Digging in: Trench Warfare

One of the new Wild West Exodus posses that I am working on is the Union faction.

While a few of the figures include sandbag defenses on the bases, I wanted to create something that was a little closer to the style of trenches that were constructed during the war.  

This was typically a set of stacked logs back filled with earth.

So, let's set about making those trenches! 

We begin with some sticks, some tin foil, and oxide paste.

The sticks are cut into shape, attempting to leave the knots showing, as I thought it would add a sense of scale.

Instead of wasting a lot of sculpting material, I wadded up the tin foil into the rough shape of the dirt pile, and glued it in place.

Doing this also makes the base a good deal lighter!  

Out comes the Oxide Paste!!!

I applied it to the vertical surface as well, for added holding power, and to allow it to flow through the gaps, just as dirt might.

The outer 'skin' is covered, building up towards the logs.

You can see that I have added the vertical supports, and the Oxide Paste is sneaking through the log/sticks.

After all this dried, I added a few select sections of rock and gravel.  I tried to concentrate them in areas where perhaps the dirst 'fell down the slope'. of were tossed over the top of the parapet by the occupants.

As always, the heavier rocks are put down first, followed by finer and finer gravel and sand afterwards.

I decided to add a few sculpey planks to the inside floor of the trench.

Sculpey pieces in place.

What we have so far.  I added a Secret Weapon skull and a few shells.

Stay tuned for the painted version!

Heading down the tracks...

Well folks, the citizens of Wappelville have grown weary of the presence of the Lawmen in their town.

Since the Lawmen arrived to establish "order", the locals have been subjected to increasing violence, extortion, public executions, and even deplorable window treatments!  

When you have a decor disaster, you call in the Wild Bunch Gang!

Jesse dispatched Billy the Kid to assist Miss Fannie May in her quest to improve the drapery on her elegant Chateau Du Wappelville (dubbed the Horizontal Hospitality Hotel by the brutish Lawmen).

Billie was to deliver several chords of the finest imported silks from France.  Since the Lawmen have taken over the train station, monitoring all incoming traffic, an alternate method had to be found to bring in this material.

As the townsfolk are very enamored of the Wild Bunch and their superior fashion sense, the Wappelville Streets and Sanitation department loaned them their converted Ironhide heavy support.  This vehicle has kept the streets of Wappelville the cleanest thoroughfares west of the Mississippi.

The Lawmen were bringing in more weaponry of their own.  They have added two more Interceptors, as well as Carl Fredrickson, whose portal glove allowed him to move from building to building in the blink of an eye!

This terrorized the citizens, who would find the huge, mechanically altered monster standing in their midst at any time.

The Wild Bunch Gang were dapper as always.  Doc LongTree was joining them once again...

There were five objective on the table.  Two on each 'half' of the table, and one in the exact center of town.  Rich had brought in some very nice rail sections, which transected the board.

You get a view of the Outlaw deployment in this view.  They wanted to make use of the taller terrain, placing snipers in the tower, on the hill, and possibly on the water tower.  This would give them command of at least 3 objectives.

The Lawmen were holed up in various buildings around town.  They were led by Pat Garrett, and were packing lots of close up fighters!

They wanted to anchor the Chateau defence, since they knew that Billie had to deliver those fabrics.

Carl Fredrickson would stay in the center of the row of buildings, waiting to pounce on one of the objectives at the last moment, or to join in a combat and tip the balance!

Billie was set up in the train station with Doc and Ike.

The shootout begins!  The Apache Kid takes up residence behind the control offices of the RJ-1027 power plant.  His Spirit Aim was much feared by the pistol packing Lawmen hired hands.  

He could pick off any target, no matter how deep in cover without exposing himself to return fire.  Very deadly!!

The Ironhide carrying a variety of Outlaws, as well as the curtain material, found itself stuck on the tracks for but a moment... what would happen next?

Wait and see...

Research trip at the cemetery

Well, this is one of the last places I would have thought to collect reference photos!

Since it was Veteran's Day, my sisters and I took a trip to the cemetery for placing flowers, flags and the like.

Once we completed those tasks, we were in the older section of the cemetery.  It was like being in a downtown high rise section by comparison!

There were way too many interesting shaped headstones to take pictures of, but I did snap a few.

I will have to incorporate some of these designs into future bases and terrain pieces.

Classic.  This will definitely have to be made into a terrain piece!

One aspect of the headstones I had forgotten about was the etching.  I have never done that on a headstone thus far, sticking with the usual carved name/date, etc.

This etching on polished stone to get these intricate designs was fantastic.  I think it might ever work on more 'royal' settings in palace interiors.  Worth a try for sure!

Hey... did you hear something behind us?

Oh no!!! Weeping Angels!!! Don't BLINK!!!

Knock, knock... anybody home?

These structures were particularly interesting.

A typical mausoleum is rendered as stone blocks, or slabs of carved stone with rough texture.

Most of the mausoleums we saw had this highly polished appearance, which was amazing!

Look at these massive slabs of polished stone!  All the amazing colors.  If it was not freezing, with a 20 mph wind, we might have stayed longer.

While it was fresh in my mind, I had to give it a try on a random base I had sitting around.  I will show some step by step pics on this as well!

Stay tuned... and DON'T BLINK!

The hostess

Here's another Deadlands character that we use to provide a little bit of flavor to our Wild West towns.

She owns the 'Hotel' in town.

A hotel frequented by the Lawmen.

Don't mess with her, since she's pretty handy with that pistol!

Miss Fannie May needs to get back to that Hotel... the Wild Bunch gang is coming back to town!

As we remember...

So, a little Veteran's Day/Armistice Day special for you, courtesy of Memoir '44.

The miniatures are not meant to be in scale with each other, as they are only representative of units, not individual tanks/infantry.

Here you see a set of Pacific Theatre theme figures. 

Now to the Western Front...

US Marines and Aussies in the forest.

A unit of Americans holding a town.

Memoir is obviously a hex based game.  We decided to create actual terrain hexes, as it made a huge difference in game play.  Its far easier to recognize what kind of terrain situations you are dealing with, and for those who have seen the battle reports, you know it make s huge cinematic difference as well.

More US figures, with Mediterranean Theater tossed in...

I have had all kinds of fun painting the various units in these specialized color scheme.  It's a training exercise for further forays into historical miniatures! :-)

I also enjoyed painting the cavalry units, as well as the early war French.  We have also painted them as Polish and Italian units, as you see by the ruined church.

As I close here, I want to say thanks to all the vets out there.  They sacrifice so that I can paint little pieces of plastic, resin, and metal.  My gratitude forever.

How do you stop a rhino from charging?

You take away his credit card, of course!  Yeah... it's late. :-)

A new type of critter from Mierce Miniatures.

The base is 60mm, so that gives you an idea of size!

More of these big boys to come...