I’m planning on getting 465 Macedonian Phalangites, or more accurately men Armed in the Macedonian Fashion. And I want each unit of 15 figures to have a distinct shield design. So I’ve set out to make my own shield decals. In my preferred 15mm scale of figures, the decals have to fit shields that are about 8mm across. I’ve explored four options: (1) shrink my Macedonian Bronze Shield Designs – The Balagan Collection down to 8mm; (2) highlight in bronze; (3) highlight in black; (4) simplify in black. Which one to go for?
Making Stuff
My interest in wargaming includes military history, gaming, and modelling. This part of the website focuses on the last of those.
Burmese Battlefield Reinforcements
I was pretty happy with my Burmese battlefield but our Experiment in Ningthoukhong proved I needed more. More temples. More houses. More roads. More bunds. All this kit can do duty in the Burma Campaign in WW2 and most of it is good for Vietnam.
Mika’s Year 7 Castle Assignment – Berkhamsted Castle in 1:550th scale
Every Year 7 (age 11-12) student in the UK builds a motte and bailey castle. Dana did it five years ago with her Year 7 Castle Assignment – Lütjenburg Castle in 1:150th scale. This year it was Mika’s turn at a motte and bailey. As with the earlier project, Daddy was going to be involved. In fact, because Mika remembered watching Dana’s project unfold, she insisted on my involvement because she was determined to get the same recognition from the school as her sister had received. Luckily, I’d been thinking about this for five long years!
How big are Crossfire Terrain features
Sometimes people ask, how big should my Crossfire terrain be? It is really up to you. For myself, I started Crossfire using whatever terrain I had, but over the years I have standardised on the sizes. This is to make it easier to Draw Maps for Crossfire Scenarios. Check out the various Crossfire terrain type if you don’t recognise some of those I mention.
Custom made Manipuri Hindu Temple for 14th Army
The Burma Campaign includes the Japanese invasion of India in 1944. So the setting flips from Buddhist Burma to Hindu India. Our Experiment in Ningthoukhong made me realise that to refight Bishenpur, Potsangbam and Ningthoukhong, I really needed to supplement my Home made Burmese Pagoda with a Hindu Temple from Manipuri state. Here it is. I designed it and Warbases laser cut it from MDF.
Cool Ruins – The Mill from Stalingrad
I designed a version of “The Mill” from Stalingrad’s to use with Crossfiregrad. Warbases cut it out for me and then I assembled and painted it. This is part of my project to see use Cool Ruins for Crossfiregrad and Ponyri Station.
Modular Raised Roads sections for Burma
My research on Japanese Roadblocks in Burma. Roadblock Battles on the Retreat from Burma and Bishenpur, Potsangbam and Ningthoukhong – Gurkhas on the Imphal Plain 1944 convinced me I needed some raised road features for Burma. I designed the raised roads, S&A Scenics made them for me. and now I’ve painted and flocked them.
Designing Modular Raised Roads sections for Burma
Following on the previous success of my custom crests version 2 and the high rice paddy bunds for Burma, I’m now thinking of a set of raised roads. Raised roads were a common feature of Burma. They’ll be the same height as the previous features (1/4″ / 6mm). Otherwise they’d be, well, just roads. I’m hoping to convince Simon from S&A Scenics to make the base features then I’ll do the work to make them look like roads. This post is about my design for the roads, which was a project in itself.
WW2 Japanese Flags – Free Rising Sun Wargaming Flags for 15mm Scale
I’m in the process of basing my WW2 Japanese battalion for Crossfire. While I’m doing that I thought I’d sought out the flags. So I needed some Rising Sun flags in 15mm scale. A quick google revealed nothing so I made my own. I’m sharing them here so other folk can benefit.
Making a ford section for my 4 inch wide river
My research on Contested river crossings in the Seventeenth Century has convinced me I need some fords. Actually I need more river crossings in general, but I have some bridges and no fords. So I felt I had to correct that.
Making copses of 6mm scale trees using bumpy chenille pipe cleaners
I found my 15mm trees are too big for my 4 inch hexes on a Deep Battle table. I figured the answer was trees scaled for 6mm (1/285th) or 5mm (1/300th) wargames. Although I had some trees for 6mm scale, I realised I needed to get a lot more, quickly and cheaply. The method I describe here got me over a 1,000 trees for £10 (more or less).
Operational Terrain 8 – Monopoly Buildings to Fit 4 Inch Hexes
I’ve been doing some more musing on Operational level wargaming for my draft Deep Battle rule set. My Experiment on a 4 Inch Hex Grid forced me to get Tiny Hills to Fit the 4 Inch Hexes. Now I’m doing the same thing with buildings. In fact I’m using Monopoly buildings which are more like … Read more
Cliffs for Crossfire in Italy and Burma
Hit the Dirt (HTD) introduces Cliffs to Crossfire. And with my re-found interest in the Italian Campaign, I figured I needed some. Particularly as the HTD scenario “Cassino Massif” (p. 17-18) has a bunch. I think they’ll also be useful for Burma. So this is my new / updated cliff collection.
Making ravines and depressions for Crossfire
I’ve had a go at gullies and depressions before. But they look too much like hills. So I decided to have another go modelling just the edge of the depression. Then I took this concept further and modelled a modular ravine system. I featured both of these when I asked, How does my Burmese battlefield look? In this post I share a bit more about how I make these features.
How does my Burmese battlefield look?
I am always impressed by Brett Simpson’s Pacific War tables for Crossfire. He inspired me to improve my jungle terrain. More jungle will be useful for Burma, Portuguese Colonial Africa, and Vietnam. I made some steps before we played the Pick up game in Burma, but I wanted to make my tables even better. So I’ve been bolstering my crossfire terrain and now have Pagodas, rice paddies, Bamboo groves, boulder fields, rock fields, palm trees, ravines, depressions, Burmese houses, jungle undergrowth (not featured here), crests (not featured here) and cliffs (not featured here). Some of these I’ve posted about previously, and some are yet to come. Now, after all that effort, I wanted to know two things. Do I have enough jungle terrain to fill a table? Does my jungle terrain look good enough? So I got it all out and threw it on a 6’x4′ table. I can definitely fill a table. And I reckon the table looks good enough, not perfect, but good enough.