More Normandy buildings - Total Battle

I just managed to finish a couple more buildings for my 15mm Normandy WWII set up.

Again they are both from Total Battle Miniatures.

First up the Cafe:

As with previous buildings from this range they do do need a bit of prep work, removing flash and trimming out excess resin, particularly inside window recesses, with a dremel etching tool. And also filling many bubble holes with greenstuff. But I hope you'll agree the effort is worth worthwhile.

The Cafe also comes with two extra pieces - a seating area and a cobbled street side area.

The other side.

Some commandos stop by for a latte!

The chimney tops have come out quite bright, I think this is a lighting effect as they are painted matt black.

Secondly, a Normandy Church

And like the cafe above, a lot of prep work was needed.

The church is actually in two parts, with the steeple coming off from the tower end of the building.

The commandos, having enjoyed their lattes, head off from the Church after a last blessing before action!

I'd like to add some more of their range to my collection, to increase my building options for my Flames of War games.

FoW - Easter update

I have been lucky enough to have a weeks holiday over the Easter school holidays, and have managed to catch up on a few painting projects and start and finish new ones.

First up:

10.5cm leFH18 Howitzer battery

This is a boxed set from battlefront, comprising 4 guns, and the crews,  with scenic bases, a staff team on scenic base, 2 observer teams, 2 kübelwagens, and a platoon command team.

10.5cm leFH18 Howitzer

Platoon command team

Observer team

Kübelwagen

Staff team

Next up;

Static Rocket Launchers

I grabbed a pack of these on impulse when browsing my FLGS.

They fire a 28cm diameter rocket and use the 'Stuka zu Fuss' or 'Stukas on foot' rules from main rule book, though they only fire four rockets not six as those mounted on the half track launchers.

These were positioned ready to fire on Omaha beach, so will be a valuable asset to my Normandy beach defenders.

Another impulse buy:

Borgward BIV

 Once the Allies get past the beach defenders and push inland, they will come across the counter attacking German forces including Panzer Lehr Division. Panzer Lehr included a Funklenkkompanie, or Radio controlled tank company. In the game this is represented by up 4 StuG G assualt guns each with their attendant Borgward demolition carrier. These things carried 500kg of explosive and were driven up to target by remote control and detonated. Typically used to knock out bunkers, minefields and other strong points.
In the game they can also be used to take out gun teams and bogged or bailed out tanks... which I look forward to trying out against the Allied forces.

Next, a little Recce...

Sd Kfz 231 (8-rad) Armoured car patrol

These 8 wheeled armoured cars were classed as a heavy Panzerspäh Platoon and were used by SS companies as reconnaissance troops, scouting ahead of the main force, upon the enemy, spotting for ambushes and revealing hiding gone to ground enemy troops.

One of the 'more bang for your buck' things I like about the German forces I have collected is that with a few minor tweaks, they can represent a whole array of differing formations, from tough Grenadier beach defenders, Mechanised Infantry, and Panzer Companies including SS options. These 8-rads give me a SS look as used by 12. Hitlerjugend divisions, from Earth & Steel supplement. They were also used by Heer Panzer formations also.

And here, a little real estate:

Total Battle Miniatures - Outbuilding

This is a cast resin 15mm building which fits nicely with my Flames of War forces.

I really like this range of buildings. Being resin casts they do require a bit of work before painting; with trimming the excess resin 'flash', and also hole filling as there can be many small holes in the cast. They could be left in some cases as 'bullet holes', but most need filling, with greenstuff.

8-rad parked up on recce duties

Artillery observer spots from cover of building

 Finally, a little more beach work:

Beach WIP

I got the beach painted up, with a 50/50 mix of PVA glue and yellow oxide craft paint. This was then heavily over brushed with a 50/50 mix of Yellow oxide and white.

Flames of War - terrain - Western Europe

Well I'm back! Father enjoyed his visit with us, and we had an excellent time together. More whiskey was consumed than was probably sensible, but thats what holidays are about!

I did manage to get a little work done while he was here. I can't sit and paint indoors when dads outside enjoying the weather, but I did find it OK to take figures outside to sit and trim in the sun, while chatting and quaffing the odd foaming ale or two... ;-)

Dad also took a weekend break from us in the middle of his holidays to visit an old school friend of his who now lives in Oamaru, in the South Island.

So while he was away, I took the opportunity to improve some of my 15mm scale terrain for my Flames of War gaming. Its all aimed mostly for the Western Europe theatre, so Normandy etc.

Whilst visiting my local store (Macks Track) I found a small set of plastic fence sections that I thought looked about the right scale. I also grabbed some bags of various coloured clump foliage to improve the look of my hedges.

Fences

Hedgerows

Above you can see the fences and hedgerows. They were all based on lolly sticks (AKA ice-block sticks). The gates were made from 0.8mm balsa sheet. The gates posts are two lengths of matchstick glued together.

I also realised after some of games against my local Yank opponent (Brett) that I needed something to slow up his fast charging Americans, so I started off to make some minefields and barbed wire. I know you can buy pre-made, but I knew I could make them cheaper myself!

Plucky commandos face minefield and barbed wire obstacles

Barbed wire

Minefield

Both barbed wire and minefield are on 3mm mdf base. The wire used, was copper wire, stripped from an old piece of electrical flex. Two lengths were twisted together in a drill to make the barbed wire, and this was then coiled round a pencil. The supports for the minefield wire are just chopped up cocktail stick. The barbed wire supports are L-section plastic strut cut to length and glued together. I also messed about putting three pieces of this together for beach obstacles.
All were painted and flocked to suit

I also needed some good looking buildings. I had pondered about making my own, and had made one a while ago as a trial exercise. Though do-able, I did find making buildings at this scale very fiddly. I cast around the web for suitable buildings and some of the best I liked the look of, were from the Total Battles Miniatures range. I grabbed a small house, via Maelstrom Games to see what they were like in the flesh, or resin!

I managed to get it finished today. You can buy them all ready painted to go, but the price goes up dramatically! So I bought unpainted. Out of the box, the resin piece needed a fair bit of work to tidy it up.  The 'flash' was trimmed off with a hobby scalpel, and a dremel rotary tool. After that there were a great many small holes in the cast, that I filled with GW's new liquid Greenstuff, a very nice and useful product! :-)

Heres how it painted up:

Total Battle Miniature's - House

...and from the rear

Commandos skirt the building...

I have ordered more of these buildings from Maelstrom and await their arrival. I've ordered the small outhouse, cafe, and church.

Heres a couple of pics of the hedges and fences in action, alongside my recently 'tarted' up ploughed fields sections. (Note the hedges in these pics still had to have the base flocked with static grass. But you get the effect. I'm rather pleased with it.)

Also note these hedge are meant to be 'regular' hedges, and are not considered Bocage. I'll do some bocage later on...

What was once a quiet corner of Normandy...

...now awakens to the rumble of German armour!

None of this sadly counts for AHWPC but no matter, I have also made progress on my halftracks and command figures, which will follow in another blog post.