Force on Force: Radio Areial and Cell Phone Mast

Here is a couple of quick WIP shots of a cell phone (mobile phone) mast and a radio aerial I have made as objectives for Force on Force. They are made from Hornby Trains OO gauge pylons I got form the local model shop. I built them and then trimmed off the bits that stick out the side to hold the power cables. Then I rooted through my bits box of Games Workshop tank parts and added some bits and bobs to make them look the part. The cell phone mast also has some plasticard receivers too.

The Radio Free Zugando aerial

The Cell phone mast is to be used in my modern Finland campaign  It will be painted up and given a light dusting of snow flock. The Radio areal will be part of a radio station complex for my Zugandan shanty town. Both will be important objectives, as securing them can effect the oppositions command and control. 

A mobile phone mast in Finland

The Pylons come with three in a box for £15.99. The other one might get made up as a more traditional BBC radio mast without all the satellite dishes etc to be used for Very British Civil War. 

Zugandan Aid Convoy Ready To Be Ambushed

I wanted to do a UN aid convoy as an objective for a Force on Force game set in my fictional war-torn West African Imagi-nation of Zugando. It wasn't the first time I have converted toy cars, having done them for my VBCW and my Battle Cars games, and it is something I really get a lot of pleasure from.

I began by sourcing a couple of trucks- cheep ones from Tescos and Sainsburys. These ones scale well with my 28mm figures and the other vehicals I have already painted for my Africa Campaign. 

Next I made some cargo- I used resin crates made by Ainsty, Ebob's metal barrels, some crates I had left over from another toy I dismantled and some Tamiya 1/36 scale sand bags, which at 28mm scale make nice sacks. 

I cut a piece of plasticard to fit the flat bed of the truck and glued the cargo to this prior to painting. This was so I could remove the cargo to paint it. It also means I can use the trucks empty, and use  the cargo as a piece of terrain- multi-purpose is the name of the game!

The Orange one- with cargo...

...and without.

With cargo...

...and empty

This truck scales well with my 28mm scale stuff

And the cargo can be removed and used as terrain, should the battle call for it. 

Painting was simple- spray it black and paint it. I painted in the windows to match the other vehicals in my collection  This is because the resin Toyota technicals I bought form Britannia miniatures have solid windows which have to be painted, so it makes sense if all the windows on all the vehicals match- even if it doesn't look 100% realistic. A good coat of weathering adds the final details- after all- it's dusty in Zugando, and the poor conditions of the roads means vehicals get very dirty, very quickly.

The Fanno Cassa Raid (Force on Force)

My son Charlie and I finally got round to playing our first game of Force on Force some 9 months after I started the project, building an African shanty town. We played the game out of the rules called ‘A Few Blocks of Hell’ but as it was set in my fictional West African country, Zugando, we substituted the US army for SAS and Delta forces, and changed the insurgents to rebel militia and Zugando Peoples Resistance Army.

Charlie took command of the coalition Special Forces, while I played the Africans.

The main mission was for the SF to get into the target buildings (the watch tower and the ruined church) by the end of turn 4, and hold them until the end of turn 6).

SAS forces, under Captain Price, intercepted information that the PRA forces were massing for an offensive. The PRA has been stockpiling weapons and fuel in the village of Fanno Casa. Their intelligence suggests that the stockpile is in either the ruined church mission or in the guard station in the centre of the village. A squad of PRA soldiers were protecting the site from thieves, but intelligence suggest that the village also has a sizable number of militiamen loyal to the PRA who will no doubt come out to fight too.

A combined force of 18 special forces men drawn from SAS and Delta Force were tasked to locate and destroy the supply dump to delay the PRA attack. They were supported by a SAS light mortar crew firing form the jungle. They would approach the village from the south, through the jungle under the cover of darkness, and attack just before dawn. 

PRA soldiers form the 'elite' part of the rebel army

Militiamen congregate in the market place of Fanno Casa

Spud is down!
Early in the battle the Delta Force took a casualty

Captain Price leads his men onto a roof top from where they provide
overwach and he directs deadly accurate mortar fire.  

An overview of the market place of Fanno Cassa. The church and
watchtower are on the left hands side in this photograph.

The local PRA commander directs the battle from the balcony of a  small hotel,
until he is shot and wounded by one of Captain Price's team.

Having fought their way through the market place of Fanno Casa, the Delta  Force fire team
stack up on the ruined church, ready to breach. 

Following a vicious street batle the Special Forces overwhelmed the PRA men, and captured the church and eventually the watch tower. The supply dumps were destroyed and the SF were extracted by helicopter  along with five prisoners, including a PRA officer. Unfortunately two of the Delta Force were KIA and three of the SF were seriously wounded, although by delaying the PRA offensive, their sacrifice saved countless lives. 

The People's Resistance Army of Zugando

Colonel Peter Umpanawana (shown here with his bodyguards) is a high ranking member of the People's Resistance Army, a neo-communist militia in fighting against the government of the Democratic Republic of Zugando, in West Africa. The PRA have been accused by the UN and human rights groups of committing acts of atrocity against the ethnic Matandi population and against supporters of the President, Edmund Mudanawanga. Colonel Umpanawana is wanted for various war crimes and acts of atrocity against civilians. He is currently being hunted by Special Forces, including SAS and Delta Force, as part of the I-COZ peace keeping mission.



