Great War terrain in 6mm

I’m a dyed in the wool lead miniatures guy. 3-D and plastics just don’t feel right to me but each to their own. So, when I’m not scratch building, my default range of scenics for 6mm and 2mm is Irregular Miniatures. 

I’ve had a bunch of their shelled buildings awaiting attention for some time. I’m itching to get into some Great War gaming so time to upgrade the terrain. Here’s a few work in progress shots of a couple of shelled villages. 

After mounting a number of pieces from the 6mm scenics range on MDF, I based with ground up cork (for additional fallen masonry surrounding the buildings), gravel, find sand then grout. These were sprayed black then the masonry painted with Vallejo French Mirage Blue followed by Army Painter Runic Grey Speed Paint. I picked out some additional features in various colours (more to do on this). Following this was a drybrush with Army Painter Drakes Tooth then finally a Nuln Oil wash.

The Poilus are Irregular Miniatures 1914 French Infantry (GWF01-06). 

Still a WIP as I’ll do more dry brushing and details then flock when all the washes are dry.

Green, Blue and white stuff - adventures in casting

I’ve been fascinated by casting ever since I was taught to pour plaster into animal tracks as a Cub Scout. In later years watching experiments in archaeometallurgy fired my imagination and is something I hope to experience first hand one day.

More recently I had an opportunity of a lifetime to be taught a little of the art of miniature casting by a friend in the business. In this case I was casting with  pewter using a centrifugal air pressure spin casting machine. 

Alas, metal casting at home is a bit beyond my capabilities at present so I have to be satisfied by simpler techniques. Enter stage left, Blue Stuff by Green Stuff World! This magnificent thermo plastic allows simple one- and two-piece moulds to be made just by heating the plastic in hot water. These moulds are often used with epoxy putty - such as Green Stuff or Milliput. 

When casting with Blue Stuff I favour having the mould supported with a small box to reduce warping during the casting process. It also allows for a nice flat finish to the back of the piece when using one-piece moulds.

The Blue Stuff mould was pressed into the supporting box made of coffee stirrers and MDF before the impression was made. While the master was in the Blue Stuff, I flattened the upper surface by inverting it and pressing it down onto baking parchment on a work surface. You have to have to experiment a bit to get the exact amount of Blue Stuff required but this really improves the end result. 

While I’m happy with the mould, I’ve had varied success with Green Stuff putty and Milliput in these moulds. The success of the final casting depends on carefully pressing the material into the mould to pick up all the surface detail. Incomplete edges and corners are common.

In a rare trip into the city today (over two years now happily working from home!) I stumbled across Green Stuff World Acrylic Resin (350g) in Mind Games’ CBD Melbourne store which claims to offer a non toxic ‘ceramic’ when mixed 3:1 resin powder and water. Setting in under an hour and mixing to a pourable consistency, I felt it presented a solution to the problems I was having with epoxy putty (and a significantly faster drying time).

Careful measuring always pays off. I will get small plastic ‘shot glasses’ for mixing in the future.

28mm windows poured with acrylic resin with Green Stuff and Milliput examples beside the mould

Green Stuff and Milliput bell tent castings showing loss of detail and incomplete casting. This Blue Stuff mould was also formed using tye surrounding box - it is just pictured here removed from it.

It’s early days but the first set of castings (windows for 28mm buildings and 6mm Bell Tents) suggest the acrylic resin to be a viable alternative. The edges of the window broke off in the mould possibly due to my handling and the need to allow further curing time. But the crisp detail is definitely encouraging. Is it too brittle for fine work? Time will tell!

Green Stuff Acrylic Resin castings demoulded after less than one hour!

I’ll keep experimenting and will certainly branch out into using proper silicone moulds and resin in the future, but Blue Stuff and acrylic resin are very useful tools to add to my modelling arsenal!

Wolseley versus Arabi Pasha, 1882: HotE in 6mm

Exploring how I might use the Wargames Research Group fantasy rules, Hoards of the Things, has been on my to-do list for years, nay, decades! There is an active Facebook group and WRG released a second edition in 2002. There is talk of 2.1 being out there but I have yet to track a set down. 

