Welcome to my blog, the story of my continuing journey into the World of Zombie Wargames.

Monday 20 May 2019

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.

26 comments:

  1. You have amassed a town worth there easily. They all look great!

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    1. Thanks Brummie and I found a few more after posting this !

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  2. Really love them! Fantastic buildings!

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    1. Thank you Michal, they were a great idea at the time, bu tMDF seems to have taken over now.

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  3. A real blast from the past. Great Germanic buildings. Makes you realise how things have moved on.

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    1. Thanks Clint, you're right, there wasn't a great deal of choice 40 years ago !

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  4. Church and farmhouse are my favourites,very useful. I have been scratch building in foamboard and have painted plastic buildings I've just started a load of MDF buildings,I'm still not sure about the MDF to be honest!
    Best Iain
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks Iain, I'm not completely convinced by MDF, it does need a lot of work. I'd b looking at plastic buildings nowadays, the train fraternity has that well covered, but I have done a shed load of scratch-building too.

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  5. They might be old, but I reckon they still look great Joe - I wonder if people would say the same about us? ;-)

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    1. Thanks TWA, considering the service they've done I think they've held up well.

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  6. Excellent display of wargaming real estate, the do sit very well with 18th century figures. Thanks for sharing and an excellent blog.

    Willz Harley.

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    1. Thanks Willz, they have served me well and compliment my old plastic 17th century figures (Spencer Smith) for the toy soldier look

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  7. I use faller 1/87 buildings with my 25 / 28mm figures, less table space and I think they look just right. Buildings one or two scales smaller than the figures always works well for me.

    Willz Harley.

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    1. I'd have gone with Faller too, if Id have had the money,but I was a bit of a pauper in the 70's!

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  8. They're pretty cool, Joe! You'd never know they're made from card.

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    1. Thanks Ray, you really do need glasses don't you?
      Serioudly though if well made (unlike mine) they do look good enough for even demo games.

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  9. These posts are like a history lesson in table top gaming Joe & I for one really enjoy seen all your wonderful stuff :)

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    1. Thanks Frank, I must say that they weren't intended as such but justas a way of keeping my blog going !
      (Maybe it's the ex-teacher in me coming out ?)

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  10. Hi Joe
    Looks like you've hit a gold seam with your posts on old buildings and armies, this one has 2 of the card buildings I have and I was very taken with them at the time and even now for the money and time spent they give a good result.
    Only just catching up but it was good to read a block of posts together.
    Cheers

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    1. Thanks Vagabond, I wish I could remember what firm they were, so I could look them up - just to find out which buildings were historical.

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    2. I've been thinking about dragging out the 1750's French 15mm figures and starting or should that be restarting a long forgotten campaign in some mythical European Principalities (that sound so familiar)
      Anyway if I do I should like to get some more of these buildings so if you should remember would you let me know.
      I seem to think they did quite a big range including town walls and gate houses, I have about a dozen buildings but I now have a bit more storage space. :)

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    3. I believe they had a Clock tower and gateway too, boith of which I coveted, I doubt that they're available now, but there s plenty of similar buildings available (Papermau).
      My own 18th century campaign was based on the game "Soldier King", mostly for it;s maps - it ran, on and off, for about four years before the participants lost interest.

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  11. Lovely buildings, atmospheric and nice details on them...

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    1. Thanks Phil, I agree wholeheartedyl and they make a good reference for modellers and painters alike imo

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  12. Replies
    1. Thanks Jay, they may well be outdated but they're still functional (bit like me really)

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