Right then,
I've been working on my own WW-1 project for a while now. Plans are to make two full Metropolitan French companies with support weapons and artillery (probably about three batteries) and armor and two full German companies; one Stormtrooper and one second rate company. They will also get support weapons, artillery etc. but only very few tanks. Up to now I've finished three full platoons of French (only two in the pictures) and the first German platoon is almost ready now. Both sides have some light support weapons but this will all expand the coming months. Figures are being painted in wargaming quality; with about 500 needed just in infantry I just don't have the time to superdetail each and every one; so sorry! The Bleu Horizon doesn't really come out in these pics but I'll get some more decent ones made some day...I hope...
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l572/RobBerends/Poilus10.jpg)
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l572/RobBerends/Poilus13.jpg)
I've also made some scenery for them to fight over; some generic pieces of woods, some heavily shelled Woods, some damaged buildings and a bunch of barbed wire markers. There's more to follow but it should give tou an idea.
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l572/RobBerends/Barbed%20wire7.jpg)
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l572/RobBerends/Forrest4.jpg)
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l572/RobBerends/Forrest5.jpg)
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l572/RobBerends/scenery6.jpg)
Hope you enjoy!
Cheers,
Rob
Blooming 'eck, that's some serious work! All rather nicely done too.
Only change I'd make is to tile some of the rooftops. Currently it looks like the builders downed tools.
- Neil.
I do like your troops - they look very good, with a worn campaign look to them. As you say its strange how the blue has really washed out in the photos.
The trees are very evocative - really give the look of the smashed woods you see in photos.
I'm not such a big fan of the houses - they look more building site, than battlefield to me - I'm afraid.
Blimey! There's some good work here!
For '18 the houses would be smears of redish dust...
IanS
For the houses I used the N-scale 'houses under construction' so your remarks are pretty close to reality! ;)
I still have a bunch of second hand lying around that are waiting for 'reconstruction' and I must say that the rooftops are not up to what I wanted them to be either. Still looking at how to improve that, some remaining tiles may do the trick indeed...
My idea was a town that did suffer some shelling during the German spring offensive and is now being recaptured by the allied counteroffensives. Not a town that has been in the frontline for the last four years. So yes; there should be shelldamage but I was looking for rooftops where the tiles were blown off by the shockwaves with woodwork still intact... Maybe some more debris on the grond will make a bit of a difference too but I still need to be able to place some figures around them. The next batch will definitely look different and together with some houses that have escaped major damage I hope to create the overall feel I'm looking for. It's trial and error really...
Thanks for your comments and advice!
Cheers,
Rob
Just noted that I put in the same picture of the forrest twice; so sorry!
Put in another...
Cheers,
Rob
Really terrific, Rob ! :-bd
Fred definitely used the right word.
Evocative!
Cheers - Phil
The trees and the barbed wire are fabulous. Its a period ive always wanted to game but the lack of rules put me off
I don't think it would take much effort to move the houses from 'builders just stopped work for a tea break' to 'shell damaged'.
I'd suggest make the holes in the rafters a bit bigger, and more irregular. Where there are just vertical ones, make these in to fairly big holes. The bits you cut off can either be put on the ones with no roofs, or used as debris.
Then tile some parts of the roof - I don't think I've seen photos of damaged houses with no tiles, but still having rafters. You can probably go with about 50% roofed?
Those are superb! 8)
The other ting to try, maybe on some spare roofing first, is to make the rafters look aged or burnt. It's probably that the wood all looks new that is making it stand out.
Ultimately of course, if you are happy, you can ignore all of us armchair experts!
- Neil.
Great looking chaps and terrain, the barbed wire and tree stumps are very well done. You can't really tell from the pictures but personally, I would leave the joists as they are. just dry-brush the ends black to indicate fire damage. If you've got the patience you could always glue a few pieces of small card tiles across the rafters and joists and then wash the whole lot with dark brown and areas of black to remove some of the starkness.
The building on the far right of the picture is nicely 'damaged'.
Nice work there, the terrain really is top notch. :-bd
Very nice. But I do agree with what others have said about the buildings.
Quote from: Nosher on 17 October 2015, 01:34:15 PM
Its a period ive always wanted to game but the lack of rules put me off
Same here thats why I gave up on my wwi project.
