Professional Documents
Culture Documents
By Paul Davies
a V1 launch site
Some weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to get a sneak preview of the Flames Of War Open Fire boxed set when
I was invited to the Wargames Illustrated 300th issue celebration, and was very impressed by the quality and
amount of models and figures in the box. I was particularly interested in the V1, complete with launching ramp,
and the possibilities for making it into something more than just a terrain piece or objective marker occurred to
me immediately.
Obviously there have been a few
compromises with the model, most
notably regarding the scaled down length
of the launching ramp. The original
Walter Schlitzrohrschleuder WR 2.3
catapult launch ramp has been quoted
at anything from 36 - 58.4 metres
long depending upon which source
you consult. Assuming the longest
dimension, then at 1/100th scale the
model would be almost 24'' long, which
would clearly dominate most wargames
tables! The ramp sections supplied in
Open Fire, make a ramp that is just
under 6''. Unfortunately at the time of
writing this How to there were no
plans to separately release any of the
plastic components from Open Fire,
so if you want to create a longer ramp,
or for that matter, have more of the very
nice infantry figures youll need to get
together with someone else and pool
your resources.
Anyway, for this How to I decided
to create a selection of generic buildings
associated with the early V1 launch sites.
I stress early because thanks to excellent
Allied air reconnaissance and information
from the resistance in Occupied Europe,
the Germans quickly realised that they
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Painting &
Modelling
CONSTRUCTION
From various sources, including those credited at the end of
this article, it was evident that the curve of the ski could be in
either direction.
Cut out and glue part 1 to part 2.
The two side walls are a little complicated as they incorporate a
curve and its difficult to determine their length. My procedure
was to first lay a piece of string along the length of part two and,
allowing a couple of inches extra, cut out two strips of foam the
same height as part 1.
MAKING DOORS
The doors in the Anti Magnetic Alignment building would have
been wooden for obvious reasons. To create them, I scored a
series of lines onto balsa sheet and then cut out a door to fit the
aperture. As for painting, wood that has aged tends to look
grey, but the wood in these doors would have been fairly new,
so I decided to use Citadel Kharlock Green, followed by a
very light drybrush of grey to pick out the grain in the balsa.
Dont be tempted to drybrush until the previous colour has
dried completely. To finish off the door I created a door handle
by pushing a pin through the door, and snipping off the excess.
Be careful when you do this as the sharp pointy end has a
nasty habit of shooting across the room at something
approaching escape velocity! Paint the head of the pin black
and thats it, one simple door complete with door handle. Just
glue it into position.
The doors for the Fire Control bunker and the Ski building were
more likely to have been made from metal, so I used plastic card
for them. The main doors were created by making a backing
piece slightly larger than the door aperture. Onto this was glued
a slightly smaller piece to represent the doors. A thin vertical
strip was added to suggest where the doors joined and finally
hinges were added, made from thin paper.
The doors were sprayed matt black and then drybrushed with
Games Workshop Boltgun Metal.
To date, Ive yet to find a glue that will work with both Styrofoam
and plastic card, so to hold the doors in position I added a piece of
foam behind the door, pinning and gluing it into position.
The same basic procedure was followed for the other door for this
building and also for the door for the Fire Control Launch bunker.
BASES
Its up to you whether or not you create bases for your
buildings. It depends on what terrain you already have and
also just how permanent you want to make your V1 site.
Assuming you want to make bases the following steps are
how I made mine.
Cut out a piece of thick card for the base and from thinner
card cut out some rectangular shapes to represent paving
type slabs and concrete.
Position the respective building onto its base, draw
around it to create a guide and then glue the card tiles
into position
I followed the same painting process for each base; paint the tiled area
matt black, and the surrounding ground dark brown. After this had dried
thoroughly I dry brushed the earth and drag-sponged the tiles.
Dont worry too much if youre a bit heavy handed with drybrushing over
the brown as youll be covering most of it with static grass or flock, but try
to be careful when working on the stonework.
All that remains is to bring together your buildings and bases