Making Trees that I can live with

Experimenting with foliage design I have come up with three approaches to cover either broad areas of forest or small crops of trees that would likely be found beside roads and around towns.

Forests

Using Upholstery Foam or Polyurethane Cushioning Foam cut the shape of the area you wish to cover.  Now cut to a height of about 10mm to 15mm (for 6mm scale) don't worry about keeping it neat in fact the rougher the better.  Once this is done using tweezers "pluck" pieces of the foam to remove any straight edges and give some shape to the forest.

Now you have the foam formed its time to colour it so that it no longer looks bright yellow/white.  I use craft paint in water, 1 part paint to 4 parts water(roughly).  I used brown as I was going for a forest edge look, but I am not sure if it works well, comments I have had say it looks better than total green.


Pour the mixed paint into a jar and stuff the foam in, close the lid and shake.  Ring out the foam into the jar and repeat for your other forests or put a lid on to use it again later, layout your now coloured foam on a flat surface to dry.

Once its dry grab some contact adhesive spray, keeping the foam forest side up on newspaper spray the entire surface with glue.  Place the now glued forest foam on a clean sheet of paper and shake flock over the forest canopy and let dry (15-20mins to be sure).  Once it dry, shake off the excess flock and place it back on your spray paper, respray to seal the flock on the forest and let dry again.  Dry brush with yellow or light green will bring out the highlights, I have not in my examples but plan to.

Now your forest is ready to mount on the board.  Using pins which you have used the same craft paint as you used to colour the foam, pin the forest in place, careful not to push the pin in too deep to misshape the foam.

For larger scales or a stand alone forest layout Architects of War have a great guide;
http://architectsofwar.com/Howto/forests.pdf




Trees

Option A:
This process is quick and easy but will take ages to make a forest worth of trees and even longer to mount them on your board.  These trees are not really designed to be permanent and are placed on the board when your ready to play.

Using some of Woodland Scenics Clumped Foliage and some normal dress pins, make sure you get the ones with normal metal pin heads not the plastic bulb ones.

Grab yourself some green craft paint that is similar in colour as the clump foliage you have.  Paint the pin heads and let dry.

Open your clump foliage and find some firm pieces, some will be firm to hard where the rubber has bonded more than others, these pieces make perfect trees.

Pierce the foliage with one of your painted pins in manor that you feel look tree like.  Make sure the pin head is as covered as possible.


Now grab some 50/50 PVA wood glue/water mix and pour some into a small container.  Dip the foliage pin into the glue insuring the glue covers all of the foliage then let the excess drain off.  Stand the pin in a piece of foam to dry.

The foliage is rubber so if your glue is not sticking then you have to much water in your mix.
 

Finish touches would have a bit of dry brush highlights of yellow or lighter green to round off the look.

Option B:
Using Upholstery Foam that has been coloured as above, cut a rough tree shape out.  Cut a slit into the foam approx half way up the tree shape (as if you were chopping the top of the tree off), stick a pin down through the centre of the tree out of the base of the foam (keep it straight as you can as it will make using it easier).

Using PVA glue cover the pin and let the top of half of the foam flip back using the glue to seal it up again.  This will also act as a hard surface to push the pin into your board with.

Let this glue dry, pluck the tress shape gently with tweezers and glue and flock.  Spray with glue again and your down.

Foam Tree

I find this method a long winded way to make trees and the foam never seems to look as real as I can get the Clump Foliage to look, Clump also dries harder and is much less likely to wear out.

Option C:
Pine Trees are easy to make with pipe cleaners, get ones with a decent amount of material on the wire, dont get it too short else you will lose your ability to sculpt it.

Austrian Command Stand with Pine Tree

Cut the cleaner into lengths of about 1 inch.  Now using a lighter or candle, melt back the material on one end, this will form the pin to stick in your board.  Melt it back so that about 1/2 to 2/3 of the material is removed.  Now carefully tapper in the top so to seal in the other end and stop you losing the material over time.

Sample Trees

Using a hair spray or spray glue, coat the material that remains, then dip the tree in flock.  Allow to dry then using metal snips, tapper off the bottom so that its pointed to be able to stick in a base or board.  Due to the broadness that the twisted wire will have I would not used this to stick in a cloth covered board as it will permanently damage the foam.  What I have used this for is character bases for command and other stands.

I prefer this look for miniature stands as the wire pipe cleaner gives it a bit more strength and can take a bit of a knock.


