Painted: Buildings in Turmoil, The Widow Thompson House

Today, I have a few photos of my newly painted 10mm Thompson House from Buildings in Turmoil. During the Battle of Gettysburg General Robert E. Lee used the Thompson House as his headquarters.









 

Link to Buildings in Turmoil: Link

 

Painted: Buildings in Turmoil, McPherson Farm

I have begun work on my Gettysburg games. The first two scenarios will cover the morning and afternoon fight for McPherson Ridge, Seminary Ridge and Oak Ridge. In preparation for these games, my first priority after getting my dismounted Union cavalry painted was to start painting my 10mm Gettysburg buildings from Buildings in Turmoil. At first, I was a little intimidated by all the fine detail that these models have. But in the end, I ended up painting them just like all my other 10mm buildings and I think they turned out great. Below are a few photos of my completed McPherson Farm. Next, I will be working on the Thompson house, McLean Farm, and finally the Seminary. I will post photos as I complete them.



 



McPherson House



 



McPherson Barn



 



McPherson Carriage House

Link to Buildings in Turmoil: Link

 

The Dunker Church, 10mm building by Time Cast

Work continues on my upcoming Antietam game. Today, I just finished up painting the Dunker Church. This model was produced by Time Cast. Below are a few photos.

For reference, here’s a photo of the real thing.

A new source for 10mm buildings

Up to this point I have been primarily using building from Jerry’s Hobby Junction for my 10mm wargaming needs. I feel that Jerry’s range of buildings does a great job covering single story structures, but when it comes to two story structures the range comes up a bit short. To resolve this shortage, I decided to give plastic N scale model railroad buildings a try.


As a result of model railroading being a much more popular hobby, there is a very large assortment of buildings available. Unfortunately, most of these are not suitable for the 19th century. After doing some browsing on e-bay, I found several models that would meet my needs. As usual the first thing I did after my first building arrived in the mail was to compare it to my Jerry’s Hobby Junction buildings. As I was hoping they matched up perfectly. Since then I have purchased several more building and I’m very satisfied with them.

Building Comparison Photo: on the left is an N scale plastic model railroad building, and on the right is a resin building from Jerry’s Hobby Junction

The downside to using model railroading buildings is, 1) most of the time, the models need to be assembled, 2) they retail for about twice as much as resin buildings. However, if your patient these buildings commonly come up on e-bay for much less than the retail price.

Model Power, Bella's Farm House

Looking forward, I can see myself adding more N scale model railroading buildings to my terrain arsenal as I need them.

Model Power, The Sullivan's

A.H.M., American Farm House

Model Power, Farm House

Review: 10mm U.S. Civil War Buildings from Old Glory 25

Hello, today I have a quick review of Old Glory’s 10mm U.S. Civil War buildings. To be honest I’ve been meaning to do this review for some time now, but other hobby related projects have taken priority. Hopefully in the not too distant future I will also have a review of the new line of 10mm building from Buildings in Turmoil. I hope you find this review useful.

-Bryan

 

Old Glory offers their buildings in two sets. The first set is five pieces and includes three buildings, a church, and one outbuilding. The second set is six pieces and includes two buildings, a barn, two outbuildings, and a well. Each set is priced at $35. Even better if you have the Old Glory Army discount card each set is only $21. That’s around $5 a building or about half of what other 10mm/15mm building are being sold for!

I decided to purchase the set with the Church. Like all my transactions with Old Glory 25 everything went smoothly. My very first impression after removing the buildings from their packaging was “wow these seem large for 10mm scale”. My initial impression was confirmed after I compared them to some of my 10mm figures and buildings. In fact, these buildings match up better with my 15mm building from JR Miniatures. After making these comparisons, I concluded that Old Glory’s buildings seem to be better scaled for use with 15mm figures. Below are a few comparison images I did.

Miniature Comparison: The figures pictured here are 10mm Pendraken and 15mm Musket Miniatures. Note: Old Glory’s 10mm figures are about the same size as Pendraken

15MM Buildings Comparison: The poorly painted buildings on the out sides are 15mm scale from JR Miniatures. As you can see Old Glory’s buildings match up pretty well with them.

10mm Building Comparison: In this image I compare my N scale buildings from Jerry’s Hobby Junction to Old Glory’s buildings. As you can see the buildings don’t match up very well.

The overall molding quality of the buildings is average. Throughout the models there are many small imperfections in the resin caused by air bubbles. Also, several spots on the buildings chimneys and siding have excess resin that will need to be removed.

 

What I really like about these buildings is the assortment of structures offered in the two sets. Each set comes with a large barn and outbuildings. I see no reason why these buildings can’t be use for the American War of Independence through the American Civil War.

My final assessment of these buildings is that they are a very good value if you have an Old Glory Army card, but they seem to be better scaled for use with other 15mm building. As a result, these buildings will probably not see any use in my 10mm scale games, but they may come in handy with future 15mm projects. So if you’re a 15mm gamer and you’re looking for some new buildings, I recommend that you check these buildings out.

