Trench and criticism

I have a reasonable sized WW1 collection. My1914 figures are Baccus 6mm, 1916 onwards are Minifig 15mm. I've had them a while (obviously - I wouldn't buy the Minifigs now. Peter Pig are nicer and cheaper). I've covered a few games with them over the years. When I started building the 15mm armies over 30 years ago (I know - I had to check it too) I cut a load of quadrant beading into sections to make trench sides, and I also wound a lot of wire round a pencil in order to make barbed wire entanglements. The beading is very flexible and has done good service in various periods and settings since I chopped it up. I bought a mitre block specially to do it. Money well spent.

However I now have a problem. My next project for a Battlefield Society game is to look at the Northamptonshire Regiment in the Great War. The 6th (service) battalion was a remarkable unit. Less well known in some ways than the 1st & 2nd battalions - the Regulars - and the 7th "Mobbs' Own" - men serving with it won four (yes FOUR) VCs during the war. More than most other battalions, and more than the rest of the Northamptonshire Regiment put together. In order to make a participation game based on one of their actions quick and easy to play I want to run it on my hex mat. Alas the quadrant beading is a bit long for the edges and doesn't work well across the inside either. Hmm. Need to make some hex friendly trench sections.

Now I could go and cut a load of beading again, but the bits will be short and they will look like quadrant beading. Martin Rapier of the excellent "Games We Play Blog" did a piece recently on making hex friendly river sections , and I thought that sort of technique would work for me. 

Well, it didn't. I then tried making strips using lolly sticks and tongue depressors, bolstered by pea gravel and polyfilla. That didn't work either. I concluded in the end that I probably needed something like air dry clay / Das Pronto. I reckoned I could use it to make 15mm sand bags in strips, then glue them up in piles to make a parapet.

I thought that I'd be able to cut base templates from thick card and glue them to that. This card is actually from unwanted Dominion boxes. I rolled out little sausages of the clay, smeared the bases with PVA, then applied the "sausage". Once in place I could flatten it slightly, and then incise it with a knife to make the ends of the bags.

It went okay at first, then as the clay dried it started to warp the bases a bit. It did actually dry flat in the end. Almost. However, I realised I was going to need at least four courses of bags, and that was going to take forever, allowing for drying time, and probably wouldn't look right. More mealie bags against Zulus than a trench parapet lined by Huns.

My solution - initially decided up on to stop the warping - was to use foam board, of which I have several offcuts lying around.

This worked quite well, and it occurred to me that the added height meant I was getting a sand bags on top of an earth parapet sort of look. Or at least I would once the foam board has been sealed off with PVA and sand.

Here's the finished pre-painted construction, with some German defenders. It's obviously not coming up as high on the figure as it should do, but I had tried that with the lolly stick and gravel construction technique, and that had ended up with the base being too wide to stop it toppling over. This conveys what I want, I think. I'll know for sure once I've painted them.

I did some two hex frontage sections, and another single hex section, so I can run a trial on the table. I've increased the thickness of the bags a bit to add a little more height. Top left the original prototype has been coated in Dulux. I've reused the bags for the other trials, having mostly peeled them off their cardboard backing.

Here we are with the bags dry brushed with desert yellow, and the base with a bit of table top green. 

Yes, I think those will do. Just got to make a whole lot more now, but I've got a methodology, so it won't take me more than a day or two, once I can find the time to sit down and work at the production line.