Addition
I have just finished experimenting with wire trees and have come back with mixed results.  I feel the trees are too delicate to be mobile enough for gaming, but they do look as close as you can get to real trees.

Photo below shows on the left, the wire frame of the tree wrapped about a pin to make sticking in foam easier.  This is then shaped to look like a tree, painted with PVA.  Once dry you would paint it tree coloured and then glue on the clump foliage at the end of the branches.  Cover the foliage in PVA and sprinkle flock on.

The third tree was an attempt to use fibrous material purchased at spotlight that I had planned for smoke from gun fire markers.  Hairspray to catch the flock and to hold it.  By and large a massive fail....

Conclusion

I have decided that I will be settling on the following for trees.

These are 3/4" to 2" Armatures (Deciduous), which you can purchase from most model train stores.  I would strongly advise using the woodland scenic Hob-e-tac adhesive as it does the job perfectly.

To add to a little something to them I purchased some rare earth magnets 2.5mm by 2mm and drilled open the base stand with a 2.5mm drill bit.  This makes them easy to transport as well as assisting with my next two projects once completed......

Project Salamance Final Post: Field Testing

Finally after waiting longer than I had wanted I took the boards down to the B.I.G. (Brisbane Independent Gamers) weekend.

Played through the Salamanca scenario that we had played before in 15mm and I have to say that the boards were received well by those in attendance.

Design:  Some areas very very few had issues supporting my 6mm stands as I have them on magnet bottom bases making them a bit smoother than Dayle's balsa bases.  Also you can see that there is barely any forces deployed on the right board, this is historically accurate but a rather wasted area.  With most of the french deployed on the left and middle boards the scenario could do with some work to use this fields.

Material: The cloth cover looks great and stands up to close inspection well.  Flocked bases, which all our were did drop loose flock from time to time on the material that required picking off after the battle but that was a minor thing.

All round this was a great battle on a thing of great beauty.  Well worth ever hour spent on it.

Campaign Board Update

Having sculpted the mountain areas and reasonably happy with the look, I am still not sure how the final look with satisfy my requirements.  Time to do a mock up and see if it flies.

I could live with the look, however I need some different coloured clump foliage for the trees so they contrast better with the ground cover.

Sand colour used for the roads was the same as I used on the Salamanca Board but requires a second coat to hide all the blue of the board.  I am not too concerned with the width of the roads at this point as the brown covering can neaten up the paint work.  I have used a deep brown for towns as I am undecided if I will place down buildings (or even able to make such small figures).

Started a section to see what we are looking like on the actual board once finished.  Again different clump is need, its even clearer now.

Burning Rivers: Landscape design and Sculpting

While I am still not entirely happy with the process I am using for my high ground on the campaign map, I am limited in materials and time for the moment and it is just a dumb map before I build the bigger campaign map.

So I gave the tracing a good think, and decided that I would just try and skip a stage.

I first traced the river systems on wax paper.  Including the high ground South Eastern section, I will place high ground around the rivers and not place rivers on the high ground itself.

It then dawned on me that I could use the Weller tool and trace the markings on the paper.  This would then transfer the heat to the foam and we are done.

Tests look good.

So I went to work on the major map, using the narrow straight tip in the Weller kit.







And after I was done the map pages lifted to reveal a map board that only needed a few tough up and it was done.  In hindsight I should have used the narrow "pencil" tip like point and it would damage the foam and paper less.

I marked the river crossings with black marker and with a quick paint job on the rivers taking care to not paint bridges I was done.

Following the same principles with the rivers on the base board, I flipped over the trace paper and marked a mirror copy of the base board into the bottom of the second layer board.  This would result in me being able to cut the foam with a hot wire cutter and know I am cutting out the river valleys.  When I was done I trimmed down the foam to about half size to make sculpting easier and pinned it to the base board to be sure.

A bit more wire cutting to trim down the hills and I was ready to start my sculpting.

Grabbing the Weller Kit hobby tool again (this is sounding more and more like an infomercial for Weller, but the tool is useful), I placed in the flat circle bit and went to work melting back the edges.




And here I am half way completed and stopping to write up this post while its still fresh.

Pre-School helped me Wargame

Last night while hunched over my campaign map pondering how on earth I was going to get the detail accurately placed onto the foam board for me to start work on, I decided to crowd source some ideas so asked the wife.

