Newhaven park update

 

The basic model of Newhaven Park is finished with a few touches still to add. I keep thinking some of these tiles are a bit too bright for Newhaven.

I've still got a playground to paint and other items are subject to change, but it's mostly there. I'm calling it Peabody Park - on the one hand, it's a Lovecraftian name, on the other hand it's reminiscent of the name 'Peasholme', a park in Scarborough. Peasholme Park has a definite wargames link... 'Naval Warefare Battle The park is home to the oldest continuously simulated battle in the country - a unique miniature sea battle named 'The Naval Warfare'. Taking place July and August each year this popular event has been a unique family holiday tradition since 1927' Seen it a couple of times - spectacular and well worth the visit.

We usually spend a few days in Brighton every year - it's easy to get to and we like it. This year we stayed in an apartment next to the Royal Pavilion. The Pavilion has a cafe called The Pavilion Garden Cafe - which gave me the idea to put one in Peabody Park. The model itself virtually built itself - I got some thin card, tried fittied some balsa into the structure, then realised I just about finished making the thing! So I painted it up and finished it. Easy to make, gives me a good template for things like fairground/circus/Christmas Fair stalls etc. The other groundkeeper's shed isn't glued in - it's higher than the height of the wall finials so would make stacking difficult for storage. That shed is one I already had lying around and just repurposed.

Gates are an issue. I would have liked using decorative gates for all of the entrances but they aren't cheap! So I used ones I had as part of bought wall set ups and just used plain balsa for others - I did the same with the church and cemetary.

This finishes the original plan but I'll be doing a lot more. I like the idea of  set boards and the use of balsa walls, so expect to do a lot more of this kind of thing in future. Next 'project' probably needs to be the waterfront area.

Church and graveyard base

 

Still a few finishing touches to add - bought some plastic stuff I didn't like so I've ordered some 1/76th scale gravestones from Langley. 

This is how I expect to use the set up. Those squares represent 3' square paving stones in 20mm. 

Alternative way round, but prefer the previous one.

Of course. once finished I naturally start thinking 'could I have done it better'. That pavement is 12' wide. If I had made it 6' wide this layout would have been practical and I could have made the graveyard bigger. To be fair though I think I still prefer the original.

I admit I really like these bases. Cheapish, easy to make and gives a nice modular system. Light and sort of stackable - suspect might cause baldy patches on the finials though... Park next, then might see about using the system for  housing developments...

20mm Arkham House Diner

 

My blog output has really slowed recently... though to be fair I spent a bit of time sorting this one.

The Arkham House Diner is a bit different to the 28mm Sarissa  version plus it's got it's own compound.

Basically a box with a lot of windows, seems to work quite well.

Pretty basic design, large seated area at front with big windows, that back window represents where the toilets are.

For future compounds/walls I'm trying simplifying it so that the ball shaped sculpture is directly on the base.

Looks like it should work.

One reason for the delay in putting this out is because I spent a lot of time looking at the ground area - this one (painted on mdf) took a lot of time and I'm not convinced it's any better than the much simplified/sprayed sand coloured slabs!

20/25mm Miskatonic U (Newhaven campus) finished!

 Took a while and I'm sick of cutting out windows and sticking them on buildings!

So this is the finished set. I did break one self imposed rule - actually bought the walls and side gate!. They are Busch set HO 6014, Wall and Gate.

I confess - didn't allow for the saw blade width and cut the walls a few mils too small!

Side view with a few 20mm figures for comparison. The smaller scale allowed for a much grander building setup. Didn't always get the windows right... main building has an attic and slightly lower ceilings!

Another side view  showing the size of the building. Looks really solid. 

Back view. Probably shouldn't have put windows over the joint but...

Courtyard is very much compressed for use in city sized use. If I do scenarios based on just the university I would add a few more wall sections and possibly also do a separate wall not connected to the buildings. The roof wasn't painted, just had a couple of layers of PVA glue covering it - I thought it looked more realistic than paint. Must do something about the camera date staming pictures. Possibly set the right date and time on it?

Size comparison with the Sarissa manor house and gate house- haven't got an annex for the Sarissa version, beginning to regret that!

The 20/25mm version allows a much more believeable size building to be made.

The gate house comparison really gives the game away! 

Overall I'm really pleased with this set of buildings. I can see them being very useful in the future.

