Military Model Scene

Title: WW1 Trench Systems
Author: Douglas Hardy
Publisher: Pen & Sword
ISBN: 978-1-52679-354-6

Another title in the Wargames Terrain & Buildings series of soft-cover books from Pen & Sword, and this time focussing on building of examples of the trench systems used so extensively on the Western Front during WW1. The author is not only a keen wargamer, but also a member of the Western Front Association who has walked the battlefields many times, so has had the ideal references to be able to create his wargame scenery.
The 132-page book follows the Introduction with 7 logical chapters. These cover details of Wargaming the Great War: Materials: Commercial or Scratchbuilt?: Building & Painting Commercial Scenery: Scratch Building: Projects: and finishing off with Researching First World War Trenches today, which features a good mix of colour images showing assorted preserved trenches on the Western Front which can be visited today. The chapters are well illustrated throughout, with the text giving you the information you need to either give a good finish to commercial trench sections in resin and vac-form plastic, or how to scratch-build your own. There are different featured between the front-line and support trench layouts, and variations between English, German and French construction methods/materials. For those who might be wondering, it does include elements such as dugouts, the concrete bunkers common in German trenches and even the dreaded barbed wire entanglements of no-mans land. Some great modelling tips and techniques.
The pictures of the authors groundwork along with the pictures of preserved trenches in the final chapter is set to inspire plenty of modellers/wargamers I am sure. Another very useful addition to this series of books for wargamers, this time in particular for those interested in the period of WW1.
Thanks to Pen & Sword for our review copy.

Robin