Bocage Photo Dump

[Derek H]

An album of the more interesting (at least to me) pictures of bocage hedges I've taken in Normandy over the years can be found at https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/116351605796897365226/albums/5925377185601049329

Compare and contrast the pictures of the real thing with the rock strewn banks you find on many wargames tables.



The real thing - there's a rather large earthen bank hiding under all that vegetation.  



Wargames terrain.   Forget the vegetation, what we get is a big pile of rocks with a hedge on top that looks nothing like the real thing.  

More of my thoughts at http://dereksweetoys.com/?page_id=1597 and linked pages.

[redzed]

...and the terrain in some parts of South West England is very similar indeed.

some of those pictures on Google could of been taken in Dorset

[Cubs]

Yeah, the pictures of bocage in Normandy always take me back to Cornish holidays. The depth of the lanes between rampart-like hedgerows really does bring it home how it tough it must've been to try to operate in that sort of terrain.

[Kane]

Thank you, Derek. This is a huge help.

[redzed]

Now we just need some clever chap to a do an in depth article on how to make it for 28mm.

[Kane]

Now we just need some clever chap to a do an in depth article on how to make it for 28mm.

I have some. I just don't have my camera at home at the moment and I'm currently more busy with painting my mini's. But when I do some pieces, I'll see to make a how-to, if you want. It's really quite easy though.

[grant]

Thanks for the pics!

[Iron Ivan Keith]

Actually, it's not that difficult to make them in 28mm.

I made this how-to almost 5 years ago for my blog:

http://thisveryblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/hedgerows-simple-fast-and-nearly.html

Since this was a long time ago, I would do things a little differently now, and I have for my newer bocage sections that I have made since then. Much of what I would change I learned from Derek on TMP on this very topic and from some of these very pics.

Basically, if I were making these today, I would cover the whole bocage piece with sand and not add any rocks at all. Then I would cover almost all of it from the bottom up to the hedge and trees on top with static grass, small clumps of bushes, and grass tufts (maybe flowers and other vegetation as well). The trees I added by drilling a hole in the top of the hedge and adding a pin to the tree to slot in (I keep mine removable-you don't have to). You could leave a few open spaces of the dirt showing underneath, just don't use rocks! Some of the ones I made originally had rocks showing, but I know better now

I easily made over 50' of these in 12" and 24" pieces as well as a few T pieces. I still need more! The balsa and basswood is so easy to work with you can add pieces with fences and gates, broken through sections for where a tank broke through, pieces with foxholes etc. etc.

Overall, the basic process in the how to could be used to make hedgerows that look just like the pics. It's all about using the balsa piece (or wooden half round trim) to get the right shape. There are several sizes of the balsa shape you can get for model aircraft and they are literally the perfect shape for bocage (they are exactly the same shape from the side as the bocage cutaway drawing here: http://www.lonesentry.com/normandy_lessons/combat_lessons_normandy_image1x.gif ). The same image is on Derek's blog as well. They come in 24" lengths and are anywhere from 1" to 2" tall.

When done, these suckers are indestructible. Between the wood glue and sand or fine gravel covering the thing, to the super glue holding the vegetation on, they are super tough. I toss mine in a bin and they travel to the game club almost every week and none of the clumps have come off in close to five years use.

Here's a pic of the bocage on the table with trees, roads, and other scenic bits. I still think I need to go taller with more bushes. Still, they make decent enough pieces for hedges outside bocage country such as in the rest of Europe

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GWrTEfWrATo/TfV3NzeA7WI/AAAAAAAAAcU/N3micYU6MKU/s1600/Normandy%2BCurve.jpg

[Derek H]

To do sunken roads properly you really need to cut them into the terrain.  And there are a lot of sunken roads in Normandy.  Variable amounts of sunken, anything from 2 to 12 feet plus.

For example, the fields on either side of this road are just below the level of the top of the banks. 
 


Same here



Modelling that sort of thing in a way that's flexible enough to use for multiple layouts on a wargames table is problematic, though you could do it for a display game, and bocage hedges like Iron Ivan Keith's are good to go as far as I'm concerned. 

As he says it would even better without the (already minimal) rocks.   

[Derek H]

The other problem is the sheer number of large trees that are in some of the "hedges". 

Absolute realism would come expensively. 

[NTM]

I have had the link to that page of Keith's blog saved for over a year for when/if I ever get round to making some Bocage

[6milPhil]

Thoughful thread - thanks.