Gabions galore

Tim as always been very generous with his surplus items, and my latest acquisition via this route was a random collection of Irregular 6mm fortifications. Keen eyed readers may have spotted the Austrians hiding behind them in last weeks APW game. They were unpainted as Tim had literally just handed them to me before the game, and I thought they were just the thing to use as dug in markers instead of the matchsticks I was going to use.

There were half a dozen earthworks reinforced with gabions on one side, and one set of freestanding gabions, the latter are just what I need for a scenario I'm working on.

I need something to use as a temporary roadblock, and these are just the ticket. I was going to scratchbuild some,  but it is much easier to just paint something.

The trench sections are rather nice too. I just stuck the terrain bits down on appropriate sized bases, painted them mid brown all over and then ran an inkwash and a light drybrush over the gabions. They are all on 30mm frontages, so will also do as dug in markers for some of my bigger toys (which are also on 30mm bases). 

From the front, a rather unexciting pile of earth. Apart from the painted gabions, the rest of the bases were just done with builders sand stuck down with PVA and edged in black. At some point I'll add some static grass to the actual base bits.

Here are some heroic French Zoaves somewhat uncharacteristically hiding in a load of earthworks. For Rifle & Kepi games I'll just use one marker in a hex to indicated dug in status, and for other periods and rules they can join my useful heap of bits of terrain.