I'm assembling a force for Flames of War: the British 1st Airborne, from A Bridge Too Far. The 1st Division fought in Africa, Sicily and Europe, most famously they are known for their part in Operation Market-Garden (which the above mentioned book is specifically covering), the largest Airborne operation in history. The aim was to drop Airborne forces ahead of an advancing XXX Corps to capture bridges and gain a foothold over the Rhine river, and thus a point from which to drive into Germany.
The 1st Airborne Division was given the final bridge, located in Arhnem as their target, only one brigade would end up reaching the bridge under Col. Frost, with ~700 men they held one end of the bridge for 4 days before eventually surrending after they had expended every last bullet. The rest of the Division was held up at Oosterbeek, until, despite attempts to reinforce them, they were evacuated. XXX corps was 3 days behind schedule due to the Germans being in far better condition than expected and the paratroopers had held out for longer than they had been expected to be capable of. They also had to contend with a number of elite German division that they thought had been destroyed in previous battles or weren't believed to be located there.
The ultimate aim was to end the war by Christmas 1944, though the mission was a failure nobody has ever said it wasn't worth the attempt. The 1st Airborne Division was all but destroyed in the operation.
Well that a bit of the history behind the force out of the way. In this journal I will try to show progress of how I am going. I will also try to explain how I am doing various bits a pieces, so feel free to ask questions or for me to explain something in particular.
Test Squad
This is the first squad that I have done as a test to make sure I'm happy with what the end product is before I go mass producing it. I'm doing almost everything using the methods shown in the back of A Bridge Too Far.
- Front View
- 100_1078.JPG (223.86 KiB) Viewed 116 times
- Left Side View
- 100_1075.JPG (208.19 KiB) Viewed 116 times
- Right Side View
- 100_1077.JPG (211.13 KiB) Viewed 115 times
- Rear View
- 100_1076.JPG (217.18 KiB) Viewed 115 times
- Aerial View
- 100_1079.JPG (277.52 KiB) Viewed 115 times
Lessons learnt doing this:
1. The road needed to be fully modelled before I put anything else on the base.
2. Milliput isn't suitable for the level of detail. (Now using greenstuff)
3. Bases on the figures need to be filed down lower before being glued on.
Another error that I made was to use two beret models as they are rarer, even more so the one with the bren machine gun (one on the left) as there are very few of them.
My intention is that every base looks like a mini-diorama. Each base is effectively half a squad but as they are in a city fight looking map they would be opperating in small groups anyway so should still look reasonably uniform. This particular base has two guys covering a spot whilst waving the other two on.
I'm currently making up bases with the cobblestone pattern out of greenstuff in preparation for making a mould of the bases. It take about an hour to produce a single standard size base, of which I've now done 5 and have 1 to go, then 4 command bases.
I currently have paints on order (along with more models and the last things I need to play) which will allow me to paint the test base and determine whether I can paint the figures on the base or whether I will have to paint them off the base them put them on.
My primary aim is to have this list: viewtopic.php?f=148&t=5522 done by Genesis next year, though I should have way more done by then as my secondary aim involves a game of Total War. Though with a campaign later this year I'm hoping to have most of it assembled by the end of this uni semester.
