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Author Topic: Trench Loot in 28mm  (Read 8792 times)

Offline Sidney Roundwood

  • Assistant
  • Posts: 46
    • Roundwood's World
Trench Loot in 28mm
« on: March 19, 2012, 10:30:50 AM »
I’ve been working on a few additions to my Great War stuff in the last few weeks. One of the things I was keen to try was a couple of trench raids in which the attackers could try and collect “objectives” in addition to completing their mission determined under the TooFatLardies’ Winter Sports supplement for “Through the Mud and the Blood”.



These objectives would primarily be items of military importance, but as it would dark and soldiers being soldiers, there’d be a good chance of some loot being included in the night’s haul. I doubt there were many troops who’d be able to turn their eye away from an interesting souvenir. Here’s what a young George Coppard was doing in 1917:

“I decided to jettison my souvenirs weighing nearly twenty pounds which I had been lugging around in my pack. German fuse tops, funny shaped bits of shrapnel and a rusty saw-edge bayonet were among the collection of old iron. Why I had been torturing myself with agonizing load I don’t know, just a boyish habit of collecting something out of the ordinary, I suppose.” “Boy Soldiers of the Great War”, Richard van Emden, (p95).

So, with that inspiration, here’s six objectives from a British trench which I came up with for my German trench raiders. Some are militarily valuable, some useful, others ... well, you decide



So we have – a pair of British trench maps, with the German trenches shown in detail in red and the British forward positions simply delineated in a single blue line.  (Maps showing both sets of trenches in detail were not permitted to be taken into the front line for security reasons)



A very smart Burberry trench coat and scarf. No military value, but it’ll be a hit with the Belgian ladies in Bruges ...



A couple of wicker baskets of carrier pigeons – clearly valuable military loot



A field telephone – again, something which GHQ won’t be happy has been lifted by the Hun



A collection of Captain Urquhart’s fine Scottish Malts imported from Jenners of Edinburgh. Military value? Of course!!!



A kettle. Well, I guess the German kettles have been turned into an U-boote ...



So the idea was really to add a bit of colour in the tabletop trenches producing some physical items rather than just card counters for German trench raiders to target in the British dugouts. All of these were basically made out of scrap cardboard, wire, tin-foil bottle tops, green-stuff and grey-stuff and some items from the bits-box and it was a lot of fun making them.



The only really tricky thing to make was the pigeon. I won’t tell you how many attempts there were before I settled on the final one



I also finished off a British version of the “Communications Down” figure I’d made for the Germans a while ago. I wanted to add a card into the card deck of “Through the Mud and the Blood” for British communications breakdown, and wanted to field a figure on the tabletop to show this visually. So, here he is, converted from one of the wonderful generic casualty figures from Steve (Silent Invader).





And here’s the German version from 2010 completing the pair!



Offline Sangennaru

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 5779
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    • The Lazy Forger
Re: Trench Loot in 28mm
« Reply #1 on: March 19, 2012, 10:45:51 AM »
WOW!

Simply wonderful!
Brilliant ideas, simple realization, effective painting. very very beautifull!

Makes me jump into WWI resin sculpting! But i must resist, too many projects right now!

Offline Lowtardog

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 8262
Re: Trench Loot in 28mm
« Reply #2 on: March 19, 2012, 10:51:30 AM »
Fantastic, I can even see you ahve made a speckled Jim :-*

Offline 6milPhil

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 4789
    • Slug Industries
Re: Trench Loot in 28mm
« Reply #3 on: March 19, 2012, 10:55:32 AM »
Very sweet pieces there, the Brits losing either the kettle or the malts would be a dreadful knock to morale. Those generic casualties are great, I had a few off him too.

Offline Driscoles

  • The Dude
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  • Posts: 4326
Re: Trench Loot in 28mm
« Reply #4 on: March 19, 2012, 11:06:47 AM »
This is a wonderful idea. Thanks for sharing and thanks for the "how it is done" too.
Björn
, ,

Offline Steve F

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 3137
  • Pedantic bugger, apparently.
Re: Trench Loot in 28mm
« Reply #5 on: March 19, 2012, 11:27:01 AM »
Tremendous.

General Melchett will launch a major offensive to get his pigeon back.

Offline Kingscarbine

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 786
  • Bayonets... Level!
    • Kingscarbine Miniatures
Re: Trench Loot in 28mm
« Reply #6 on: March 19, 2012, 11:36:30 AM »
Fantastic! Your work is a reference for my future projects.

Offline Andym

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  • Galactic Brain
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Re: Trench Loot in 28mm
« Reply #7 on: March 19, 2012, 01:55:54 PM »
I would just like to add a harmony to the chorus of 'brilliant'. Fantastic ideas and execution!

Offline andekmcc

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 268
Re: Trench Loot in 28mm
« Reply #8 on: March 19, 2012, 03:18:13 PM »
top notch stuff!!

Offline Smillie

  • Librarian
  • Posts: 157
    • dirtypaintpots
Re: Trench Loot in 28mm
« Reply #9 on: March 19, 2012, 03:49:12 PM »
Outstanding work they look really good  :-* what soldier couldn't resist pinching that scarf!
http://dirtypaintpots.blogspot.com  - The now defunct Blog

Offline smirnoff

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 974
Re: Trench Loot in 28mm
« Reply #10 on: March 19, 2012, 05:34:11 PM »
Great ideas and wonderfully executed.
I love the blanket.
Where did you get the bottles from?

Offline Captain Blood

  • Global Moderator
  • Elder God
  • Posts: 19311
Re: Trench Loot in 28mm
« Reply #11 on: March 19, 2012, 05:38:47 PM »
Brilliant attention to detail and great execution... Well done, Sir Sidney.  Mention in dispatches.

Offline Sidney Roundwood

  • Assistant
  • Posts: 46
    • Roundwood's World
Re: Trench Loot in 28mm
« Reply #12 on: March 19, 2012, 06:58:35 PM »
Thank you all for the kind comments.  I loved the comment from 6milPhil that the loss of the kettle and the malt whiskies would be a "dreadful knock to morale" - quite so!

The bottles came from Scotia Grendel and are available in two sets.  I think I used bottles "A" :

http://www.scotiagrendel.com/Products/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_43&products_id=256 

Suggestions for a matching set of loot to be taken from the German trenches would be very welcome!  I'll try and produce an attractive pickelhaube, but I'm sure you can think of some others …  :D

Offline Ray Earle

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 2406
Re: Trench Loot in 28mm
« Reply #13 on: March 19, 2012, 09:50:26 PM »
Great work. I really like the small details.  :D

For the Germans, maybe a selection of sausages?  ;)
Ray.

"They say I killed six or seven men for snoring. It ain't true. I only killed one man for snoring."


Offline Johnnytodd

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 627
Re: Trench Loot in 28mm
« Reply #14 on: March 19, 2012, 10:12:58 PM »
Favorite souvenirs taken from germans were: Pickelhaubs, pipes, Lugers and especially german folding fork/spoon utensils (a handy gadget favored by the allies).  The germans pilfered Bully Beef, real cigarettes and good boots.

Great minis!  Love the detail.
« Last Edit: March 19, 2012, 11:36:09 PM by JOHNNYTODD »

 

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