All of the above 'fluff' is part of the background for my Force on Force campaign set in an entirely fictional West African country of Zugano. Perhaps Colonel Umpanawana will become something of a reoccurring villain, if he manages to avoid the special forces hunting him down.
These figures were painted for the Lead Painters League and the first of the FOF fire teams I have finished. As an 'elite' part of the PRA (and I use that term very loosely) they are wearing more 'uniform' than the rank and file soldiers. This batch of figures is made my The Assault Group, who have quite a large range of modern miniatures. They are well sculpted, with some nice details on the 'character' models. The Colonel has a pet monkey on his shoulder, which is quite a cool detail to set him apart from his peers.

Test Model for my African Militia

This is my test model for my African militia. I have painted Africans before, way back in my colonial days, and I am relatively happy with the skin tones (basically GW Scorched Brown, followed by a good wash of Devlin Mud, then highlights with Scorched Brown again- simple, quick and effective). The 'uniform' will be fairly a fairly none standard mix of greens and cammo, together with brightly coloured tee-shirts and tatty trainers or army boots. That seems to be the done thing in African militias, judging by a quick search in Google images (Ah, Google images, taking all the stress and fun out of wargaming research.)

This figure is intended to be a slightly more 'elite' militiaman, part of my general's bodyguard. You can expect more irregular looking troops in the lower ranks.

This miniature is by The Assault Group, and is 28mm scale.

The Dilapidated Mission Church

Here's the last piece, for now at least, of my African shanty town scenery. It's a dilapidated church that has been taken over by the local militias and used as a head quarters. The roof is caving in, but still provides a dominate position with good sight lines over large area of the shanty town.

The roof of the church, and of the side chapel and the school room, both lift off so we can get the miniatures it.

Well that's it for a while. I have got a pile of Africans, SAS and Navy SEALs to paint now, as soon as the weather warms up enough form me to get my black spray can out.

More Little Bits of Africa

In the absence of any new figures to show you (see the previous posting to see why) I have added a few more pictures of some of the African shanty scenery I have been working on.

The first is a corner piece- a small badly polluted river that the local villagers used as their only souse of water. Its made from card, foam board and modrock, then coated in a thick layer of PVA and sand.



The foot bridge is made from chop sticks (from Waga Mama- in case you were wondering) and matchsticks. The barrels are resin and are made by Fenris Games, available on eBay.

I might add a bit of dry looking grass flock in patches as I think it looks bare, but otherwise I think it looks OK.

Next is my scratch-built market place. Built from balsa and corrigated card. Suitable scruffy for the locals of my shanty town to buy their water melons and AK47's. Inspired by the COD MW3 mission 'Fatal Extraction'.

Hope you like them. I have nearly finished the dilapidated mission church, and will soon start working on the shanties armed inhabitants. I have bought Force on Force and have begun poring over the rules- it looks exactly what I am looking for!

Dusty Old Camper Van for Shanty Town

The ubiquitous VW Camper van can be found in just about any corner of the world. This one, to be found in my African Shanty town, is in reasonably good repair, except for a little rust and dirt. It's more than capable of transporting a fire team or two of my African militia, as long as they can get it started.

Another Disney Cars vehicle. This one required a bit of green stuff to fill in its mouth, just above the bumper, but that was it.

Beat-up Banger for African Shanty Town

Here's my latest bit of scenery for my African slum- A rusty old car. This car is well past its sell by date, but some ingenious mechanic has managed to keep it serviceable, just about, by retooling parts from other cars and welding flattened-out oil cans to the body to repair the holes. More rust that car, its unlikely to provide much cover in the event of a fire fight.This one was another Disney Cars vehicle. He was called 'Fred'. I am not very familiar with the films but I think he was a character in a spin off TV series. The only conversion I had to make was to re-sculpt the front bumper (fender) with green stuff, as it was twisted into a goofy smile. Very heavy rust and weathering seemed the order of the day.

African Shanty Town Shops

Once more inspired by the excellent Call of Duty MW3, I have built this row of shops form my African shanty town. It is inspired by the market scene in the missions 'Back on the Grid' and 'Fatal Extraction'. The building in notably more up-market that the shanties, and reflects the fact that the shop owners have got a little bit more resources than their poor neighbours.



Its a two story building with a flat roof and a balcony. Access to the roof is either up a ladder on the side or up a stairwell inside. The roof and the first floor are removable to allow figures to be place inside.

I know it's not quite a shanty, but even in shanty towns you are going to have to go some where to buy your food and AK47 ammunition. It adds a bit of height to the battle field, and as it is one of the only brick build structures in the area, I am sure it will be a desirable objective in a fire fight.

I am going to add some market stalls, and build the dilapidated church that also features in those COD: MW3 missions.

I can even remove the balcony floor all together and opt for a single story building with a flat roof.

