Making 1/32 Scale Roman Buildings

 

Four "city" Roman buildings that I have been constructing this week.
The figures are 1/30 scale King & Country civilians.

Click on pictures to enlarge your view

The past week has seen me in a flurry of miniature model construction as I have started making some of the buildings (and then some) for my Hannibal Punic Wars war games at Little Wars and Historicon this year. Surrounded by vast sheets of foam core board, balsa and bass wood, thick card stock and oceans of glue, I have finished three farm buildings and have a good start on four city or town buildings.

When I embark on making buildings for a new historical period, I like to start with something that is simple and easy to make (such as small farm buildings) before I tackle the more complicated buildings (such as city buildings). This gives me a feel for how to design the basic shapes of the building and how to assemble them together. The most basic building is a square box with some doors and windows cut out from the sides of the box.

My first building was a small Roman era farm house and a work shed. The shed consisted of four pieces of foam core board and a tile roof that I fashioned out of a piece of corrugated cardboard from a box that I received from an eBay seller. I like to save some of my boxes for future use in model building constructions. After I cut out the sides of the walls I line up the pieces to make sure that they fit together and then I pin them together with sewing pins. Once I am satisfied with the fit of the pieces, I glue them together using my hot glue gun. 

Sometimes I will use super glue to tack on a decorative piece of wood to the foam core wall. The picture below shows a horizontal cross piece at the top of the front of the shed. This is a piece of a coffee stirrer that a local coffee house chain donated to me. It covers the gap between the roof tiles and the wall. I found it easier to use super glue rather than the hot glue gun in this instance because it spreads evenly across the wood while the hot glue is "lumpier" in its application.

Work shed to use with my Roman farm. 
King & Country figures.

The next model that I made was a small farm house such as those that might be found in the Italian countryside. This was easy to build, but it had a few more complications than the basic shed. This time I needed to make a ridged roof and to cut out the windows and doors from the foam core. I glued pieces of fine wire mesh over the interior parts of the window. The doors and shutters were made from balsa wood that I scored with a wooden fondue skewer to simulate wood planks. The wood bits were then covered with wood stain. 

The sides of the building were partially slathered with a mix of wall board paste and paint and allowed to dry overnight. The next day I painted the buildings with a light grey chalk paint and then did some dry brushing with a lighter shade of grey. I used Plastruct terra cotta roof tile (in plastic sheets of material) to make the roof. A piece of round dowel rod was used to cover the gap on the ridge of the roof where the two sides of plastic tile sheets met.

A birds eye view of the smaller Roman farm house and work shed.
King & Country figures.

The Medium Farm House Construction

The medium sized farm house starts with a basic shell made from 3/16th inch or 1/4 inch black or white foam core board. The picture below shows some of the basic house "shells" that I made from foam core board. I keep a set of sketches for each shell so that I know how to make it again for another building without having to go through the process of deciding on which dimensions to use all over again.

Four of my basic building shells for my Roman buildings. These serve as 
templates for future buildings.

Walls and roof construction:

I cut out the walls and then figure out where I want to place all of the doors and windows. Doors are made out of balsa wood and glued to the inside part of the wall. I use a fondue skewer to "score" vertical lines to create wood planks and then give it a stain of dark walnut stain.

Thick balsa wood or thinner bass wood pieces are used to make the ridge pole of the house. Supporting beams extend from the walls of the house to the ridge pole to strengthen the ridge pole. The cross beams do not actually support the roof, but rather, they are placed to offer strength to the side walls, preventing them from pushing inward. These structural pieces also get a coating of walnut stain.

A view of the roof ridge pole, beams and braces that will support the roof tiles. You can also
see the bits of mesh screen that cover the windows from the inside of the house shell.
This is the medium farm house work in progress photo.

