6mm bocage using air dry clay

[Kealios]

I built some bocage for 6mm using air dry clay. I detailed my experience on my blog:



Part 1:
http://kealios.blogspot.com/2015/04/building-6mm-bocage-hedgerows-with.html

Part 2:
http://kealios.blogspot.com/2015/05/building-6mm-bocage-hedgerows-with.html

[Argonor]

One question:

I have seen bocage in several scales depicted like this, with the 'earthworks' forming the base - but I have not been able to find any real life photos showing this feature - instead pictures show what we here in Denmark call 'living fences' -  tight rows of trees/bushes in various heights, but growing at level with the surrounding terrain.

Could you (or someone else) please point me to sources showing the kind of bocage that seems to be the gamers' convention for this sort of landscape?

[Kealios]

I am not a historical hobbyist, and so mine were done in the interest of artistic license.

That being said, you are right in that, during my research, I saw many versions of this in the gaming community. The best item I came up with was http://www.cmhweb.org/Files/Terrain/Building_Bocage_Hedgerow_in_25mm.pdf which seems to support it slightly.

[Argonor]

It wasn't meant to be a criticism, I'm just curious - mainly because there seems to be a wide discrepancy between what is shown in photos, and what we most often see on the table.

Again, the b/w picture shows soldiers along a hedge sitting on, what, 1' of slightly raised soil? whereas the coloured picture shows high sides (but could easily just be a hollow path/road).

I am not going to visit Normandy until next year at the very earliest, so it bugs me that I cannot find better photo material. 

[Kealios]

I actually agree with you - so no big deal there

Most of the bocage (I'm ASSUMING it was bocage...) shown in Fury was just heavy bushes to the sides of the roads, but that was likely because they were well past Normandy in their locale...

[Argonor]

We have a lot of 'bocage'-like hedges/living fences hereabouts (Denmark), and also a lot of dry stone dykes - and some of those also collapsed over time and got overgrown by all kinds of bushes/trees, so I am wondering if I could model something to be used both for Normandy and Denmark (not much warfare going on in Denmark since mid 19th century, but resistance scenarios set during the German occupation 1940-45 could be quite fun to play out).

[dijit]

From what I've been able to gather, bocage is a steep sided earth bank, with hedging on the top.

[MartinR]

Those sorts of earth banked hedges are quite common in the UK too, they are often coupled with sunken roads. I've been along some in the west country (Dorest/Devon/Cornwall) where the banks are 10' high.

Depends how many hundreds of years they've been there. irl the earth is usually covered in vegetation, although it depends on the steepness and nature of the bank.

Cheers
Martin

[Argonor]

According to 'Petit Larousse' the meaning of the word is a rural area where the fields are bordered by earthen dikes OR rows of trees, so both seems to be usable for this kind of terrain.

Nice to see some actual photos depicting the dikes, btw.

[Vermis]

Sort of reminds me of the lane up to me granda's old farm. Nostalgia! Nice work Kealios.

[Derek H]

The reason you don't see the earthen banks in many bocage pictures is because they are usually covered in vegetation.  

The banks are only really clearly seen alongside roads where they are trimmed regularly.    Here for example.



There's a bank over a metre high at the base of this hedge as well - but you just can't see it because of all the vegetation.



Same here


What you will never see are the rocky banks beloved of many wargamers.  

More pictures of bocage hedges in my album at  https://goo.gl/photos/p1UrTXGgtVH8W7Ff8

[Atheling]

Interesting stuff Derek and just in time as (when I've moved!) this is another project of mine in 28mm. got some good ideas and these pics just add to that 

Darrell.