All Rivers fully traced, I have marked bridges with a intersecting line so I can see when a river ends and when it is crossed by a bridge.

She got old school on me and grabbed some wax paper used in baking, a lead pencil and a picture book of a cat for our sons colouring-in book.  While I was explaining to her that Belgium does have a number of cats but the effect I was going for was a little higher up, maybe a pigeon or a Soviet Satellite would be better, she traced this.

Then flipped the paper over and drew with the lead pencil firmly over the traced lines.  Flipped it back over so the lead pencil markings were now face down on the foam board, grabbed the end of the pencil (rounded) and rubbed along the lines of the cat.

Its no Satellite but it will do nicely.

I grabbed some wax paper, enough to cover the A3 sheet I had to trace off, folding one end to form a perfect 90 degree fold, slipped the A3 page in and tapped.

This would enable me to trace the page with out concern of slight movements messing me about.

As I traced I found I still needed to hold the page flat but it was much easier with the page taped down.



I did this for both pages, focusing on the river systems first, I will paint the roads on free hand.


Now I can flip the page and retrace the rivers with Lead pencil and I will have copied the map onto my war game table perfectly to scale.

I am also going to test using my new Weller Hobby Tool to trace with a fine bit over the paper and see how much it impacts the foam beneath without destroying the wax paper.


Why flip the paper?
If you don't then you end up copying a mirror image of the map, try it and you will see why.

Foam Working Tools

I am always looking for new tools that will make working with foam easier and have found a couple of items that I would not have thought of.

Meat Grinder
Thanks to an idea given to me by Peter from my Tuesday night Napoleonics group, Upholstory Foam placed in a bucket, covered in green paint and then run through a meat grinder will produce a product that will work well as forest cover or Clump Foliage substitute.  Do not use a automatic meat grinder and clean it as soon as your finished to get all the paint out.

I am yet to try this so I will post my outcomes here.

Weller 30W Wood Burning and Hobby Kit
Digging around online the other day I stumbled across a YouTube clip on Pyrography, burning an image onto wood with a very hot tool.  I found this while searching for soldering irons to help cut my many rivers needed for my Waterloo Campaign map project.

http://www.bunnings.com.au/weller-30w-wood-burning-and-hobby-kit_p5910150

While the kit itself lacks a decent length blade to aid in sculpting foam I am confident that I can find a wire or substitute to rig up something.

Project: Waterloo Campaign

I am planning two new projects, the first is a 6mm Quatre Bras battlefield that uses the scenario in my battle report, and the other (this project) is for a Campaign map for our 28mm Empire, Waterloo Campaign due to start in Jan.

So for the Waterloo campaign project I plan to do two boards, the first a smaller model of the final map using scrap materials from my other projects.  This will help me get the scales right and try a few new techniques.

This project will be different than the Salamanca board;

• No cloth covering, I will paint and flock the landscape using clumped foliage for forests.  Mainly because we will only be moving on roads as such the flock will not be worn down.
• No figures will be used on the board, pins will track army movements.
• The function of the map could be covered by a paper map mounted on a cork or foam board.  But were is the fun in blogging about that :)

The Plan

I have located a couple of maps that I will be using to determine layout and terrain.

Firstly Napoleon 4th Edition board game map is perfect for our campaign (I have played the game but here it's a great way to play this campaign period).  This gives me great forest, roads and river layout however due to the lack of contour information  I have to look elsewhere.



A simple web search found me a nice simple high level topographic map of Belgium <here>



I have then roughly cut out the campaign section to work out the hills,

To a final plan that look like this.

Project Salamanca Cost Summary

Well with everything wrapping up I have totalled the cost of my experience and here it is.

Keeping in mind that the tools cost a significant amount of the total cost, the building of my next projects will be considerably cheaper.

The Suppliers I have used during this project were;
(I am including these suppliers here for thoroughness not as an endorsement)

Foam: http://www.foamular.com.au/
Consumables: http://www.bunnings.com.au/
Cloth / Dye / Craft Paints: http://www.spotlight.com.au/
Hotwire / Airbrush / Paints / Foliage & Flock: http://hobbyrama.com.au/

On to the next project...

Step Eight: Finishing Touches

Added the final touches to the first board last night.  I was not happy with the cloth on the back of the boards, it seemed a non-permanent solution the way I had it, drawing pins holding the cloth in place were not solid enough.

I picked up some rubber "grip liner" 1m by 2m roll from the cheapy shop down the road.  Below shows a small strip of the rubber, glued to the blue foam as a test, beside which is the drawing pins that I was using.