Applying the Mud to Create Stucco Walls

I mix up a pot of wall board paste and brown paint that I use for basing my soldier figures. The same goop or mud also serves as stucco on the walls of Roman buildings. I like to use the Red Devil Pre-Mixed Spackling Paste for this part and I buy large tubes of craft acrylic brown paint from Michaels' Stores. Below is a picture of the medium farm house after the application of the mud.

The next phase is to paint the walls of the building with "chalk paint". I use a medium grey as the base coat and then I dry brush a light grey chalk paint to pick out the texture of the wall board paste. 

Attaching the Roof 

After all of the exterior painting is finished I then turn my attention to attaching the roof tiles to the house. I will cut out a piece of cardboard the size of each half of the roof and glue them into place. This provides a sturdy base for the plastic roof tiles. The roof tiles come in plastic sheets that measure about 8-inches by 12-inches and it is a simple matter of measuring the tile sheet and cutting it with a box cutter knife. The tiles have been sprayed with a coat of primer prior to being glued to the roof and so I finish the painting of the tiles after they have been attached to the roof. The tiles are glued into place using my not glue gun and then I stick sewing pins through the plastic tile sheet and into the foam core board. I finally cut a length of round dowel rod and fit it into place where the plastic tiles join at the ridge pole. This simulates the tiles that would be placed horizontally across the peak of the roof to prevent rain water from seeping in under the vertical tiles.

The painting and dry brushing of the terra cotta colors are done after everything is attached in its place.

Here is a picture of the finished medium sized Roman farm house:

Medium sized Roman farm house (right) populated with King & Country 1/30 scale figures.

Next Up: Constructing City Buildings

Here is a preview of the first four city buildings that I have been working on this week. All of them are in the "work in progress" stage and I hope to get them painted and finished sometime next week. Stay tuned to this blog for pictures of the finished city buildings.

The models in the pictures represent one side of one street of my Roman city. I could have as many as 16 shop and town house buildings in the project. There will also be a Roman temple and maybe a forum and a bath house when I complete the project. There will definitely be an aqueduct running across the side of the game table.

One thought is to make only a few buildings for war gaming purposes. However, I am also considering making this an on-going project and adding a few more building here and there over the next several years. The city would cover a 6ft by 4ft table; or maybe even more over time.

Here are some inspirational pictures to help me through the Roman City Project.

Let's Revisit the Town of Altefritzenburg

A long time ago I decided to put every 18th Century building that I owned onto my game table so that I could see what they looked like en masse, thereby creating the town of Altefritzenburg. Most of the buildings were made by either Herb Gundt or Ian Weekley (remember Ian?). The civilians were a potpourri of figures that I acquired from hither and yon over the years, but included a number of Minden Miniatures civilians.

The Prussian military camp outside of the town (above).

Above, the southern entrance to the town.

The town church, Lutheran no doubt (above).

Street life in front of the Gasthaus Alter Fritz (above), a popular meeting place.

Sheep herder and some wandering bovines (above).

Every village of size must have a black smith.

The dreaded Bucket Woman (Bucket Frau?). The yoke's on her.

Things are quiet in the Prussian camp.

It is a cold and rainy day today, the last day in January 2025, and we are another month closer to Spring. It warms one's soul to escape into some nice pictures on Der Alte Fritz's war game table. At least this tonic works for me.

ccc

I'm Going to Historicon 20205!

Well, I am confirming that I am going to Historicon this year! I got my room at the Lancaster Marriott at Penn Square, in the HMGS room block. The convention dates are Thursday July 17th through Sunday July 20th of 2025 at Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I tried making my reservation on line with the link provided by HMGS, but I was not having any success getting in. The room block for HMGS attendees was supposed to open at noon today EST, but I kept getting a "no room availability" message. Finally, I tried calling Marriott directly and was able to connect with reservations and I was able to make my hotel reservation for the event. Whew, that was a close call, but I'm in now so my anxiety level has dropped down to normal levels. My dog Bella is also relieved by the news as she was doing her best comfort dog routine to calm me down while I was directly a few choice words at my computer. Oh by the way, Mrs. Fritz has decided to join me on my trip. This is a first. She is curious to see what all of this wargame convention stuff is all about. It will be fun to have her attending with me. At any rate, I can now focus on getting my 54mm Hannibal! game into ship shape. I am nearly finished with the painting of the figures. The Carthaginian army is completed and I am working on a legion of Italian Allies for the Roman team. Then, painting a few more generals and command stands for the Romans should finish them off and complete the painting task. Next up, then, is the construction of some Roman farm buildings (and maybe even a small town if I have the time) to place at the corners of the game table.

