Abandoned Buildings #2

     Yes, the roof is on crookedly !

This collection of unfinished buildings were truly abandoned when support for my Boxer rebellion project fell by the wayside all those years ago.
They were however a great learning step in my model making, with the new improved roofs being a step up from the Japanese castle ones and the Temple ones.
It's obvious that the roofs are made from corrugated card but are laid on a stepped roof underneath.
The walls are 3mm foam-board (yep 3mm!) and after these were made and I stepped up to 5mm foam-board  I realised the joy of rabbeting corners, *I have a duplicate of the one shown that didn't survive over the years.

The above with roof removed (based on "The Student House" in the British Legation 1900)

 All the buildings shown here were for the British Legation in Peking (Beijing) in the year 1900 and were based on photographs and pictures in "The London Illustrated " newspaper (if memory serves),

A single story building acting as a visitor's Reception to the Legation

All the buildings were intended to have lift-off roofs for figures (but no internal detail).

Above Building with roof removed (bit too obvious ?)

Another smaller two-story building -note unfinished roof ridges.

Another single storey building

Five out of the six or seven buildings intended for the British Legation

 The feature of the British Legation that is most widely known is the entrance way, which is still in use today.

The real thing (now used by State Security !)

My unfinished rendition

Rear view, built using the thickest cardboard I had

Wrecked vuilding with compund wall and figure for scale

This was the biggest compound of all the Legations at the time of the 1900 siege and had to be the first to be built of probably eight or nine iirc,

So that's it then for another week, one in which I've managed zero hobby input and am still relying on posts that allow me to wallow in nostalgia - sorry.

Thanks for visiting, I hope you've found something of interest and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

Abandoned Buildings #1

OK, so this is not really about abandoned buildings, but rather about the buildings I intended to model, but were never finished when the project was abandoned.
This project was part of my intention to build a playing area for the Peking (now Beijing) Legations during the "Boxer Rebellion" of 1900. Like most communal projects I've been involved in, I did my bit whilst the good intentions of others fell by the wayside - such is life !
The first building, one that was finished and did see some action, was the 'Temple-style building shown in the photograph to the right.

Rear view

It was made as a temple in Prince Tuan's (iirc) estate that was central to a lot of fighting in the fight for the legations, though it wasn't used by myself, but was loaned for a demonstration game at Claymore many, many  years ago.
It has taken a bit of wear and tear over the years, but is still fairly presentable.
It doesn't have lift off roofs, but figures can be placed (just) on the narrow balcony, as my figures have 20mm square bases (rather than the obscene, spawn of the devil 25mm slotta ones).

Window (duh)

It's hexagonal in shape with about an 8" (200mm) diameter and stands about 8" tall too.
Windows, wall decoration and the balcony surrounds are all made from "plastic canvas" (granny plastic), bought from haberdashers etc. which most, if not all, scratch-builders are familiar with.
The parts were cut to give some  representation of Chinese/oriental flavour to the model.

Wall decoration (obligatory boring picture)

The model's main structure is made predomitably from very thick cardboard, whilst the roofing id of course corrugated card, liberally washed in wall filler (for strength.
Decorations are beads affixes to cocktail sticks, but I haven't a clue what the balcony surround supports are !
The ground floor roof supports are probably dowelling !

Front door detail with figure for scale (Dixon 25/28mm)

Balcony detail with figure for scale.

So that's a building that has seen action on the table-top, even if not by myself.
I suppose with a bit of suitable signage it could double as a Chinese restaurant in a modern setting too ! (Thought the roof should probably be green)

That's it the for this week, next week I'll may well show some really unfinished buildings, once more from my defunct Boxer project.

Here's hoping you've found something of interest in this post and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

Hogget's Freight Lines

In another week where I've had real-life problems (nothing too serious) and generally not feeling well, here's another blast from my past.
This building is not a scratch-build, but rather a conversion from an original "Britain's" western building (The Ranch House ?) and parts from their barn (or livery stable). for the extension. It was converted sometime in the early 1970'swhen I was interested in western gunfights and it did see a lot of use.

Having sat for over thirty years, it gathered a fair bit of dust !

But cleaned up rather well imho.

Boring chimney side.

Rear view (obviously)

Other end with dodgy roof

Inside was revealed Hogget's work-force and other goodies.

