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Category: Making Stuff
Quite a lot of the Operational Level Wargames I looked at recently use a hex grid. And 4 inch hexes seem about the right size for the table top – at least to me – so I have been wondering what to do about terrain. My normal terrain will sit on hexes fine. But rivers are different. That realisation lead to experimenting with templates for generating river features to sit on top of a hex mat. 
I ran out of cardboard terrain templates in my recent game of Crossfire so I made some more and took the opportunity to take some photos. It is a pretty simple process. 
Brett Simpson has been busy building up terrain and troops for North Africa using Crossfire. He is also experimenting with my ideas on Crossfire in the Western Desert. Brett has been sharing photos with me as he went along so I thought I’d share them more widely. 
I was filing old papers tonight when I found a few photos of a very early game of Crossfire. Real photos, you know, the ones on photographic paper, from a shop. It took a while but I figure the game was Ponyri Station. I thought I’d share because, aside from the fact these are the only photos I have of a game of my favourite scenario from Hit the Dirt, they also show how I started out in Crossfire – using anything I had. 
Brett Simpson sent me a photo of a tree he’d made. I thought it was fantastic and asked Brett for some step by step instructions. So he sent me his approach to crafting trees using wire, steel wool, and flock. 
After many years of sitting in the kitchen of our flat to paint, I now have a room all to myself. It isn’t big enough to wargame in, but it is big enough to store my kit and to paint in. My work colleagues, who get glimpses of it on Skype, call it the “Man Cave”. 
Ross Kearns has launched a kick starter for a Tabletop Hex Terrain Toolkit. I asked Ross to write a guest article about it. All words and images are Ross’s. 
Around 2000 Barrie Lovell published, on the Grunt! website, a tip for adding undergrowth to Crossfire / Incoming! bases. Barrie dyes sisal string and uses this as vegetation. Since Grunt! has disappeared I thought I’d republish the article here. Barrie had in mind Vietnam / Incoming! and World War 2 / Crossfire. But this is a good technique for the Portuguese Colonial War / Fogo Cruzado. 
I’ve been experimenting with How to Track Fire Missions (FM) in Crossfire for years. In my latest experiment I’ve made some custom FM markers. 
Some of my projects take a long time to come to maturity. Inspired by the Stalingrad terrain of Battlefront Miniatures, I asked John Lowen from Ironclad Miniatures to make some of the chimneys that featured in the south, John made some beautiful models, and I painted them. You’ll see the photos below. Unfortunately the last step took 10 years and it seems Ironclad no longer stock the chimneys. Perhaps this post will inspire folk to ask John to reissue them. 
Mark Bretherton played my SU-152s Up Close and Personal scenario again. In his previous battle report he described the scenario as “cracking”. It seems he still likes it. This time Mark included some photos of his game and of his urban Crossfire set up. I really like the effect Mark has achieved with his terrain and table so asked him for more details on how he did it. Everything is scratch built and looks fantastic. An inspiration. All words and photos are Mark’s… 
My big Crossfire game set in Stalingrad is going to require a lot of rubble. Although I’m happy with the sand I use for flocking, it isn’t chunky enough to be rubble. I needed something grittier. So I made my own. It is pretty simple. Brute force simple. 
Every time I order anything from Warbases I order a set of their 15mm Stalingrad Buildings. They are great value. For £7 I get two buildings that are robust, can be assembled in two configurations and, when used en-masse, give me variety of town layouts. 
My current wargaming boards/mats/cloths are a bit of hodgepodge, including about six different types of battle board/mats/clothes – none of which I’m happy with. I’m still looking for the perfect solution and also see a chance to rationalise on a consistent approach and colour scheme. I wanted to try building some wargaming boards with a wooden frame but it all started looking too hard for a carpentry klutz likely myself. Luckily Simon Miller of the Big Red Bat Cave suggested I have look at some of David Marshall’s work at TMterrain. I ended up buying a table from David 
I picked up a 15mm Ruined Factory feature from Wargames Tournaments. Perfect for snipers perched on an upper floor. The trouble is that Crossfire demands that building are made up of regular shaped building sectors. Mine are usually 3″ x 3″. So what should I do? How can I use that big feature in Crossfire? |
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