I'd like to thank people for the kind comments encouraging me to keep going with the blog after I had a moment of doubt. Both the blog's "regulars" and a number of previous "lurkers" took the trouble to post something, which I very much appreciate.
After a little delay, caused by real-world things as well as by work on my Franco-Prussian War rules, here's the second installment of the set-up built for the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, most of which took place in the land of Bohemia. I made these about 12 years ago, and enjoyed researching what the rural environment of this unfamiliar area looked like. Here's what the houses of all but the most prosperous folk were like, at least in the north-western corner of the land, where the main battles of 1866 happened. Of course this was also where some of Frederick the Great's campaigns had taken place, so the set-up would work equally well for the Seven Years War. Bits of the Thirty Years War too, I suppose. Nor would the houses look out of place for parts of Poland and other parts of eastern Europe.
As this was a hilly, well-wooded area, timber was plentifully available and naturally served as the main material for vernacular building. The construction method here was a variant on the common "log cabin" method. It's called Blockbau in German sources. The logs are roughly squared off, and lock together at the corners by means of three-dimensional dovetail joints. Sometimes the cracks between logs are filled with daub, which is whitewashed to produce a characteristic "zebra stripe" effect. The Blockbau look was hard work to model; I could think of nothing faster than laying balsa logs individually and cutting the joints more or less as in real life.
The gables were planked, sometimes in decorative patterns, different on each house.
The house on the left shows a couple of the variations you see: the roof is hipped in shape and the walls whitewashed.
A closer view of the veranda feature.
Two more of the common variations. On the left we have a house where one end is built of rendered stonework and the other of Blockbau. On the right is a house with a shingled roof. The little "bonnets" over the gable ends are another local thing, as are the turned wooden finials, a tiny influence from Baroque style. The thing on the back wall is a fire ladder. If your roof was set on fire by a spark from the chimney, you wanted to get up there quickly and pull off the burning part before it spread.
Two houses are posed here with the latest unit I have done for my 1866/ 1870 gaming. It's the 7th Prussian regiment, the King's Grenadiers. I've recently done a couple of units with the Perry plastics. I was impressed with the flexibility of the parts, and the accuracy, even if those skinny plastic bayonets look awful vulnerable for gaming.
Great work, they look very nice indeed. They look quite eastern-Germanic but I think if one didn't look too closely they could easily pass for Polish or Russian or Baltic houses. The construction techniques would also be useful for building any of those, if you did the decorative wood differently. I have wanted to build some log houses for my Russian project but the need to actually do a log construction with balsa has put me off so far...I'll probably try it at some point though!
ReplyDeleteThe Prussian soldiers also look great! I find plastic is good in the sense it weighs a lot less, and paint doesn't chip off it as easily, but small parts can be quite fragile and I don't enjoy assembling plastic figures.
Superb work there John! From our trips to Upper Austria there are plenty of old wooden buildings still in use, especially in the remote more wooded areas. The veranda reminded me of one that over look the Hallstattersee (not a bad view) and the building itself was hundreds of years old, but not log built, but wooden plank. The weathering as always really adds to the whole.
ReplyDeleteWhat did you use for the thatch? Teddy bear fur? Whatever it was it's the best I've seen. In the village I was born in they had very long poles with hooks on to pull the thatch off the roof if it ever caught fire. I think they are still there located near the War Memorial.
Thanks, Steve. Yes it's faux fur, washed with thinned PVA and combed down. You have to trim it a bit once it's dry. A good starting colour helps, but paint it with washes, then gentle drybrushing. I used to use plumber's lagging felt, as discovered by Ian Weeklet long ago, but faux fur gives a nicer effect.
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ReplyDeleteReally glad you've kept these going, really enjoyed all of your posts. The thing that really interests me is how you do your research. Could you do a post on that sometime? I've been trying to research 15th century French village buildings and apart from the odd building in the background of a chronicle illustration I've found it very difficult. How do you research so specific a place and time, especially for those eras with no photography and few remaining buildings?
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work, really inspirational and a joy to view the work you've produced
That's a very good question, John. I do mean to do a tutorial (for want of a better term) on how to research vernacular buildings. It helps if you can read the language in question, but it's perfectly possible without; I certainly didn't know a word of Czech before researching this project.
DeleteMediaeval buildings are harder to find out about than more recent ones, because virtually nothing except the most imposing is left standing, as you say. My top tip would be to dig out and save all the contemporary images you can find online. For the medieval era that is mostly religious paintings, but a Flemish painting, say, of the Nativity shows you a contemporary Flemish stable not a biblical Palestinian one! Books of Hours show great rustic details as they illustrate the changing seasons.
