A castle update!

My apologies one and all for it has been far too long since I have posted here.  I am pleased to report all is well, but such is the pace and involvement of working with the new procedures and protocols that hobby time has been in short supply of late.  I have found that I miss, terribly, the interaction with those of you that pass by these pages and so have looked to Facebook as a means of maintaining an online presence.  If truth be told, I haven't quite got to grips with it yet, but hope that this might serve as a creative outlet in the months to come; do please seek me out, I promise no pictures of kittens!

The main purpose of posting today was to give the briefest of updates regarding the Battle of Schloss Itter project. A couple of weeks ago James and I finally managed to assembly the four boards for the first time in the front hall of my school. It was a wonderful to see the layout as planned and although some elements were not as finished as we had envisaged, we were looking forward to taking some photographs and video. Unfortunately the second lockdown has curtailed our plans again and we are faced with the inevitability that the castle will need to be quietly dismantled and stored away. In the brief time that it was available to the pupils, parents and staff we were heartened by the interest it garnered and so felt that we needed to commemorate the achievement in some small way. To that end James and I have recorded a Zoom conversation to share our thoughts about the concept and construction of the project.  The link to which is at the bottom of this post.

Regular reading of this most humble of weblog will remember that my good friend and colleague, James Walters was the creative genius behind the architectural modelling of Schloss Itter. During the lockdown period James has kept himself busy creating much of his beloved Bexhill West railway station and sharing many of the techniques employed in the castle design in a series of informative tutorials. This channel has gone from strength to strength and any you that may harbour a desire to create your own laser cut terrain pieces will surely find something of interest.

With regards to our conversation, I warn you now that speaking on camera is not something I find comes naturally to me, but I hope that those who have persevered with our journey will enjoy sharing some of our memories with us. Given today is Remembrance Sunday it seemed a fitting day to reflect on the broader purpose of the project, which was to celebrate the end of hostilities in Europe seventy five years ago.

I hope that you are all remain safe and healthy,

Michael

We Will Remember Them

Loot Markers

I have been looking forward to sharing these elements, for no other reason that I am chuffed to bits with them!  From very early on in the game's design considerations, I was keen to include some element of chance to the proceedings, this is not a new concept and is lifted directly from some of my more enjoyable gaming experiences such as Congo and Zombicide.  

I wanted players to interact with elements drawing what is in effect a chance card that could then have an impact on game play, be it positive or negative.  The cards themselves were considered a while a go, with my thought process laid out in the post, 'On the turn of a card'.  I was hoping that this element would bring some levity to the game, making it more about the experience than a strategic wargame.  

I knew that we could design a set of tokens to place in the game to represent these chance encounters and that their position could again influence decisions made, for example placed within range of the castle defenders would an attacking squad run the risk of interacting and winning a game changing panzerfäust or will they see their troops gunned down for a humble bratwurst?  Decisions, decisions.

Inspiration came from the great many examples of 'jumping off' points devised for games like Bolt Action and so having decided on 40mm MDF discs as a starting point, I began collecting together elements from left offer sprues and the bits box.  Most came together very quickly and are grouped in sets like the 'fuel dump' or food supplies, which were actually one piece resin casts from 'Bad Squiddo Games'.  The weapons caches were all based around some '4Ground' packing crates that I had kicking around and proved just the job to 'stage' the individual arms, the irony being that they are bought as pre-painted, but were then undercoated when I had everything assembled! 

I haven't really considered just how many of these stands would be available to players in the game, but given the size of the playing area I set myself the target of eighteen, for no better reason than that was how many bases I had to hand.  Initially the thought was that they would be generic to both sides, but as I started to mull the idea over I decided it might be fun to have certain markers that would be placed just in the castle and others available to the attackers and could therefore be themed accordingly.  This is where things started to get out of hand...

Discarded luggage, looted family heirlooms from the castle armoury or discarded Nazi documents all made it into the castle, I even headed the file paper with a German eagle!  Outside we can find a teddy bear's picnic on a hand painted rug and evidence of the revenge of a certain red cloak wearing heroine; anything was possible.  It was always my intention, if time permitting, to have some fun with these markers and this was definitely a situation were having the time just to tinker around has befitted the outcome.  My apologies for a rare moment of self congratulation, but I couldn't be happier with them and can't wait to see the markers take their place on the boards.

