A book of buildings

[martin goddard]

I bought the "European buildings" book by Peter Dennis.
It has some very good buildings in it. They are designed for central Europe.
water mill, windmill , chateau, farm, houses, bridge, carts and other bits. they suit 25mm figures. The downside is that they are printed on paper and need to be colour photocopied on to card.
The buildings are great but the paper aspect is pain I think.
The Usborne ones are better (and 15mm) because they are card and are very good value.

The Peter Dennis book could be used to inspire scratch building projects as the buildings have some good angles and extensions.

Anyone built any of these card buildings?
I think there was card building in the fire and fury rulebook.


https://www.awesomebooks.com/book/9781912390939/european-buildings?gc=GB&dwg=EAIaIQobChMIg9misJvSkwMVnZtQBh19hydtEAQYASABEgI4NfD_BwE&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22272964231&gbraid=0AAAAADocATBABtuIbxm1-kCIUyCxnEdDI&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIg9misJvSkwMVnZtQBh19hydtEAQYASABEgI4NfD_BwE

martin

[Sean Clark]

Not tried them but have been tempted. I made the Fire and Fury ones 30 odd years ago. You've reminded me I bought the medieval castle from Usborne last year and never done anything with it.

[martin goddard]

The Usborne stuff is very good Sean. The medieval sets fit together as well.
I have the assembled cathedral ready for a bloody barons day.

martin

[Panzer21]

The Osbourne medieval sets have the disadvantage of going in and out of print with some sets being particularly scarce and with people charging ridiculous prices - the medieval port being one.

I used the village set for many years; as they have an integral base they are sturdy, but the disadvantage is if they warp, it's difficult to fix without cutting the base.
They are supposed to be 1:76 but are probably closer to 1:87. The village, town and port give lots of useful buildings as Martin says. There's an English and French style castle.

Also worth considering are Schreiber Bogen - an old German company producing card buildings. The older series are better as the new "old town" are modern buildings.

They do houses in 1:87, 1:120 and 1:160 all sorts of old German half-timbered buildings. There are some village sets or town sets that work together in either 1:120 or 1:160. Taller buildings in 1:87 and they do various castles in larger 1:300, 1:250 scale which can be impressive backdrops.

Card building kits are or were popular in Europe so there are also Czech, Polish and French models out there.

Neil

[Leman (Andy)]

I have the Peter Dennis book of European buildings and his Neuville French town C1870. I find photocopying and resizing on 160 gsm card works well and has the advantage of being pre-coloured. On his paperboys site there is a useful video on putting his various models together.

[JohnWyatt]

I remember making some of the Superquick card buildings, which were anything but, however they were quite well designed with a minimum of visible seams and once finished they were very sturdy. Those were the days when we happily used HO/OO and never worried about using typical examples of English architecture to represent Stalingrad.

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

I tried card buildings in the past... Superquick and modified 00/H0 others for my 25mm ECW games, but found them unsatisfactory. They were too generic or inaccurate for a fussy git like me. I'm also not a fan of a compressed ground scale so moved to making my own using architectural reference material in scale with the figures I use.

Neil

[Leman (Andy)]

never worried about using typical examples of English architecture to represent Stalingrad.

When I started wargaming my ACW battles were fought amongst very English looking rubber Triang buildings, the same ones Don Featherstone used in his book, Wargaming (or was it Wargames - it was the one with rows of soldiers on a green, black and white cover.

[martin goddard]

Those rubber buildings were great Andy.
I have a couple, but would like the church from those books.


martin

[JohnWyatt]

War Games Battles and manœuvres with model soldiers. Coincidentally I had it off the shelf yesterday because I was looking at re-creating the Action in the Platteville Valley.

I think he cast his tanks out of Plaster of Paris, possible solution if the price of metal continues to rise? 🙂

[Leman (Andy)]

Oh my goodness, weren't those the days - Airfix WWI French being carved into ACW zouaves. I will have a go at the Peter Dennis windmill. Can't envisage a pre-1945 game without one turning up occasionally.