I started by placing the board on it face, using foam cut offs to keep the terrain protected.  I should have done this before I painted the board just to be sure I had it all secured.

Next I poured from the bottle of PVA a liberal amount of glue to cover the edge (cloth) and the centre of the board.  focusing on points evenly spaced apart (4 rows of 4 points), with pools of glue which I spread out with my finger to thin out.  Once I placed the rubber down I pushed drawing pins into these positions to help fix the rubber to the foam and provide added strength when all is dried.

Once the glue is dry I will trim the rubber so it sits under the edge and allows for the boards to met even flush.

My big concern is that the rubber mat will add uneven height across the three boards so that they do not sit at even levels when side by side.  I will let you know what I find.

Step Cost = $24.50 ($12 PVA Glue, $12.95 Rubber Mat)

Total Cost = $453.35

Time Taken ~2 Hours (17 Hours Total)

Battle of Quartre Bras

Quatre Bras (fought on the 8th June 2014)

As usual Dayle and I planned a battle for B.I.G games day. As usual, we threw the scenario together with moments to spare with Dayle starting work on it the night before we played.

The order of battle quickly grabbed from Wikipedia and several slide rule calculations later we determined that we could cover this with 15mm figures, a good idea given we are still struggling to get the ranges right in our 6mm games.

With a bit of research, Dayle determined an order of reinforcement arrivals and we worked on 30min turns for timeline management.

As always we are using a “built on” rules set in Neil Thomas’s “Napoleonic Wargaming”. The main changes we have made are to lessen the domination of our Artillery units so we can field more batteries. For those that are familiar with these rules, we have modified Artillery ranges and firepower to 24cm short range with 1-3 shots, 48cm long with 1 shot. Other changes are with the saving throws for infantry vs. Cavalry so as to encourage the formation of squares and lessen the effectiveness of Line formations in the face of Cavalry charges.

Setup (13:00)

We start at 1pm, 16th June 1815, the Dutch Belgium 2nd Division has the two ridgelines dominating the centre of the field. With overwhelming French forces advancing on them I planned to do what I could to slow the advance until help arrived, 5 nervous turns later….

You can’t see the ridges to well form this shots.

Turn 1 (13:00)

The French opening moves are as expected, however unwelcome  My major concern was the 2nd Cavalry Division would move on my right flank, but heading to my left means I can bottle neck him at the river crossing, a relief but with only one Infantry brigade to hold it, I may need to use the horse battery, detracting from the much needed fire support for the 1st Brig.

At least the French artillery have not yet deployed… Small mercies

Just to let the French know the 2nd Netherlands Division wasn't going anywhere a solid volley of fire rained down on the advancing Light troops in the centre.

Turn 2 (13:30)

French Infantry are forming into lines, effective at bring fire to bear which from experience with these rules the most effective way to dislodge Infantry in towns, but reduces movement and thus works well into my plans.

Seeing that my right will have time to respond, I decide to commit some of the reinforcements, yet to arrive, to protect that approach and move my 2nd Brig. 2nd Netherlands Division to hold the left, sending them racing to the river crossing to protect my artillery positions.

With cannon ranged in my batteries open fire at long to support the flanks.

Lights in the woods cause minor casualties on the approaching Infantry, paying little mind to the flanking troops.

All the while the 1st Brigade continues to land the hits on the advancing Infantry.

Turn 3 (14:00)

First of a correction, British troops cannot form Attack Columns, so I change my 2nd Brig to column of route, only to form line by the end of the turn.

Doing the math I see the 2nd Brig will not make it to block the crossing so form line with them so that I can fire on the approaching Cavalry as they cross. I didn’t want the cavalry to be deterred as I knew that in 2 more turns I would have the cavalry support to take out one or both of these cavalry, so I didn’t form square, yet…. Then the horse artillery on the ridge behind them sounded a solid warning shot through the chest of a lead Cuirassier, good day sir!

My good shooting seemed to continue with 1st Brig scoring full hits, devastating the French brigade before them, with a failed morale roll, even a reroll!!! 2 stands down. A cheer went up at the sight of so many French backpacks in view. It wasn’t to last long as the French guns replied the insult with a barrage on the troops unable to find cover in time, casualties were light but a wakeup call to all.

The lights in the wood were starting to feel the heat, they needed to get into a better position and soon… managing to return fire with less effect than desired and they prepared to move.

