Operation MOAB Part 4 - What can’t you do with foamcore? Michael Wong: Writing these articles has been an iterative process. This week I was going to discuss with you all the different approaches to scoring tournaments, but Richard and I have been very busy with terrain and scenery construction that it’s probably best addressed when we get to the execution phase of this saga. Thanks to Dean for yet again helping us, and also to Guy Kabos for coming along to last weekends working bee. So this week it’s over to Richard as he updates us on how he’s building the more complicated terrain pieces for MOAB.

Bunkers Richard Chambers: Looking at a number of photos of particularly Normandy battle sites showed that many of the bunker fought around were not necessarily weapons bunkers, but were often accommodation blocks, ammunition storage or headquarter facilities.  These were often set deeply in the ground, with only the upper most parts of the bunker showing. Maps of the Carpiquet airfield and Merville battery show bunkers like these spread around, and as we planned to have tables representing these sites, it was necessary to try and make some. I started by drawing up some designs on graph paper and then transferring those designs to cardboard – to make a template.  I then used the template to create a number of 3mm foamcore pieces for each bunker.  Each one was made by gluing and stacking 4 pieces on top of each other.  The bottom level had a small alcove cut into it to represent the below ground level entrance.  Once set I cut a bevelled edge into the top piece of foamcore and then covered the entire structure with a thin veneer of polyfilla.  This gives it a nice concrete like surface.

The bunker was then painted up to look like concrete glued to an MDF base, which was then flocked with static grass.  I then attempted to paint a staircase descending into the bunker.

Game-wise, these bunkers can’t be entered – and are really there just to break up the table, block line of sight and provide cover to infantry and small vehicles.  One bunker will also form the base for an abandoned radar site in our “Road to Ramelle” table which is a loose interpretation of a scene from “Saving Private Ryan.” Hangars Another obvious issue with the Carpiquet airfield table, and indeed any airfield table attempting to represent North Western Europe is the need for pretty large hangars.  I knew that hangars would have to fit on a plain placemat (bought cheap from Spotlight).

Again I drew up a simple design on graph paper, transferred to cardboard and then cut the required number of pieces from 3mm foamcore. To avoid that look you get when using foamcore of having the foam sandwich visible at the edges I copied a tutorial I found on the ‘net which showed how to “rabbet the corners” (not my spelling – could be rabbit I guess).  To do this you draw a line, 3mm from the vertical edges of both your end pieces. You then carefully cut through the first layer of cardboard and into the foam, making sure not to cut the final layer of cardboard.

Then you hold the foamcore up on one side and again carefully cut along the edge, between the foam and the second layer of cardboard, not very deep, just enough to get the 3mm wide piece you have just cut to fall away.  This should leave you with a nice 3mm wide slot on each side of your end piece which you simply slide the side pieces into with some PVA glue.  You might want to use pins to temporarily give some support.

We ended up with 1 complete and 2 progressively more damaged Hangars.  I then glued them to the previously painted placemats and added some foamcore rubble and pieces of corrugated card to represent the roof.  We then added a smaller rubble mix of tallis and sand. Once again I gave the outside of the buildings a thin veneer of polyfilla to give it a more concrete appearance and we’ll be putting more corrugated cardboard on the roofs.

Merville For MOAB I originally wanted to have a table for Pegasus Bridge – that iconic D-Day battle.  However, after discussion with Michael and some serious consideration we decided that having an impassable river running down the middle of a table, crossed by just one bridge, would not a great tournament table make.  So I had to find something else. That something else turned out to be one of the bigger projects for MOAB 2009 – our Merville Battery table.

I found some reasonable photos of some of the bunkers, buried into small man-made hills, and a map of the site.  Looking at that, and the size of the bunkers I decided that there was no way you could fit all 4 of the battery’s bunkers on a 6’ x 4’ table but that 3 would fit nicely.  I drew up a table as you’ve seen previously.

