Buildings, Lots of Them, and Ruined Ones, Too!

There are twenty-five building models in the shot below, not counting the gates in the walls - or the walls.  The two in the lower right will be used up on top of the Tartar Wall, they are the smallest ones.  There are a lot of duplicates but paint should make it hard to tell once in a game.

 I think there are 21 ruins in the shot below but it might be 17.  Whichever number, I'm hoping that is enough to represent the damage in the legation quarter.

For certain, one walled compound will represent Prince Su's Palace (the Fu).  I might use the other in a different configuration(s?) to represent part of the Imperial Palace - maybe two 'half' compounds.  

With the six legations I've acquired, the Tartar Wall to be built, and the stand-in for the Pekin Hotel, I think it will be pretty impressive to look at.  One day.

New Arrivals

So, received my latest order today - added in some structures for my FIW native villages and some more villagers and a Conestoga wagon just 'cuz.  Bought in the Blue Moon 15/18 mm Old West buildings, all of them.  They are Very Big and have lots of extra detail.  Won't really work with other manufactures products so it will be a 'stand alone' town I'm guessing.  Had been hoping to mix in with Peter Pig and Stone Mountain Old West buildings but not sure they'd work well together.  No matter, it will make a good size town - in numbers and physical size (heck, could easily use for 20 mm figures).

And the big influx was a whole bunch more structures for my Boxer Rebellion setup.  Only added one 'European' building for the British legation.  Got a whole bunch more ruins in various sizes.  And then lots of Chinese buildings, most of them I bought two of each.  My plan is to paint them in groups, green roofs, red roofs, yellow roofs, blue roofs.  Doing this partly to help with setup.  But also to disguise, a little bit, the duplications.  I also plan to paint each group with a slightly different base wall color, though I expect all will be some variation of off-white.

The big question is this: will I be buying more?  And, again, it depends on what gets made - a horse drawn hearse?  Yes.  More animals for the plains of Africa?  If I don't have them or I like them better than what I already have (even if painted), heck yeah - especially gazelles.  (Oh, baboons are now covered courtesy of a friend with a 3D printer, very cool.)  Old West chain gang.  Yup.  German East Africa?  Definite maybe.  A beautifully sculpted and complete range of Napoleonic figures?  Nope.  Hard to know for certain but, unless something fits within my existing collections, I can't really justify adding anything else.  So, I might be done!  We'll see.

E-Friending Some Photos

Below are some photos of a 15 mm building from MBA and then, finally, a comparison with a Blue Moon building from the Boxer range.

This is the main building interior, bottom level - note the stairs on the left.

This is the second floor in place with the stairs up to the attic.

And here is the attic floor which has warped a bit in storage so I've flipped it when putting it back in storage to see if it levels out.

And here is the roof without the cupola in place.

And here it is in place.

And, ta da, the building itself - note the little finial piece missing on the right which I have but need to glue back on.

And the real reason for all these photos - a comparison between the building on the left which comes prepainted from Miniature Building Authority (while supplies last I guess because they've announced they are leaving the 15 mm world) next to one of the buildings from the British Legation from Blue Moon and Old Glory25s.  That little ball on the tabletop is the missing piece mentioned above, carefully stashed back inside before putting things away after snapping the photos with the old iPhone.

I've posted the photos the way I did so people will be aware of the interior.  I may use this to represent the Hotel d'Peking in my developing Boxer Rebellion game.  And I must credit Richard G. of War in 15 mm fame for the idea.

Before ever putting this piece in a game - I guarantee - I will securely glue the cupola to the roof or too much chance of a fall and breakage.  This will also be my Musketeer headquarters building for games from an earlier time frame and a couple continents west of Peking, more or less.

Leopigerion?

Bought this bit of fake fur a few months ago and now wondering how to best put it to gaming use.

 Here it is in the "plain".

And here it is with piece of 'flavor' terrain in process (temporarily sprayed green for a game last year).