It's Time to be on the Road Again

Sunday saw another American Civil War game.

Monday morning saw us heading out of Auckland for a few days on a trip to the Hawke's Bay region. Neither of us have been that way for many years - nearly 40 years in my case.

First stop was Taupo. The drive down was pleasant enough with tolerably light traffic. The summery weather of last week had cooled with the arrival of a low pressure system, but the view across Lake Taupo towards to the mountains of the volcanic plateau was spectacular, even if Mt Ruapehu was shrouded in cloud the whole time we were there.

I hadn't spent any time in Taupo since a family holiday in 1971 (apart from an overnight stay on the way back from a wargames convention in the late 1980s), so it was like visiting for the first time. The town itself is pleasant enough with a wide range of eateries and shops. As a tourism centre there is lots to do, although most of it is adventure activities. We chose to visit the Craters of the Moon, a geothermal area. It was a pleasant walk through a gently steaming vents and a couple of bubbling mud pools, although it was cold in exposed places.

After a quick lunch stop we drove the short distance to the Huka Falls, a fifteen meter volcanic rock chute through which the turquoise water of Waikato River gushes and falls some eleven meters in two or three stages. They are not the highest or most volumous falls, but spectacular in their own way.

 

After a stop for a drink in a local pub, we headed back to our hotel and 'took the waters' at the hotel's mineral water spa for about an hour. We considered a walk along the lake shore, but a howling southerly wind kept the air temperature cool. Instead we chose to watch the waves breaking on the shore from our room with a glass or two of pinot noir. After dinner, when the wind had eased, we did get out for a walk along the waterfront with the waves still breaking as though at an ocean beach.

Day three saw us back on the road, heading for Napier, via Waiouru. Locals are probably questioning why on earth am I taking the four hour route rather than the two hour Taupo-Napier route? Simple,  I wanted to visit the National Army Museum at Waiouru.

The museum is much as I remember it from 30 years ago. It covers the full history of the NZ Army involvement in conflicts from the NZ Wars, through the Boer Wars, WWI, WWII, Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam,  Afghanistan and Iraq. I couldn't help thinking that it is a shame that the magnificent model of Chunuk Bair, commissioned by Peter Jackson and populated with thousands of 54mm figures, is not housed there. Still, the life sized dioramas still have appeal.

Then it was back on the long and winding road to Napier...and it was long and winding. By 2:30 we arrived in Napier and settled into our hotel for fresh adventures tomorrow.

The (Almost) Trostle Farm Completed

Over the last few days I have finished four small outbuilding and some fencing that completes the 'almost' Trostle Farm from the Gettysburg battlefield - I say almost because it is not an exact replica.

Bigelow's 9th Massachusetts Battery in front of the farm

Pricing details are included on the Buildings for Sale page LINK

The four final building are: 

The Corn Crib

The Carriage House on the right, Ice House on the left. 

The smokehouse, where they would have prepared cured meats

All these work in with the fences to create the complete farm, in the historical configuration.

The Trostle House

As a part of my American Civil War Buildings for Sale project I have completed the companion to the Trostle Barn that I posted last week;  the Farm house and its summer kitchen.

The image above is the farmhouse captured in July 1863, shortly after the battle. The horse carcasses from Bigelow's 9th Massachusetts Battery that was positioned in the farm grounds are still strewn on the ground. 

The house was relatively new in 1863, built "a few years earlier" and was home to Abraham Trostle and his family. They were compelled to leave the house during the battle even leaving dinner in the table that the staff of the Union 3rd Corps ate when the house became the temporary headquarters for the corps. The house on the battlefield today (below) is about one-third larger after an extension, with an additional porch, was added to the northern face. 

The model is built with the adjacent summer kitchen, which from the various photographs was made of brick painted white, but I have chosen to model it in stone.

Again I went through the pain of applying more than 600 shingles. The picket fence was hand built and almost as painful. I considered using some plastic picket fencing from Renedra, but I had none on hand and it would have taken too long for an ordered set to arrive. Also, looking closely at the wartime photos, the fencing was irregular (unlike the fences on the battlefield today)...I like irregular...and it is the irregular had built fencing that was the final touch that really makes the model pop.

Still to be completed in this farm set are four small out-buildings - the carriage house, the ice house, the smoke house and the corn crib - together with some fencing.

