Networking

I struggled with the next step in the process.  Having decided on 4x2 boards and wanting some modularity, which would mean allowing roads, rivers and hills to connect across boards in different configurations, I played around with how to create these connections.  Starting with the roads and laying out different configurations on my regular wargames table, I decided that each board would have up to six connecting points, each one foot from a corner.  This allows two boards to be put side-by-side and a third to be laid across their ends, creating a 4x6 table with each board/panel connected to the others by the road network. Step 4 then was planning out this connection system.  Since not every board has six connectors, the configuration of roads can vary quite a bit on the finished boards.  The 12'x4' table I first set out to build would then have six boards all interconnected by the roads.

Step 5 was to lay in the roads.  For the roadways, I used railroad cork roadbed, some in HO scale, and some in N scale (or split HO pieces) for smaller roads.  After sketching a plan for each board based on the actual Defence Overprint map, I cut the pieces with a hobby knife and glued them down with PVA straight onto the foam.  There were two problem situations.  When the road approached a connecting point at an angle, the road needed its edges shaved to get it down to the same width as the connecting piece.  And where I wanted a curve, I had to pin one end with thumbtacks and force the curve with a series of tacks along its length, then leave the tacks in place until the glue dried.

Cutting and fitting the smaller streets in the urban areas was probably the most time-consuming part of the whole project, since I needed dozens of small pieces in some areas.  On the other hand, I find setting up a road network on a regular wargames table to be time-consuming and not very satisfying unless there are lots of random connectors available - otherwise it ends up as a simple grid.  Eventually this gave me a complex network of roads modelled on the underlying maps, with some adjustment for scale and some distortion to move the real roads into alignment with my board concept - but overall a good fit with the actual roads of Normandy.

My favourite moment in the whole project came much later when Howie from our group recognized the road network in Courseulles because he's just returned from there and had driven on some of the roads I was modelling.