Turn 4 (14:30)

Devastating fire comes in from two sides crippling the Light Brigade and seriously jeopardizing the right flank. With them gone the flank will open up, so they slip through the woods towards the centre to limit the fire they are taking.

2nd Brig form square, needing an entire turn to perform the maneuver we needed to do it now, I need to hold this position so Luitenant-Generaal Baron Perponcher takes up position within the square. This gives a bonus +1 to morale rolls, effectively making them Elite troops. The Cavalry are crossing the stream…

Exchange of fire from the farm continues, 1st Brigade is still looking strong. I hope the 5th will get here on time.

Turn 5 (15:00)

Reinforcements arrive moving to repeal the French cavalry, 1st Brigade 5th Division sent to hold the right flank for when the lights loose the woods.

The Dutch Jäger were in serious trouble, retreating further into the woods to take on a more harassing role, they are set upon by the 4th Light Regiment from the 9th Division which had been charged with taking the woods. Losing another stand, leaving them 1.

Picton positioned his cavalry to mutually support each other by opening the flank of the enemy if either was charged. The infantry and artillery was sent to hold the centre.

Under a hail of artillery and musket fire the 1st Dutch Brigade had to pull back or be overrun. With the arrival of Jerome’s 6th Division the farm would now fall, but their mission was accomplished, holding up 3 Brigades of Infantry and 2 batteries for two and a half hours.

Turn 6 (15:30)

A flurry of action on the left wing with the 6th Chesseurs charging the 3rd Dutch Light Cavalry Brigade, counter charged in the flank by the Brunswick Hussars. The Lancer brigade dips there spear tips at the Dutch square to see if they can break it.

Very heavy casualties to all parties with the only brigade to come out of the hand to hand fighting ok is the Dutch square. The game mechanics give a full 4 stand brigade in square, charged by cavalry a 2+ saving roll for any hand to hand hit. The lancers with 4 dice per stand (the best hand to hand unit) seemed to be the best way to see if cavalry could break a full square in these rule. Defensive fire had scored a full 4 hits taking a stand from their numbers, morale still in check they still kept coming. An amazing 11 hits from 12 dice had things looking very bad for the Dutch. With a 2+ save though it was bound to get better. 11 hits turned to 1 as the ranks moved to support each other. The Lancers withdrew after taking 1 hit from hand to hand, losing due to the defender being in square.

The allied cavalry were not performing as I had hoped, the Chesseurs had repealed both light cavalries with only minor hits to their own ranks. This would be a process of working them down and would probable cost most if not all of both cavalry brigades…. My only cavalry.

Dutch Jäger slipped onto the French Lights flank and frantically fired in an attempt to hold them back a few more minutes. Each man knew there was little chance of getting way with the river at their backs.

With the Cavalry battle the highlight of this turn, the 1st Dutch Brigade slipped from the farm and made their way rapidly back to the Allied lines, with luck the French had not cut off their retreat yet.

Turn 7 (16:00)

Well this turn was a bad round for the allies with the destruction of Dutch Jäger and Light Cavalry. The French cavalry having charged the Dutch opened their rear to the Brunswick Lights which made each hit count, sending the French off with a sting in their tail, 2 stands lighter, now down to a single Heavy Cavalry stand.

The Lancers regroup while the horse artillery soften up the Dutch squares for the next charge. Now down to 3 stands now the Lancers might get through.

The 5th Division hurried to plug the holes in the line on the second ridge. The Dutch 1st Brigade would hold the right side of the line, until relieved. I was confident I would be in position and able to get the fire on the approaching enemy, a very important part of this rule set is to be in position on an advancing enemy, as you can’t move and fire in the same turn (unless Light).

The French had taken the farm and the woods had fallen too. I needed to get the French Cavalry out of my left and sure up the line. I still had the Brunswick Corp and the 1st Division Guard on the way. I have enough artillery in the right positions and the allied fire hitting on 3+ to the French 4+ works in my favor, but only if I can repeal the Cavalry.

Turn 8 (16:30)

With the arrival of the Kellerman’s Cavalry the pressure was on to sure up the left flank.

The Lancers take another shot at the Dutch square, defensive fire cripples the attack and hand to hand and bad morale finish the job, the brave lancers rout.

