The Battle of Wagram: Part 1

 This past weekend the members of the Nanaimo Historical Wargamers group got together to refight the Battle of Wagram. Nate, the organiser of the event, asked me a few months ago if I would be interested in making a few hills, including a large one to represent the Wagram plateau. As I had been thinking of making a table of terrain panels, I decided to do the whole battlefield in panels instead of just a few hills. You've heard of 'scale creep'? Well, this is an extreme example of 'project creep'!

The basis of the table was this map (I cannot recall the publication it is from):

Each panel was made from 1" insulation foam, glued to 1/4" MDF in either 2' by 2' or 2' by 4' sections.  Here are all the panels laid out in the biggest room in my house; the total table size is 14' by 6' with an added 2' by 6' section in the south-west corner, making it 8' deep there (north west would be the bottom of the photo below). 

I blended the hills of the plateau into the styrofoam with Sculptamold.

After that had dried for a few days each panel got coated with a couple different colours of Polyblend Sanded Grout.

Once dry, they were sealed with a light misting of isopropyl alcohol and thinned white glue sprayed liberally over each panel. 

A layer of 2mm Woodland Scenics static grass was next.

The swampy areas were accented with Noch tufts and Woodland Scenics dark green clump foliage.

Then the process of adding bits of shrubbery and patches of more static grass (4mm spring and 6mm summer from Peco)  for a little visual variety on the large stretches of grassland/pasture.

Finally, the Russbach creek was poured with EcoPoxy resin, tinted with Golden High Flow Acrylic Sap Green..

We needed a structure to represent the tower at Markgrafneusiedl. Photos show an odd tower which is in fact a windmill added to the structure around 1817, several years after the battle.

 A 19thC painting shows Davout ordering the assault on Markgrafneusiedl with the tower in the background. It doesn't really look like the current structure either. 

The building had been used as a church for many years before the battle but was abandoned due to disrepair. I decided to make the structure a bit more church-like by combining the main structure as it now exists with a church tower, similar to the one in the painting.

This was my first time using Foamed PVC (aka Foamex); this is a 3mm sheet from Green Stuff World. 

I cut out two windows on one side but then said screw it, and just decided to paint the others black.

This material is easy to carve and texture, more resilient than foam or foam board. It cuts easily in a straight line but a little messy when cutting curves and circles. 

I will definitely be using more of this stuff.

I don't have any pictures of the finished building as it got done late Thursday night after a rushed paint job before getting bundled up for transport Friday afternoon.

A number of issues popped up that either hampered the project or nearly sunk it including a bout with COVID about 2 weeks ago. I meant to line the creek with shrubs as would have been natural and my plan to fix a couple of the warped boards had to be set aside.

Next up, photos of the actual game...