Two Grand Manner Napoleonic Houses Completed

After languishing in the pile for nearly fifteen years, I have finally got around to completing the first of many Grand Manner buildings I have accumulated:

This post should probably have been titled 'How to Disappear Down a Rabbit Hole' as I hadn't intended to make a start on them yet. A few weeks ago I started work on some 15mm Najewitz Modellbau 3D printed terrain; a rather nice Spanish town with eight buildings sitting on a sculpted base which I thought we were going to need for a game. 

I completed the buildings but the base is made up of twelve individual pieces and I realised that I would need to affix them to a large MDF base. 

I purchase all my MDF bases from a guy in Adelaide who offers free postage on orders of $75 or more. I then remembered I have a rather nice 28mm Medieval stone church with graveyard which I had purchased from Grand Manner ten or so years ago and which would also require an MDF base.

Thinking that this and a few other odds and ends would be good to get me above the required $75 I then set about trying to locate the church so I could measure the required footprint.

The problem is that I must have purchased over seventy buildings from Grand Manner and they are all in their original dense packing spread across five very large boxes, so I spent a few hours cutting my way through bubble wrap only to find I had now unpacked ten buildings from their Napoleonic Europe range. There was no way I was going to repack them again so I thought I may as well make a start.

The first of these is called a Lindenau house, modelled after one in the Leipzig area. This is I believe actually the rear of the house:

While this is the front and side:

The houses all have lift-off roofs with, in this case, two levels of interior. Perfect for skirmish gaming, but I debated whether it was worthwhile going to the effort to paint it and if I should just glue the roof in place. In the end I decided that since it was there I may as well put in a bit of additional effort:

All up, I estimate this model took me over twenty-four hours to paint, mainly because it was my first attempt at these and there was a fair bit of trial and error.

The second house is styled after a Holzhausen cottage, from the village to the south of Leipzig:

I was a bit quicker on this one, although it still took me around twenty hours or so:

These models are two of the smaller pieces and cost me around £50 each to purchase in the raw resin. They were however destined to become available only as painted models as the owner transformed his business into more of a painting service, and the cost for each was then around £240 when painted to a collectors standard. 

After painting them myself and given the detail I can see why, which makes me think the price that Mark of 1866 and All That is charging for his works of art is an absolute bargain. 

All the Grand Manner terrain is now sadly out of production, so I am glad I scooped up what I could even if it means they have been sitting untouched for over a decade:

I again painted up the interior, albeit doing a much quicker job on it:

That then is my first two pieces of Grand Manner terrain completed:

I have another ten or so of these central European buildings to go, plus a dozen or so Eastern European and the same number of Spanish buildings ahead of me. I also have a fair bit of Thirty Years war, WWII and Ancients to plough my way through, but they are such nice models each with their own individual character, that I am looking forward to it.

Speaking of terrain and storage, I finally cleared out one of our spare rooms, set up some shelving and moved some of my storage boxes with completed armies in:

This has freed up more space in my painting and storage room. I took the opportunity to also move in my long-unused table tennis table and throw a bit of terrain on it to try the area out for space:

Not much room either side and certainly not conducive to comfortable gaming, but it should be good for a few solo games at least. I have to admit I don't relish the idea of solo gaming as much as I do playing against a live opponent, but once the last of my AWI Continentals are finished I'll try out a game or two of British Grenadier.

I just need to stop any further distractions until I have finished the last ten staff figures. I still haven't found that church though.

More Crescent Root 15mm Terrain

 I have made a couple of Crescent Root purchases over the last three or four years and, being a huge fan of what I have received in the past, decided to treat myself to some of their 15mm industrial buildings. As with the previous two purchases, I was extremely pleased with what arrived a couple of weeks ago. Here they are, split across two arrangements:

The buildings are all mdf again, apart from the chimneys, and I really like the way they have been put together with texturing that I haven't often seen on other mdf terrain:

I purchased the set of ramps to provide a bit more variety. These are separate so the buildings can be positioned on top or alongside:

The walls are also very nice:

And the roofs lift off most of the buildings to reveal internal floors:

I also purchased one more house from Crescent Root's 15mm Series 3 range which I had missed in the last purchase:

Not particularly cheap when compared with other mdf terrain, but the quality is definitely there and they arrive ready to put on the table. I just need to complete a few WWII 15mm armies to go with them now, although many of the pieces wouldn't look too out of place in a Napoleonic game, especially the Series 3 pieces.