The Brunswick Lights finish of the Chesseurs, finally liberating the left. Picton forms up his troops guarding Quatre Bras into lines and advance on the river crossing, taking command of the lead brigade. Time is of the essence as even with 3 brigades of Infantry and some light cavalry, I was not confident in holding back the French cavalry unless I could fight them while they crossed the river.

The brigade from the 5th Division deployed in line on the high ground with artillery moving up the road to support them on the right, it was clear more cavalry were on its way to the right so I would need to deploy some if not all of the Brunswick Corp to support them.

Turn 9 (17:00)

The race is on now for the hold of the left. The Dutch 2nd Brigade break from squares to form line and but some fire on the French troops across the river. The Allied centre started to put some fire on the advancing French, with the 5th Division Light Brigade moving to meet them at the river edge, opening the ridge to fire over them.

It was clear that the French planed a push on the right flank, so to sure it up an infantry brigade and horse artillery was ordered to hold the right. The remainder of the Brunswick Corp was deployed to support the Left. Hindsight I should have put the lights on the right, to protect the wood approach from the French lights.

I think Dayle was not happy with the Cavalry Brigade moving up the centre, but with the approach on both flanks looking like it would clog up quickly in narrow approaches there was little choice, best keep them ready to counter attack an allied push up the middle.

Both Artillery batteries from the Brunswick Corp would deploy in the defence of Quatre Bras, aimed at the left.

Turn 10 (17:30)

Racing forward the Brunswick Lights threaten the river crossing in hope to hold until Picton arrives. The brave Dutch 2nd moves to support them.

With artillery now on the right flank in high ground, the infantry from the 5th division would advance down the hill in line, firing on the Lights in the woods and allowing the cannon to tear them apart, as lights cannot charge close order troops in the open.

I still open fire the troops in the centre so if my dice hold out I should be able to make a bit of a mess there.

1st Division have arrived and the guard will move on the centre, next stop Paris.

Conclusion

Although Dayle did not admit it, it was a complete Allied Victory!!!!!

But seriously, this was a great scenario in its simplicity and put together well by Dayle. We didn’t get to finish the full 13 turns, but I doubt the Allies would regain the farm in that time either. This scenario was a great evolving battle, with the Anglo-Dutch starting outnumbered and eventually building up to over whelm the French.

All up the battle played from 10:30 to around 15:00 in actual time. We did chat a bit and took the time to show a friend how to play, so we think we could knock this out in about 4-5 hours for the full 13 turns.



Order of Battle

Allied

British Commander (William of Orange)

Orders: To hold the crossroads at Quatre bras

British 1^st Corp (William of Orange)

1^st Div

2 x Gd Brig

1 x foot arty

1 x horse arty

3^rd Div

2 x Line Brig

1 x light Brig

2 x foot arty

2^nd Netherlands  (Perponcher)

2 x line Brig (1st and 2nd Brig)

1 x light Brig

1 x foot arty

1 x horse arty

Reserve

5^th Div (Picton)

3 x Brig (8^th, 9^th, 3^rd Hanoverian)

Brunswick Corp (Duke of Brunswick)

1 x Line Brig

1 x Light Brig

1 x Horse Arty

1 x Foot Arty

Anglo-Allied Cavalry Corp

2 x Brig light cavalry (Brunswick 2^nd Hussars, Dutch 3^rd light Dragoon/Hussars)

2^nd Corp Arty

1 x horse arty

2 foot arty

ORDER of MARCH

 Turn 1: (1.00pm) Deploy 2^nd Netherlands forward of or on line Gemioncourt-Piermont- Busso forest on ridge. 

Turn 2: (1.30pm)

Turn 3: (2.00pm)

Turn 4: (2.30pm)

Turn 5: (3.00pm)

Deploy: At Quartre Bras
5th British Infantry Division (Picton)

Anglo-Allied Cavalry Corp
3rd Dutch Light Cavalry Brigade (Baron van Merlen)
Brunswick 2^nd Hussars light cavalry Brig

Turn 6: (3.30pm)

Deploy Brunswick Corp (Duke of Brunswick)  at Quatre Bras

Turn 7: (4.00pm)

Turn 8: (4.30pm)

Turn 9: (5.00pm)

Deploy:

Brit 3^rd Div (Sir Colin Halket) at Quatre Bras + corp arty

Turn 10: (5.30pm)

Deploy:

Brit 1^st Division (Cooke)

Turn 11: (6.00pm)

Turn 12: (6.30pm)

Turn 13: (7.00pm)     END

French 

French Commander (Ney)

Orders: occupy the crossroads at Quartre Bras by 15^th June, it is now 2.00pm on the 16^th June.