The bedroom

Main room (obligatory blurry photo)\

Figures are mostly Timpo with open hands

They're big ! (28mm samurai for scale)

Furniture was scratch built in addition to other toys

All my western buildings have internal features comparable with whatever purposes they meant to be and the inhabitants or worker figures always were stored within the building themselves!
This was the only building I could reach in relative safety, but I will get around to featuring the others.

Photographic proof of active hobby stuff !

In a moment of madness,  I also did  two hours of hobby-related activity this week; I've based up 16 figures ! (Yes it really did take two hours too !)
Not much I know and yet more figures that will probably never see the games table, but when you have friends that state they won't play anything wherein real people died what can you do ?







That's it for this week's half-hearted excuse for a post, - sorry for that !

As always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated and I will get around to catching up on the backlog of other blogs forthwith as I rarely do much, if anything on  my computer at the week-ends).

Japanese Castle

This model of a Japanese Castle was probably built in the early 90's, as an exercise in curing boredom over an Easter week-end and was one of the very few models I've built that featured a lot of balsa.
The base was ply-wood, but most of the walls and roof are cardboard.
It's footprint is about 18" x  24" (35 x 60 cm), excluding the rather long ramp (it's detachable).The height of the castle is about 18" from the tabletop.
Like the Mosque featured in last week's post this too was copied from an issue of "Wargames Illustrated" (or the other one).

View of the ;other; side of the model

This model has featured in my blog in the past too, in one of my posts at the start of my blogging (Link:Zabadak's Zombie World) and again, in passing a mere 7 years later in a post three weeks or so ago (Link :Zabadak's Zombie World).  It took a long time to remove most of the accunulated dust of 7 years from the position it was left in all those years ago,
All the roofs lift off and the main keep (or Donjon if you prefer) has lift off segments, enabling figures to 'fight' inside.

As is drew a bit of interest here's the photos:

Dust in the gatehouse ! (bit boring really)

Rear view of the model (bit obvious)

Gatehouse with "28mm" figure for scale

Entrance with opening doors!

Walkway with roof removed

Corner building (the room below is inaccessible)

Back-wall walkway and door to corner (building

Dust ! (obligatory boring picture)

Top floor of the keep

Next floor down

Third floor down  from the top (bored yet ?)

Bottom two floors, with 'walkway' for troops , enabling access to the ground floor)

Ground floor entrance (with added dust !)

Yet another model that has never seen action, but one I learnt a lot from building.
If I was to build another (I doubt I will) I would make it more realistic and without those anachronistic re-roofs !

A have quite a few samurai figures, and some did see action about three years ago  on the table in a game of Saga, organised by my #1 son for me and a visiting fellow blogger (ex blogger now) - though using less than half my forces it seemed more of a skirmish than a battle.

That's it then for yet another week, one in which this blog has been the only hobby-related activity I've managed.

I hope there was something to interest you in this self-indulgent trip down memory lane and if you inclined to comment, it will be truly welcome and much appreciated.

My Mosque

Spot the tourist on the minaret- he's a 28mm figure on a 20mm square base.

This week I'm posting about this model of a Mosque I made sometime about twenty to thirty years ago. It's copied from one in one of the wargames mag of about the same time, though I forget which.
It's built mainly from heavy duty card, balsa wood and bits and pieces.
The base is a piece of plywood about 12" x 15" and the height to the top of the minaret is about 18".
It was made for no reason that I recall but was used a few times in some Indian Mutiny games.

Side view (bit obvious)

Obligatory boring rear view

Arches, made from card, dowel and wall filler

Minaret walkway; cocktail sticks and beads

Dome; cocktail stick embedded into a home-cast clay dome and more beads

Doorway. Note damage (damn balsa), several bits of similar dmage can be seen

In addition to this Mosque, I made, at roughly the same time, two other buildings.

Quite a big building!

Rear view

Side View

 The base of this building was a block of packing form (rarely are these cuboid)
The main walls were all drawn out in this card in one continuous piece and 'wrapped' around the polystyrene block. Stairs were bits scrap with hardboard bases,
The whole model was covered in filler and painted

The base (once used as a coffee table maybe)

The other "wrap-around" building

"Interesting" side view (the other twp are blank)

So there you  are, my entire 28mm middle-eastern building collection.
It took quite a while to dust them down, but it's still evident on some of the photos.

And that is it for another week, one in which I looked at basing some figures up, but didn't, perhaps I'll look at basing again this week!

Thanks for taking the time to visit and have found something to interest you in my nostalgic visit to old stuff!