Take care
Andy
:-bd =D> :-bd =D>
As others have said, some tiles on parts of the roofs and a bit of blast/fire damage to the rafters and the buildings will be as good as the rest
Thanks gents,
One of the main problem with the rafters is that they are too 'straight' out of the box... Maybe on the next batch I'll make them myself to give them more of a 'period' look. Another thing that annoyed me from th start is the color; I was looking for an aged, somewhat grey colour but it didn't rally work out; the light used when I made the photograph made it even more 'yellowish' and nothing of the weathering shows any more. Maybe another light and better camera could change that... :-\ I will have a look for some tiles though as soon as I'm back at the modelshop; think that'll do the trick. Cutting more holes in the existing roofs is tricky; the plastic is relatively thick and tough so there is a big change I would damage other parts and I don't want to risk that...
On the picture below you see the buildings from the other side; the roof on the house in the lower right corner looks better I think?
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l572/RobBerends/scenery5.jpg)
The next batch of buildings will also get more late 19th century and/or French/Belgian details. I already did more work on them as I planned originally but I better put in some more effort now and do it really right! ;)
On rules, most rulesets I've seen are more or less made for the larger scales and seem to be made more for skirmishing than anything on a bigger scale. It seems that that is because of the trench warfare most people play. We adapted our own, very detailed, WW2 ruleset added/scrapped certain parts. We made up new tables for weapons and armour. Since we're planning on starting with late war and next maybe early war these rules will probably work quite well. While playing we'll adapt and work out new bits and pieces if things don't feel right and I'm pretty sure we'll end up with a system that will equally work for the open country early or late, as well as the trenches. We're planning a short testplay in november so we'll see. For example; we adapted our 'laying smoke' rules for gas attacks; the deployment of gas will be comparable to that of smoke. What we need to do is adapt the effectiveness of certain gasses to the weathertypes in or tables and the effectiveness of infantry wearing gasmasks while firing and moving.
I'll try to keep you all updated on building, painting and playing!
Keep those comments coming!
Cheers,
Rob
I agree the bottom right looks the best of the houses. The church also looks great.
A few tiles and some shading on the rafters around the holes similar to on the church and they will look great as well
Also make the holes in the rafters a bit more irregular.
IanS
Like it.
A few splashes of black ink on the rafters and perfection? ;)
Agree with the other comments, these look really good. the roof woodwork would be transformed by a wash of shades of dark brown. Wood only looks that colour when it's newly sawn. You could get a very effective burnt look by burning them, basically. Might not be a option if the walls are plastic, but if you can singe them with matches that is the easiest way. Make sure you have some water with a little black and brown paint in it to put out any glowing embers. If you don't want to take that risk, get the same effect with paint - remember the burnt ends of timber will be thinned because the outer layer will burn.
Practise on offcuts first - you don't want to spoil these.
Good job on the figures as well.
Thanks MediumAL,
Problem is they're all painted plastic so holding a fire to them would not give a very realistic look I fear ;) I do take it as a compliment though that I apparently found the exact colours to make them look like fresh wood! :D
Only the two houses without woodwork and the church are supposed to look burned out; the others should only look as if they're damaged by shockwave and shrapnel.
Even so; thanks for the advice; I'll get there...eventually!
Cheers,
Rob
We're just jealous of your brilliant terrain.
Keep up the amazing work.
Sorry - didn't realise the rafters were plastic! Thought they were scratchbuilt from wood. The match idea doesn't sound such a good one. :-[
See from an earlier post you were thinking about more debris but wanted space for the troops. One idea could be to put the debris on small bases which sit in or around the buildings. When you want to put troops on them, remove those bases and put the troops in place, ane then swap them back when the troops move on.
Right then,
First platoon of Germans is done (crappy pics as ever, so sorry...); four Gruppen of nine men each. They're not very well armed and these are supposed to portray a platoon of second rate troops, 'capable od defensive actions only'. I've painted them with plain grey/green helmets for easy recognition in the field. The 'attack' troops and Stosstruppen will get the camouflaged helmets.
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l572/RobBerends/WP_20151026_002.jpg)
Also a new building for the town square. Some minor details need painting but they won't change the overall look. I will also insert a vertical piece of black cardboard to avoid the 'look through' and light falling through the whole building. In all I'm happy but comments are, as Always, welcome!
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l572/RobBerends/WP_20151026_013.jpg)
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l572/RobBerends/WP_20151026_016.jpg)
Cheers,
Rob
Excellent stuff, Rob ! :-bd
Crappy pics ? .....HAH !
You should see the ones I send to Leon. X_X
Cheers - Phil
Where is the build from?
The building is an n-scale Railway building. I buy them second hand for three to five Euro's a piece and then give them the 'special treatment'...
