1897 Sorting buildings

It's one thing collecting and painting loads of shiny 42mm toys, but that's only part of it. Battles and generally playing with the things means you need buildings, hedges and trees on the table as well.

Happily, I've got Newhaven. OK, Newhaven is 28mm rather than 42mm, but then lots of people have buildings that are to a smaller scale than the figures, plus one house = one village... Not relevant! This is basically a 1:1 toys scenario! The question is: what do they look like next to each other.

So I've had a couple of quick sessions trying things out.

This is my Lledo brewery. Very much something to be defended from those Foreign types.

Likewise, Sarissa country manor (normally used as part of Miskatonic University) fits well. The Sarissa fencing also fits in very nicely scale-wise.

Different photo session, Sarissa church - these larger buildings all go very well with the figures.

However... 1897 is very  much a British affair - most of Newhaven is obviously American. Don't think the TTCombat  police station is appropriate somehow.

So, conclusion - 28mm buildings go very well with 42mm buildings. However, it does mean having to buy and build a load of British houses if I'm going to represent the sort of High Street I grew up in (and which would have been easily recognised in 1897.)

Miskatonic U preview

Knowing exactly what the problem was with the Manor House I've put it together to give an idea what the actual finished University will look like.

No problems with the gatehouse of course - fits well, looks good. The single coat of thinned paint works well, I'm quite pleased with the effect on the gate. Just the right amount of brown from the mdf shows through.

The gatehouse with the manor house main building behind.

This view gives an impression of the courtyard. The fence is by Blotz -  They're the only decent UK supplier for this kind of fence I've found so far. It would be good to have been able to make the grounds bigger but it has to fit on an A3 board. Even so, the manor house does overlap a bit where the side chimney is. I have plans in mind for that far corner attic floor by the chimney... Still considering the courtyard. I've bought a dark sepia artist's pen and will probably draw cobbles on by hand. Likewise, not sure whether to have the gate there or just use the gate in the gatehouse.

The bad parts... The first picture shows the joints - I've had to carve all the stubs down to make them fit. Looks ugly on close up, plus I didn't know where to cut down at first - so had to do all round. The difference between ground floor (before Sarissa email) and the slightly neater ground floor (only need to shave top and bottom surfaces) is quite clear...

But this is where it really went wrong and I called for help! Tried to force a joint too much and the entire ground floor basically collapsed. Damage to the outer wall doesn't show it all - there was an internal arch that collapsed as well - that actually threw out a few things on another outside wall. Result is that the ground floor is a disaster area - I didn't even attempt any internal detailing on this, plus glued the upper floor floor down to hold things in place  better - couldn't get it to fit properly without springing apart, so used main force until the glue set.

This gives a better picture of the damage. I had tried to shave things down, obviously just not enough...

Knowing the problem and shaving down every stub and internal fitting there were no more problems and it fitted together easily. The replacement should be much better than this effort!

TT Combat Police Station

A while back one of Armand's posts on TMP led me to TT Combat and I said that was going to try them. My first attempt was the Police Station.

No instructions were given with the kit, but there is a UTube tutorial was put out by a previous purchaser. That video also mentioned that the motto and shield are actually Cornish in origin.

 Firstly, this one really was crying out to be painted. That Art Deco facade is so over the top the paint scheme had to be likewise... happily, the town has a colour scheme already, so  red, green and old gold as previously.

I did use one extra colour - the kick plate and hinges on the door are Vallejo Model Colour 70865 Oily Steel.A couple of areas still need touching up a bit.

How does it compare to Sarissa? They seem to match quite well. Here it is compared to one of the Sarissa City block buildings. Very similar in many ways, though construction has one major difference. Whereas on the Sarissa buildings each wall sits on top of the floor, TT Combat have walls slotting in the side. This means the wall can be 'flat', but does mean that if, like me, you prefer to build up floor by floor to ensure they fit and aren't misaligned, then there is a risk of sticking two floors together.

So, how was the kit? Parts fit together well. Generally they separated from the backing well, though some were not cut through enough - care needed in this operation. Overall, a good kit and, at £11.95 very good value for money. Having said that, you can find it even cheaper.

Sarissa Manor House - first disappointment

Currently trying to make this as part of Miskatonic U. Gatehouse done, great, right up to the standard I've started to expect. Manor House? Every joint is so tight, and in some cases just don't fit. Result? I think this one is going to be an expensive wreckage.

Quite simply, I've made up a dozen or kits so far, generally nothing but good things to say, but if this lemon had been the first one I'd bought there wouldn't have been a second.

It's just too big...

Today, spent quite a bit of time making up some Blotz railings to go round the park.  Still some touching up of paintwork to do, but basically got it together and loosely set the park up.


I think it's pretty obvious from these two pictures that the band stand just totally overpowers the scene. With it there, there's not really much room for anything else!

