On Campaign: Early American Structures

Showing posts with label Early American Structures. Show all posts

Sunday, September 9, 2012

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

Friday, June 8, 2012

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

Thursday, June 23, 2011

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.