2' x 2' Mini Terrain Table

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Because gamers like a big area for viewing and admiring, most of us have the typical 4' x 6' playing areas. Realistically, most of my games end up in tight quarters. Especially my skirmish games in 28mm. Solution: make a mini terrain table for those close quarters.

Start with a standard 2' x 2' acoustic ceiling tile
available at any hardware store.
Paint the edges with flat black for a better border

Inexpensive but very effective for most of my painting needs

Apply with a metal spatula a good base layer of a slurry mix
(sand, white glue, cheap gray acrylic craft paint and water).
Let dry and cure overnight then apply successive coats of dark brown wash

Again let dry and cure overnight

After the board was dry-brushed to my liking I then applied
white glue to random areas and sprinkled copious amounts of
static grass from Gale Force Nine

Let dry and cure overnight then take a tooth brush to
tease out (stand up) and remove excess static grass and Voila!

My whole intent was as mentioned above but after it was completed I knew that I could pose some of my minis on it for some cool diorama shots.

Steppe this way!
My Mongols from The Assault Group
and Old Glory lines in 28mm

Assortment of German Panzers: Stug III, Sd.Kfz 222 armored
car and Sd.Kfz 251 half-tracks from Bolt Action in 28mm

Same Panzers supplemented with 25mm BMW motorcycle 
troopen from Battle Honors (incidentally, putting them in the
foreground mitigates the scale disparity)

My 28mm Soviet Tankovy: KV1 and T34/76 from Battlemart
and armored cars: BA6 and BA64 from Bolt Action 

Showcasing some of my 6mm Modern micro armor from
GHQ: M1 Abrams, British Challenger and German Leopard 2
alongside Timecast buildings and haystacks

Ditto

Composed shot for my Instagram

The most Iconic WW2 Half Track yet!

The ubiquitous Sd.Kfz.251 Half Track by Hanomag is one of the most versatile AFVs in German arsenal and one of my favorites. I also have this vehicle in a few scales. 

(click on the pix to enlarge)

Some of it's variants... 

Here they are in 15mm for use with my Flames of War miniatures in front of some HO scale prepainted buildings I got from my local model railroad and trains store.

In a previous post "More PanzerGrenadiers" (http://thehistoricalminiaturist.blogspot.com/2010/07/more-panzergrenadiers.html) I featured these infantry and half tracks that were acquired from two different sources. They were already painted which suited me just fine. The dunkelgelb (German Armor Yellow) was OK but was lacking due to a typical application of camo on these later paint schemes. 

I planned to repaint them to Panzer Grey. Also the infantry was finished with a semi-gloss which is not to my liking. I prefer all my minis to have a flat matte finish that really helps the weathering effects.

Since these were acquisitions I can only guess who the manufacturers were. My guess for the infantry is Artisan. Company B for the halftracks. Chime in and let me know if you know.

Because of the coolness of the Bolt Action rules and the relative ease of play, my gaming group got some renewed interest in WW2 skirmishing. So that meant that the day finally arrived for repainting these bad boys to my preferred color. Time to get them out of mothballs for a makeover.   

Done and shown here with a mix of my German troops from different manufacturers: Battle Honors, BTD and Artisan(?).

At one point I thought these half tracks were from Warlord but upon my investigation of their site and online store, their models did not come with an integral base, like these models show.

I've since applied matte finish to the acquired infantry and have modified some of them as the gun crew for this 251/10.

They're ready to fight!

AT LAST: Completed GIs and Germans!

Woohoo! I've finally completed the GIs (not sure which manufacturer they're from) for Willy aka LTLDad, my Fallschirmjager MG42 team from Black Tree Design and BMW Troopen from Battle Honors.  Check 'em out:

Regular Dog Soldiers

Airborne Paratroopers

Fallschirmjager MG42 Team in ambush

BMW Troopen

WIP: BMW Troopen Part 2

Dry brushed and ready for color.

More PanzerGrenadiers

Oh boy! I just got some new toys to supplement my existing PanzerGrenadier force. A few days ago I acquired 2 packs of BMW w/sidecars with troops and

4 SdKfz 251 HT

Phong, who I got these from, is a great painter and a long time gamer with an awesome collection. Lucky for me he was divesting himself of some excellent 28mm WW2 minis. Always on the lookout for items that'll fit in the Eastern Front, his stuff will be a welcome addition and a compliment to mine.  

I'll eventually change the paint scheme of these half-tracks to gray, not to mention acquiring some gunners and crew in the near future. But for now they're pretty enough to go on my table for some posing and gaming along with my newly painted pzgrenadiers.

Here's the command 251/10

"Nur Bewegung bringt den Sieg."

(Only movement brings victory.)

Heinz Guderian

Coming soon: More Bugs! Look for it.

PanzerGrenadiers

Just finished a small unit of ten 28mm PanzerGrenadiers from Battle Honors for use with Nuts! They'll supplement my Fallschirmjagers nicely while duking it out with Strelkovy. A bit smaller than Black Tree Design. However the poses are pretty good aside from the obligatory prone figures and grenade throwing hero.