Still have several on the workbench!
Cheers,
Rob
:-bd :-bd m/
I like that building, looks very Low Countries in style. And a good number more troops ready for action too.
That one is very good. Like all the piles of rubble on the pavement.
The first full platoon of Stosstruppen is ready now as well; from left to right a LMG Gruppe, a Schützen Gruppe, a Grenadier Gruppe with platoon commander in front and next another Schützen Gruppe and the second LMG Gruppe. All Gruppen are nine men strong so this platoon is pretty well on strength for 1918. Different support weapons are up next!
Buildings are good enough but I will put some black cardboard 'dividers' inside to block the light from falling through and also to block line of sight.
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l572/RobBerends/DSCN2930.jpg)
Cheers,
Rob
Terrific work, Rob ! :-bd
Cheers - Phil
Really nice. I like the figures and the houses lots. :-bd
A very atmospheric setting. The partially glazed windows are a very nice touch.
Superb work! :)
Quote from: fred. on 04 November 2015, 08:45:34 PM
The partially glazed windows are a very nice touch.
That's actually the easiest part; I buy these houses second hand off the Internet and then break out the glazing with a screwdriver or pocket knife. If I like the looks or it looks like I could tear the whole building apart by applying more force I just leave the remains in...
Lots more houses coming my way already and I must admit I might take all this to a whole new level with the other buildings added later on. Something like Berlin '45 with a few houseblocks might be interesting :-\
Thanks for all the compliments folks!
Rob
Fantastic selection of toys............they look amazing :) :) :)
"Toys"??? :-\
Wow, those are beautiful. Which ruleset will you be using?
:-bd =D> :-bd =D>
Quote from: Leon026 on 05 November 2015, 06:49:18 PM
Wow, those are beautiful. Which ruleset will you be using?
Thank you Leon, we'll be adapting our own WW-2 rules 'Panzerkeil'. They're very detailed so quite a lot of research is going into the WW-1 version with all the different weapons characteristics and tactics and we'll need quite a bit of testing to get all the details and 'feeling' right but the foundations are solid and, at least in the WW-2 settings, up to now give highly realistic results even when we play on battallion or brigade level. Mind you, that is in 1:1 in numbers... and then 20 mm....
Cheers,
Rob
Very nice indeed I use a lot of n scale buildings
Take care
Andy
Right on then,
The support weapons for my Stosstruppen are almost done... when I'm ready with these they'll have a full 12 men Flammenwerfer Gruppe with two KleiF's and the accompanying handgrenade throwers, two HMG's, a Minenwerfer 75, a T-gewehr 18 (AT-rifle), a TaK 37mm (AT-gun) and a shortened Russian 76mm Inf. gun for the Nahkampf Batterie. Guess that should give them a fair chance against the first French T-17 platoon (5 tanks) that's also underway. Hopefully all will be done on thursday around noon so I can take 'em along to some friends for a quick 1918 try out!
Pictures will follow a.s.a.p.!
Cheers,
Rob
I really need to take some more pictures of the stuff I did recently but at least these pic's turned out half decent...
Some more scenery done for the 1918 bombed woodland complete with some German and French casualties, some dead horses, abandoned guns etc.
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l572/RobBerends/DSCN3241.jpg)
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l572/RobBerends/DSCN3239.jpg)
Cheers,
Rob
What a great project, love the figures and the terrain, wire entanglements look really good :-bd
All the best
Sean
:-bd =D>
Excellent stuff!
Those look great, Rob.
Cheers - Phil
Some quick pictures of the French Renault FT17 tank platoon (why doesn't Pendraken do a MG version; only two different 37mm cannon version turrets?) and the support weapons for the Stosstruppen.
On the picture are 2x HMG's, a Mauser AT-rifle, a 7,5cm Granatwerfer with ammo section; a 37mm AT-gun, a Russian 76mm ISG with shortened barrel and a full Flammenwerfer Gruppe, complete with the attached grenade throwers.
(somehow the figures keep coming out 'shiny' on the pictures; so sorry for that!)
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l572/RobBerends/DSCN3245.jpg)
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l572/RobBerends/DSCN3255.jpg)
(http://i1124.photobucket.com/albums/l572/RobBerends/DSCN3253.jpg)
Cheers,
Rob
:-bd =D> :-bd =D>
Brilliant work!
Excellent stuff, Rob ! :-bd
Cheers - Phil
:-bd :-bd
Amazing stuff! Your shelled woods are brilliant!