Bolt Action- Pacific Terrain- Stage 1

The Brothers have had this notion that they'd like to play a game of Bolt Action- A large one. They have also mentioned, in passing, that they'd love to play a Pacific war scenario. As the appointed 'minion' ( with Marines, Japanese, Amtracs, DUKWs  and loads of other stuff) I guessed it was up to me to put something together. Paul has Japanese army and sailors, Spyros has Aussies, Japanese and palm trees and I've had boxes of palm trees sitting ready to go and have used them for some games but  inspired by the series 'The Pacific' and other movies I splashed out on some XPS foam, 30 metres(!!) of doweling, glue, paint and other bits and pieces. The first phase was to cut the foam to shape, glue it to the MDF board after cutting some trenches into it. I originally bought 5cm thick foam. Next time, i'd probably go for thinner stuff- it was a pain to cut and my beaches ended up a little too steep.

A Japanese Patrol on the final product.

The whole board 12'x6' with trenches cut.

The bits of expanding foam (pale yellow/white) are the rock formations.

Red Beach 1 and Red Beach 2!

Testing out the beach with a DUKW

AMTRACS sitting on Red Beach 2

Checking the size of the trenches.

Adding the doweling ( tree trunks)

I then spray painted the bunkers black so that they would stand out when I went to work with the roller and brushes

The trenches spray painted black so I can shade the 'logs'

Expanding foam was used to create rock formations.

When it was all glued and dried, it time to start painting. Painting was time consuming ( 3 days!) but a dark yellow mixed with sand for the island, various browns etc for the logs and marine rocks

Checking the suitability of my palm trees. Ive had these for years- and finally they'll get used for the purpose they were originally purchased back in 1998!!!!!

The Seawall. You can see here why the 5cm foam was too thick. 

Bunkers ready, rock formations look good, time for lots more palm trees.

Testing out the palm trees.

 Now the water!! I was very lazy with the water and just decided on a pale blue ( all pacific islands have sparkling blue water don't they???). By this stage I'd been working on it for 4 days straight and decided to do it without too much fuss. Just a coat of paint, a hint of shading for darker water and a coat of Mod Podge for the gloss effect.

The Mod Podge drying- that's the white bits- although it looks like waves!

Trying my palm trees ( again- for the 9th time!) out for effect.

The final layout!! In the top right is the small nearby island with the supporting 8" naval guns.- Both islands will need to be captured!!- The wide flat open area on the main island is the 'runway' for the airfield. 

Offshore sandbar.

'Little island': the small island offshore from the main island. ( The supporting naval gun in it's emplacement at bottom left and in my scenario can hit anywhere on 'big island') The landing barge the defenders use to travel between islands.

Main part of 'big island'.

I put some Amtracs down to see how they look on the beaches!!

Fuel Depot

Nissen Huts!

Japanese defenders!

A hidden 'woodpecker'

Well, the terrain is ready, the Marines are itching to attack, and the Japanese defenders are waiting grimly.