Flames of War- Omaha Beach Table - PArt 1

It's been a while since the last update.  Gaming has been a little light here as the real world and work has taken it's toll on gaming and modeling however with the holidays coming up and lots of new stuff for Flames of War I find myself re-energized to tackle a long standing project.  Flames of War, for those of you who do not know, is a 15mm WW2 level war game.

Building a Beach Assault table.

The D-Day Source book, released a few years back, contained rules and scenarios to recreate the famous D-Day landings in Normandy, France. I had started a board a few years back but lost interest as other projects took me away.

With the excitement of new Normandy Material in Flames of War I pulled out my old board, dedicating myself to finishing this once and for all. After a couple of days of working and painting I decided to shelve my first attempt.

First attempt

After a quick trip to the Home Depot for some more supplies my Son Jake and I set out to build the new and improved version of this table. Hopefully these entries on my table's construction can help those modelling challenged gamers out there that want to tackle a similar project.

We started with a 2x4 1/4 inch particle board and a 2x4 1" foam sheet.

Starting the new table, gluing the foam down to a 2 x 4 MDF sheet

We used the cut off from the beach to make the bluffs  that will overlook the beach

Bluffs added

Next up was sanding, we sanded the beach to give it a more gentle slope and the bluff with a not so gentle slope. In a few places we had to correct mistakes with plaster.

Testing the layout so far

While sanding we also cut in two "draws". these would be the only way that vehicles would be able to exit the beach. We did this by wrapping a 1" wide wooden ruler with sandpaper and sand the draws into the bluffs.

tools and supplies used to start texturing

Once we were happy with the contour and levels we started with texturing. My wife had brought back a big bag of actual beach sand on a recent trip and we used that to cover the beach and water areas. We would use coarser "Playground" sand (found at Home Depot) for the bluffs.

Real beach sand going on the beach

Once the sand dried we starting laying down some paint base coats. We also bought some 1.5"  trim to box in the water area. This was caulked to make sure it will be able to hold the water effects without leaking.

This was also when catastrophe hit, the top of the bluffs started pealing up. Combination of the surface of the foam board (With it's plastic coating) and the temp in my garage messed me up. the whole top layer pealed off. Jake and I cleaned it off, sanded it down and did it again. This time successfully! (So far)

Adding the Shingle sea wall

Once the bluffs had dried and we settled on what paints we started laying in the details.  Like the shingle sea wall, using Woodland scenics railroad ballast.

Adding flocking, static grass and texture

Then we started work on the bluffs. Mixing flock and static grass we started covering the bluffs, the occasional small bush will be added as well as reeds and tall grass.

More play testing :-)

Once the bluffs are completed we will highlight the shingle and then, finally, the beach itself.

In part two we will finish the beach and then start tackling the scariest part of the project, the water. Here's a preview. I've been testing various ways of doing water on the Version 1 board. Here's a small section blocked off to test the water concept.

Water effects test on old board

Enjoy!