First World War terrain boards SECTION 3 (TRENCH) updated 11th October

[thejammedgatling]

Had a bit of a bash over the weekend while some of you were gallivanting off to Salute...

I'm just doing the first trench terrain tile to test how some of the techniques work. First step is getting the trench side supports made, followed by getting the 'spoil' piles on top done.



getting the levels right for the loopholes for the men on the firestep is tricky..


the shuttering on the sides is a mixture of matchsticks, corrugated card and balsa


the latrines..


bunker in progress. I'll give this a concrete style roof. Note the gunslit sighted down the sap to prevent enemy troops from filtering quickly down..

[Sangennaru]

yay! that trenche is perfect for the Pink Unicorn and his army of Marshmellows! XD


wanna see it painted, now!

[thejammedgatling]

yay! that trenche is perfect for the Pink Unicorn and his army of Marshmellows! XD


wanna see it painted, now!

well, I do like to get maximum playability from terrain pieces..

quite a lot of building work to still do before even thinking of paint..trenchboards, bunkbeds, gunslits, distress rockets, telephone cable and maybe even a toilet roll holder..

[Captain Blood]

Looking good.

They're quite fun to build aren't they? 

[thejammedgatling]

Looking good.

They're quite fun to build aren't they? 

Cheers.

Yes, they're quite 'organic'..you can sort of make them up a bit as you go. What I especially like about them is the feeling that as you are reinforcing a wall or putting in shrapnel proofing you are starting to think from the viewpoint of the men who would have had to live in these for days and weeks. I don't think it's possible to build a much more 'lived in' type of terrain board than the trenches. What I'm trying to get the feel of is something that an engineer has designed on paper but which has begun to break down in the wear and tear of shelling and weather plus the trudge of thousands of boots. So I find myself half building something and tearing parts of it down as it looks too neat.

[Rabbitz]

Looking fantastic as ever mate

[Cadet13]

 

That's awesome!

[janner]

Outstanding - I will certainly keep this thread in mind if I ever get around to giving my WW1 troops some decent terrain to fight over.

[jamesmanto]

I'll bet you aren't having too many off cuts going to waste! Just add any bits to the piles of rubble and rubbish.

[Traveler Man]

Shaping up very nicely! 

[thejammedgatling]

I'll bet you aren't having too many off cuts going to waste! Just add any bits to the piles of rubble and rubbish.

You'd be surprised James at how much polystyrene ended up in the bin last week..and the worst bit is that my kids track it in the house. Half my work time is cleaning and hoovering..but happy wife happy life and all that.

Anyway...getting bored with matchsticks and corrugated paper..I wanted to try to do some wicker trench revetments like these:



Now I tried to overcome my hatred of getting 'goop' on my camera by doing some basic step by steps. I'm pretty sure this sort of technique has been posted here before but can't remember.

Step 1 is to drill holes about 1 - 1.5cm apart in roughly a straight line. I never measure as I think the final product can look a bit too perfect.



The holes should be the same diameter or just slightly bigger than the heavy gauge wire you use. The two end holes I used wooded barbeque sticks as they don't bend and you can put a bit of force into them to keep the whole thing tight.

Next, get your light gauge wire (I used 0.9mm) and twist off a few times at one end then start threading through the verticals. Do not cut the wire when you reach the wooden ends, just wrap it around tightly. If it seems to be starting to 'lift', poke it down and give it a few turns before starting the next run.



I think I did about 15-20 runs to get my effect.



I did a rough pre-measure on mine so I knew where they were going to go. The beauty of the system is that the whole unit bends to fit the trench shape. Before you pull the whole unit out of the holes in the base board, just turn the thing on its side and give the tops and bottom wires a going over with some superglue. This will stop it slipping off in movement.

Your piece may or may not slide out of the holes easily. On my first attempt half of them had got superglued in (I hadn't turned it on the side). Cut them out if needs be...you can always turn the whole unit over. I left about 1cm of the support wires showing to allow me to push them into the polystyrene for extra support. I used my old faithful ultragrip plasterboard timber stud adhesive to bond them. Looks like mud when you apply it and dries rock hard.Some of it will; squeeze through the wicker..just like the real stuff.





I remember seeing lots of willows while driving around the Somme Valley so the troops probably had a fairly plentiful supply of this sort of stuff along with timbers stripped from the hundreds of shelled villages.

Cheers!

[OSHIROmodels]

This is coming along nicely 

What's that ultra-grip like to paint?

cheers

James

[thejammedgatling]

This is coming along nicely 

What's that ultra-grip like to paint?

cheers

James

Cheers James

It's acrylic based and is quite elastic. I normally give the whole thing a few coats of PVA in any case before my base coats. Never had any problems or any lifting of paint. It's pretty cheap stuff as well...this brand cost me about 12 pounds (equivalent) here in Australia. Compare that to buying a similar product for a tube gun dispenser and it makes sense. It is also incredibly strong (bearing in mind it is meant to hold up plasterboard ceilings).

This is my second tub so far on the project!

One further use for it is dabbing a little on the exposed cut ends of the wire...they are bloody sharp and I cut myself twice today!

[thejammedgatling]

Well..another hiatus on the boards, but quite a lot of progress over the winter months (I am in Australia). Also managed to sneak in a visit to the Somme for July 1st (while in the UK) to see the battle-fields again, take more pictures of buildings I might like to build, see some very old friends and drink far too much French beer. 

But onwards..

I had originally the 4 core trench section boards which incorporated the two front line fire trench sections and the two support trench sections, one of which contained the field dressing station and the other the artillery. The linking trenches were mostly on centre, giving me some options but not enough, so I made two more sections. One, a 90 degree bend  and the other another section of fire trench but very badly knocked around by artillery. The sort of thing the German guns would have done to the British front line during their March 1918 offensive (which is what we plan to play).


So here's a section just showing the base coat. Again I used the light chocolate colour which is my mid tone. I did not go darker as these will be chalk cutting trenches. I plan to use ink washes to darken areas in the trenches at a later point to add more depth.

Then, the first heavy drybrush with a caramel colour, paying special atention to the trench lips where chalk has been thrown up:


And the same effect on the heavily shelled section:
[img http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm278/thejammedgatling/IMG_3025b.jpg[/img]http://Once that was done, time to apply a bit of weathering/ rust to my acres of corrugated iron shuttering, with special focus nearer the bottom of the trench where water was bound to pool:


More pics soon and hopefully manage to clear enough space to actually get all the boards together!

[Sidney Roundwood]

These look really fantastic.  They'll be a real delight to play on.  I particularly like the dug-outs/ shelters you can see in your photos.  Really looking forward to seeing the progress.