Tenements finished

 

Seems like I'm not putting much in the blog at the moment, but these things are taking time!

16 tenement buildings including a couple of shops. Should be enough for now.

General store after Sutter Cane. The name of Peyton's Plaice seemed obvious so I had to look for a justification in a 'horror' town - easy. It included one of  Mia Farrow's first roles, later she was the star of Rosemary's Baby, listed as the second best horror film of all time.

New World Incorporated was involved with advanced technology, shipbuilding and munitions. From  The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopaedia. 

Curwen House, named after Joseph Curwen.

And one I haven't named to give me a bit more flexibility. I intend to do a few more of these bigger buildings - might even go up to four or five stories!

Comparison between 'my' 20/25mm buildings and Sarissa's 28mm ones.

Side view. My buildings cover about a quarter of the ground space, allowing for a much bigger number of buildings and more realistic 'city'.

Starting 20/25mm Newhaven buildings

 Sarissa (and others) produce excellent mdf buildings though the biggest ranges are for 28mm - as are all the ones I have. However, most of my figures tend to be 20mm or 25mm, So I thought, why not start building up a load of homemade 20/25mm card models to expand on the 28mm ranges? Apart from anything else, smaller so I can cram more of them on a table.

So I've got a load of buildings under construction, but the one I finished first is this church. The windows are from a load of bits I bought years ago - some were used to refurbish a load of other buildings a while back. The windows show worshippers of a god that came from the sky... it's Newhaven, Christian churches not such a big thing there.

I probably made it a bit too wide and the roof looks oversize as a result.  Drawing the roof tiles was a bit of a pain.

Clocks are simply painted mdf bases. The building itself doesn't look this lopsided on the table!

Gold window and door frames of course.

Not forgetting Newhaven...

 

Going through figures lying around so did these lizardmen and a Batrachian for Newhaven.... EM4 Dunwich Detectives range.

Bought in Brighton

 Anyway, enough about the (expletive deleted) Post Office, what did I get in Brighton? From the Toy Museum of course... And yes, well worth a visit...

Lots of Lledo and similar in there so I took the opportunity to grab a load of horse drwan transport - less than £3 each so well worth it.

And a Metropolitan Police car. Already have a couple but frankly Newhaven is the sort of place where you need as many as you can get!

Update - did a little bit of painting on some...

Anyscalemodels fishing fleet (etc)

So these are the 10 1:76 scale boats I ordered from Anyscalemodels.

 

For resin models they're pretty good - only one of the smaller boats needs a bit of remedial work with liquid greenstuff.

The 3 bigger fishing vessels. On the 2 larger vessels the masts are brass rod; on the smaller vessels they are of wood dowel.

The 2 larger 'pleasure' craft. Probably going to be the least useful for me!

The smaller boats. Dowel masts - the two parts of the sailing mast were already preglued. The damaged one is there, part way through restoration!

 So views on the models? I like them. They have generally cast well and do the job. I haven't checked them out size wise with the rest of the fleet or figures, and obviously haven't painted them yet, but I think they should be a good addition. Once I've sorted things I'm sure I'll be adding to these plus add a few of the other models in the range - useful looking accessories and buildings...

Newhaven Nightscape

 

The strange monument in the park. Brought back from... somewhere... by the University. It seemed to cast a baleful influence over the entire park..

Darkness falls quickly. Tired. A park bench...

To sleep, perchance to dream... standing by the monument in a washed-out world of unearthly colours... standing next to a strange beast. He could feel the evil, a disinterested kind of evil, a creature that... didn't care. It had it's own reasons and desires.

A creature not of this Earth... in his mind he could see it's homeland, on a far away moon... strangely eager to show him around this strange dreamscape. To see another Earth, to see what lived so close to us. A world of monsters...

Cold fear surrounded his heart as the creature showed him... things. That even his church was desecrated by an unspeakable evil...

Of creatures that preyed on the dead in the graveyard...

Strange gods worshipped by strange acolytes... gods that could be seen, gods whose evil could be felt, tearing away the layers of his mind...

Just as the churches were occupied by evil, the houses of the Dreamscape had inhabitants, voracious creatures eagerly awaiting the opportunity to slip into the real world and feed...

Dawn arrives, and knowledge of that terrifying night floods his brain. A human brain that was never designed for such insight...