Fortress (AB#4)

Another week wherein ll I did hobby-wise was dig out some old stuff that hasn't seen the light of day in many years !
This fortress is now about thirty years old, looking very much the worse or wear and of course never used in a table top game.
It's made almost entirely from polystyrene (the old ceiling tile stuff) and hence is very fragile and having been moved many times from room to room it does show a lot of damage. In addition I've also managed to lose the entrance fortification that sat in front of the gateway.
The photograph at the top is heavily photo-shopped and I've included the buildings shown in last week's post too, so it does look like a city in a Vauban-style fortress (at least it does with my failing eyesight. The figures that can just be seen are 28mm pirates (either Redoubt or Foundry).

It is big !

It's huge too, the photograph above shows the important dimensions, all in inches and it also shows the damage to it, as other than the background the rest hasn't been photo-shopped.
It needs a 60 inch diameter circle of table to fit it on!

The side of the bastion is about 6", to accommodate two gun models.

Aerial view with above bastion in centre bottom.

Close up of Gateway, with pirate on guard

Looking much better when filled with houses.

The wall between the two bastions is about 9" long, accommodating two battalions

28mm Pirate firing over the parapet, whilst a smaller 30mm civilian watches

Another view with the whole set-up lying on a double bed  (just)

The while model was built in a bit of a rush, in case one was needed for the campaign I was running (it was never used . It's built specifically for my figure bases, so all the ramps are 1 1/2 inches wide as are the wall firing steps. The bastions are designed so that 6 cannon can just about be fitted onto a single bastion; mine have a base of 3" frontage and about a 4" depth.
This was the first of several large models I've built over the years,  another "star-fort" with six bastions was made for a friend, with accompanying siege lines and was about 6 foot in diameter!Sadly no photographs of that particular model survived.
Mine is designed (badly on reflection) so that it can be taken apart and various parts can be abutted onto a table edge for a game ( a bit like my "Pony Wars' " fort (LINK))
And that's it for another week in my nostalgic tour of gaming "in the old days", when armies were painted and terrain was made and all of which would never be used !

Thanks for taking the time to visit, here's hoping that you've found something of interest and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

I'll also be trying to catch up on my backlog of blogs to visit as time and real-life allows!

Old Cardboard (AB#3)

     A Church (obviously)

First off these are really card, not cardboard and were bought at a local shop more than 40 years ago!
The alternatives at the time were generally "Faller" plastic kits, railway models (Airfix and Triang mainly at the time) or make your own.. At the time, the latter alternative wasn't on my agenda  and if you saw my early buildings you'll understand why.
The came in a see-though flat pack and from my pecuniary outlook were very expensive.
They're small, probably 1/87th scale (suitable for 15mms) and are generally of an 18th century central European style and did include some famous buildings if memory serves.
There was one two or three models dependent upon the size of the model(s).
The photographs partially show a ruler for size and an 18th Century figure (a John Ray original -about 32mm tall).
The figure is slightly larger than my own forces and although obviously not in scale with the figure but these buildings were the mainstay of my collection for Seven Years War games with my "30mm" figures.

The church again ( again  a bit obvious)

Here's the photographs:

The tallest building I have

View with ruler -it's on about a 3" square base.

Another larger building (probably based on a real one)

Rear view with ruler - approx 3" square base. 

A shop of some sort

Very small, but perfectly formed

Another, with annoying turrets

Rear and side view

One of my favourites

Rear and side view (dust still in evidence)

Yet another  (bored yet ?)

Extra boring rear and side view

Another great building imo, dust included !

These have some very good ideas for scrath-building

Great as a farmhouse

These models imo are also useful as for painting, there's that much detail on them.

Another townhouse with a damn turret

Note the damage to the gable end top ! (they are a bit delicate)

Most were reinforced with balsa, but not duplicates I'd accidentally bought !

Making anything that looks like a city in a larger scale would occupy a huge area on a table and as I wanted to have a city within a star/Vauban fort (about 5 foot in diameter) a smaller scale was the only way to go. For small villages, three or four building would suffice and occupied enough ground to be an impediment and were much more in keeping with real 18th century battles that these were used for.

The whole ensemble, occupying about a two foot square)

These are neither forgotten or abandoned buildings, as they've been used in many many games, but not for over twenty years iirc. They were however, lost to me and did take a while to find and dust down !

That's it then from me for another week, one in which again I've managed to achieve nothing save for doing this blog!

Thanks for taking the time to visit and I hope you've found something of interest in my museum of curiosities (see last week's comments for  explanation).

As always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

Trojans (FA#9)

My Trojan forces had been completely forgotten about until I came across two boxes of them, whilst digging out my Samurai forces.
The first box contains my four chariots, with varying degrees of damage, due to a lot of having to move my collections from one storage area to another (mostly for real-life reasons).
This project came about at a Wargames group I attended over fifteen years ago, whereon everyone picked a side in the Trojan Wars, a hero and had to make up a small force for it.
I can't remember which hero I was allocated and whether or not my forces ever saw action on the table either !

Rear view (obligatory blurry photo)

Different rear view (bored yet ?)

 The above chariot was the only one still completely intact with all crew present !
 Here are all four of them:

One crewman awol !

 Opening the second box revealed a hodge-podge of figures in various stages of completion, but no finished ones !

Still a bit of work to do here !

A few figures in various stages of completion

I realised that this was some of my #1 son's half-finished forces, which meant mine were elsewhere (insert cock up and Trojan joke here - Editor's note: Only understood by older readers).

I remembered storing them in a metal biscuit tin and after quick search (only slightly frantic) I found said tin. In case you're wondering why a tin,  it's because a lot my figures are mounted on bases with a magnetic strip, these included !
Here's the photos:

The phalanx

Close up of the phalanx

Archers

Close up view

Swordsmen (yep I know all the technical 'Ancient' terms)

Javelins

'Javelins' close up with blue check biscuit in the background

Musicians (we were using the "Warhammer Ancient Battles set of rules)

"Standard" bearers, some sort of fan and a bulls head

Supernumeraries, leaders, shield bearers etc.

 As in most of my storage there was also the odd surprise...

Ladders, for the towers in the citadel of Troy I built.

A Casualty figure for the boxer rebellion (I do wonder where the others are.)

 Finally, the all important group shot:

Obvious group shot  (sans ladders and Boxer casualty)

So just over a hundred figures, with a few more uncompleted (and probably not mine), not really an army, but still a sizable force and only intended as a quarter of the total force and as I can't even remember which side I was on so these could even be the "Greeks"!

That's it then for this week and another army that may or may not have been used once and truly forgotten about. I have merely only dabbled in 'Ancients', but  seemingly I do have a few.

Thanks for taking the time to visit, hopefully something will have been of interest and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.