Tre Sassi

Lots of goodies due here in Tokyo this week through the post.

I've ordered both French and Austro-Hungarian minis from Scarab Miniatures, including an observation, AA and MMG team for the fort garrison. Also on their way are a bunch of round 25mm bases from Litko Aerosystems, and three boxes (eighteen metres worth!) of barbed wire from Antenociti's Workshop.

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Work on the Collina Della Formica continues apace. I spent the last few days on the laborious- and totally unexciting- task of modelling the stone effect in the trenches and and on the walls. A mix of techniques, but the effect is pretty good.


Now I have to finish texturing the inside walls with a few think coats of filler to blend in the card and balsa "stonework", and then I'll glue down the larger walls.

After filling in any gaps I'll add the emplacement covers and doors, then it is pretty much a matter of painting.

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A large part of the inspiration behind this is the Festung Tre Sassi, an Austro-Hungarian fort built in 1897 near Cortina.

Here in 1916,



...and as seen today. What a beautiful place to have to be fighting a war!



When the Italians declared war in 1915, the Austrians actually decided to withdraw from their line of forts in the Dolomites to a line further back from the border, and used the mountains themselves- to great effect- as natural fortresses for the Italians to have to attack.

There appears to be a good museum at the Tre Sassi that I'd love to visit if I ever get to that corner of Europe.

Il Piave mormorò....

Dating from 1918, a popular Italian song about the Piave campaign.

Austrian Terror Weapons...

DeathTrapp?

No, I'm actually talking about this;

I'm putting together an order for some more of the excellent Scarab miniatures, and find myself hesitating about whether to order a flamethrower or not.

The idea of deliberately setting out to grill one's fellow man or to ruin his lungs (as was the case with my great-grandfather) for the sake of the fulfilment of some political goal or redrawing of a border just doesn't sit comfortably with me. 

Yes, I know I'm being neither logical nor consistent. War is hell in all it's aspects, and being blown to fragments by a shell or being hit in the face by a high-velocity rifle bullet can be no less horrific, but there is something about the use of flamethrowers- and the use of toxic gas- that "pushes the envelope" of my comfort level when it comes to using them in a wargame. 

It is a personal thing. It is not something that I need a debate with others on, or that I lose sleep over. I know it is just a game. I may very well order them anyway just as models anyway. 

 

Somewhat heavy thoughts for what is after all just a gaming blog, but for me the issue sometimes arises, particularly when gaming WW1 and later where one doesn't have the excuse of colourful uniforms to justify collecting the miniatures.  

I've had an interest in military history all my life, and as I look at the human cost vs. ultimate benefit side of things down through the ages, the study has pretty well made a pacifist out of me.  

And like that other great pacifist and pioneer of our present-day hobby,  H.G. Wells, I like to limit myself to just playing with toy soldiers.  

I won't be bringing up this issue again on this blog, but I do feel that it healthy for me to reflect on just how nasty warfare can be in the scientific age, and not to let myself get too divorced from the reality as we move our metal models around on the tabletop. 

More WIP pics

Spent the afternoon working on the stonework again. These were cut into the surface of the papier-mâché. I like how they came out.

I also used a sheet of thin card to cut out the stonework for the trench mortar emplacement. Looks rather like ceramic bathroom tile in this picture, but I will give it wash of PVA/filler "goo" to soften the edges.   All will be hidden under a coat of paint later anyway.

The top "decking" between the ruined walls will get the same treatment. I will add a hatch to the floor to represent access to the MMG pit below.

Another day or so with the trench interiors, then I will begin work on the walls.  About another week to go and it will be ready for painting!

Stoned...

A very quickie update. I have now installed all the trench bays, and am fitting out the interiors and have started on the external stonework.

The section on the right was cut into the papier-mâché surface.

The section on the left was made from balsa chunks. Once dry, they will be trimmed down and given a thin coat of acrylic filler, with more filler used to blend it into the surrounding rock face.

The blue foam wall rubble was just marked in with a ball-point pen.

The same after some work with acrylic filler and trowel.

The other big news for me is that I have just received my copy of Mark Thompson's "The White War".

I'm already hooked- great reading ahead!

Back to work!!

I have just spent the last few days in Kashima city on a business trip, and when I came back I resumed work on the Collina della Formica.

Before I left I had glued the observation post bay assembly into the top, so that by the time I returned it had had plenty of time to dry out. Now I can get to work knocking it around again!

Just one more bay to complete and the trench assemblies are done.

There is a little more work to do on the internal planking and detailing, and I'm going to add a stone floor to the mortar enplacement for variety. I've also started "dressing" the stone work on the parapets.

I still need to add a detachable top for both the machine gun emplacement and the observation post- currently I'm pondering the best way to do this and what material I should use.

The foam walls you see here have been placed in position with toothpicks, but have not yet been detailed. Once I do this, and the trenches are completely finished, then I'll glue the walls down with PVA.

I also decided to re-contour the base around the ruined walls so that the building doesn't look so much like it was perched on top of a birthday cake. It entails some extra work to the project, but I feel it makes for quite an improvement.

The same, after having covered the foam with a "goop" made from a mixture of papier-mache, filler, and PVA.


When that dries out and the walls have been glued down, I'll use acrylic-based putty to enhance the look of the rock formations.

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I found another photo of an actual Austro-Hungarian fortification of the time. Somewhat similar to my image of what the Collina della Formica may have looked like before having been shelled into rubble!


I'm under some time pressure to get the actual construction done though. Here is what my desk currently looks like- a major disaster area! No place for any painting and there is much too much dust around to do any painting anyway.

So once the model is completed, I'll leave it a few days for the glue and filler to dry out thoroughly. At that time I'll organize my desk top, and clean the room completely so that there is no dust to settle on wet paint.

Then I'll get to work on painting its garrison of Kaiserliks, and on undercoating the "Anthill" prior to the massive undertaking of painting it!

I'm probably looking at the end of the month as a completion date.

Problem solved!

One thing that was bothering me about the model so far was that the top seemed too "flat" for a hill of it's size, yet I didn't want to make it too much taller for storage reasons, and I certainly didn't want to make the base any bigger; which I would have had to have done, if the hill was to have been made any taller and yet retain some sense of proportion.

I think I have the solution, though. The position will be a fortified ruin. Maybe an old church or monastery that in happier, pre-war times would have looked something like this;


War has no respect for scenic beauty, and with the entry of Italy into the war against the Central Powers (treacherous swine!) and a couple of heavy bombardments later, any such structure would be left in ruins with the defenders using the basements and cellars as the basis of a prepared fortification as was common at the time, as witness the defence of many a chateau in France along the Western Front.

Therefore the top of the hill will have traces of walls and rubble, and perhaps the remains of a fallen roof or bell tower. Making convincing-looking ruins will in many ways prove more of a challenge than making an actual building itself in its entirety.

I bought some 7mm foam core board- the thin kind that is sandwiched between paper, and which is used for signs and such things. They will form the remaining wall sections, with rubble from a variety of carved foam and wooden off-cuts used to cover the base. The whole thing will be given a very thin, watered-down coat of plaster and sand "goop" before painting to blend it all together, and give everything an "old and decrepit" look.

Someone who has visited the Dolomites has pointed out to me that mountain houses often have walls of at least half a meter thick - indeed I have seen building like this in the mountains of Iwate in Northern Japan when I lived there for five years. If I double up the thickness of the foamboard for the remnants of the outside walls, that should look about right. I'll also be adding stonework out of card which along with the coat of filler should add to the overall mass.