Happily, there are always other possibilities. In this case, putting a town clock into the park rather than in a more central, well, town, position seems to be a bit more balanced. There would be other options - perhaps a fountain? Blotz do one that is still a bit big but could be made to fit. There are lots of resin/metal fountains out there, just a matter of how compatible...

The clock tower, by the way, is the one in Downham Market. There was a Caithness Crystal store in King's Lynn and they used to commission Liliput Lane limited editions. My wife Sandra collected these - very useful as they came out around her birthday - and when I saw this one I bought a 'spare'.  They brought out two different clock towers - I've got a spare for the other one as well, so one will go in the town anyway.

Still waiting for the University to arrive - that's  going goiung to need fences as well, so next order will be to Blotz.

Meanwhile, memo to self - must go through and update some of the labels for these posts...

The Park

Finished some of the park buildings...

 In keeping with the rest of the town I'm going with a muted colour scheme. The red is Vallejo Model Colour 926 Red, the green MP 13, deep bronze green - a colour also used, for example, on the warehouse. They have been put on as a single coat, again to help allow the underlying mdf to dull things down a bit. Apart from a couple of bits of od gold the rest of the buildings have been left unpainted.

The bandstand is going to look a bit big for the park... it measures out at about a third of the park's width... but it's quite a nice model. Although it looks as though I've used two different reds here that's just an effect of the underlying mdf colours.

 The public convenience has a few issues - quite awkward to assemble and it's going to be a tight squeeze for anyone to get in -  the screen needs to be 5/6mm further away from the main structure. Lots of cardboard in this one - and could have been easily designed in a way that would have made assembly a lot simpler. The basic shape includes several separate card panels - very difficult to set in place when they could have been done as a single foldable sheet. Still, it looks good and, now it's finished, I like it.

The simplest model of this trio - the ticket kiosk. Easy to build, parts fit together well, paints up well. Not certain how much I'm convinced about it being a kiosk - perhaps an addition of a desk or something.

Need a fence to go round the park, once that's sorted I'll start putting everything together.

Developing the town

Quite addictive, this...

As the town takes over more and more - cars done, ships done, quite a few (probably enough) figures done - though still plenty more - the more I keep thinking 'if only the figures and everything were available in 15mm or 20mm, how much closer I could get...'

The whole concept has changed on this - originally, it was based on a seaport, Innsmouth - perhaps if I had found the Innsmouth map first (another one here) - but I will do an Innsmouth 'clone' in the future...

 This shows the whole town as it currently stands looking towards the seaward side. Main Street runs down the centre; on the actual Arkham map the foreground is Hangman's Hill looking towards French Hill in the distance. Main Street itself is really a combination of Main Street and Church Street - one of the many, many compromises... Church Street should have far more churches than this, not really practical.

 Lots of compromise here. The paved area roughly corresponds to West Street. Boundary Street should be between the church and graveyard, the graveyard itself should be wooded, on Hangman's Hill, and extend beyond the houses opposite. The church would represent an area including about three streets of houses... The houses opposite would represent everything south of College Street and west of West Street.

Looking down the Miskatonic towards the port area. River Street is there, had intended this area to be a bit deeper than it is and include a railway plus crane. The park in the middle (to be done) does not exist on the Arkham map but I wanted one.

The current port area. Not sure what will fit in the space next to the warehouse - thinking about it.

 The foreground area is very much a work in progress. The white cutouts represent Miskatonic University - on order with a gatehouse and the main building. West street terminates at Main Street; it should continue with the University to the East of it. I probably will do that. Continuing past the University is the commercial side of town.

This commercial area still under major development - I'll probably think about it once I've done the University. The hills in the background are markers for French Hill. There is scope for more residential buildings in the foreground - might try some old world timber framed types, after all the area would include Lich Street and the Witch House, plus a burying ground.

So still a long way to go. Of course, once the buildings are sorted I'll still need to look at the detailing - street lights, bus shelters, flower beds. Might get it finished this year.

Arkham House Diner

I couldn't make an 'American' town without including a diner, and the cantina was the closest thing there so...

It proved to be an annoying kit - very tight joints, needed a lot of work and still not fully OK. So, decided it would make a good test bed for painting. Thinned down wash of white for the walls and orange on the brickwork. Quite happy with the results - the orange doesn't look any different to unpainted wood on the photos but the 'tinge' of colour is there on the model. Perhaps a second coat in future? The single white coat on the walls gives a nice, quick and suitably neglected effect that seems to fit the overall look I'm after.

So I'm considering the test a reasonable success, and the Arkham House Diner will find a place in Newhaven.

Newhaven 1 - building a town

Though still a long way to go before it will be anywhere near finished.

I bought a load of A4 sized 2mm mdf boards to act as a base which meant 'losing' the board I was using for land previously. Eventually I'll get the boards painted/flocked to match the buildings etc, for now everything is in flux any so no point.

