Sad News!

Unfortunately at 9.00am on Tuesday 13th November 2012 my dear sister Kate  lost her three year fight with cancer and passed away peacefully at the Sue Ryder Hospice at Leckhampton Court, Cheltenham.

I have loads to post and as soon as things have calmed down I will get to it.

On The Workbench 1

I have made a start on building the rocky outcrop around the Coastal Gun Emplacement. So far so good. I am continuing with the theme of having the abandoned look on all the WWII fortifications. Got to let the plaster dry before anymore updates.

The back section is built up

I have just had a idea, in my research for Crisis Point 2 I have come across many photos taken from viewpoints, especially the photos that appear on Google Earth. With this in mind I thought I would model this as a viewpoint to take lovely photos of the sun setting over Bodo (as the Soviets land yet another MRD on at Bodo airport! lol). So eventually it will have a road round the bottom, a car park and a viewpoint on top. Maybe the old emplacement could be a radio station?

Rear view

More updates soon!

Coastal Gun Emplacement

Picked this up on ebay. I thought it might look good on the Bodo table for next years Crisis Point game. One problem is the flat back to the model so I am going to base it and then build the back up to represent a rocky outcrop.

Coastal Gun Emplacement 

View showing the flat back which needs building up

Ahoy Shipmates

Just won this 1/300th scale Bremen Class Frigate on ebay. They were built between 1982 and 1990 so fit perfectly with the 1985 setting for Crisis Point 2013.

 

Look forward to getting started on this.

In the Bunker Again!

Been a bit busy recently but managed to get some terrain bits finished for Crisis Point 2013. Finished a few more bunkers plus a few scratch built ammo stores and underground shelters to represent abandoned WWII bunkers found throughout Norway.

Two abandoned WWII bunkers to be used as strongpoints in Crisis Point 2013

Two more bunkers

A couple of scratchbuilt abandoned gun emplacements

Scratchbuilt underground ammo bunker

Scratchbuilt underground storage bunker

Storage shelter

Two first aid tents, found these on the internet available for download. If anyone wants a copy let me know

Fields boundaries, there doesn't seem to be many hedges in Norway!

Some more field boundaries, lots more to do!

A couple of T55's advance across a couple of fields.

Bunkered!

Just a quick update. Picked these up for £4.00 from Chris Steadman on the SMP Forum. There were 8 in total. I think they were originally designed for Sci-Fi games but with Crisis Point 2013 in mind I thought they would look good as abandoned WWII bunkers that can be found all over Scandinavia.

So I decided to work on one first.

The original model before its rework.

The model once it has been based and some ground scatter, flock and vegetation to give the slightly overgrown look

A rear view of the bunker.

There are 7 more in production plus some scratchbuilt ammo bunkers and aa gun emplacements to add to the Norwegian countryside. More soon..... 

By Air and Sea

Many years ago I owned a copy of these but over the years they got mislaid. Much to my delight a copy of both appeared on Ebay and I was lucky enough to win them. Some great OOB info especially in the By Air and Sea book.

Hide and Seek

While looking on the excellent forum known as the Guild for any updates I stumbled across the previous Big Game reports from 2010 and 2011. Although in 20mm they provide a great deal of inspiration for 6mm games both in unit ideas and terrain ideas. Among the excellent AAR and photos there were some VDV with a link to Andy Rix's Cold War Gamer blog and after a few minutes admiring his work I came across this photo of a FAO. "Now theres an idea" I thought "Could I have a go in 6mm".

Andy Rix's fantastic FAO in 20mm

Now for the 6mm versions.

Both are based on a 2p coin with a couple of H&R figures. The bases were built up with filler and textured with Chinchilla Sand which is great for basing. Then the addition of some scatter (fine turf and static grass) and some tufts and leafy shrubs gives the impression of more cover. A couple of pins and some bits from the bits box for communications equipment etc and they are finished. I am pleased with the way they turned out and will continue with this method of representing FAO's in future Battlegroups.

If you go down to the woods today...

Picked up these two walled woods from a well known auction site for a bargain price. Although very pleased with the trees as you can see from the picture the bases were just bright green plastic so needed a bit of work to fit it with the terrain for Crisis Point 2013.

I repainted the green areas of the base with a more suitable shade of green leaving the walls as they had a good paint finish. After that fine turf flock was applied to the green areas and chinchilla sand was applied to the entrances to the field and along the outside edges to tie them in to the other terrain items I have been working on. I added a bit more fine turf in patches around the edges and then added some self adhesive leafy shrub plants I found from a supplier on Ebay. So now they are ready to be placed on the tables of Crisis Point 2013 - Arctic Strike.

New Blog

I have started this blog to chart my progress towards the Cold War Commanders Crisis Point 2013 - Arctic Strike game to be held in Dungworth near Sheffield on 13/14 April 2013. The game uses as its inspiration General Sir John Hacketts book The Third World War - The Untold Story. In Chapter 12 he details events surrounding the Scandinavian Campaign. Also Arctic Strike by Michael A Palmer was a great source of background information. The game will use the Cold War Commander set of rules along with our own house rules developed to cover air superiority, supply, casualty replacement, vehicle repair and artillery.