Things From the Basement MDF buildings

 

Captain William Smith House by Things from the Basement.

There are three really nice buildings just released by "Things From the Basement."  These were from a kickstarter program for a King Philip's War card game called "Devil in the Wilderness.". The kickstarter must have been successful since the buildings are now available to the public.  These are perfect for American Rev War and I am sure will see service with my War of 1812.  Please note that all pictures of these buildings are from the website of Things from the Basement.  

Salem meeting House

First off there is a very nice Salem Meeting House.  most models of churches out there are very 19th century.  Thus INE is much better and captures the box like meeting house I was familiar with in New England during  the 17th and 18th century.  An example of this is the Meeting house on Lexington green in the Amos Doolittle engraving of the battle on April 19, 1775.  Thus one would not be out of place in my Lundy's Lane battle either.

Two very nice houses

Side view of houses

Then there are two New England type buildings with extra extensions for the back.  You can building them with the extension so they are traditional salt box type homes or without.  So with very little effort you can get four different looking homes for your table top.  

Extensions to buildings

Extensions added to houses to create salt box 

I have bought the Captain William Smith house and it has graced A number of games here on my blog. They are very easy to build and are very economical.  You can also buy things roof shingles to improve the appearance if you wish.  And much more is out there if you are inclined.

Here is the link to the website for the buildings:

https://www.thingsfromthebasement.com/store/c45/Historic_American_Buildings.html

 I am ordering these houses as a early birthday present for my self so please stay tuned in March for once I have them built.  Thank you Earl for bringing these to my attention!

Impudent Mortal and Things From The Basement houses

There are a lot of MDF type buildings in the market for table top wargamers.  These provide a nice looking and easy to build structure for your games.  But outside of pictures on a website how do they stack up?  Years ago many gamers worried over the size of a figure.  Would this new miniature fit with others in my collection?  The same could be said for terrain  and especially buildings.  So here is my attempt to give you a clue to how things look together.  It is a small sampling with just two comoanies:  Things From the Basement and Impudent Mortals.

  Here are some of my Fife and Drum miniatures Grenadiers and Light Infantry by a very nice colonial home by Impudent Mortal.  Funny sounding name but great buildings. These houses are of a "heroic" size , so may be slightly larger then other structures in your collections.  But they are outstanding.

 Unfortunately, visiting their website I found out the owner has passed away and the business is temporarily closed.  I am most sorry for his family at this time. 

  Here is the Captain William Smith House from Things From the Basement.  It is a great house and I am looking forward to more in the future. It is a little smaller then the other building as you can see. 

   What you do on your table is up to you. You look things over and pick what works or looks best to you.    I like both very much. Like in real life no two buildings are exactly the same.  In my neighborhood the same model homes are slightly different in size due to the builder wanting to save money!  My personal opinion? I will field them in the same table.  Possibly Not next to each other but I will use them together in the same village. 

 

Sentry box

I picked this up from the Charlie FoxTrot stand at Cold Wars.  I had just bought the Tidewater Mansion and asked if he had one of the Sentry boxes with him.  After rummaging about he asked if I could come back later since he could not find it.  I did, and he gave it to me for free!  Outstanding!

Not sure how authentic a sentry box would be for Rev War period.  But it looks neat and I think it would go nicely with a camp scene or in front of a headquarters buildings.  The kit was super easy to put together.  I painted it gray as I picture it with the Crown Forces in mind and Royal Artillery equipment was painted gray. Pure guess work on my part with no documentation.

Georgian House

    My final building from the bundle is the two story Georgian house.  This was the building which drew me into looking at the site.  It is perfect  for North America and my Rev War/War of 1812 games.  Another  great looking building.  I plan on ordering a couple more of these.

Cutting out window shutters and frames.

  There are a number of small details which need to be glued in place before assembling the house.  The shutters and window sills need to be cut from cardboard and glued in place.  This gives a very good look to The house. The door and door frame I would glue after the walls are assembled.

  Here is the house after construction but before painting.  Note the field stone foundation around house.  It is a beautiful model and looks like many of the homes that were along the Concord, Lincoln and Lexington Battle Road on April 19, 1775.  I plan on buying a few more of these.

Door and field stone foundation added.

The cardboard extras add to the appearance of the building.

  On the Fife and Drum Miniature forum John Carroll (Winston Smith/John The OFM from the Miniatures Pages) has suggested buying the roof shingles from "Things in the Basement" store (www.thingsfromthebasement.com/store/c21/Accessories.html) . Jim Dunkan has suggested the rules from " Warbases "(warbases.co.uk/product-category/from-scratch/tiling-sheets/).  Both have said they look far better  and improve the visual appeal of the building.  I will have to look into these!

  As for painting the house, I am up in the air.  The roof and field stone foundation will get a cost of black  then  set brush grey and brown.  Since I like the color of the stain of the MDF I might leave it as is.  But I am open for suggestions.

