Singling House and Barn

I did get some painting done on Sunday and Monday. I finished off a barn from Empires at War. I had plastered the barn but left the exposed brick portions alone. I then painted it up. The roof is some plasticard tiles that were painted. In general, I think it came out pretty well.

I also revisited the blue house I had worked on. The house was far to bright. So I used some Army Painter Light Tone that was watered down to try to dull our the house. I think it is better but the stains I had placed on it originally is too dark. But I will keep it.

The town continues to grow. I worked on cutting out the road section for the town square. I made a paper template earlier and ended up cutting the roads larger than the template. I am not 100% sure this is perfect but it isn't bad. I am looking at existing buildings that i had and seeing if i can use these in the town as well. There are definitely differences in painting styles between the buildings but I think it will work.

I have started working on a destroyed house that I will use off the town square. The building is assembled. I will need to plaster it and then glue down some additional rubble. Then it will need painting. This is the building that I will use for the one on fire on the town square. I should be able to work on this in the next few days.

The School needs to be worked on. I am concerned that I'm running out of the tile roofing material. This building, along with the church, are notable structures in the town. I have sketched out a template for the building that I will use to cut out some thick card or foam core for. The house, building 28, on the town square will also be on my to do list. There really isn't any significant architectural items for me to 3d print. I have some rough dimensions for the building and will try to sketch out a template for it next. The roof will be the worrisome part of it.

Infantry wise, I just received a package from Gajo Games. I have sorted through the miniatures and am very pleased with what I received. My only problem is I will need three more LMG teams to complete out a Panzer Grenadier Platoon. For the scenario, I am probably OK as the platoons were greatly reduced. It came with two PanzerShreck teams. I need to base these. They are wonderfully painted. I am very pleased. I also received my US troops as well but didn't take them out of the bags yet. This should be more than enough miniatures for the battles. However, I am still working on how to integrate the German infantry into the actions given their performance in the battle.

Singling Project Continued

I started to assemble a ruined house. This will probably serve as the burning house on the town square. The plan is to order some infantry from Gajo miniatures to have a winter base platoon for both US and German infantry. (Note, I just placed the order today. Gajo has excellent customer service and I have ordered from them before.) This will open up some additional options for gaming. I have a winter platoon of Soviets still in the box unopened. I will eventually get to these miniatures.

For the town square, I will look to work on the streets for it. I will likely make a set piece that will be the roads as it is such an odd join. I have made a paper template that I need to match up with the existing road thickness that I have. The My current roads are felt strips that are covered in grout, sand and paint. They are simple and seem to work.

The church is largely done. The other buildings on the town square would be buildings 7, 8, 28, the school. Building 8 is an L shaped house. Seven is also a house. I may use the blue house that I have painted up for it. The school and building 28 will need to be scratch built. House 8, I will look for possible buildings I can purchase. These will be my focus for the time being. If you look at the village now, Building #7 is now replaced with a new cinderblock building. Building 44 has been rebuilt and seems similar to the original eventhough it was buring during the battle. Building 6 no longer exists. There is a picture of it at the time of the battle and does not look significantly damaged. Buildings 8, 9 and 10 are no longer present. There are new buildings in its place or an empty lot. Building 12 is a set of row houses both then and now. The building was damaged during the battle but it is unclear if this building is a replacement or just rebuilt. Now a street exists where before it was an alley betwen buildings 10 and 8. The school house still stands. A new building now exist between the school (still standing) and building 23. It is unclear if the building in the space where building 23 stood is that same building or a new one. The large U shaped farm structures are still present but are likely new construction.

For the other tables of the battle, I think I have a good selection of miniatures. I do need three JadgPanzer IVs. The 11th Panzer Division, whose Panther V tanks were in Singling, had as one of its organic units the Panzerjager Abtielung 61. This unit was equipped in November 1944 with a mix of Marder III and JadgPanzer IV vehicles. There are pictures online of knocked out vehicles of both types attributed to this unit. The after action reports list the self-propelled guns as ones based on a Panzer IV chassis mounting a 75mm gun. This matches the Jadgpanzer IV and not the Marder III. This is still just an educated guess but a reasonable one.

I need to make some winter trees. They should be straight forward. To make an orchard, it should be a difficult thing. I believe that I have spare tree sprues to do this. Most are from the

Once more as things are finished, I will post pictures. I have been enjoying building this up.

Singling Updates

The Church came out too light in color. I gave it a black wash over the weekend that was thinned out with water. I am not entirely happy with it yet. I may put some undiluted wash in places to see if that will give it a splotchier look. Here it is in the current version.

Again, here is what I am aiming for:

I think I am getting closer but am not there yet. The blue house needs some more distress to the building. This will provide a good background building outside of the immediate town square. No progress was made on the barn, stable or ruined stable. The central table in the campaign will have a large number of buildings. Besides the church, school and a home on the town square, there will be two townhouse blocks, a large farm building, and eight houses. But this is for a 15mm table. It could be reduced for one in a larger scale.

what is now clear to me is that I will need more dirt roads. I have at least six feet of dirt roads now. But the section for the town square is such an odd shape I would need create something. The screen shot below is the current town square. The roads have been paved since 1944. During the battle, they were ankle deep mud. But the shape is similar. I marked out the principle buildings on the square.

Church at Singling - Progress

I finished spackling the building and gluing the ridge tiles in place. I think I made a mistake in trying to paint the brick paper on the stepple. I am not completely happy with it. I used a speed paint of Army Painter Holy White. It made for a grayish color. I am not happy with it and will paint something else on it. Possibly a drybrush of white of somekind. I need to prime the 3d printed elements. These will be a gray color. I haven't decided on what the windows should look like.

Just to compare, this is the building now and in the war.

I have several other buildings started but none are for the town square besides the church. So far I have a stable, a ruined stable, a house and barn. These are from Empires at war. So far they have been assembled and the roofs built out. The tile ridges are still trying and this explains the tape. I put filler on three of the buildings and hope to get some paint on them later.

The next build will be the School House. The school house is a simplier building. My thought was to use Warbases 2 Storey Townhouse model as the base for it. It will lack a central chimney that I would have to build. The upper windows match. I have a 3d model of the doorway to use and will move the other windows over. I am not sure about the backside of the building. In addition, the building is on a ridge so the back of the building is taller than the front. Here is the building today.

You can see the changes from the war. Here is the image taken after the battle.