Shanty Town Watch Tower

I have been adding some more bits to my African Shanty town slum scenery. This time I built a watch tower on top of a small hill.

The shanty is set into the hill, and topped with a watch tower, giving the militia a commanding view of the whole town. A fence stretches across the hill, restricting access to the town. Luckily enough for the attackers, there is a storm drain that runs right under the watch tower, allowing stealthy access to the shanty town.

I built the hill form foam card and covered it with Modrock and then I sanded it and added bits of corrugated card, match sticks and balsa continue the junk feel. The fence is built form balsa and aluminium mesh, and is designed to link up with the other bits I have already built.

Like the other bits of scenery for the shanty town I have built this with function in mind. The shanty roof comes off, so I can put figures inside, and the storm drain means that attackers will have a choice about taking out the defenders or sneaking past- Very Call of Duty!

Wrecked Car for my African Shanty

I thought my African Shanty town needed a few beat-up old cars hanging around to 'modern' it up a bit. I looked around for a source of suitable models, and came up with a surprising find.

Modern 28mm civilian vehicles are a bit of a rarity. You can find Hummers and Toyota pick ups in some ranges, but they are expensive. for this project I wanted something a bit different. I have had plenty of experience converting die-cast cars into wargaming pieces, having done it for my VBCW and Battle Cars collections in the past. The trouble is that most die-casts are not in '28mm scale', which is about 1:56. It was by chance I stumbled on the fact that Disney's Cars die casts are something close to 1:56 scale, although there is some variation across the range with some of the small cars being undersized for comic effect.










I thought I would start with Tow Mater, the tow truck. I bought him on eBay for about £5. I drilled out the bolts underneath so I could take it apart. I took the mouth piece off the front, and removed the tow hook thing on the back. I used a bit of card to build up a new front, and built a scenic base to fit in with the rest of the shanty town scenery. I also cut down one of the tires to make a flat tire out of green stuff.

A quick bit of paint, a bit of rust effect stippled over the top and plenty if GW washed to add a lot of weathering, and hey-presto! A suitably wrecked piece of war gaming scenery.

Here's a shot with a 28mm Russian (I haven't got any Africans yet) for comparison. Bear in mind, this isn't a Toyota type pick up typically used as 'Technicals', but rather an older 1950's Chevy type, which was a bigger beast. Scale wise, I think it's about right. I have also got a nice small salon car (I think it might be an old Skoda) and a VW camper to do next.

More Shanty Town Scenery

Ho ho ho! Amongst all the festive foolishness and Christmas tree construction I have managed to get a few more bits of my African slum scenery finished. It's building up into quite a collection now, but I would like to add a few more buildings, and may be a big centerpiece too.

First off, a couple more shanty shacks, being built in the same way as the previous ones. This one has a balsa wood ladder up the side. Gaming access to the flat roof increased the gaming potential.

This pool of contaminated water was made from card and DAS modeling clay. I made the office chair myself, from some left over Fimo. The toxic waste barrels some heartless multi-national company has dumped near the slum are made by Fenris Games (I am not implying Fenris Games are a heartless multi-national company by the way).

The barricade/rubbish tip is made from bits and bobs of things I made or found. I made the settee and the green foot locker from Fimo. There is also a telly and a bin bag, but you can't see them so well in this picture. The rest of the stuff is by various manufactures, or just junk and off cuts left over from other projects, or from building the shacks.

Here's a close up om my settee. I am rather pleased with it.

Sierra Leone Slum

If you have followed my blog for any length of time you will know that I have a habit of getting totally distracted from my current project and stating a new one completely on a whim. I am sure I am not the only wargamer who has this problem.

OK, that said by way of an explanation, it's time to announce my latest distraction/project. Having played COD:MW3 far too much of late, I have been particularly taken by the level fighting in the slums of Sierra Leone, and thought "I would love to do a wargame in a slum". Without more thought as to exactly what wargame I would play, and totally lacking suitable armies to fight over it, I broke out the foam card, balsa wood and corrugated card. This is what I have made so far. ..

This is the first shanty I made. Basically I made a box with foam card and stuck bits and bobs to it. All the buildings have lift off roofs, so I can get my (currently non-existent) miniatures inside. The shanties are bigger that they would be in real life- some might say palatial in fact- but that was so I can get my big clumsy fingers in. I haven't bothered painting the interiors.

I had a lot of fun experimenting with painting the rust- I used various techniques from stippling to inks, and I am generally pleased with the results.

I made this mattress myself from Fimo- great fun and easier than you might think. The rest of the stuff is bits of balsa wood, match sticks, tooth picks, resin barrels by Fenris Games, gravel out of the garden and other similar bits of junk. The fences are made with aluminium mash used to repair car body work- available from Halfords in the UK for £1.99 an A4 sheet.

Coming soon- More shanties, more fences, a hill of rubbish and a polluted stream. I might do a little market place too, and may be a Church or some ruined colonial buildings too.

As to what I am going to do with this terrain, who knows: Force on Force seems an obvious choice, given its origins in COD:MW3, but equally it would be useful for Necromunda, AE Bounty, and 40K. I am open to other suggestions too.