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The Monarch of the Glen

More fauna and set dressing, this time in the shape of a couple of packs of 'Wargames Foundry' deer.  These were purchased off the back of the wild boar post, 'Bringing home the bacon',  where Paul of 'Paul's Bods' fame had suggested that Roe and Red deer were plentiful in the Austrian forests and by happenstance 'Wargames Foundry' were running a sale; the rest, as they say, is history.

When they arrived I couldn't have been more thrilled, beautifully cast and with very little work needed in preparation.  A modicum of research revealed that there were subtle differences in markings between the breeds, but a red brown sufficed as the base coat for both.  To be perfectly honest, I couldn't see past Sir Edwin Landseer's iconic painting of c.1851.  Just like the painting this stag boasts an impressive twelve point, or royal, set of antlers and it's easy to see how the Victorian painting embodied all that is majestic and mysterious about the lands North of the boarder.  

Sadly, by the twentieth century the painting had become something of a cliché, the sort of image that might adorn a tin of all butter shortbread or a bottle of whisky, but it still holds a sense of mastery to me and so I am happy to champion it in miniature, even adding a clump of purple heather on the base; a little bit of Scotland in a far off corner of some foreign field.

I have to say that they make quite a lovely family group, with the addition of a couple of fawns that I couldn't resit painting to look like Bambi.   I hope to return them to the wild when we finally reunite the boards, but have made a solemn promise to James' mother that no harm will befall any livestock placed on the board, so they really are only to be considered set dressing.

One unexpected advantage of being holed up during the ongoing crisis is that all those 'extension' tasks that were to be considered if we had time have now been completed; a case in point would be more livestock!  Stuck to lolly pop sticks, patiently awaiting their repatriation are creatures form a variety of sources including bunnies from 'Bad Squiddo Games' and 'Warbases', a couple of toads from 'Master Crafted Miniatures', some pheasants, again from 'Warbases' and a couple of fish, sadly not included in this photograph, from 'Wargames Terrain Workshop'.

I even managed to finish some wolves, yet again from the ever dependable 'Warbases' and a nun.  Originally from 'Conquest Games', the nun's head was flattened and a crude crucifix fashioned from some plastic strip so as to create a passing semblance to Mother Abbess from the Sound of Music.  I have absolutely no idea if these will have any role to play in the game, although I quite liked the idea of Mother Abbess just randomly moving around the board, joining everyone in song,

"Climb Ev'ry Mountain".

Regardless of their ultimate use it is good to have finally ticked off these elements that have been cluttering up the painting desk for so long.  I have been beavering away on the plot points or markers for the game and will hopefully be in a position to share those shortly and then, fingers crossed, we may have the big reveal!

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A work in progress#3

This will be the final work in progress post with regards to the gaming boards and comes about due to a much needed sort out of the photographs I had taken just before lockdown.  It seems strange looking at them again now, especially as the four boards have not been in the same room since December.  The opening set of shots detail the finishing touches on the first two boards with item like the log cabin, electricity substation and ground cover all in situ. 

We then move on to the final two boards and some interesting design elements had to be considered, most notably the shape cut out of one.  As the scale and height of the castle became evident we started to worry about the playability of the game, particularly at Salute.  It was painfully obvious that players, certainly those that were small of stature, would struggle to access the miniatures on the castle walls from the far side of the board.  So it is that we have the rather fetching organic shape towards the rear of the castle.  This board also holds one or two other surprises for no other reason than we were starting to feel more confident in the construction methods used.  To that end the mountain stream continues, but is polluted by the sewage drain from the castle.  Needing a place to forge the stream without penalty, I also constructed a simple stone bridge out of scrap pieces of foam and then there is the dinosaur fossil.  A complete fabrication and fanciful element, but everything is better with dinosaurs, right?

