Building buildings

To start:

Earlier this I picked up a copy of Spectre Operations, I had been playing with the idea of buying it for quite a while and after reading some battle reports of the game I went for it.

Reviewing the game could be for another post but after reading the rules it looks awesome. I have yet to play a game.

So this is where I start, all my terrain is 15mm, spectre is for 28mm so rather than spending a small fortune on buying buildings I decided I would build some.

Materials

To start I gathered up all the modelling stuff I have buying over the years but never get round to using,

-craft knife

-metal ruler

-glue gun

-5mm foam board

-cork granules (or sand/small pebbles)

-PVA glue

-pen/pencil
-fine grade sandpaper

-polyfiller

-lollipop sticks (or the coffee stirring one's Costa let you have free, although do get the odd look when they think your stirring your latte with 30 odd sticks)

-really thin MDF (had to buy this one)

And the most important bit,

-imagination

To get a building design either doodle one down of go on Google images, once you have something you like then your set to start building.

But, my method is to look at Google images and find something close to what I want and doodle down the changes, But then add and change things as I'm building it.

Building it

Firstly I made the outer walls, they are 70mm high, doors are 40mm high and 30mm wide.

Windows between 20mm and 40mm in height but width can be anything you choose (forgot how wide I done mine).

Then glued them on with the glue gun.

Interior walls are 45mm high.

Then I cut out a roof section (access hole 20x20mm) and glued in lollipop sticks on the inside of the exterior walls level with the interior walls. This creates a lip for the roof to rest on.

Then mixed water, PVA and polyfiller into a paste and coated all the edges where the foam is exposed, filled in unwanted gaps and gave the exterior walls a thin coating.

Let this dry and give it a light sand down.

Brickwork note! Slice off the card exposing the foam and using a pen/pencil draw a brickwork pattern and push into it as you draw.

Roof note! The flat roofs tend to warp when you paint them, so I glued some lollipop sticks to the bottom for extra strength.

Then covoured the floor in PVA and sprinkled in the cork, plus a few chunks of foam board to add texture.

Once dry I then painted the whole building in a PVA and water mix. This bonds it all together.

Then I sprayed it with a black undercoat, This is where you find out if you have any exposed foam as the aerosol tends to melt it.

Painting it!

I gave all the outside walls a coat of heavy ochre 72.150.

floors got a coat of German camo beige ww2 70.821

inside walls had a coat of field blue 70.964

brick areas had ochre brown 70.856

Once dry I gave all surfaces a second coat,

inside walls dark blue grey 70.904

outside walls dark sand 70.847

And give floor a second coat.

To make areas look mucky I added some Agrax earthshade.

paint bricks stone grey 70.884

I then highlighted all walls with stone grey 70.884.

lastly add varnish.

And there you have a nice building to hide in/storm and blow up.

First Game of NSIS

Backdrop:

The world of Emerald has become subject to an uprising, insurgent forces are trying to overthrow the government and gain independence from the Tyreen Commonwealth that Emerald is part of.

 The Jolen Vale is held firmly by insurgent forces and the Army has sent the 2nd Battalion in to reclaim he area.

The Vale has a good railway network and the Army want to use it to get armour into the vale quickly, hoping that heavy armour will crush the insurgents and break their will to fight.

As part of the operation it fell to 4th Company, 3rd Platoon commanded by lieutenant Hildermann to capture a small rail depot.

The Mission:

A Routine priority mission on the railway to capture the rail depot, being a routine mission there was no roll for supporting forces.

Hildermann has entered the AO on foot and had spent the best parts of the early hours slowly and quietly advancing his platoon through the woods towards the depot.

Observation drone surveys the AO.

Platoon ready to advance.

Western blocking squad.

Reserve squad in the building, eastern blocking squad up the road.

Squad Anders breaks cover from the tree line in two fire teams leapfrogging and putting down some heavy fire on the western squad, Squad Young sprints from cover towards the raised shed followed by Niles. Squad Rush and the command team quickly mave down the rail lines.

The Rocket squad do little, while the western squad returns fire. The eastern squad and reserve squad start moving to support their fellow rebels.

Lead starts to fly.

Reinforcements inbound.

The Rebel Command team break from the small building and open fire on Squad Young putting one rifleman down, Eastern squad, Reserve squad and the rocket squad do little but manoeuvre while the western squad continues its firefight with Anders Squad. Anders keeps pushing forward suppressing the enemy until his fireteam came into close range, they quickly put three rebels down and some drop their guns and run.

Squad Young take another casualty but keep pushing forward, their fire being really effective as they gun down two members of the rebel command team. Behind them Niles treats the wounded.

The Rocket team once again stand around as reserve squad and the eastern squad finally close in and start putting down some sporadic fire and take down Sergeant Anders.

Hildermanns team flank the rebel command and gun down one of its members, this proves too much for the rebel commander who drops his gun and runs for his life.

Rebel rienforcements arrive and gun down anders.

Hildermann flanks and destroys the rebel command.

Ander Squad pushes into the pipes area that the now decimated western squad were occupying and start laying down fire on the newly arrived eastern squad while Squad Young close assault the reserve squad causing heavy casualties and alot of desertions, with whats left of the rebel forces being surrounded and taking heavy casualties the remaining rebels run.

Drone view at the battles end

Aftermath:

3rd platoon definitely achieved their objective as the rebel forces were crushed, the platoon took three casualties, two riflemen and Sergeant Anders. Rolling for their status resulted in one rifleman and Anders in medical care meaning they miss the next game. The other rifleman is too injured and sent off for long term recovery and no replacement is immediately available.

Sergeant Young gained a medal for holding his squad together under heavy fire and casualties before close assaulting the middle of rebel forces and breaking them.

Master Sergeant Korwen sat on the roof of the troop carriage, the train had arrived four hours after they had taken the depot, so far no counter attack had come, the train arrived carrying 2nd platoon, IFV's and some recon tanks plus alot of support elements, all of who were busying themselves around the depot, but it was none of this he was looking at.

On the horizon, the sun was setting and twilight was starting to set in, the sky was an amazing colour of purple silhouetting the tree's on the horizon, the sky was broken by five plumes of smoke that were slowly spilling up. The smoke came from the destroyed vehicles of the 1st Recon platoon who had advanced deep into the Vale and had been ambushed in the town of Harlock, he had received the reports a few hours ago.

Even though he knew the smoke was a sign of their defeat and men had died, the sky was a beautiful sight.