American Civil War Buildings

Having dug myself out of the rubble of the recent sets of ruins, I have turned my attention to three, maybe four American Civil War buildings to go up on my Buildings for Sale page. Originally I planned to make replicas of historic structures, but instead decided to make buildings strongly based on actual buildings. That change of mind came about from three directions. First, it is difficult to get useful images of all aspects of historic buildings - there is always some detail missing, usually a face of the building that hasn't been photographed or drawn, and that infuriates me. Second, most of the real buildings are large and exceed my design criteria - that is, made to a size that will fit into a box that makes shipping most cost effective. Third, sticking to an actual building plan cramps creativity and I like to add little bits here and there.

The first two buildings, shown here, are quite disconnected. First up is the Robinson House from the First Bull Run battlefield. This is as close as I can get it to the photograph of the time that only shows two faces of the building. The other two sides I have created as I imagine them. I made the basic form for this 20+ years ago...I just could never find inspiration to start 'dressing' it. 

The James Robinson house photographed 1862

The actual place was built in the 1840s by James Robinson, a free African American. It was in the centre of both the First and Second Battles of Bull Run, sitting at the foot of Henry House Hill. It survived the battles only to be destroyed by arson in 1993.

Second is a barn from Gettysburg. This is very heavily based on the Abraham Trostle barn that stood behind Sickles' salient on 2 July, with a few simplifications. Having determined the actual footprint (using the measure feature of Google Maps) I then scaled that footprint to 75% of the actual size. I have also used a little less brick work than the barn on the battlefield today, because a photograph from the 1890s shows a lot more timber cladding. A model of the Trostle house and some smaller outbuildings is in progress and will follow.

The 1890s photograph of the barn

I considered making the McPherson barn instead, because it was a bit smaller, but that building was built into a slope and, since it is now long gone, there isn't a lot of detail on an accompanying McPherson house. Also, the Trostle barn has a lot more texture, featuring stone, brick and timber surfaces, which makes it much more fun to model.

I started the model by cutting a footprint, 115mm x 190mm, from dense 3mm card. The dashed line in the image below indicates where the cantilevered area will extend over and the area to the right of the solid line will be timbered 'lean to' - I call it a lean to, but it really additional storage and an alternate entrance to the lower level.

Next all the wall pieces were cut from 3mm MDF. Getting the height correct is a tricky thing here. It is all about visual balance. You can't just take the true height and scale it 75% because it will look wrong when figures are put beside it. I chose a lower level height of 35mm and a second level of 40mm. When the roof, with a height of 45mm goes on top, it will have the right tabletop appearance.

The pieces were then assembled on the base and the glue left 24 hours to set hard.

Before the cantilevered section could be assembled and fixed the stable doors had to be sculpted,  because it would be impossible to work in this area once the cantilevered section was installed.

The cantilevered section was then built from 3mm card (because for trickier assemblies like this I find card is easier to cut), the underside was textured and then fixed in place. 

The final piece of the base structure is the lean to. The walls were cut from MDF and the roof made from 1.5mm card.

Before it was assembled the inside areas had to be textured and painted, again because once assembled, I wasn't going to be able to work in there again.

I then sculpted most of the woodwork on the cantilevered section, the lean to and the main doors.

Next I made the basic shape of the grass ramp from polystyrene that leads up to the main doors, fitted it, then sculpted the stone base. It is a bit steeper than it ought to be because box size limitations means that I can't go any wider than 180 mm and since the footprint starts at 115mm, the remaining 75mm has to rise 35mm, giving a slope of around 45%.

The roof base was cut from MDF, but all other parts cut from heavy weight card the all glued together snd left overnight for the glue to set.

Having constructed the roof piece as a separate removable piece I changed my my mind...it was too difficult to make it fit neatly, so I glued it in place and ends were then sculpted...and what a tedious task the brickwork was!

The shingled roof was made from pieces of 0.5mm balsa wood cut 4mm by 5mm. If I thought doing the brickwork was a tedious task, it pales into insignificance compared to shingling the roof...hundreds, upon hundred, upon hundreds of the little...things...all glued on one at a time...1063(+/-10) of them, plus on the Robinson House there are another 620. The shingles were then given a coat of thinned PVA to soak into the surface of balsa, in part to ensure that it sticks well to the card base and in part to harden the surface. A liberal coating of black undercoat will also help to protect against damage.

The final step of the build was to mount it on a base, finish the grass ramp and add some farmyard clutter.

It was then painted and completed.

These models will appear on the Buildings for Sale page when I have finished the others in this set - hopefully by the end of the month.