Te final board is, in effect, the base of the castle itself and if you look closely you can see a yellow tissue paper template that represents the structure's footprint.  I hinted at the remains of the medieval predecessor to the current Schloss with more foam pieces and both areas are tied together with trees that match the same pattern and colours used in the original boards. 

I really can't explain just how excited I am to see all four boards reunited and populated with the completed miniatures.  It will be an opportunity to see what finishing details are required, but also to reflect on what has been a very strange and unforeseeable journey.

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28mm Electricity Substation

Just a quick post this morning as it occurred to me that we haven't really showcased this particular example of James' amazing work.  The electricity substation is a wonderful example of just how confident James has become in realising my intentions, it is as if he can see into my mind, a truly terrifying thought!  In this instance, I had happened across a reference of the battle in the Prison Journal of France's former Prime Minister, Édouard Daladier, which read...

two of the German soldiers who had come with [Gangl] had taken up positions, with their rifles resting on the window sills.  They pointed out [SS troops] firing at the "castle" from a few hundred yards away, near the little electric plant, on the edge of the forest.

James and I talked about this exchange for awhile, what it might look like, both agreeing that it would serve absolutely no purpose to the game, but might make another of those, oh so interesting, extras that we both enjoyed.

The next thing I know a fully realised substation has been designed and built by James, I was nothing short of flabbergasted!  Other than paint the groundwork, this is all James' handiwork including the specially designed electricity cable drums with their cheeky names.

Looking at it again, during this period of isolation, I was instantly transported back to a time when young Master Awdry, was routinely terrified by any number of public information films, in this instance Play Safe - Kites and Planes.

I shan't spoil the ending, but suffice to say it is a shocking tale of misadventure and the reason why James' substation know has a blue kite lodged atop the the transformer bushings.* 

*I may have just made up that technical term.

There was something rather enjoyable about fashioning a kite from some tissue paper and florists' wire, yet another wonderful diversion, but just had to be done! 

One last photograph below of the substation in situ, which I discovered when tidying up some folders last week.  There were a number of shots of the final two boards before I had to leave them, which I shall edit and share as a final work in progress post.

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Rubicon Models SdKfz 7 8ton Half-track

June already and the prospect of further restrictions being lifted in the near future gives me some hope that the various elements of the Schloss Itter project will finally be reunited.  Both James and I are keen for this to happen, not least so we can see what finishing touches need to made in order to bring it to some form of resolution.  There is no doubt that working from home for the last two months, allowing myself an hour or so a day hobby time, has seen most things on my 'to do' list ticked off, one of those being this rather splendid 'Rubicon Models' Half-track.

James very kindly put this kit together when I was elbow deep in builders' caulk and Sculptamold and then it sat idly for an age waiting for me to paint it.  In my defence the Half-track was only ever going to be for table dressing, an element to hint at how the mighty '88 had managed to be deployed before shelling the castle.  That said it is another fine model with a good number of options and so warranted some love and attention.

Given that it was supposed to have towed the '88 into position, I approached the painting in the same way starting with some bold strokes of colour with the trusty airbrush.  These were then refined with the brush before going to town with the weathering and chipping.  This final stage is still approached with some trepidation as the idea of 'distressing' a perfectly serviceable paint job seems a little counterintuitive, but I feel as if I am becoming more familiar with the techniques and so a little more confident with managing my expectations.

With the painting finished it still felt a little incomplete, possibly as I have chosen not to base this model and so it is without the customary flock and tufts that have adorned the previous models.  Fortunately I had picked up a stowage set from the same company with a view of making some loot markers for the game and a quick review of the sprue threw up a couple of possibilities in the shape of a tool chest and rolled up flag.  

Once again I need to credit he very talented Nick of 'Moiterei's Bunte Welt' fame for the idea of the flag, something I had seen on his amazing blog and was keen to try for myself; the splash of vibrant red really helping to lift the piece.  The final detail was some of my home made camouflage net, stowed in the rear cradle, ready to deploy.  Having been a model that I was struggling to get started on, the half-track has now become one of my favourite pieces and I am thrilled to see it next to the '88, just want to see it on the table now!   

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