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.
To quote my own Timeline of the Battle of Stalingrad:
At 1800 hours [on 23 Aug 1942] the Luftwaffe commenced its bombing campaign of Stalingrad (Fowler, 2005). This was the heaviest raid the Luftwaffe had conducted since 22 Jun 1941, and included all 1,200 available planes (Beevor, 1999; Clark, 1965). Over 40,000 people were killed in the first week of bombing. Most of the wooden buildings on the outskirts of Stalingrad burned during the night. Subsequent fighting in those areas took place in the charred remains of the bungalows and workers settlements, where there was little cover except for the forest of brick chimneys that remained.
I wanted some. After a short email exchange, John Lowen of Ironclad Miniatures agreed to make some chimneys. He subsequently added these to his 15mm range (and another set for his 20mm range).
I chose to put each destroyed house on a 3″ x 3″ base. This is the standard size for my Generic Building Sectors for Crossfire. Of course you might choose to do something different.
I think John did a fine job in sculpting the chimneys and destroyed houses. The actual buildings had brick foundations which survived the bombing and fires. John has modelled these nicely.
All John asked in return was that I send him some photos to base his models on. I sent John two. The first was the photos that really got me going. It comes from Colin’s Stalingrad Buildings for Flames of War.
The other was a historical photos of what the chimneys actually looked like.
It has taken me 10 yeas to paint these. I like the way they look. It is a shame Ironclad have taken them out of their shop. It seems I won’t be able to get any more.
I’m also not sure how I’ll use them in Crossfire. Building sectors or just rough ground?
Very interesting bit of scenery, with specific historical character. I vote rough ground. There’s almost no overhead cover and dips don’t look very deep.
Agreed. Troops would have to use ground hugging to make use of that cover from indirect fire.
Thanks for the suggestions. In Crossfire “rough ground” provides cover to both direct and indirect fire. So perhaps I should count this as a field of chimneys – I like the phrase – so occupants don’t get cover from mortars and such like but will get cover from direct fire.
These are really interesting pieces! I think rough ground for sure.
I reached out to Iron Clad. They are remastering the molds for these. They will be putting them back up at some point.
cool.