Battle of Berlin… small terrain items

So as the last post before the game shots from Crisis… here are the extra items, to add some life to the table.

Before we start… I also painted a whole lot of Tamiya 1:48th scale lampposts, but to be honest, those are pretty boring to photograph as single items, so you will have to wait till tomorrow to see them.

Up first is some rubble heaps. Now these are simple pieces of pink foam cut to shape, covered with sand, plaster bricks, some wooden sticks and painted to match the other terrain. These are just there to represent the bigger heaps of rubble. I think in the long run, I will have to do a few more of these, but for now… these will have to suffice.

Rubble

But another important feature in the battle of Berlin were anti-tank barricades. These took various forms. Some were just boxes made from squared timber, filled with rubble. Others were ramparts made from rubble with railway sleepers driven into them. I wanted some of either version. Again these were just done like the rubble heaps above.

Barricades

Barricades

Barricades

In some places barricades were simply created by taking tram cars and rolling them into the street. At times these were filled with rubble to make them harder to cost or move away. Now tram cars are virtually impossible to get in 28mm. Well over a decade ago I found a 1:45th scale Tokyo tram model on eBay and bought it. The previous owner had already converted the kit, so it could pass as a German tram. So all that was left for me to do last week, was to actually assemble it and paint it. I am really happy I bought this all those years ago, since I never saw any again and it makes one really nice piece on the table.

The Tram

Tram from the front

Tram drivers position

But what would any good defense of Berlin be, without a decent Pantherturm? This model actually came up as a left over piece. A couple of years ago I converted a Tamiya 1:48th scale Panther into a Bergepanther, using a conversion kit for a Solido model. This left me with the unused turret and upper hull. So a cut the hull out around the turret ring and build a bunker under it using plasticard. This was the based, and rubble added and I had the Pantherturm.

Pantherturm

Pantherturm

And last but not least… some objective markers for Battlegroup: FotR. One is simply an ammo cart from a Kettenkrad. Nothing special about this… just a place a soldier would seek out to get some more ammo.

The next is an eagle and Swastika ornament that has fallen off one of the buildings and scattered on the ground. I think this makes a good objective marker to show the final days of the Third Reich have come and it now lies scattered on the ground.

The last is a piano someone carried into the street from one of the houses. Whenever I see the opening scenes from Band of Brothers (or the scene in the episode,) or any photo from a warzone of a soldier standing besides a piano, I feel it is a stark reminder of how war changes the reality. In peacetime music and such fine instruments have a role our lives. It is about beauty and what humans can create with their imagination, their compassion and their soul. In war all that changes and no longer is life about things like beauty and creation. It is only about survival and destruction. So I felt a piano would be a reminder of that. I am still thinking about adding some weapon to the top of the piano, to underline this and enhance the conflict between the two. What do you think?

Objective markers
[Image was edited to comply with German law]

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