Saturday 19 March 2011

Railway buildings

Sorry for the lack of updates, real life has been getting in the way of my wee hobby. My job is going through some changes at the moment and I should be changing shift pattern pretty soon. Also my loft continues to come together at a slow pace with the floor down and 2 windows in place it's really taking shape and hopefully within a few months I will finally have a permanent place to paint and game (and more importantly for my wife have a place to store all my gear out of her sight!).

Saturday we managed to get a game of Naps on the go again (report to follow) and I took the chance to get some snaps of a little side project I have on the go. Years ago when I was building my 1/72 and 1/76 scale tanks I was hunting around for quality buildings that could be detailed and added to little late war diorama's. I looked at model railway buildings and although lovely the scale was out for what I needed.

However I've been planning on doing some built up area's for my 1813 Prussians (the type you see in the background of the Osprey books). I picked up some resin buildings at shows and had also been thinking of making a good few myself until it came to me that possibly the railway buildings may do the Job? A quick search on ebay and I spotted that Faller, Kibri and others had produced just what I was looking for! and HO/OO is a great match for 15mm.

The buildings I have posted are in the rough at the moment but you can see the potential in them. I managed to pick up some kits that are already built saving me a good few hours and with a bit more work: a base, some fine detail and a good paint job I think they will look great and another bonus is as they are plastic they are also very light! Hope this is of help to someone else planning their 1813 battles for 2013.

We spotted a huge full walled German town for £80 boxed (great value). If my wargaming plans come together over the next couple of years I will buy it, split it up and use it for some eye candy.

10 comments:

The Angry Lurker said...

They look good, I use railway buildings for my modern gaming, they can be useful and sometimes a bargain.

peter said...

I've seen the use of railway buildings in several dio's, and it just depends on the make if they fit yes or no.
But I see you make good use of them Paul ;-)

Greetings
Peter

Steve h said...

Great idea Paul
Looking forward to seeing the finished town

Cheers
Steve

Broeders said...

very nice buildings. As we wargame in 6mm, railway buildings appear hard to come by in the scales required but a friend of mine informed me that Z guage (or possible N guage!) are perfect for 6mm so I may check them out as a source of buildings for future Naps campaigns.

jmilesr said...

I used to be a model railroader - it's likely a much bigger hobby than historical gaming given the much wider range of choice. If you game with 20mm, 10mm or 6mm figures there is a close match to HO, N and Z scale.

Some of the "craftsman-style" kits are amazing - check out a company called Bar Mills models. The only catch with most of the detailed model railroad stuff is that the buildings tend to be placed in a spot and not moved around so they can be a bit delicate - you need to reinforce them to make 'em have a longer tabletop lifetime

Ken said...

These buildings look quite good.

Ken

Scotsgrey said...

I think I will have moved house and job before your loft is complete Paul. The sheer luxury of having a loft room will be fantastic. You will be able to put the builinds down like a traditional railway layout, just dont get tempted with any trains!

Paulalba said...

Thanks for the comments guys.

Once I have given these an airbrush over added some fine detail and put them into bases that can hold 36 or 50 men then I am sure they will be cool.

Phil B, you are in luck as the N and Z guage have loads of cool buildings!

I definately will check out the Bar Mills stuff!

Thanks again
Regards
Paul

Captain Richard's miniature Civil War said...

Nice job on finishing those buildings

Paulalba said...

Thanks Captain,
Hopefully when I get them cleaned up, based and painted they will look the business.
Cheers
Paul