Speaking of WWII, I'm just finishing off the last of the first dozen Royal Navy WWII ships and hope to have them ready for a few photos by the end of the week; a welcome break from Republican Romans.

15mm Crescent Root European Buildings

Following my purchase of a Crescent Root European village four years ago:
http://tinmountain.blogspot.com/2015/12/crescent-root-15mm-world-war-ii.html
I have been keeping an eye on their new releases. These are great models and have the advantage of being pre-painted and assembled. The original 15mm MDF buildings are no longer available, but I purchased half a dozen from the new range European range which complements them nicely.

Here are two of the recent purchases side-by-side:

With a few close-ups showing some of the very nice detail, including recessed windows which is achieved by virtue of an inner and outer skin to the models, and terrific texturing on the walls:

I went with the option of a stone look on some and sienna on others, while keeping all the roofs to a slate grey to keep them consistent with my earlier purchase:

All the roofs lift of to reveal layers of flooring. While these do have the 'typical' lasered MDF appearance and are possibly not to the same level as earlier models, they will nevertheless be highly functional and are a welcome inclusion:

Some of the models are quite large and represent good value, although with freight and the unfavourable exchange rate between the US and Australian dollar the overall cost did start to creep up a bit. These last two are my favourites with what appears to be a large apartment block:

And another which is a row of shops with accommodation overhead:

In my opinion these are superb models and I know I'll be back for more once this range disappears and the next emerges (although I'm already thinking I could probably use a few of Crescent Root's industrial-style buildings in the meantime - hmmmm).

For those interested the Crescent Root website is:
https://crescent-root.com/pages/Product/15mm/15mm.html

More 15mm Ancient Terrain

I recently managed to complete a few more 15mm terrain pieces from Forged in Battle, including a Roman market store:

Roman temple:

And another temple built of stone:

My plan is to put these together alongside another dozen or so Forged in Battle pieces to form two more DBMM built-up areas.

I have managed to do that with the FIB middle-eastern village set, but am not sure I am entirely happy with the result:

The buildings are a little too angular-looking for my taste. A couple were damaged in transit, and I was actually quite happy with that as it lends some variation to the models. I was also pleased to have found a home for the ruined temple piece I completed earlier.

I'm ploughing ahead with the last of the cavalry for my ancient Spanish project, and hope to have more on that within the next week or so.

15mm Bridge and Ruined Temple

Two more terrain pieces I managed to complete over the Easter weekend. Firstly, a 15mm bridge which I purchased from Baueda:

This is a very nice three-part model and includes some nice detail, conveying the impression of a bridge built by an army while on campaign:

I also purchased the additional expansion section which, when added, turns it into a long bridge which should be enough to cover most scenarios:

I also completed a ruined temple from Forged in Battle, comprised of a mixture of resin and metal components. Another nice model which I blockcoated in a Foundry sand colour and to which I then applied an ink wash and three successively lighter dry brush applications. As I was doing this the thought crossed my mind that I probably could have just gone down to the local aquarium shop and purchased something from there instead, but I was pleased with the overall result:

I'll probably end up incorporating this into a larger middle-eastern built-up terrain piece more suitable for use in DBMM. I have a few more Forged in Battle buildings in mind for this and will be making a start on this once I completed a few elements of Spanish cavalry.

15mm Celtic Village

While finishing the last of the Xyston Spanish scutarii I thought I'd allow myself a small diversion in painting and assembling the Hovels Celtic village:

I have always been a fan of Hovels models and have normally ordered them fully painted, so this was the first time I have attempted painting the raw resin myself:


They are lovely models to work with, and the set comes with seven buildings and a couple of pigs for the pig sty:


It was also my first attempt using modelling plaster for the mud. I gave it a couple of goes and still couldn't get the consistency completely as I would like it, but as long as it stays in place I think it looks reasonable enough. The fruit baskets are an addition from Baueda, who also make a very nice range of 15mm models and accessories:


I particularly like the cracked daubing on some of the models which exposes the wattle underneath:





















Overall I am quite pleased with the result, and it has encouraged me to get stuck into a few other terrain pieces I have stockpiled and which I now plan on attempting over the coming months.