3D Printed WW1 trenches are painted and table ready!

 I have finally finished painting up my 3d Printed trenches for my 10mm WW1 troops.  They have shown up a few times on the blog but are finally table ready!

If you are going to play WW1 Western Front at any scale, trenches are vital pieces of terrain to have in your collection. Ideally, trenches would be carved into a terrain board so that troops are truly under the level of the ground (like Sidney Roundwood's amazing terrain boards)  

But, trenches that sit on top of the ground cloth are more flexible and meet my other needs better as well. My requirements were:

1. Flexible layouts
2. The right size for my 10mm troops and handle the 40mm x 20mm bases they are on.
3. Don't stick up too high above the table.
4. Be rugged and able to stand up to abuse

Number 2 was difficult, I had previously tried Flames of War sized trenches for 15mm, but I felt my 10mm guys looked like they were in the Los Angeles River and not a trench. 

This was the perfect problem to solve with (drum roll) my 3d printer! For an inexpensive FDM printer like my Crealty Ender 3, making terrain is an ideal project.  All I did was take another guy's 28mm trenches he had designed and posted to Thingieverse and (with his permission) I remixed them and shrunk them down to the exact size I wanted and created the exact sections I wanted as well.

You can download the STL files here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4150347  

I printed a stack of these up a few months ago and have finally finished painting them, including gluing sand for texture (I do not know how to do textures in 3d design programs yet)

(Click pictures to enlarge)

Here is the VERY messy process in progress

Here is a layout to show you what types of setups I can do.

A Vickers HMG in a sap.

A British section occupying a firing bay waiting for the Hun.  All of my troops are Pendraken 10mm mounted on 3mm thick bases, to give you an idea of size. 

Here are the unique pieces.  If you click and enlarge the photo, you can see I have the ability to add dugout openings as well.

I am very pleased with how they turned out.  The next stop is to refight every Western Front scenario in the Too Fat Lardies scenario book and in their WW1 compendium, Play The Game.

Until next time, good gaming!

 

Dusting off Trench Hammer

I did a few quick solo games of Trench Hammer this past week, with some house modifications to use ideas from Hammer of Democracy, particularly the damage rules.  I was looking for fewer swings in damage inflicted.  

This was also the debut of my 3d printed 10mm Trenches.  Not painted up, but some of them undercoated, you can get an idea of how they match up to my Pendraken 10mm figures, mounted on 3mm thick bases.  (Click to Enlarge)

You can download the trenches from Thingieverse here.

I set up a fairly simple scenario just to get back into the rules, a German daylight raid on a British strongpoint jutting into no man's land, garrisoned by:

• 1 Vickers Machine gun
• 1 Infantry platoon with 1 leader and
• 1 x Rifle section
• 1 x Bombing Section
• 1 x Rifle Bombing section (rifle grenades)
• 1 x Lewis Gun Section

The German raiders consisted of a picked force with a junior officer assited by an NCO and:

• 2 x MG 08/25 sections
• 4 x Bombing Sections

I played through it twice, and it was a nailbiter both times, with the first game seeing the Germans roll up the position with their bombers, but taking heavy casualties and the second time the Germans got into the position, but judicious counter-attacks by the British ejected the Huns.

Here is the initial British Defense, the Vickers is emplaced in the sap, while the officer and the bombing section are in the dugout. 

The whole setup, the Germans split their force in 2 with the intention of laying down covering fire with the MG 08/15's and enveloping the MG position in the sap and raining grenades down on it.  Follow that up with entering the trenches and bombing their way through

That worked fairly well, here is one game, the Vickers was eliminated, but the rest of the plan stalls outside of the trenches.  The British officer and bombing section left the trenches to counter-attack and are near the buildings.

The Germans managed to get a couple of footholds in the trench with close assaults.

But judicious counter attacks by the British kicked them out.  I rather like the mechanism where you take 1 point of damage even if you win, it forces attackers to stop and regroup or face continued disruption if they keep advancing.

Both games went rather well, I am off to paint up the trench sections now and write up all of my amendments.  Meanwhile, good gaming!

So what now?

 Now that I am rolling off of my Master's program, I will have more free time to devote to my love of gaming.  

So now what?

Over the last year, I have been pecking away and finished my 3mm WW2 East Front project, I need to take pictures of the whole lot and get them posted.  The whole effort has been for a double-blind convention game I intend to run.  Well, conventions may be thin on the ground for a bit longer, but I still want to get it wrapped up, including rules.  

Now I need to decide what to focus on.  I am starting to worry that I have dug myself into a hole again with too many projects, maybe itemizing them will help.  

1. 3mm WW2 East Front Project
1. Needs rule playtesting
2. Schedule some games, I was thinking about renting the back room at a nearby coffee shop.
2. Pulp Alley
1. I got a few games in with my nephew and I think I have a good grip on the rules now.
2. I have TONS of figures, so could focus on playing OR
3. Work on the bags of figures I have available to paint. Or both
3. 6mm AWI Skirmish
1. I have 6mm Armies for the Southern Campaign, but I also have a half-complete project in 6mm for playing small skirmishes with lots of militia and partisans using Rebels and Patriots or Sharp Practice 2
2. Just need to finish up the painting, maybe 48 more militia and about the same number of Loyalists
4. WW1
1. I have a half complete trench system I 3d printed specifically sized for my 10mm troops, I could finish it up and then start playing Trench Hammer again.
5. Travel Battle 1000 AD (with Orcs too) with Portable Wargame
1. I painted up my travel battle boards (I have 2 sets) and I decided the best use would be to lure my wife in with some Tolkien-esque flavor.  So, I have been rebasing my 6mm Orcs and Normans again on 20mm squares.
2. I figured I could also use them for half scale Lion Rampant / Dragon Rampant, with 4 x 20mm square bases per unit.  Each base would be worth 3 hit points or whatever they call them, so should work fine. 
3. On top of Normans (aka Rohan) and Orcs, I have bags of Baccus troops for 10th-11th Century Italy (Arabs, Lombards, Byzantines) and Britain in the same period (Vikings and Anglo-Danes).  Ditto I can use them on the Travel Battle board or Lion Rampant
4. AND... I am fiddling with DIY Portable wargame modular terrain in Tinkercad for 3d printing.
6. Korean War
1. I really really want to do his project.  I have all the stuff I need, Bags of troops from Pendraken in 10mm, and all the tanks I could every need 3d printed over the last year.
2. I could get a quick win with this one, painting a 1:1 platoon per side and playing Squad Hammer and then beefing up for bigger battles. AND I have the stuff to put together a What a Tanker! game with the tanks.  

And I have other stuff too:

1. 1/600 scale WW3 Central Front painted and table ready
2. 1/600 scale Sci Fi Hammer's slammers Esque ready for the table
3. 6mm Sci Fi Skirmish to be painted
4. Misc 28mm Pulp / Colonials that need painting

One conclusion after typing this up... I WILL NOT BUY ANY MORE FIGURES OR START ANY NEW PROJECTS.  I have liquidated my collection a few times before as it became an albatross around my neck, and I can feel it creeping back up again. 

Decisions decision.  Going to noodle this one out.

I am (almost) the Supreme Lord of Science

Well actually, I just submitted my final paper for my Master's of Science in Information Technology Management.  It has kept me from doing anything focused with gaming for the past year, but hopefully, that will change soon.

I wrote a total of 174 APA formatted pages over the last 12 months and earned my Certified Associate in Project Management designation.

It would have been impossible without my beautiful and supportive wife. 

You guys should start hearing from me on gaming topics in the next week or so. Now, I have to decide which project to work on!