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I t’s not often that we get reports of new retail businesses burgeoning in

this hobby, let alone in this recession, but I am delighted to report that a brand new wargames emporium has just opened – right here on my doorstep, in central Brighton.

Veteran subscribers will recall that my old university chum Guy Hancock (also famed

as my long-time opponent in the Wars of the Faltenian Succession) played as opening batsman for the “To boldly go...” column. Well, just to prove that he hasn’t exactly been idle since then, he has been beavering away on plans to open a sizeable shop, right in the heart of Brighton city centre.

You’re going to have to forgive me for giving a bit of extra publicity to my chum because I really can’t remember the last time this happened. All the hobby shops of my youth have long since passed into distant memory, staffed as they often were by some grumpy old git in a cardigan who viewed actually serving their customers as an optional extra, and scowled at you as you pot-holed amongst the illogically-stacked, toppling piles of unfathomable inventory. Guy, on the other hand, together with his business partner Piers O’Sullivan, are devotees of the shockingly modern notion that a smile and a friendly word can go a long way, and that a light, airy and well-organised shop might not only prove welcoming to customers, but also be a recipe for keeping staff happy and the business, well... in business.

The shelves at Wargames Heaven are already groaning with merchandise to satisfy both fantasy and sci-fi gamers and those of us for whom history is our starting point. Flames of War, Victrix and Warlord rub shoulders with Warmachine, 40K and Lord of the Rings, amongst many others. There is also an excellent selection of terrain and a quite startling range of paints, pigments and powders. Should shopping prove a strain, then you’ll be able to rest your weary wallet in the smart coffee lounge, sip a cappuccino whilst you are tempted by templates, or snack as you salivate over the sumptously-painted shop armies in display cabinets.

Best of all, however, is the large area at the rear of the shop, boasting 16 gaming tables. Available for use at any time by those who join the in-house Valhalla Club, it also provides an ideal venue for small to medium-sized tournaments and demonstration games. I ran my

Editorial Contents

Cover: A terrific close up of one of Tim Hall’s Forces of Valour Sherman tanks showing stowage and milliput sandbags, part of his magnificent collection of 1/35 scale models. See his article inside and follow his journey into how to banish the squint factor from your wargames forever!

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Twiggy 4Diane Sutherland, UK

Forward Observer 7Mike Siggins, UK

Supersize us 9Timothy Hall, UK

Talking wargaming: orders and command 14Chris Scott, UK

Table top teaser 16C. S. Grant, UK

Cold wars 20Arthur Harman, UK

A major engagement 22Major Dave Fielder, UK

Badon and beyond 28Daniel Mersey, UK

The wargaming collective 33John Baxter, Australia

Recce 36New goodies reviewed by our team

Events September/October 2009 42Richard Tyndall, UK

The Battlegames Combat Stress Appeal: update 43Our campaign to help support ex-service personnel continues

Competition and classified ads 44Win Wargames heaven gift vouchers!

The Battlegames shop 45The place to order your subscription and much more

Zulu Wars participation game on opening night, and you can expect to see me turning up with an armful of Spencer Smiths to show youngsters what it was like in the days before über-detailed everything. I’m sure you’ll join me in wishing Guy the very best of luck.

As you’ll read in the Editor’s Note at the end of the Recce section, I’m making some changes to the way figures are reviewed and, as a result, I have a pile of miniatures that have been sent to Battlegames HQ awaiting the new treatment. My apologies to those companies kept waiting for their reviews, but it will be worth it. And finally, Roger’s taking a break from “To boldly go...” which will have a different helmsman from issue 20.

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TwiggyThe continuing tales of a wargames widow

by Diane Sutherland

Twiggy I’m not; maybe in my teens I had that sylph-like appearance. Nonetheless, I will be modelling for you in this article, but only my hands, to be honest.

Living with a wargamer means you always look for an ulterior motive for every action and comment. “Helping with the gardening” is a prime example. Innocent activities, like pruning unruly bushes, trees and climbers, take on another dimension. When the Virginia Creeper had exploded with growth and smothered the whole side of the house, it was time for Mr Saw to have a serious conversation with it.

The net result was a demolished creeper, a drive full of foliage and a neat little pile of carefully trimmed twigs. A modelling project was looming: little did I realise that I would be doing it.

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After a five-minute demonstration on a blustery Sunday afternoon, post-Wimbledon and in the height of our ‘glorious’ British summer, I made 15 trees in two hours. The wargamer had been bemoaning the availability of decent wargame trees for months, and he’d come up with a solution: I’d make them for him!

You’ll need a bunch of twigs. Ideally, they should have two or three nice strong sub-twigs running off them and the bottom of the twig needs to be as flat as possible. We like the versatility of MDF for the bases, but any easy-to-cut flat wood would do. Don’t be mean with the base size – it needs to be big enough or it won’t be stable.

Begin by cutting your bases and then drilling a hole through the centre of them. Then drill a deep enough hole in the bottom of the twig so you can push the screw through the hole in the base and tighten it up into the twig. Apply some hot glue if the fix isn’t strong enough.

