great positive is it shows how my idea for using scenics details on command stands does help them really stand out. Above is an infantry command with a haystack on the base, look how well it sticks out from the trayful in the first picture, as well as the other command stands.
The same is true of what will become a sweet little command base of British Para’s tucked behind a fence with a track on the other side. Mixing Adler and GHQ figures seems to be working okay, and it gives a great variety to the stands. As these get completed I’ll be posting photos, but I’m not sure I want to try another Stalin inspired mad production drive, it is quite dull and, as if further explanation were needed, it show why communism was bound to fail.
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