As I’ve been continuing the struggle to complete
two field-able forces for Force on Force, I’ve been thinking about some terrain
for them to fight over. Beyond the sort of scale-less stuff like trees, hills,
rivers, etc, suitable 20mm terrain isn’t something that either I or my usual
opponents have in abundance, if at all. Previously we’d had a trial run with
some 15mm FoW items, which was OK (if sparse) for a trial run, but for any sort
of real games (or even displays at a later date) we’re really going to need
something more appropriate.
My first thought was Byzantium Models, who I
stumbled across some years ago over on Andy Rix’s superb blog,
Cold War Gamer. On
clicking onto their site, I found some ideal German houses, enough to represent
a small community anyway, and they were beautifully tooled to boot. However,
all were marked as out of production for re-mastering. Subsequently, Byzantium
have gone into a bit of a hiatus, and that’s left me somewhat short of suitable
real estate. There are of course plenty of ruined buildings produced for 20mm
WWII, but nothing that was a) intact and b) actually reminiscent of post-war
Germany.
So, with that in mind, I decided that I would have t improvise. Again taking
inspiration form Andy’s blog on giving one’s terrain a German flavour, I
decided to see what I could scrounge from our friends in the model railway
sector. At first glance, this would appear to be a veritable Alladin’s cave of
goodies; there are several German manufacturers producing ideal scenery of the
Cold War era (mainly as stuff first moulded in the 80s is still marketed as “modern”)
including houses, shops, and all sorts of commercial and industrial properties.
However, European model railway scales are HO, as opposed to British OO gauge. This
essentially works out as 1/87 vs 1/76, with 20mm being 1/72. I’ve no problem
mixing 1/72 and 1/76, but when you sit 1/72 next to 1/87, I feel the difference
is just too much, and buildings just start to look a bit odd. I know it’s only
wargaming and said buildings (and gaming pieces) are only representations, but
still; I’m a big anorak and it irks me. The second snag is price. Most of these
items are unholy expensive (“ a hoor ae a price” in local parlance). I’m certainly
not paying the thick end of £50 for a Lidl store that’s going to be too wee
anyway…
I’m absolutely rubbish at scratch building
anything that can’t be justified as being either rustic or ruined, so making my
own nice, clean lined, modern structures was definitely out.
With this in mind, I decided to concentrate on obtaining some modern accessories
that could be added to WWII era buildings if necessary to update them. Things like
fencing, oil tanks, advertisements, lighting. This is where the model railway
world is your friend, as a quick trip to
Hattons provided me with these
beauties-
Two styles of modern security fencing (chainlink &
razor wire, and metal stake-type), oil tanks (initially thought these were the
bunded plastic types seen outside most farmhouses, turns out they’re big
industrial types, but that’s not going to be a problem), a couple of packs of
telegraph poles (British type rather than German, unfortunately, but still
gives that “Modern” or at least “post-war”, effect) and, best of all, a packet
of German language advertising posters! OK, I think most of these are probably
late 70s, but still they scream Cold War Germany, and will really help to set
the scene. I’ve also hit Google, and downloaded some suitable images to make my
own large roadside advertising hoardings, just to make the point. All I needed
now was some buildings to surround with these items (and some roads) and I was
cooking with gas.
On the subject of roads, I’ve spotted some stuff
in the Dapol range, which although intended as railway scenery, could be easily
adapted to Autobahn use…
Anyway, the other week up at the club, I was discussing progress on the Cold
War Project with fellow
Roaring Northerners John and Dave, and bemoaning the
lack of suitable housing stock for my doods to hide amongst/fight
through/reduce to rubble. At this point John, who has spent a not inconsiderable
part of his life in, around and on various British military establishments in Germany
during the Cold War, suggested an RAF Germany airfield as a terrain theme.
Brilliance! After all he pointed out, a lot of them were former WWII Luftwaffe
or Wehrmacht bases, and much of any remaining 1940s structures were simply
re-used, and many of the temporary structure such as Nissen huts put up by the
new owners as temporary measures remained in use for much longer than intended,
it would be easy to outfit some suitable buildings. Why had I not thought of
this?! I’d made great plans for a Norwegian radar station, consisting of a lot
of low concrete outcrops and air-con units and fencing (more on that later), and
had even thought of a similar UK based set up, but the idea of doing an RAF
base in Germany had never occurred to me!
So, that night, I set to work sourcing some
appropriate bits and bobs, and have now taken delivery of these-
(And yes, I know they're not Nissen huts, but at 20mm, they're near as dammit, and they work out cheaper than the prebuilt Hornby
actual Nissen Hut...) I can easily do sections of runway/taxi way and
aprons out of black sandpaper the same way
I was intending doing roads, so that’s not a big problem, the only major
head ache I can see is deciding what to sit on it! First choice was an English
Electric Lightning, however, this is probably a bit anachronistic for the 80s,
so I may have to go with a SEPECAT Jaguar; not as butch as a Lightning or a
Blackburn Buccaneer, but definitely just as characterful, and much more compact
than a Panavia Tornado or McDonell Douglas Phantom…
I also had a look at the Revell Hardened Aircraft Shelter, however, given that a) it only comes as part of a set with a Eurofighter Typhoon, and b) it's a helluva lot bigger than I thought, and doesn't look as good, I decided to shelve that idea for now.
All I need now is to find a recent version of the venerable Airfix Bloodhound
set to really make the point, but thus far I’ve been unsuccessful;
Kingkit
have none, and even my local model shop,
Jamieson’s (a veritable treasure trove
of kits, from brand new releases to ancient things that are older than I am),
and the only ones on eBay are original bagged examples from the 60s, going for
silly money. However, Albanich is this weekend, so I’ll just have to keep my
eyes peeled at the bring ‘n’ buys on Saturday, and at the other show, until one
crops up! Until then, a couple of the Airfix/JB Bedford MK Refuellers should
add sufficient flavour to proceedings…
So, plenty to be going on with, then.
Cheers
Iain.
