Summer of 77 – Battle of Britain MWS Show Game

The Summer of 77 show game was a recreation of a simple wargame that appeared in Warlord magazine’s 1977 summer edition. Society member Phil decided to turn the magazine game into a full scale 3D model.

Game Details
Period – World War II (Battle of Britain)
Type – Participation
Scale – 1/300th (for the Aircraft, 1/1000th for the buildings and terrain)
Rules – From 1977 summer edition of Warlord magazine

The idea of the game is for the Luftwaffe player (normally the society) to destroy a number of targets, including the airstrips, ammo dumps and HQ, while the RAF player (gamers at the shows) needed to scramble their fighters and shoot down the enemy aircraft.

Game Credits
The game was almost exclusively built by Phil with help from Tony F in painting some of the aircraft.

The game board recreates the map grid from the magazine of 20 x 27 squares in total. The game board was divided up into four sections to allow transport to and from shows. The game board and rules for the game would follow the magazine, with movement of the aircraft in the game involving simply moving a number of squares each time.

Because of the grid format and movement by squares Phil took the decision to make a hole in the centre of each square for a rod supporting the aircraft models. Building the game board out of wood Phil created something resembling a roman hypocaust leaving space for the aircraft supporting rod to fit.

Having access to a 3D printer Phil created a plastic support tubes to go under each square. The rods would slide through the tube to provide stability. A number of different height tubes were required depending on the height of the terrain, 540 were made in total.

Construction of the game board included use of blue foam for the cliff and valley edges. The roads, buildings and other features from the map were drawn on the board to assist with mapping the layout.

The above picture shows how the scenery was built, from the sketching and position of buildings, blocking in the painted areas and finally adding flock and vegetation.

The buildings were produced by Brigade Models with a few additional 3D prints, most notably the bridges.

Some more examples showing the construction of the scenery and a clearer picture of the 3D printed tubes under the holes.

Close up view of a village and the final game with Spitfires getting ready to scramble, the aircraft for the game Spitfires, Junkers Ju 87, Dornier’s and Heinkel’s. The Spitfires were 3D printed with files from Butlers Digital Models, while the Luftwaffe planes were from the Plastic Soldier Company.