Not Built in a Day

I’ve been continuing to work on terrain for the Raid on St Nazaire game, which is taking longer than I had hoped. With most of the buildings done, it was time to actually work on the ground for the town.

I’m really experimenting with the ground. I didn’t want to have a large piece of board for the town and, originally, I was planning on just using cut gray felt to represent the area of the town. I thought that the gray color would represent the concrete of the dock are pretty well. However, Kevin thought that the single layer of felt would not give enough of a height difference between the water (which will be a large felt cloth) and the land. After talking it over, I decided to try mounting the felt on foamcore board.

Looking at the city layout, I decided I could break my terrain into three pieces; the south side of the Normandie dock, the north side of the Normandie dock, and the warehouse/old town area. Here you can see the area I’m trying to represent, with the area in red being the main game area. 

St Nazaire Raid area

After drawing up some patterns, I added few more pieces for the old mole, the east jetty, and the land on the west side of the area. Next I cut out all these pieces in gray felt and spray painted some green and brown onto the pieces. Finally, I cut out the foamcore and glued the felt to it. With that done, I laid out different pieces to see how it looked.

Here is the east jetty, going to Old Town, and then to the warehouse area

Overhead view of Old Town and the old mole

Overhead view of the warehouse area

A closer view of Old Town

Normandie dock area with the drydock in the center

The Normandie dock with the battleship Tirpitz in the dock (which was what the British feared)

Overall, I think it is looking pretty good. I do need to add more buildings and trees; I didn't have the buildings Kevin painted up so things look a little sparse. One thing I worry about is that it looks a little too clean. I think that based on the scale/distance, you probably wouldn't see how dirty/grungy stuff is. But I will try to figure out a way to break up the gray some.

Next up is working on the swing bridges and caissons for the drydock.