ACW (AB#4 part 3)

So this week not buildings from my ACW collection but the remaining bits and pieces that were in the first of my three drawers that hold most (not all) my ACW collection.
So, fences, one of the trademark  features of ACW battles.
They came in various guises , straight bar fences, (like the ones illustrated in the first photograph, snake fences (zig-zag fences) and 'X' fence posts with cross-pieces laid on and some stonework or mounds underneath.
I have all three types, a few commercial ones, as above, which proved costly, but mostly home-made scratch-builds. 

Homemade, snake fence

Straight fences

You need a lot of fencing for the ACW

In both 6" and 12" lengths (these are all about 12" lengths)

That's more than 30 foot of fencing !

Moving on from my fencing, made from paperclips (in case you were wondering) I also found some forgotten barricades, I'd made -mostly from Airfix wagon train bits iirc. Covered in latex as molds and then cast in plaster, making the bits reusable,

Front and back of two barricades from one mold

Two more (as above) from a second mold.

Group shot, all these can protect a single regiment they're about 5" long

A smaller barricade - goodness knows where from!

I also found some tents...

...in two varieties

I have a lot of tents !

Including a paper one for some strange reason (?)

The tents are homemade from air-drying clay iirc, hence they're all slightly different sizes and shapes.
In addition to fences and  tents, I found these two gun emplacements and haven't a clue why they were built, let alone why they were never finished !

These are big too

Close up showing figure for scale, each could easily hold a regiment

Roman bits and pieces

There always something I find that I wasn't expecting whenever I look into old storage, this drawer was no exception!

Finally below is a picture of the drawer that all the buildings etc, from this post and the previous two were stored in.

One of the three ACW drawers, with ruler for size

That's it for this week; turning a box of paperclips into fences and clay into tents isn't very interesting, but it does mean I've managed another post in a week where my enthusiasm is draining rapidly.

Thanks for taking the time to visit and if anything has caught your interest, then that's a bonus and of course, as always,  your comments are both welcomed and appreciated . 

ACW (AB#4 part 2)

Another week and the remainder of my 15mm ACW buildings, unused for well over ten years.
These are all resin buildings and probably from many manufacturers, though which, I can't say for sure. I do remember that I bought them over a long period of time as, to me at least, they were very expensive. 
Though they were all bought specifically for the ACW they're obviously usable for many different eras and not just America either !
 Some of the buildings are "shells" of resin, whilst others are solid resin and all seem very tough as they have suffered very little damage over the many changes in storage locations over the years.

Stone house, but shingle roof.

Rear and side view

Another really boring grey building...

...not helped by the dull window frames and roof

A very small building

Another very small building

Still boring though.

One of th more interesting building (IMO)..

Wish I'd added matchstick porch supports

More of a barn than a dewlling,

...but a very interesting one IMO.

Log and shingles

There are some interesting features, but you have to look hard.

Looks like an 'outhouse' (wc) ...

...but probably more like a woodstore - look at the door size!

Another combination of logs and chimney

I haven't a clue why some are on bases and others are not

Another fairly boring shack...

...anyway you look at it.

Must have been a job lot on log cabins...

...but it does have a thatch/turf roof !

A huge barn (biggest building of all my ACW stuff)

Rear view (obviously)

Signal post, with AWOL signaller

Boring rear view.

"Heathcliffe...it's me..."

Finally,  a building that would probably look more at home on Ilkley Moor or the highlands in the UK rather than anywhere in the USA. Once more I have no idea of its provenance, but it has a single door and window (two at a stretch), but it is large and I find an interesting building. and further, at the time I built this collection there was very little choice !

Rear view of "Wuthering Heights"

That's it then for this week, next week, I'll be boring you to death once more with the remainder of the contents the first drawer of the three that make up my ACW  collection.

As always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

ACW (AB#4)

So I decided to post about my 15mm American Civil War collection, one of the most used collections that I own. It's stored in three large drawers (the type you get in school art rooms, geography rooms etc.). They're stacked high up on a set of shelves and are heavy (for me at least) and once more,  required me to risk life and limb to get the top one of the three.
It turned out that this contained my buildings and other scenic bits, most specifically for 15mm ACW.
As the collection is quite large, I'll be splitting the posts about this over two or more weeks.
For the ACW games we played, most were on a table 8 x 6 feet, with a few on a larger table of 12 x 6 feet. With that amount of table to cover and the nature of the war, a lot of buildings were needed\ (and fences, bloody fences) as well as all the other paraphernalia to make the game look like the war it was meant to be.

Rear view if above casualty figure is on  20 x 25mm base for scale

I used "Johnny Reb III", one of the best written set of rules I've encountered and even if they are a bit lengthy, they do cover everything I wanted from a set of rules. The last time this collection was used, if memory serves, was sometime over nine years ago (by my son and his friend) and probably more that fifteen years ago by myself.
The building in the photograph above and to the right was scratch-built from air drying clay and the two figures, a casualty and a kneeling cavalryman are 15mms.
I have a lot of dead  figures as they were used to represent casualties and when sufficient were accumulated by a unit a base of figures would be removed. When dealing with battles that contained corps sized with upwards of 20 regiments on each side represented, a lot of casualties were needed!

Another scratch-built building from clay, showing a lot of wear.

Close-up view (padding - Ed.)

Rear view (- bit obvious really).

Another clapboard building.

Side view, notice the sack at the front and barrel in the rear.

I mostly used a razor blase to get right angles and the thin planking, shingles etc., but also used matchsticks for porch supports and various bits - boxes, barrels and sacks from the old "Airfix Wagon Train" sets

Side and rear view

Rear and chimney view

One of my larger clap-board buildings, again from clay

Side view showing wear and tear.

Side and rear, more wear and tear.

These buildings have suffered a lot over the years, probably due to the fragile nature of the clay and I probably didn't varnish them either. They were built out of necessity as any available funds would be used on figures - and times were hard !

Simple log cabin made from matchsticks - it wasn't just clay that was cheap !

Obligatory really boring, slightly blurred picture of the featureless rear and side

Good card building that has survived well.

I also inherited a couple of card buildings from a friend, nicely reinforce with balsa (a building medium I hate).

Rear and side view.

Droopy front porch roof

Matchstick porch roof support

Side and back view

From the early days I used whatever I could,  including this very old vacuum-formed "Bellona" barn, which I reinforced with plaster.
It doesn't look much, but served well in many engagements across the years.

It shows wear from a lot of use, but mot bad for cheap thin plastic.

Scracth-build with missing supports

 Finally a scracth-build, though not one I built and I think is very professional, based on the John Ross house on Missionary Ridge, from what it says underneath. I haven't a clue where and how I acquired it either !

A great building and survived well imo

Side and rear view

So this first post only shows about a third of the buildings for my ACW games, next week I'll show the various commercial buildings that I bought over several years.

That's it then for this week, one where the last week my regular hospital and clinic visits have all but drained me off energy.

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


ADDENDUM:
Having messed up with the photogfrpahs and buildings I have, I hope ammended the relevant bits; adding an omitted card building and correcting the comments on a scracth-build.