Over the last week a lot of my free time has been spent completing warehouses, cranes, searchlights, and gun emplacements required for the St. Nazaire game. Today I was cutting up some old wardrobe doors to make the docks. All being well they will get painted this coming weekend.
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| Map of planned St. Nazaire tabletop |
To help with repurposing of the wardrobe doors I drafted up a map of the intended tabletop, which is heavily based upon the diagram in chapter 17 from "Battle Notes for Wargamers" by Donald Featherstone. Not having an 8x5 tabletop I have had to focus in a bit more on the three landing areas:
- The dock where most of the targets for demolition are situated
- Old entrance and East Lock gates
- Old Mole the place of re-embarkation
Here are some photos of the last batch of warehouses and other items.
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| Warehouse and oil tank |
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| Cranes and warehouse |
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| Warehouse and winding houses for the dock. |
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| Searchlights and gun emplacements. |
I am currently painting up three bridges. The remaining items I have to complete are some pillboxes, motor launches and HMS Campbeltown. As you can see from the photos the bridges are very basic and all detail will be painted on.
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| Simple bridges being constructed |
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| Bridges undercoated and ready for details to be painted on. |
Having recently completed ECW game (post to come soon) the tabletop was free and I thought I had better layout all the terrain to make sure it fitted as planned. It has taken quite a while to get to this point in the preparation and I do remember the words of advice from the book for construction of terrain - "It is not one that can be knocked up in an odd hour before the game starts, because it requires buildings, docks, etc." I do hope the game itself turns out to be worth all this effort.
That table is coming along nicely and love the whole look of it already. Can't wait to see it finished. Great way to start 2020 by the way!
ReplyDeleteThank you. The terrain now for the most part requires painting, then a couple of extra commando units and the ships.
DeleteThis is looking very impressive.
ReplyDeleteMy Airfix commandos are jealous but too busy planning to disrupt the Desert War supply chains, "Popski's Private Army" style.
If you are ever in Falmouth Cornwall, look out for the St Nazaire Memorial, some pictures here: https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/143050
Thanks for the link. When I was reading about the raid I was quite interested to find they started out from Falmouth. As I lived there fro a couple of years as a child in the 1960's and remember the docks there.
DeleteThat is truly impressive Peter - it's all brilliant but I think the cranes are my favourite bit. Looking forward to seeing the game.
ReplyDeleteThe cranes were quite fun to do. Thanks.
DeleteWhat excellent scenery, looking forward to seeing the game.
ReplyDeleteThanks. A few weeks away yet, but all being well a game should occur in January.
DeleteWhat a fantastic project, well visualised and executed, it will be a highlight of 2020.
ReplyDeleteThis so called mini-project by me is turning out to be a bit bigger than expected, but also a lot of fun trying to do it on the cheap.
DeleteLooking good Peter. Can’t wait to see the Airfix Commandoes running amok.
ReplyDeletePS Happy New Year!
DeleteLooking forward to gaming this battle. Happy New Year to you too.
DeleteThat table is really taking shape, I'm in awe of your efforts on this project. Can't wait to see it when it's up and running.
ReplyDeleteIt was nice to lay it all out and see the progress. Thanks.
DeleteI think my earlier comment failed - they usually do from my iPad. So now back at the PC...
ReplyDeleteIt's looking really impressive and a lot of work for a game but I'm sure it could be repurposed for other games - a 'Bomb the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in Brest' perhaps?
If I could offer a few cheeky suggestions, I would add something to the right of the dock which looks pretty open and I would make the searchlights a little less yellow and paint the lens with a good coat of gloss varnish for that glassy look. This is all nit-picking / personal taste and does nothing to detract from your brilliant set up - I'm really looking forward to the spectacle of the game in progress and a cracking ARR.
BTW do you have a Campbeltown to ram the dock gates?
I am having the same issues with comments myself and had to switch to a different browser to do comments. Thanks for the suggestions, I was thinking of some rough ground on the right. My next steps on completing the terrain is to scratch build the Campbeltown and motor launches.
DeleteThis is going to look so cool! As always, I love your map.
ReplyDeleteI did enjoy drafting up the map. Thanks.
DeleteLooking great!
ReplyDeleteThank you kindly.
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