Next would come looking at whatever images you can find from the right place, but a bit later in time. Building styles in an area didn't change much before the nineteenth century when better transport broadened the range of materials available.
If you would like to email me, I can tell you quite a bit more about the specific subject, because it's something I have found out about over the years, without ever building anything in particular.
It's an interesting topic, and a few years ago when I was building a Mordheim table and I found it was actually quite difficult to find out (in relation to Renaissance era Germany, being the reference point for the Warhammer world) what ordinary people's houses would have looked like, would streets have been paved or not, did windows have glass in them or something else...
DeleteThere is a lot of good books doing this sort of illustrated reconstruction for Roman and Greek towns but...less so for other eras and places.
Wonderful looking building, I always think it is hard to make these basic rural buildings look distinctive but you have managed that to great effect. Lovely buildings and you have clearly researched this subject extensively.
ReplyDeleteI am just starting to assemble my own Prussian forces , like you using the Perry plastic figures and your work here will be a great guide , I particularly like the warm tones you have added to flesh as this really brings the figures to life.
Buildings are great - so too the figures. Nice to see more of your 1866/1870 collection !
ReplyDeleteMore great work John, as others have commented, these would be perfectly acceptable as generic Slavic nations buildings. The faux fur thatch dies look particularly nice!
ReplyDeleteThese are wonderful models. And so useful for so many scenarios. Love seeing your work and appreciate the commentary on how you make these pieces of art. And, I agree, Perry plastics are marvellous but I wish they (and other plastic figure manufacturers) would resist the temptation to make the weapons "in scale" and recognize the table top realities of gaming. Just a little more heft would still make them slimmer than most metal figures and would serve the gaming handling of the models. Anyway, the whole presentation of these images (figures and especially the buildings) is inspirational.
ReplyDeleteThankyou very much everyone for your kind remarks and interesting comments. I have noted that pictures of my modelling efforts seem to attract more comment when posed with relevant figures, so I'll try to do that more often in future.
ReplyDeleteI did have big, all-round push to do the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 some years back, using the quirky Helion/ North Star metal figure range. So I will show you some more of those armies as I photograph the buildings and the coniferous woods made to represent the Bohemian theatre of war. I've divided everything into themes, each of which will make a blog post. So we've had the church and the houses, next will be miscellaneous buildings, then chapels and stuff, the Bohemian chateau, and finally everything grouped onto the village bases.
John , if you do show more figures could I ask you to share some images of your Prussian artillery , I am getting a lot of conflicting information regarding the colour of the wooden parts. Those guns in existence in the German museum seem to be quite a vibrant blue whilst most colour paintings etc show a grey blue similar to British artillery. I am just curious what shade you landed on.
ReplyDeleteHi Martin. It's straightforward. The wooden parts of Prussian artillery during the eighteenth and nineteenth were mid-blue. "Vibrant" is a good word for the shade. They were just blue, not sky blue, not blue-grey, but also not the dark blue of uniform coats. I would admit the possibility that the exact shade varied a bit over time, or perhaps between one artillery depot and another, so we needn't be quoting RAL references or particular pots of paint, just a strong medium blue. The metal parts were painted black.
DeleteThe appearance of the breechloader barrels is much harder to pin down. They were made of cast steel, but then treated in the depots against rust, by a process of chemical browning. Whether the final outcome appeared just brown, or more "steel with a bit of a brown sheen", I've not been able to find out. I just paint them mid- to dark brown. The surface was semi-gloss anyway, as the chemically-treated metal was rubbed down and then polished with linseed oil. Whether they kept this up on campaign, I don't really know, but I think they look better with a semi-gloss finish. Matt brown gun barrels look a bit odd!
Thanks John that is very useful thank you. I think the shade of blue you are talking about is not dissimilar to the coat colour of the chap in the feathered bicorn hat in your new header picture outside your fabulous chateau. The barrel information is much appreciated and very useful.
ReplyDeleteThe buildings are a joy - combining a unique flavour with the ordinariness of real homes.
ReplyDeleteI like the look of the figures too but the thought of breakages is scary.
I look forward to more posts both for the buildings and for the soldiers.
Stephen
Thanks Martin and, er, *your grace* (if my guide to the correct etiquette when addressing a duke is to be relied on). Next post is due any day, even if I have been saying that for a week and more.
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