Original idea was to have a harbour and sea-scape; obviously could still have that as it's not a permanent set up, but quite simply my table is too small for what I want anyway - in fact, the end of the table currently used for clutter/storage will soon be pressed into service itself. Instead I'm going for a canal/river set up with a dock rather than jetties. By placing all the boards on top of a blue cloth, the cloth acts as the canal/river.

The first photo shows a view pointing to the South-West. The church  doesn't actually fall into the sea, it's just the terrain boards run out there... The far side of the river will be the port and commercial area. The buildings currently on the far side are liable to be replaced in the future by mdf - and shouldn't be there anyway.

This photo from the West Bank shows the canal and my current buildings. Some of the buildings themseves are liable to cross the river as they are mostly commercial buildings in a residential area.

A view looking North down the river. The grey road will, at some early stage, have a railway line and crane on or next to it. I also plan to include a bridge. Actually, suspension of belief will really come into play for the river. How do ships turn? How can they get under the bridge when it is bought?

But then, the roads aren't wide enough for cars to pass each other either. 28mm takes up too much space.

This is the church and graveyard - possibly in their final places?  In future, I can see the church and graveyard appearing in lots of different settings.

A view of the back of my current buildings. The 'Park' area is just a way of filling empty space though a Park is planned.

Finally, after taking the above photos my latest order arrived... a crane and railway lines for the dock, a bandstand for the Park. I believe that I also have a small parcel of goodies for Father's Day lying around, so...

The hope is for everything to be more or less finished by August to allow me to run a few solo games. It's getting there, but proving both more time consuming and more expensive than I had either planned or budgetted for. Still... in well over 40 years of wargaming it's really my first serious attempt to worry about terrain other than how to set out a few basic hills and woods...

Sarissa Graveyard 2

Well, managed to get the graveyard finished a bit quicker than expected.

The addition of grass makes a difference - I used Gaugemaster Scenic Mat GM22, Autumn Grass Mat. The large crypt has been glued to the base; the two small tombs I've left loose. Gravestones, etc, are also missing, I'll keep them loose.

The gate and fence posts have been given quite slapdash coats of black and gold. Initially the black was added thinned and I didn't bother ensuring 100% coverage. Some parts were then touched up with better mixed black to give better covering - the result does give a good representation of being partially neglected. 

I also painted some of the detail on the crypt in gold. The effect is quite good.

So, overall an effective piece, but still not happy about the card railings and gates. The gates especially don't give the impression that they are going to last long.

Sarissa Graveyard 1

Basic graveyard done but haven't done any painting, grassy areas or gravestones yet.

Main thought, don't like as much as other Sarissa products, using cardboard for the fences and gates being a big disadvantage as far as I am concerned. Buildings excellent, though perhaps the crypt over dominates things, I would have preferred it smaller. Still, will make a good addition to the project.

Pulp Fiction - work in progress

This project could take a while to finish, so updates in order.

At the moment I'm just looking at a rough layout - this one being some kind of possibly Americanish seaport. The final product will be a mish mash of US/European architecture dating anywhere between 1920 and 1950.

There will be far more Sarissa buildings. Most of them will not be painted - I like the Lovecraftian sepia look as it is. I've got a church and graveyard still to build.

 

 On the other hand, this style of building is liable to go. Again, Sarissa do 'standard' houses, so with limited staining of roof tiles these will probably take over.

A view of the Port area. The sea will not finish as big as this - the land board was an off cut I painted up but it's too narrow for the town. Lledo vehicles on the land, one card and one Reviresco-based balsa ship in the background together with a couple of balsa planes. The Lighthouse was picked up at some seaside resort - I forget where.

The freighter at the back is an 'old' one, meanwhile the patrol boat at the front is the basic structure of a new class of gunboat/AS boat/torpedo boat. Basically,  there will be a gun at front of all of them, then either a gun, depth charges or torpedo tubes at the back. Just in case there's somthing lurking on the offshore reef... The blocks forming the current breakwaters are thanks to pinching an idea from Bob Cordery at Wargames Miscellany

Quite a few figures I'm working on, and none quite finished. They're a mix of RAFM,  Reviresco and Old Glory UK. Most of these batches are Old Glory, bought at Partizan recently and are from BMM404 Streets of Chicago set. I'll probably be getting more of these figures - like them.

These four are probably my favourites to date. Painting skills aren't what they were, especially regarding faces, and none are actually finished yet. The three on the right are Old Glory, Mr Brown Suit is a RAFM Student Investigator.

Lledo vehicles are perfect for the job. A lot of them sell individually for around £6-8 including postage: still cheaper than buying wargames kits, but far more than I like to pay - by buying collections I try to pay about £1 a model including postage! Still need the odd one at a higher price, but can still keep the price down - it's a matter of overbuying but paying less!