WWI wargaming in 6mm

[David F]

Here are the photos I said I would post. I apologize for not getting them up yesterday but I had to get some good ACW gaming in. As I said. the French are GHQ WWII individual infantry. The 75's are the Polish kit numbers and the FT-17s speak for themselves.

The rest of the armor is Scotia. (nudge, nudge GHQ) The German and British MG crews are also Scotia. I feel that they are the only useable figures in thier range.

The hexes are GHQ Terrain Maker. I like the density of the foam but do not like the slop in fit. In one photo you can see the 10cm aluminium hex I use to trim then to a better fit. The craters are made with either a quarter dollar or a nickel as the template. They are then filled with flex paste and spread to create a lip. The ground cover is darker in real life. It is Dark Earth fine ground cover. The craters are then sprayed with aerosol paint dark brown to look like dug up dirt. I use a cardboard template to make the task easier. Enjoy the pics.

[RoughRIder]

VERY, very nice!!!!! And YES thank you for sharing the photo's

[Mk 1]

Beautiful stuff! And quite inspirational, too.

Bravo, my good man. Bravo!

Now, could you favor us with more pics of the French units? Some closer views of the infantry and the FTs? Oh, and some close-ups of thos Whippets? And the amored cars. Oh, and the ... well, h3ll, maybe I should just say: "Please sir, may we have some MORE?"

[jb]

...First off,welcome back David. Those are some nice pictures of your WWI stuff. Now you need some aircraft to be flying overhead...

[David F]

I wish I could get a better closeup of the unpaitned machine gun teams. I put a black wash on the natural metal in hopes that it would be more visible. They really aren't that bad of a casting, definitely not GHQ but until they come to their senses.......

The A7V's have been painted to represent the 5 major paint schemes seen on the vehicles after each period of overhaul. The guy at http://www.landships.freeservers.com/ sure has a heck of a resource on painting.

I really need to get going on the trenches themselves. Like Tom suggested, using a method similar to making rivers will work fine. I also need to make more no-man's land hexes as well. I will probaly make a series of ones that are the brown (as I said the pictures don't do the actual color justice!) that fade to a more greener tone. I would like to have ligtly shelled woods and meadow areas in the inventory of terrain.

I wil

If anyone wants any more pics, I can email them to you. You can try the pm feature and see if you can contact me.

One day I will finish some rules that are 6-10mm specific. I had made a good amount of notes to include TO&E's with the hopes of sharing them. All to help spread my fondness for the period.

[Extra Crispy]

The hexes might look a tad less "gappy" if you paint the edges brown or green. Otherwise nice work.

[madDdog67]

David, that's very nice stuff. Where did you get your 10cm aluminum hex that you use to true up the Terrain Maker tiles?

[Bull`s eye]

Really nice work David F, which shows clearly : everything possible without a new WWI GHQ range
But don´t forget : german " tank " production of WWI never exceeds 30 ! ( for the whole war )
How will you show the huge barbed wire sections ( any idea on material ?? )

[tstockton]

David F,

I heartily second the "nice work" comments!!

But I do have two questions... I read your notes on creating shell holes, and your methods are pretty neat! My two questions are:

(1) Would "real" shell holes be so uniform, in both size and shape? I've never seen aerial photographs of the "real thing", which would show them so clearly... Or, as is occasionally the case when modeling, it is an application of "artistic license" -- you're trying to convey the impression of shell holes, and we easily recoginize them, so there they are?... (I do the same thing, in that I "pave" my road hexes with light gray gravel (HO scale model railroad ballast)... I know it's not very realistic in terms of the "real world", I just like the way it looks!) Also -- do you ever "overlap" shell holes?

(2) Did you do anything to "indent" the center of the shell hole -- maybe a very light tap with a ball peen hammer, or maybe use a golf ball as a "punch", or something like that? The picture with the infantry stands in the shell holes really look like they are somewhat below the (normal) level of the hex!! Or is that just an "optical illusion" caused by your careful choices of colors (darker centers, lighter edges), making it look like the troops are taking cover!?

Either way -- VERY cool! I look forward to seeing more of your posts in the future!!

Regards,
Tom

[David F]

Thanks for the kind words guys. They are definitely appreciated for there are some real modeller types on this board.

Responses to questions and discussions.....

1. The aluminum hex was made by my Father. He recently retired as a machinist. He manufactured it from 1/4 in. "scrap" aluminum. What is machining such precise edges and angles to us is really grand is actually quite simply for a guy who has the machine to do it with. The holes in its center were solely so he could clamp it down while he cut the material.

2. I sure wish I was better at photograhy...The edges are a dark brown but I wish I had purchased a closer color to my covering. In some of the photos, the hexes were placed on a quite wrinkley sheet which caused deviation in height. When the hexes are placed on the flat table, they are near perfect fit!

3. I only have 10 A7V's total in my collection. I plan on painting a second of each color scheme, this would allow me to game two at a time in a scenario and keep the tanks looking good! The schemes were actually quite easy to paint but the castings sure were a bugger to clean up. By the time I was done, I had sanded the sufaces, rescribed lines, replaced all barrels with brass rod, replaced the doors with lead foil (courtesy a bottle of wine!) and added exhaust pipes (also with brass wire). WHEEEW! I sure wish GHQ would MAKE SOME WWI

4. Tom, Before I made the hexes, I looked at quite a few photos of cratering. I noted that although there would be a mixture of depth and diameter, most were still pretty similar in any given area. My craters are "cut" into the hesxes with a no. 11 blade Xacto. I used both a quarter dollar and a nickel as my templates. I cut diagonally to make a conical shape. Then added flaxpaste (idea ala GHQ) using my finger tip as a trowel. This would smooth outh the texture and also force the slop to the top edge making a rim. I cut them in either a deep or shallow level to help show the defferences in both age and weapon calibre. I do have some craters that overlap but as you say, I wanted to use artistic license and present a feeling. Not all hexes have the same amount of cratering or depth. This will allow me to game varaible ground types for tanks to pass across (Go and no-go) and infantry to find better, or worse, cover. I decided on the the pocket change templates so I could effectivley place an infantry stand (mounted on pennies) within a crater but also not be so enormous so as to make my tanks look "lost" on the battlefield.

Thanks again guys,
David

[Thomaso827]

Excellent stuff. I started with 15mm for WW1 only because I found a bunch on sale at half price. For now, I'm sticking with the Mediteranean theater. Fewer tanks, but more armored cars and cavalry, and lots of movement. If I do move to the Western Front, it is good to know there are ways of doing that in 6mm. Thanks for the inspiration! I'm using Piquet's Point of Attack: Barrage rules, which include info on gaming in 6mm scale, and they have lots of flexibility. You might check a game played with one of the Piquet products before investing in them, as people either really love them or really hate them. I've never met anyone who tried them and didnt have a strong opinion. I really like them and have started converting most of my gaming over to them.

[lekw]

Very nice pictures. I like the idea of WWI in 6mm and have some forces from other companies. I did have the idea of using GHQ (I converted some Africa corps into legion during the 1920-30’s) but thought it would be difficult with so many gaps in what I could use. What forces did you build up? I guess French is covered and late war Germans as well. How about Italians? I was thinking maybe of using Africa corps as early war Austrians with some modifications. My main interest however is in the war in the east and I don’t see anything I could use as Russians. I do the period in 15mm as well and am thinking about 10mm. Send me an email off list, lekw2001@yahoo.com I would really like to know more about your ideas on doing this period with GHQ stuff.

[Pitfall]

Really nice stuff, Dave. I can't get all my WWII stuff painted and I already want to start on WWI tanks and armored cars!