Painting Pink Wargame Figures, and all that

 

Marshall Schwerin visits Saxony

I took this picture a long time ago, circa 2010, of a vignette of the Prussian Marshall von Schwerin visiting some little town in Saxony (probably sizing it up for a future invasion, no doubt). Schwerin is an RSM figure and his pet dog comes from a place unknown (hey, it was over 14 years ago - do you really expect me to remember?).

Herb Gundt made all of the buildings in the picture. The inn on the right is modeled after the Alter Fritz Gasthaus in Hochkirch.

The two-wheel wagon was made by Ed Phillips and the team of pioneers in orange waist coat are from the Minden Miniatures set of Pioneers (CIV-004 product code). These are really useful figures to have and can be painted as either civilians or soldiers in waistcoats from any European army in the 18th Century. 

Here is a link to the Minden web page (civilians) where you can find the pioneers. The first person to buy a pack will get some extra free figures.

Minden Pioneers at Minden web store

Prussian Dragoon Regiment Meinicke (DR3)
Minden Miniatures

One doesn't get many opportunities to use pink colors when it comes to painting war game figures. However, the Prussians have a few blue coats with pink facings in their army, notably the dragoon regiment Meinicke (DR3) DR3 dragoons and the fusilier regiment von Kreytzen (IR40). Kronoskaf link takes you to the history of the regiments. I would imagine that many table top Prussian generals have one or both of these regiments in their armies.

The image of the uniform for the Kreytzen fusiliers comes from Kronoskaf.

I don't have the Kreytzen Fusiliers in my Minden Prussian army so I had better get on to it and start painted a 32-figure regiment.

Punic Wars Command Figure Stands

 

Celtic warriors clash with some of Rome's Italian allies somewhere in Italy.
These are all HaT 54mm plastic figures.

The past couple of weeks have been productive from a painting standpoint. I took a painting kit with me to Florida when I was there on vacation for the first ten days of the new year. I pre-primed a 32-figure unit of HaT 54mm Celts and a couple of Expeditionary Forces Celtic command figures and packed them neatly in a box along with an appropriate mix of brushes and paint colors. I was able to get most of the basic colors  blocked in while in Florida, but I had to wait until I returned home before I could complete the Celts.

The newest member of the Celtic army (the unit on the left). One of four such 
warbands in my Hannibalic army.

I also finished painting some of the command stands these past two weeks. These include Massinissa (Numidian cavalry leader), a generic Spanish commander, and Mago Barca (Hannibal's youngest brother). These are all HaT 1/32 scale Punic Wars figures. I did a head swap to create Massinissa. If you look at the Mago Barca figure, you will see that I used that figure, lopped off his head, and replaced it with a Numidian head from the Numidian light cavalry box of figures.

Massinissa, the King of the Numidians

A Spanish general to command the Spanish contingent in Hannibal's army.

Mago Barca, Hannibal's little brother.

Here are two work in progress photos of the leader of my Celtic troops. He is a magnificent model made by Expeditionary Forces (see my previous post about him) and he appears to be 1/30 scale (about 60mm) rather than the 1/32 scale listed on the box.

