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I’ve started a new Winter project this weekend, a 15mm post-colonial / cold war skirmish project, based around a terrain building theme but also involving some platoon level forces using Peter Pig figures. I’ve been meaning to do this for ages but got a boot up the bum from a prototype desert board that I boshed together from a cork pin board and some cheap end of line emulsion paint. This looked OK so I dug out the figures, scenic bits and laser cut building kits to kick things off and expand the terrain making idea.
Despite the photo, the initial focus will be on a 1960’s era British platoon, based on an imaginations re-interpretation of the campaign in Aden. Later on I’m planning to diversify this to include similar sized forces for the French and a generic ‘peacekeeping’ force using the PP Israeli figures, along with some rebels / freedom fighters both in regular and irregular units. The theme is definitely not modern but more post-colonial, retreat from Empire.
I’ll be tackling this in the run up to Xmas and the New Year, alongside my 1/600th scale Football War Wings at War project, so progress may be in fits and starts until I get myself up and running. Anyway, if this is your sort of thing, please check out the blog for updates:
http://jimswargamesworkbench.blogspot.com/search/label/Sandbox%20Skirmish
Such is the way of the world
I’m on to the buildings next. I have a dozen or so of the Blotz and Red Vectors Middle Eastern laser cut houses to assemble…shares in PVA glue companies will be on the up!
Just put together some laser cut Middle Eastern style buildings from Blotz and Red Vectors for the Skirmish Sandbox project. They need to be filled, textured, sanded and painted before I add the doors, hatches and details, but I’m making good progress so far!
Famous last words…..
I have a few more of these to build including some compounds before I can get on to the clutter, trees, rocky outcrops and so on.
I want to turn this into some sort of fortified FOB for my British infantry platoon to occupy and patrol from.
Apart from some sandbags (which I need to find) and a look out post on top, what do you think I need to add?
It’s a 1960’s post-colonial campaign setting, so nothing too modern (HESCO etc)
I was thinking of adding a perimeter wall around the outside for a start, with a big metal sliding gate?
I’d also block off some of the lower windows and doorways, or at least add some bars etc.
Oh and a flag pole…the sun never sets and all that
Sounds like a really interesting project – and true to your normal work ethic, within apparently moments of thinking about it, you’ve already got all those buildings done ! I dunno how you find the time – would have taken me months…..
thinking about things to add to the building – I would vote for corrugated iron panelling, oil drums, Compo ration and ammo boxes (all could be utilised in the fortifications) and barbed wire – some sort of comms antenna might be an idea, too, alongside that flagpole….. had the BATT house at the battle of Mirbat in mind….
Good ideas…really liking the sandbag and ammo box walls. I will also add a radio mast to be shot off at an inconvenient moment.
I was also thinking of adding a mortar in a sandbag position on the roof…might be handy?I’ve been working on the patrol base / OP for the British infantry platoon. It’s not finished but it’s about half way there in terms of construction if not paintwork. Any suggestions for clutter?
http://jimswargamesworkbench.blogspot.com/search/label/Sandbox%20Skirmish
Just finished a desert terrain board for this project, using an old picture that I found in the local charity shop, some acrylic paste, some old emulsion paint and a few half used tester pots (total cost about £12).
It measures 32” x 32” so almost three foot square and ideal for skirmish games in 15mm and 28mm (I hope!)
Now with added rocky hills for the bad guys to hide in and ambush the squaddies (well, only the one hill so far but it’s a start?):
It warped a bit in the re-painting but hopefully will un-bend once it dries out a bit.
If not, I’ll have to scratch build some rocky hills instead of taking a shortcut by re-painting these resin ones.
Dug out the other resin hills and realised that they’d been stored away for so long that they had warped anyway, so nothing to do with repainting with emulsion. I have two more to paint now, so will crack on. Any ideas how to flatten them out?
Dug out the other resin hills and realised that they’d been stored away for so long that they had warped anyway, so nothing to do with repainting with emulsion. I have two more to paint now, so will crack on. Any ideas how to flatten them out?
Hammer? you didn’t say sensible ideas …
I remember seeing a program about the SAS in Oman (IIRC) who had a .50 cal MG on the roof of their FOB …
I did some google fu on this memory of mine yesterday, and for once I was right; it was a program about the BATT (British Army Training Team) house in the Battle of Mirbat (wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mirbat )
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Ever the comedian Colin!
Actually, I did use by bag of tools to try to squash it a bit, so you’re not far off.
Thanks for the link…good stuff!
Worth a try. Not sure the other half would be too keen on a resin smelling oven
The warping actually isn’t that bad and I can live with it as long as they don’t get any more bendy.
I’ve added a couple more resin re-painted hills so that I can make a wadi type feature for the patrols to negotiate and the rebels to use for an ambush. I only re-painted another two of these Battlefield in a Box hills, even though I have a fourth one spare, as on a 32” square terrain board they fill up a most of the available space. I will probably make some more small rocky outcrops and scrub to scatter about as well, so that there’s some lower level cover for the RPG teams to hide in too.
I also tried out the board with my 20mm Mexican Revolution terrain pieces, to see if they matched up and I could use the board for that project too. I think it’s not a bad fit, so will be able to re-light the fire under my Fistful of Lead: Viva la Revolucion! project as well….too many things to do, not enough time!
Ever the comedian Colin!
Actually, I did use by bag of tools to try to squash it a bit, so you’re not far off. Thanks for the link…good stuff!Actually, and I may have mentioned this before, but I do occasionally think I’m funny …
It’s my way of dealing with the jealousy that your incredible work rate engenders – I don’t know how you manage it, but am very glad that you do as it’s all damn fine stuff to look at! Keep it up
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Here is the rebel / guerrilla / insurgent / ‘freedom fighter’ / nationalist force for the ‘bad guys’ (or good guys?) in my post colonial skirmish project
It needs a sniper or two but, otherwise, I think this has made good use of the spare figures on my AK47 bits box, which saves me some money and lightens the lead pile by about 0.0000003%
Here’s what I was thinking:
http://jimswargamesworkbench.blogspot.com/2018/11/sandbox-skirmish-rebels.html
The rebels have upped their game and now have Camels! Oh yes.
I thought I’d have a crack at scratch building a 15mm scale hill tower, typical of the sort of thing found in the Radfan, so have done this:
It needs to be textured, painted and detailed but I think it’s not too bad for an hour or so’s work this morning. I will probably add fillers to the bottom of the base so that it actually blends in and locks into place, without the nasty gap.
Here’s the how I did it: https://jimswargamesworkbench.blogspot.com/2018/11/radfan-hill-fort.html
Now with some texturing using acrylic paste (I couldn’t be bothered to scribe any stone work so it’s a tasteful pebble dash instead).
And an undercoat of Halfords Ultra Matt Khaki, ready for washing, dry brushing and weathering:
The GZG sci-fi figure is just there for scale but I have been thinking of other uses for this terrain including the NW Frontier in the 1930’s and the for The Men Who Would be Kings in 15mm in the Sudan.
I’ve always wanted to skirmish wargame the Suakin Field Force campaign of 1885, for which the desert terrain would be perfect. I read an article in Military Modelling about this years ago and always fancied wargaming it, especially after looking at the brilliant colour plates:
I’ve cleaned up and undercoated the British Infantry platoon including some new figures that I’ve converted by doing some simple head swaps (engineer mine detector / Vickers MMG / dog handler). I should be able to start painting these tomorrow, if I don’t get tasked with ‘things to do’ by SWMBO.
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