Trench system options

[Ace of Spades]

Looking very good!
To disguise the gaps you could maybe use some fine, loose sand? It means you will have to brush the items afterward but it might just work...
I did something similar to disguise the joints and gaps on my Colenso game table. It's a bit more effort but worthwhile I think.

Cheers,
Rob

[paulr]

...
Just to make them look even more awesome I was wondering if there's a way to cunningly disguise the cracks between sections quickly 

Possibly paint the sides white to reflect the maximum amount of light back out?
...

Would a general sprinkling of loose sand help disguise the edges more? Might be a bit of a mess to clean up but probably OK for a demo game.

As to adding stuff to the edges of the trench - on the western front this was very period dependant. In the early war the trenches were built by the book, and had very flat even tops. By the middle of the war it had been realised that having straight edges was bad, as anyone brief showing themselves would be immediately apparent. So the Brits started to copy the German style of having a very irregular parapet, with sand bags of different colours, and uneven height of banking and sandbags. Bits of fabric flapping in the wind. All sorts of stuff to make a disrupted scene, so that it was much harder to notice someone looking from the trench.

This is fairly early and in a subsidiary theatre - so it may be that trenches were still built very much by the book - so a very clean look would be spot on.

Pulling together some of the ideas mentioned above and by others I did a little test this morning on the end of aa couple of trench segments

I added a light Spanish White coloured filler skim coat at the top of the join
The ideas was to:

• reflect some more light
• make one of the edges of the join less straight, disrupting the join
• to make sure that contact was at the top of the joint not the bottom, some of the edges were not as 90 degrees as they should have been, I claim they moved while the glue was drying

This seemed to work so I have added the skim to one end of all the trench segments

Now a before and after shot...

[Techno]

Looks good to me. 

Cheers - Phil

[toxicpixie]

They're looking *really* good!

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Yup, that works

[Sandinista]

That's worked well

Cheers
Ian

[skywalker]

They look very good 

[d_Guy]

The new treatment does remove the sharp demarcations between the segments and looks great, but I still really like the "before" also.
For me once the action starts the stagecraft disappears (of course I play solo and have not the pressure of doing an exhibition )

[paulr]

Tested the storage/transport "system" for the trenches last night, seems to work
Several layers divided by cardboard in a cardboard file box, layers of bubble wrap to protect the segments

I was surprised that they almost all fit in one box
I will have to "jiggle" them a bit to see if I can get them all in one box, if not I'll spread them out a bit and use two boxes

I think I am now ready for the demo game on Sunday
Except for ironing the base clothes (sheets) which I will do on Saturday night

I will spend the next couple of days trying to think of anything I've forgotten 

[Sandinista]

I will spend the next couple of days trying to think of anything I've forgotten 

Dice
Figures
Measuring sticks
Rules/playsheets
Info sheets for spectators
Sandwiches
Map to venue
Putting trenches in car boot


Cheers
Ian

[d_Guy]

Will be eager to see the pics from your demo. Break a leg

[Ithoriel]

I will spend the next couple of days trying to think of anything I've forgotten 

Camera?

For the pictures you are going to post here?

[pierre the shy]

Paul not taking pictures?...that would be a first 

[paulr]

 

[WeeWars]

Well done!