Building Villers-Bocage

As mentioned previously on this blog, I have been building up the forces and terrain to run the The Battle for Villers-Bocage scenario in the Battlefront book Viller-Bocage. While my son and I have just about finished painting the forces for the scenario (I still have some Panzer Lehr motorcycle stands to finish), the number of houses for this scenario is daunting. I set up all the houses I have built/acquired to far to get a sense of what I have left to purchase and paint. It is a good start, but I have a way to go.

Most of the houses are made by Musket Miniatures, http://www.musketminiatures.com/, which I think are the best available and fit many FOW size stands. They are somewhat expensive and do require a fair amount of effort to paint well. This pays off, but given my painting speed, is a small problem.

Other buildings are from Crescent Root, http://crescent-root.com/,
which are very good and come painted. Alas, this manufacturer is currently in production limbo and thus the buildings aren't available, whether I could afford them or not. Perhaps this is just as well.

I just found a new German company,Najewitz Modellbaushop, http://www.shop-021.de/shop-najemo.html, which makes Normandy row houses. These look very nice and I ordered a set of seven to see how they work out for this scenario. I am not sure how well you can put stands inside of the buildings, which makes the Musket Miniatures buildings so attractive. After I get these I will have to compare and contrast the pros and cons of all the various manufacturers. Anyway, back to the paint mines.

The center of Villers-Bocage before the Germans attacked and the Allies bombed it into the rubble of rubble.

A view down the main street. The buildings on the left are Musket Miniatures. The ones on the right is Crescent Root.

A German Tiger Tank for comparison in the narrow streets of Villers-Bocage.

Another view on the town. The buildings in the center foreground are from Miniature Building Authority, http://www.miniaturebuildingauthority.com/. These look nice, and can be disassembled to reveal ruins, but have little space for normal infantry stands to hide in.

Another view. I need to get more cobblestone roads as well. These are by JR Miniatures, http://02a7218.netsolstores.com/ , which I think are very nice.

Herr Oberststurmfuhrer orders greater effort to finish off the terrain before the war ends.