Big Surprise... (Operation Barbarossa)

 ...the German offensive is being slowed by lots of rivers and a lack of trucks.  

I've actually been planning to build a set of wider river tiles since last September, but all of my local suppliers have stopped carrying the blue Dow-Corning foam board.  I had been holding off, hoping to discover an alternate source.

My preference for the blue board is caused by the pink Owens-Corning product always being thicker than advertised, usually pretty uniform, but about 1/16" over adversied thickness, and the green gray Lowes brand varies within the sheet from as much as 1/16" over to 1/16" under listed thickness.

Historically, the blue stuff tends to be pretty uniform and very close to listed thickness.  The other stuff requires notable extra work and mess to avoid creating "steps" in my terrain.  In some of my game photos, you can see some of tiles that were completed in the past, before I noticed these differences in thickness.

I had been putting off making the new terrain, including the river, until I could find some blue foam, or make the longer trip to get the pink stuff.  Lowes is by far the easiest store for me to get to, but I keep measuring the foam thickness, and theirs is simply never uniform, varying as much as 1/8" in a given sheet, and creating a lot of extra work or wasted foam.

Four of the five remaining battles in this first series of German attacks involve a river crossing requiring some new terrain, which I figured that I'd make over the this past week and next, but work has gotten in the way.  I will likely be able to pick up some foam late this week and get that moving along.  

To keep the campaign moving, I intended to get the battle west of Lvov on the table yesterday, then discovered that I had a significant shortage of German trucks, given the forces that happen to be present, so sent off an order for more trucks (plus a couple of other bits that I need). So until more trucks arrive, the Germans have been temporarily brought to a halt.

Yesterday was a bit of a write off, as I spent the day recovering from a rather laborious week at work.  I am officially old.  I finally did some honest work for a few days and none of my hinges want to bend.  Yesterday, it hurt just to try and hold a miniature to paint.  Sad. 

Today I feel a little better, so if nothing else, the break in Russia will give me a chance to paint some figs.

And with any luck, I'll be able to get the battle near Lvov going maybe as soon as next Sunday.

Stay young out there!!