Grist Mill

  The Grist Mill is a beautiful building which will liven up any table top.  It reminds me of the one at Old Sturbridge Village which I have visited many times.  It could also make a interesting objective in a game as a source of supplies to help a army, or to prevent another side from using it.

 It is also the most difficult building I have yet put together from Impudent Mortal.  This has to do with the wheel first, and the various doors, door says and window sills.  Lots of small parts which could get lost or forgotten about.   But it is worth it for the finished Grist Mill is beautiful.

My suggestion is to study the instructions and pictures of the finished mill first. Lay out all the pieces and arrange them by instruction page.   This will assist you in figuring out where things go and if you are missing  anything.  Then carefully put the pieces together without glue to see how they fit.  Only then start to glue them.

  In the end the Grist Mill is a lot of work, but it provides a wonderful centrepiece to your table top and a unusual item not often seen.  Highly recommended as Hal would say!

Cabin with front porch

Now that I am getting the hang of this I tried a slightly more complicated kit.  I would recommend reading the instructions and just placing the pieces together before gluing.  Good thing I did this first!  Saved myself a lot of aggravation.  But what I got from it is a very nice addition to my growing list of houses for the table top.  Next I plan on tackling one of the bigger buildings.  The Grist Mill!

Stone house

  Another kit from Impudent Mortals.  As it looked simple I put this together next.  It was pretty simple.  Especially with the free instructions provided at the site.  Again, a cost of paint brings the house to life.

Impudent Mortals MDF buildings

 Among the items I bought at Cold Wars this year were a number of MDF buildings. Most  of these were by a new (to me) company called Impudent Mortal (https://www.impudentmortal.com).  They make a wide variety of interesting items. These include paint racks and buildings.  The buildings include a number of North American 25mm type structures which fit in nicely for my Rev War and 1812 table tops.  The prices are very reasonable and they also bundle buildings in evan more reasonably priced packages.  I bought the bundle which included a really nice Georgian House (I want to get a couple more of these).   Perfect for my time periods. The company has on line instructions available directly to down load to assist in assembling the buildings.

  I am having great fun with these. They go together very well and paint up nicely.  I think they will give my table top a lift. And provide some structures to fight about in future games.  Perhaps the nefarious Canadian Volunteer will want to wreak havoc on a small village in a future game?  Stay tuned to see!

How they look on the table

  I mounted the houses I put together on foam core.  This helps to add strength and durability to them.  I think I might cut down the size of the stands in the future.  But they look very nice on the table top and they fit in well with my minimalist old school terrain.

Paper buildings

  Tis the season to plan out projects and goals for next year.  And one of my goals is to  fight the Battle of Trenton at Christmas time next year.   Once at our club game night in December then again Christmas day with my son.  I have the miniature soldiers ready;  it is the terrain I need to work on.  A winter ground mat, trees, snowy roads and icy river.  But mostly I need buildings, and lots of them.

  After looking at a number of  resin buildings I doubt I will go that way due to the cost.  I really like the MDF buildings but again I need a lot of them. So I will turn my hand to trying the paper type. Towards that end I have bought a number of clap board and stone houses from Paper Terrain.  These look very nice and are a very reasonable price.

  My first try was with one of  the simple white clap board houses.  Nothing complex about it.  I cut out most of the house with scissors and trimed it with a xacto knife.  I then scored the folds with the dull edge of the knife to fold it.  Using tacky glue I put a small amount of glue along the folds and glued the edges.  It went together very quickly and now I have a neat little  home for my table top. Thus ine should work for both  American Rev War and War of 1812. 

  A nice bonous is each house comes with a burned out destroyed version which fits inside the building.  Just in case your British Legion or  Canadian Volunteers are  up to their reported nastiness!

More to come soon both in terrain and buildings.

Laser cut buildings

  I have been curious about these buildings since they first came out.  They look good, and are less expensive then the cast ones.  So that was a big plus for me;  the frugal wargamer.  At Cold Wars this year I picked up two buildings in the flea markets. At $10 each They were  a bargin. They were wooden buildings that could fit into my Rev War and 1812 games.  Again more bang for my buck.

  The first was by Battlefield Accessories from Australia.  It looked very basic and simple so I choose this one to start with.  I used Arlene's tacky glue to put it together.  Similarly white glue.  The cabin went together quickly and was the definition of simple.  The final project will look good on my table top.

  The cabin from Sally 4th was much more detailed and comprehensive.  Fortunately for me they provided a goid, illustrated set of instructions.  These helped with the construction.  In fact I would have been lost without them.

  As a final improvement i think I will base these buildings.  Add a few items like fences and possibly a tree would provide a neat little mini diorama on my table.  A few civilian figures would be nice also.  Of course then I should add a few farm animals.........