WWI Belleau Wood Board Research

Although I have a number of books about the battle of Belleau Wood none of them really had the kind of maps I wanted. Something that would show the contour lines. This morning I finally found a French map site that could be shifted to a topographical view of the area. While I have no intention of trying to recreate Belleau Wood inch for inch this type of map will certainly help in determining how steep the slopes could be within the wood. It doesn't go down to the level of detail that I would really love to see, but that would probably require a visit to the area anyway, which is a bit impractical right now. Although its certainly an interesting idea.

I think a couple of concepts I'm working on for Calamity will work for Belleau Wood as well. The problem I'm trying to solve is the degradation of the foam itself as its constantly be slotted in an out. I'm considering layering on a very thin piece of styrene plastic around both the inside of the board cavity as well as around the outside of the insert. If I can make that sturdy enough I should be able to keep the foam from disintegrating with constant use. I was thinking last night that the inserts will allow me to show Belleau Wood in an immaculate form and as the battle progresses trees would go from full leaved to splinter masses. There are a lot of possibilities. The same would hold true for Calamity. I can allow it to grow or even reduce in size by having duplicate inserts that would show a given lot as vacant, with a building, or even with the ruins of a building after a fire has swept through town or something along those lines. It would allow me to continue to build models without having to rebuild or expand the board.