With the recent repack release for the Finnish forces, Juha Nieminen from Mentor On Miniatures in Finland, dropped us a line about his recent work on a superb battlefield for Bolt Action.
Juha: I was just reading a battle report of USMC vs. Japanese from Warlord web site. At the end of that report Warlord encouraged people to drop them a line if they had some collections to show and send some pictures. Well here’s some of mine…
This is a display table depicting the battle between Finns and Russians in the summer of 1944 at Tali-Ihantala. The table is custom made and is based on an actual historical place.
Drawings and some pieces attached
When I started painting my Continuation War Finns an idea of themed table for them popped up in my mind. So while I was painting the figures I pondered what particular scene should I choose for the table.
The table was based on a real map of the place.
I like war history and creating ‘real’ scenery was no-brainer. After some hard consideration I chose a scene from the battle of Tali-Ihantala and more specifically Portinhoikka crossroads.
Grass matt glued on boards.
It was the place where a Finnish armoured division stopped the Russian push by counter-attacking them. It’s also one of the scenes from Tali-Ihantala movie. It took twenty odd hours of work, but after seeing it ready, it was worth it!
Boards covered with mud paste.
Looking like chocolate porridge.
Almost ready.
Detail added and hill flocked.
Another strategic hill called “Kyöpelinvuori”.
The famous crossroads.
A great project altogether. Maybe I will start the next one soon – it’s so much nicer to have thematic tables for gaming.
Table with trees. This is how Portinhoikka crossroads looks like before battle!
I had a great time tinkering and getting this battlefield to look right. I hope you enjoyed this article!
Juha Nieminen
Do you have an article within you? Are you itching to show your collection to the world of Bolt Action? Then drop us a line with a couple of pictures to info@warlordgames.com.
Dan Hewitson
Tom Mecredy
Craig Nixon