Now the exciting bit. Rubberised horsehair and the artificial replacement for it is pretty hard to find. It’s

the wrong colour anyway, so why make extra work for yourself and have the headache of sourcing it when something else, probably cheaper too, is available?

We found some sisal “moss substitute” for hanging baskets – a great big bag of it for under £2.00. It’s green too, easy if a little messy to use, but wonderfully adaptable stuff. Pull out a handful of the sisal, and give it a slight roll between your hands to turn it into a ball. Work out how many of these balls you want to apply to the twig; be creative, every tree looks different.

Apply a little hot glue to each of the sub-twigs in turn; do one at a time, the hot glue will harden very quickly. Squeeze each sisal ball onto the twig, adding extra balls to bulk out the tree if it’s looking a little too sparse.

Now you need to trim the sisal. Take off all the straggly bits, shaping the balls as you work around the trunk and side branches. Adding foliage is the next step. There’s no clean and easy way to do this. What you don’t want is too much of the white wood glue getting onto the trunk, so be careful with this stage – too much glue and it will drip down onto the trunk, too little and the foliage won’t stick. We used a spray gun, watering down the glue about 50/50

Drill the hole in the centre of the base, then enlarge the hole on the underside to counter-sink the screw.

Twigs from a variety of different species. Note that they all have at least two or three twiglets running off the main ‘trunk’. The bottoms of the twigs

need to be as flat as possible.

Drill the hole (carefully) up the trunk of the twig, making it deep enough to take the screw. Don’t worry too much if the hole isn’t very straight – how

many trees grow absolutely upright?

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with water and mixing it well before pouring it into the spray gun container. Whatever you do, the spray gun will clog after a while, but this can be solved by soaking the mechanism in hot water for a while. As an alternative, you can put the watered-down glue into a shallow container and roll the sisal tree in it to improve coverage.

For the foliage, we used Woodland Scenics turf. We went for a predominantly olive look with a little of the darker green mixed in for shading. Grab a handful of the foliage and pat it onto the glued sisal. Be generous and

work your way around the sisal balls and cover as much as you can. Leave it a minute or two and then shake off the excess. Don’t worry if it looks bald in places, we’ll deal with this during the next stage. Work through your batch of trees to get them all to the foliage application stage.

Use some cheap matt varnish spray. We actually used matte spray that had not proved matte enough for figures. Liberally spray the foliage, making sure you don’t get too much spray on the trunk. Whilst the varnish is still wet, pat or roll the tree into the foliage again to cover up the bald patches and build up some extra layers of cover. When you’ve done this, spray varnish again and leave to dry.

All that’s left is to do the bases of your trees to match your terrain boards. We used less than two bags of the foliage, one hot glue stick and about half the bag of sisal to make fifteen trees in two hours. The most time consuming

part is cutting the bases and drilling the holes for the screws. The screws are a wise precaution; how many of your trees have gone wonky or come adrift from the bases?

Once the wood glue and the varnish has been given a chance to dry (an hour or two in a well ventilated place should suffice) the foliage will have hardened up and will not be as spongy. A second coat of varnish really helps. The trees are pretty robust; there will be a little foliage loss here and there, but if you’ve been thorough enough, then the additional layers of foliage applied with

The sisal string moss substitute: this bag cost around £2.00 and can be found in most garden centres and DIY stores.

Fasten the twig to the base with a screw. If the fastening isn’t firm enough, add some hot glue to the base.

Fixing the sisal to the twig. Take care as the glue is still hot. Repeat the process until you are happy with the overall size and shape of the tree. Roll

the sisal in the palms of your hands to make a ball shape.

A box full of Woodland Scenics turf foliage. The clump foliage they produce is too heavy for this project and much more difficult to stick – it needs a

rubberised adhesive.

Applying the hot glue to the twiglets. Do one at a time otherwise the glue will cool and harden before you add the sisal.

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the varnish coat should prevent balding over time.I must say I thoroughly enjoyed the project – set

yourself up and produce them factory fashion . A couple of hours investment in time is all that’s needed.

bAfter I had peeled a mixture of wood glue, varnish,

sawdust and foliage off my hands, the phone rang. It

Applying the watered down white wood glue with a spray gun, the messy part of the job. Try not to get too much of the glue onto the trunk of the tree.

Spray varnish the sisal and foliage; give it a good, generous coating which acts both as a fixative and additional adhesive.

Two hours, 15 trees. Note that the wood glue is still wet; when it is dry the white bits will disappear. These have been given a second coat of varnish.

Trimming the sisal. At this point, take off the stray strands of sisals and shape the sisal into a realistic looking tree.

Pat generous handfuls of the Woodland Scenics turf onto the wet sisal. Add more glue if necessary, but it’s not vital to cover all of the sisal at this point.

Add more foliage to the sisal. Do this when the varnish is still wet. It will cover up bald areas of sisal and give you extra depth of shading.

was cousin Marie. “What have you been doing this afternoon?” she asked. “Planting trees,” I told her. “Good for you,” she replied. I hope she doesn’t read this; she obviously thought I’d spent the afternoon carbon-offsetting for the good of the planet! Incidentally, my hands are available for international modelling projects (you can have 10% Henry). [Appalling pun duly noted. Ed]

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