I've been thinking about small things to add to the terrain collection for Stalino, and what we're missing. And look at the top picture of this blog: what railroad is not accompanied by a poles holding up telegraph or telephone wires? In street view pictures of Stalino, there's also all kinds of telephone and power wires. There are several different kits both for complete poles and for just the insulators that holds the wires in place. I decided to try to make mine from scratch, as I had all the required materials: bamboo BBQ skewers, wire, green stuff (kneadatite), balsa wood and metal washers. I made three different types of poles as prototypes. According to reference photos these would vary a lot, even along the same power line. I drilled holes with a pin vice where I wanted to put the insulators, either directly on the poles (as in the left-most version) or along a horisontal balsa stick (as in the picture second from the left). Some poles got a diagonal support board. These would actually often be attached almost to the top of the pole, so in future versions I'll change this design slightly. Some poles got two horisontal planks, some got one.
I cut off short bits of steel wire and glued them in the drilled holes. I bent the wire 90 degrees with a plier if it was attached horisontally directly into the pole. When cured, I made small balls of green stuff that I scored in the middle with a knife, and then placed on the wire to make insulators. The poles were attached to metal washers with a liberal amount of green stuff. The poles that were going to get diagonal support boards were put on strips of MDF board, which I drilled holes into to keep the pole in place. Finally I glued some sand on the bases. The wood parts were painted Oak Brown (Vallejo Game Colour), and the insulators were painted Stonewall Grey (VGC) and then highlighted white. The bases were painted like I paint my German bases, with a mix of field grey and dark brown. That's it. A terrain piece that is very simple and cheap to build, and quick to paint. I believe that it will add realism to our roads and give a more urban feeling suitable for the fighting inside Stalino. As a final bonus they can also be used to mark zones if you have a scenario that requires those. It's a bit more interesting to have to infiltrate your troops beyond those four telegraph wires, than to get them aross those four yellow dice, right? Hey, where did those dice go? Did someone just take the infiltration zone markers to roll for armour saves again? Cheers, -Jonas
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WW2 Campaign BlogThis blog follows the second Chain of Command club campaign, set in the intense fighting over Stalino in October 1941. Archives
January 2018
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