2^nd Corp (Reille)

5^th Div (Bachelu)

2 x line regiments

1 x light regt

1 x foot bty

6^th Div (Jerome)

2 x line regiments

1 x light regt

1 x foot bty

9^th Div (Foy)

2 x line regiments

1 x light regt

1 x foot bty

2^nd Cavalry (Pire)

1 x 6^th Chesseurs

1 x Lancers

1 x horse battery

Corp Artillery

2 x foot battery

3^rd Cavalry Corp (François Étienne de Kellermann, Comte de Valmy)

11^th Cavalry Div

1 x Brig Dragoons (light)

1 x brig Curassiers

1 x horse artillery

Imperial Guard Light Cavalry Division

2 x Brig Lancers (equivalent)

2 x Chesseurs (equivalent)

1^st  Corps (D’erlon)

1st Infantry Division (General de Brigade Joachim-Jerome Quiot)

4 x line regiments

1 x foot bty

2nd Infantry Division (Francois-Xavier)

3 x line regiments

1 x light regt

1 x foot bty

3rd Infantry Division, (Pierre-Louis Binet)

4 x line regiments

1 x foot bty

4th Infantry Division, (Joseph-Francois, comte Durutte)

4 x line regiments

1 x foot bty

1st Cavalry Division (Charles-Claude, baron Jacquinot)

7th Hussars
3rd Chasseurs à Cheval
3rd Lanciers
4th Lanciers

1^st Corps Artillery (Jean-Charles Desales)

5 x  foot artillery batteries

1 x horse artillery battery (a total of 46 guns)

5 companies of the 1st Engineer Regiment (General de Brigade Marie-Theodore-Urbain, baron Garbe).

MARCHING ORDER

Turn 1: (1.00pm)

Deploy on table

Bachelu 5^th div and Foy 9^th inf divisions left and right of road

Pires 2^nd cavalry division wide on right

Desnouettes Imperial light cavalry division wide on the left in front of Bossu woods

Turn 2: (1.30 pm)

Turn 3: (2.00pm) Open attack, order general assault, arty barrage

Turn 4: (2.30pm)

Turn 3: (3.00pm)

Deploy

6^th div (Jerome)

Turn 4: (3.30pm)

Turn 5: (4.00pm)

Turn 6: (4.30pm)

Turn 7: (5.00pm)

Deploy 

3^rd corp (Kellerman)

Turn 8: (5.30pm)

Roll for d’Erlon’s 1^st corp (d'Erlon is expected to arrive at this time, if the French look in real bad shape, have him arrive)

Turn 9: (6.00pm)

Turn 10: (6.30pm)

Turn 11: (7.00pm)

Step Seven: Towns and Roads

On the home straight now with only Towns and Roads needing attention.

I picked up a acrylic paint tube from Spotlight again, J. Burrows Acrylic Paint "Sand" which looked very cream coloured to be to good for roads but I tested it on a piece of cotton first and when dried it turned a nice brown colour that lifts the roads off from the base colours but not to dominating the field.

You decide.  Take note of the path running along the river to the chapel on the hill to the left.

Calvarrasa de Artiba

Yes that is a bridge across the river, cut from a 10mm square balsa rod and shaped with a Ozito Rotary Tool from Bunnings.  Best purchase I ever made, buildings can be made in minutes and look great.  Roof over hangs the walls like they would in real life.  The chapel even has carved recesses for the windows.

Adding on the last of the buildings I use a bit of clump foliage that I have had stored away for ages to scatter about the town ships to give a bit of colour.  Lastly I used Foliage from Woodland Scenics, Early Fall Mix.  This gives me the yellow fields for wheat, two blends so I could mix it up.

And once this is all together we are left with this.

I have built up the towns a little more since these last shots were taken and they now look like this.

Chapel Calvarrasa de Arriba

Las Torres on the Right

Arapiles

Farm near Aldea Tejada

I have yet to decide if I want to put Miranda de Azan in the southwestern corner, I don't want it to be a hold up for battle on that particular section.  I do need to place something down for Azan but might just see how the board plays out first.

Step Cost = $19.50 ($7.50 Acrylic Paint, $12.00 Woodland Scenic Foliage)

Total Cost = $428.85

Time Taken ~4 Hours (15 Hours Total)