While the fantasy setting has some interest to me as an another option for gaming in the style of Osprey’s Of Gods and Mortals, the adaptations of HOTT:

1. Hordes of the Empire (HotE): the Victorian colonial Mr wars adaptation of HOTT by Paul Potter, Blake Radetzky and Terry Webb.

HotE and related resources can be obtained through the DBA & HOTT Wargaming Facebook group. If I find a reliable web link I will update this post.

2. Hoards in the Trenches: the Great War version by Matt Kirkhart.

There are some (somewhat questionable) downloadable versions of HitT for those Google savvy types among you, the only link I feel comfortable advertising is the v.5 http://ianjgow.blogspot.com/p/hordes-in-trenches.html?m=1

To that end, my first project for HotE will be the Anglo-Egyptian war of 1882. I came separately, rather surprisingly, to the same view as Featherstone that Lieutenant-General Wolseley’s 1882 expedition to overthrow the dictator Said Ahmed Arabi foreshadows the British expedition to the Falkland Islands to eject the Argentinian junta one hundred years later (Featherstone, Tel El Kabir 1882, Osprey Campaign 27). 

Both campaigns lasted four and a half weeks and, due to logistical constraints, required the British to deploy their crack regular regiments not normally used for these purposes. While in wargaming terms the engagements are a little unbalanced, the variety of units on both sides make for a fun miniatures project - household cavalry, armoured trains, the Naval Brigade, Egyptian veterans redrafted into service, Sudanese conscripts, Bedouins, Krupp ordinance! 

There are no doubt some great new lines in 6mm Colonial  miniatures out there - more-so with the growth of 3-D printed options - but I am an avowed metal figure gamer and rusted-on (or the non-ferrous equivalent) user of Irregular Miniatures. https://www.irregularminiatures.co.uk/6mmRanges/6mmColonial.htm

In typical fashion, I rushed into the first set of elements, probably sacrificed the paint job a bit and went with what I had for basing - I may add some detail later - but here they are (With HotE/HOTT descriptors):

Egyptian/ Sudanese lancers would be classified as ‘Riders’ in the HotE Egyptian 1882 army list.

A Bashi ‘Hoard’ (back left), two Sudanese ‘shooters’ (centre) and Bashi-Bazook ‘riders’ (right).

Egyptian infantry in foreground (Shooters) 

3 bases of Krupp artillery (foreground) and the ‘General’ in the centre. The army list only calls for 1 artillery base but given there were 75 Egyptian guns at Tel El-Kabir, I upped the numbers!

Another shot of the ordinance - I’m a gunner at heart!

Another shot of the irregular infantry 

‘Lurkers’ Bashi-Bazook skirmishers 

The Egyptian army of the Arabi Pasha mustered

Split rail fences for 2mm ACW

Felling the timber, splitting it into rails and stacking it along your farm boundaries must have been a punishing task in the 19th century.

Punishing, in a very different way, is an apt description for scratch building split rail (snake) fencing for my 1:800 (eg. 2mm) ACW terrain!

I have to admit these little guys spent more time stuck to my fingers than to their bases. Nevertheless, the struggle yielded the equivalent of 14 chains (chain = 22 yards) of fencing for Wilmer McLean’s farm.

The method, while fiddly, is fairly strait forward.

I cut a series of 50mm x 1mm strips (sorry, back to metric for this) of 0.5mm Evergreen Styrene sheet which was scored every 5mm on opposite sides.

I then bent each scored point to form a zigzag long enough for my bases. This was attached to the base (via being glued to various fingertips) using Superglue. Then 5mm lengths were scored in the centre and bent into a right angle piece using tweezers. These were glued to the outward facing points of the fence to represent the crossed over rails.

The roughed up 45mm x 10mm base of styrene was coated carefully with fine sand (using PVA) and then undercoated with Vallejo grey primer (73.601). I washed the dry undercoat with Liquitex raw umber acrylic ink. Then, I painted the fence rails dark brown. These were dry-brushed with Army Painter Drake Tooth. My flower meadow mix of flocking was glued in place then a light coat of Vallejo Mecha Dark Rust wash (a staple in my paint collection) was applied on the rails. Done!

These simple 2mm terrain pieces add, I feel, some period flair to ACW battlefields at this scale. Maybe cornfields and a peach orchard next!