Mass Production of Bolt Action Buildings

I am just about finished with the building construction phase for my new set of Bolt Action terrain. If you read my blog regularly, then you might remember that previously I had made a large number of 28mm or 1/56 scale buildings for Bolt Action using silicon molds and resin. This time around for 20mm, I decided to use dental plaster for the material. The buildings are definitely more fragile, but they are much easier to work with, and overall, it has been a much more enjoyable process.

The essential construction technique used here has been casting basic building blocks and then then plastering over them allowing brick and stonework to show through. Despite a very quick paint jobs intended to just block in color (sub 30 minutes), I am impressed.

Two techniques for quick and easy brick/stone mortar

1. Base bricks with red primer
2. airbrush on thinned white Humbrol enamel paint
3. wet napkin with enamel thinner and wipe the white off of the raised areas

1. Base bricks with red primer
2. airbrush on thinned Tamiya white paint
3. wipe off raised areas using a paper towel wet with x-20A thinner

Both  techniques are easy. The enamel method requires careful cleaning of the airbrush due to switching between oil and water based paints, but provides a white that is much easier to erase from raised edges. The Tamiya acrylic method requires scrubbing and the produces a rough surface. Either method is super fast and easy.

Thirty Houses Cast

I am finally beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel for this project. There is an awful lot to do on the buildings, including pouring the missing floors, finishing the the roofing, and adding all the fiddly details that make terrain look really cool. However, I think the overall feel of the board is beginning to take shape. I like where this is going. There are some centerpieces that need to be completed, but those are waiting some moulds from overseas.

On this project, I am going to be spending more time on the terrain than on the models that will fight over it. I think that is probably the right balance of time. As Wargames Soldiers and Strategy put it in one of their recent issues, 'terrain is for life'.

And Now Some Ruined Houses

After constructing buildings all day I looked around and saw a pile of offcuts and broken bits. A few minutes later I had two ruined buildings. One of them is a ruined stone duplex. The other is a brick structure similar to the brick city houses I was building. I think the mass of debris for the duplex looks ok, but the brick house debris pile is a bit small.

Ever Onward Building Houses

The newest style of house is a stone duplex with external outhouses and a walled garden. The walls are not done yet, but you can glimpse one of them in the top left of the second photo. I am beginning to feel a bit fatigued by the process, but I think the results will look really nice painted up an placed on the tabletop. I have a more intricate large building design that when places with the others will provide a more Belgian feel to the city. One thing I have to resolve is how to attach the two roof halves on the duplexes. I managed to make my original roof moulds a tad bit too short.

One thing I am really looking forward to is making the partially destroyed buildings. I think they will go together pretty quickly, and will add a lot of narrative value to the table.

I think I might do another dozen and then stop. I think I'll have fulfilled my club duty at that point.

The image above is a quick paint test on one of the damaged wall sections. I tried 4 colors, along with some selective shading on the piece. I think I like a combination of all three colors across the bottom edge. The yellow does not work but perhaps it will grow on me in time.

Construction Begins On Market Garden

Our club has decided to attempt a rather ambitious club game covering the battle of Arnhem during operation Market Garden. Normally I would cast each side wall separately, but for some reason I decided I wanted each floor to be removable. This has slowed down the process, and due to increased carelessness on my part, resulted in some pretty terrible wall joins. On the other hand, we have floors! Just the thought of trying to dig Frost's paratroopers out of all of these buildings makes me cringe. I guess that is what artillery is for. Better make some ruins!

Prototype 20mm Row House For Bolt Action

What you see here is the first prototype row house, that I constructed to test some Linka molds and a new type of plaster. Before embarking on a significant project, I like to test the waters with some prototypes. I learned quite a few things this time around.

• Garrecco plaster is vastly better than Magic Merlin. It takes a full day to become rock hard, but it can be de-molded in 30 minutes. 
• Garrecco needs a thin coat of watered down white glue to provide a good surface for painting. 
• Floors can be easily poured into each level using masking tape. Once dry, the piece is solid. 
• Linka molds are wonderful for their lego-like quality, but require so many pours of plaster that it becomes numbing. It would be better if I had duplicates of the most important molds. 
• An entire city built this way would take a long time if I did not make molds of semi-completed buildings. 

I am very pleased with the results and will be using Linka and Garrecco to make additional buildings.  These will be split into roughly two camps. I'll be making factory buildings, office buildings, and larger apartment buildings for industrial tables, and then row houses, shops, corner buildings, and assorted small town stuff for villages and city outskirts. In a dream version of this, I'd be able to cast whole buildings with a single pour. That would drastically increase throughput and let me build larger table sections.