Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Building Boom at Villers Bocage

Over the past few months I have amassed a number of new buildings via direct purchase from various manufacturers and eBay. I think I now have a sufficient number of buildings to run the Villers Bocage scenario, or at least be committed to the local addiction center. I have a LOT of painting to do, but the houses can't be worse than painting the road wheels on 11 Panzer Mk IV Hs. Here is the layout so far. I still need some additional roads, but that can wait a bit.


Villers Bocage, the whole thing.

Looking across the town.

Another view looking west to east.


The main road flanked by Musket Miniature houses.


The wreck of Herr Wittman's Tiger is one of the German objectives.


More Musket Miniature buildings make up the northern side of the town.


On the southern end of the village zoning laws are less stringent. In the background are French row houses by Najewitz Modellbau, a German firm. The shelled houses in the foreground are by Field Works, a British firm.

A better view of the French row houses by Najewitz Modellbau. These houses have to be constructed but their detail is nice. They don't have detachable stories like the Field Works and Musket Minitures buildings.

I installed an upper floor for these houses. This can easily support two medium size FOW bases with a little overlap (~2 mm).

Another view next to some JR Miniatures roads.


A German pioneer stand provides some perspective. These are nice buildings, though not as easy to use for FOW games due to their lack of detachable stories. I think they would be better for a larger scale game system like Command Decision or Spearhead where urban areas are more generalized.

More Musket Miniature buildings cry to be painted, or at least primed.

Miniature Building Authority (MBA) row houses go well scale wise with the Najewitz Mmodellbau houses. Plus, they come painted!

More MBA row houses.

On the plus side, MBA houses come painted and you can pull off the roof to make a shell damaged buiding. On the other hand, they are not very FOW base friendly. It is more difficult to put the infantry bases in the building than in the Musket Miniature or the modified Najewitz Modellbau buildings.

German pioneers hide in the rubble of a MBA row house. They do fit, but you can usually only fit one medium base in the building.

German pioneers occupy the top of a JR Miniatures hotel at the end of town. This building, advertised as the British Arnhem HQ is well constructed to fit a LOT of FOW bases.

The hotel with the roof removed. Lots of room for a second story ambush.

And even more space on the first story. There is definitely room at this inn.

Here is a hotel by FIeld Works. Lots of room here plus removable roof and floors.

Another set of row houses by Field Works has plenty of space for medium bases plus individual removable floors.

Another row house combination by Field Works.

Another view with the German pioneers at the ready.

A last view of the village with MBA houses in the foreground and a college student painting up yet another US paratrooper platoon.

German pioneets occupy a damaged Musket Minatures house waiting for Herr Wittman and his panzers.