Tuesday 8 October 2013

Blue Roofed BUAs

Real life has been interfering with the hobby of late, but I have been quietly ticking away at a few projects. one of these is making up BUAs (Built Up Areas) for Volley and Bayonet, and continuing with the refurbishment of painted Airfix figures in order to quickly make up stands of V&B troops.

A V&B BUA - complete with white picket fences.

The lift out section of the BUA next to the main portion. The building from my friend is the big one on the main section.

The rules call for BUAs to be 4 inches by 6 inches with a 3 inch by inch  space in the template to allow for the placement of occupying troops. The idea of having a lift out building which is then replaced by the occupying stands is one that I have stolen from Robin (from Wargamingnz) and Adrian (whose V&B colonial BUAs are amazing)

As I am currently trawling through my wargaming terrain, I discovered a building that had been given to me by a friend before he left to live in the UK sometime in the mid to late 1990s. While it is scaled to 15mm, I figured that it was perfect for use in V&B - all it needed was roofing, painting, and basing - tasks I had put off doing for some time!


It has a rather nice style of construction that I will attempt to copy. 

My friend built it out of heavy construction cardboard, which has proven to be very durable.
 Naturally I have to include a photo of the BUA occupied by a couple of stands of my refurbished Airfix troops. These figures are part of a large number that I acquired from Mr Airfix recently. Glenn and Geoff also kindly supplied me with some of their old painted AWI Airfix figures that I am currently refurbishing the American figures from (Hopefully I will get two stands worth!).

Occupied or liberated? US troops hold the BUA.

The construction of the BUA allows for alternate building configurations.
I have also manged to refurbish another stand of infantry form figures supplied by Glenn. These figures had the majority of their paintwork flaked off, but since the uniform was mainly white, I figured it was worth making an attempt to save them. After all, someone went to a great deal of effort putting toothbrush mustaches on all of them!

Another stand of refurbished Airfix figures. These fellows are probably French - but let me know if you know better!

Refurbished AWI Britsh. The figures were kindly given to me from Geoff and Glenn's collection of old painted figures.

The refurbishment project has been generating a number of AWI stands, but I am slowly painting up some figures from scratch. The priority at the moment is to finish off a number of terrain projects so I can safely store all my terrain, and also dispose of some of the "useful bits for terrain making" that I have been holding on to for too long.

Another V&B BUA awaits the final finishing touches.
My current plan is to finish up the BUAs for V&B, then move on to during some final bits and pieces for Harad, and then do some WW2 terrain. Like all plans this one may be subject to change!

10 comments:

  1. They look really cool Brian, nice work! Glad to see that you are still tidying up those old Airfix dudes too!

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    1. Thanks Rodger! I'm slowly working through the stockpile of Airfix figures that need refurbishment. Only about twenty AWI figures left and then I can crack into the unpainted ones - although the Lucky Products figures do have priority!

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    1. Thanks Phil! I just have to crank out some more!

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  3. Great BUA terrain pieces, and good for other rule sets as well. I like the way the 3x3 liftout section can be reoriented to give a different look.

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    1. The liftout section is one of the better ideas I have stolen!

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    1. Thanks Al! I'm trying to finish terrain making projects so I can deep six some of the bits I've been stockpiling for future use - some of which I've been hanging on for decades!

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  5. Good to see you working on something other than actual work Brian!

    Nice job on the buildings and figs.

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    1. Thanks Paul! - I'm very pleased with how well its turned out too! The other BUA looks good too - pictures to come on that soon.

      As for doing hobby stuff - I'd always rather be doing hobby stuff than real work, but then real work pays for the hobby...

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