Trees MW: It’s been an incredibly busy week for me at work and with my family, and I’m at that stage where a lot of things are getting close to the finish line, but are frustratingly not yet complete. One of the jobs for last week was sorting out my tree collection. Over the years I’ve managed to get a fair few K&M trees which are all based for gaming. I’ve also acquired a fair few Woodland Scenics tree armatures that I’ve experimented with over the years. As anyone who has made Woodland Scenics trees will tell you, they are no where near as sturdy as K&M or Heki trees and can be very time consuming to make. Though we have more than enough trees for MOAB they’re all based to be used as part of woods and forest area terrain.

Looking at pictures of France and Holland you quickly notice that many roads and city streets are lined with rows of trees so I thought it would be nice to get some of these made to really help bring the tables to life. Pulling out my box of tree parts I started making all the pine trees I had armatures for – 60 it turns out. Woodland Scenics trees are assembled by twisting the branches from the trunk and then applying Hobby Tack to the branches. Hobby Tack is like a slow drying but incredibly sticky PVA glue, and once applied you need to wait fifteen minutes before putting on the foliage. Here’s a close up picture of the finished trees along with some K&M trees.

The next step is to create proper game bases for them. I had previously cut out short lengths of MDF, and once they were bevelled and painted green I glued on the Woodland Scenics tree bases (three to a length) and then flocked them. Hills MW: In addition to working on these trees I’ve also started painting up all the GW modular and plastic hills I acquired at a sale last year. Unfortunately Battlefront’s new range of hills won’t be released in time for MOAB, a shame as they’re

pre-painted and ready to go out of the box, and for the price very good value for money. None the less these GW hills are a quality product and I’m glad I’ve got a reason to get them finished.

Dean’s also been working on hills, but unlike me he’s made his from scratch! Dean is a terrain making machine and a master at making hills as the below pictures show, and both Richard and I are very grateful for all the help he’s given us.

Still busy working away at buildings and here’s a shot of all the terrain overlays I need to bevel in the next three days, and the Styrofoam for the hills that are to be made. It’s going to be hard work, but I’m very confident that by the end of this weekend we will have finished all construction and the bulk of the painting and flocking. But wait, there’s more…

Planning RC: Last Saturday we decided that we needed to do a bit or sorting out first to decided exactly what still needed to be done.  It meant that rather than just getting into more sawing and bevelling etc – we actually tried out a few of our table layouts.  This meant on some, like the Merville Battery discussed above – we laid out the bunker overlays to see exactly how they would look on a 6’ x 4’ table.  Others like out railway embankments, we had to see how they would all fit together, whether we had enough etc.  For two of our French Village tables, it meant getting out all the houses that would reside on that table, working out where they would go and marking out the boundaries of the overlay.

Must provide great thanks to Guy Kabos at this point, who helped us the whole day, but while Michael and Dean were working outside, he provided willing hands and good thinking to push our overlays in the right direction. All in all Saturday sorted out exactly where we were up to and certainly left me feeling a little better about the whole thing.  Just one weekend to go though… Mission Order Michael and I have had a few good discussions about missions for MOAB.  Everyone has their favourites (mine is Hold the Line) and their not so favourites (FFA is all I’m saying).

We wanted to use as many missions as we could, and try and keep the Fair Fights and Defensive Battles as equal as we could.  We also wanted the missions each day to form a sort of narrative – I like stuff like that so we decided to start each day with a Fair Fight mission – as the opposing sides stumble into each other.  The we follow that up with one side trying to breakthrough or dig out his opponent and finally a more defensive battle.

So the mission order we decided on is: Day 1 (FF)    Mission 1:  Encounter (DB)    Mission 2:  Breakthrough (DB)    Mission 3:  No Retreat Day 2 (FF)    Mission 4:  Free for All (DB)    Mission 5:  Cauldron (DB)    Mission 6:  Fighting Withdrawal Day 3 (FF)    Mission 7:  Encounter (At Dawn) (DB)    Mission 8:  Hold the Line MW: Next week we’ll be able to show you shots of finished tables, and all the other pieces of scenery and terrain we’ve been working on. Anyone in Sydney interested in lending a hand is welcome to join us for our final working bee this Saturday. Pop along to the MOAB forum thread, or email Richard or myself to let us know. And a gentle reminder to all those who have yet to enter MOAB to visit the registration site and get your entry in.   http://www.southernbattlegamers.org/moabsite/