Links:

Product link- Old Glory 25's US Civil War Buildings

American Civil War Project (Phase 2)

2012 is here and its time to begin phase two of my 10mm American Civil War Project. Last year I was able to paint just fewer than 400 bases of infantry (1600 figures), 30 artillery bases and various commanders. My main goal for this year is to double the size of my armies. With that in mind my goals for 2012 are:

1. Paint 200 bases (800 figures) of Union infantry


2. Paint 200 bases (800 Figures) of Confederate infantry


3. Paint 30 bases (90 Figures) of Mounted Confederate Cavalry


4. Paint 30 bases (120 Figures) of dismounted Confederate Cavalry


5. Paint 30 bases (90 Figures) of Mounted Union Cavalry


6. Paint 30 bases (120 Figures) of dismounted Union Cavalry


7. Paint 10 bases (40 figures) of Union Artillery


8. Build/Paint 6’ of entrenchments


9. Game 15 battles from 1862.

These goals are somewhat aggressive and a lot depends on when Pendraken starts to releases their new range of figures. If I can meet or come close to meeting these goals, I will feel like I had a productive year. My plan is to post monthly updates on my progress here, so be sure to check back. Now onto what I’m currently working on.

I have spent the past few weeks working on painting mounted and dismounted cavalry. I have found that Perrin’s mounted cavalry are the best offered in 10mm scale and to my disappointment nobody really makes great dismounted cavalry. Below are some photos of my progress so far. I will share more details and photos once I get them based.

Union Cavalry

Union Cavalry

Union Cavalry

Confederate Cavalry

Confederate Cavalry

Preparations for my first game of the year are also underway. This game will be based on the first days fighting around the Elkhorn Tavern during the Battle of Pea Bridge. For this game I will be using the scenario published in the “Guns at Gettysburg Scenarios 2, Frontier” book by Paul D. Stevenson. The game will be held at Walt’s Hobby shop on January 22^nd. Below is an image of the buildings that I’ve been working on for the game.

These building will serve as the Elkhorn Tavern and Clemon’s Farmhouse for my upcoming Battle of Pea Ridge game

Battle of Bull Run Preview

Over the weekend I did a dry run of the Battle of Bull Run game that I’m running this weekend. Below are a couple of images that I took.

Henry House Hill looking North-West. The Henry House is the white building near the center.

Looking South-West

It took me most of the day to get this table setup. I use almost 25 feet of rail fence and I had just enough trees to cover the table. Overall I’m pretty happy with how the table looks. I can’t wait to fight the battle this weekend. More information on this game can be found here: http://saltcitywargamers.wordpress.com/2011/08/11/gaming-event-bull-run-1861/

Keywords: Battle of 1^st Bull Run, Battle of 1^st Manassas, American Civil War 10mm, ACW 10mm

Review: N scale, Early American Structures from Jerry’s Hobby Junction.

One of my biggest concerns before beginning my 10mm Civil War project was the possible lack of a good line of buildings. After doing some searching online and posting on TMP, I was very happy to discover that Jerry’s Hobby Junction was selling a range of resin N scale Early American structures designed by Jim McCarron of Rustic Rails and Musket Miniatures. I have always been a fan of Musket Miniatures 15mm buildings so I was confident that their N scale buildings would be perfect for my 10mm gamming needs.

This range consists of 32 different products including various sized houses, commercial buildings, outbuildings and a two story plantation mansion. I believe that these building were designed to be generic but several reminded me of historic buildings. On top of that they also offer a range of detail items that include tents and field fortifications.

Jerry’s Hobby Junction has a nice web site that offers photos of all their products. The only downside to their website is you can’t place orders online (other than e-mail). I phoned in my order on June 14^th. Jerry was very friendly and the order process was simple. To my surprise I received my order on June 17^th!

As I was expecting, these building are excellent. They are very clean and have good detail. Even better, my 10mm Pendraken figures scale perfectly to these buildings. I highly recommend these building for use with any 18^th or 19^th North American conflict. Below are some images of the buildings that I purchased. For more details please see Jerry’s Hobby Junction web site.

Link to Jerry’s Hobby Junction: http://www.jerryshobbyjunction.com/index.html

Note: The figures shown in the following images are 10mm Pendraken mounted on a 3mm base.

SMALL SLAT-WALLED HOUSE

SMALL SLAT-WALLED HOUSE

TWO STORY STONE HOUSE (Front)

TWO STORY STONE HOUSE (Back)

FARMHOUSE or VILLAGE COTTAGE (Left side) and SMALL CABIN (Right side)

FARMHOUSE or VILLAGE COTTAGE (Left side) and SMALL CABIN (Right side)

HOUSE (front)

HOUSE (Back)

TWO STORY WOOD FRAME HOUSE

TWO STORY WOOD FRAME HOUSE

OUTHOUSES and ROOT CELLAR

TWO WOODEN SHEDS