The major pieces to assemble include the horse, the horse's base, the rider's torso, arms, head, cloak, saddle blanket, sword and shield. I added quite a bit of green stuff epoxy putty on the base to make for a stronger join of the horse's legs to the four holes in the base of the figure. The putty was slathered over the base near the hooves and smoothed out to resemble tall grass.

I only have some of the basic colors blocked in on the figure and I am very much looking forward to seeing how the figure looks when it is finished.

Finis

Gallic Trumpeter - 60mm Expeditionary Forces

 

Here is a picture of a Celtic or Gallic warrior playing a war tune on this strange looking trumpet-like device. I do not know what the instrument is called, but it seems like every Celtic war band not of the musical variety (The Chieftans perhaps?) has one of these in its ranks.

The figure is a 1/30 scale or 60mm in size figure made by a company called Expeditionary Forces. The US stockist is Toy Soldiers of San Diego (TSSD). (UPDATE: the EF box lists the figures as 1/32 scale, but I believe that the figures are actually 1/30 scale).

The picture below illustrates the size difference between the 1/30 scale and the 1/32 scale figures. As you can see, there is a significant size difference in the two figures. The horn figure will be used in some fashion as a "command stand" figure

HaT 54mm figure on the left and the Expeditionary Forces 60mm on the right.

The large EF figure was a lot of fun to paint and while it has some nice detail to the figure, it is not difficult to paint. The figure is made from a hard plastic and the arms/trumpet need to be attached to the torso. Luckily, the joins are crisply cut and so the figure parts join together quite easily. I used normal "super glue" with a dab of green epoxy putty in the cavity to create a strong join. The I primed the figure just like I would for a metal figure: grey primer, and finished it with acrylic paint from the Reaper Master Series of paints. The helmet used Vallejo "Old Gold" color. There are several more figures in the EF command pack that I might assemble and add to the Punic Wars Celts in Hannibal's army. The set includes a mounted war band Chief that looks spectacular and so I might have to paint him and use him as the commander of all of my Celtic forces.

Packaging for the EF figures.

Comparison of HaT Carthaginians (on command stand) with the EF horseman.

These are the various pieces available for the assembly of the mounted Gallic
chieftain. You can choose different arms, heads and shields for your model.

At Cannae, approximately half of Hannibal's army consisted of Gallic infantry and cavalry. As of today, I have four Celtic war bands of 32 figures each and two 12-figure Gallic cavalry in my Hannibalic army.

Next Up On The Table: I am assembling a legion of Italian allies to join my Roman army. I am using the HaT Italians and will use the same Roman organization of three groups of 32 figures and maybe some light infantry.

vv

More Roman Civilians: 54/60mm King & Country

 

The new Roman civilians from King & Country.

Today in my email In Box I received an update on some of the new figure releases coming from King & Country Miniatures this month. Among other things, KC is adding more Roman civilians to its Streets of Rome range of figures. Since I’m building a Roman town for my Hannibal Punic Wars convention game in 2025, I am very happy to see these new additions and they will soon add to the population of my growing Roman town.

The new releases include a butcher with his chopping table, a middle class woman shopper, a pair of stone masons, a civilian standing and observing what is going on around him, and a set of two laborers. I do not recall how many KC Roman civilians that I already have, but it is probably close to 20 different figure poses. This provides some wonderful vignettes on the table top and really ups the eye candy quotient of my table. 

January will hopefully see me starting on the building of my Roman town using cardboard, foam core board and balsa wood. I have been putting this task off, but it’s time to gear up the production if I want to have the terrain ready in time for the Little Wars Convention in April 2025. I’ve been more focused on painting the Roman and Carthaginian soldiers these past few months. Both sides are close to completion. In a pinch, I’m relying on 28mm Roman buildings that Herb Gundt made for me.

I am visiting Florida, Venice appropriately, for a week and I brought a painting kit with me so that I could knock out a 32-figure unit of Celtiberians mercenaries for Hannibal’s army. Upon completion I will have four Celt units, four Spanish allies, and two North African Carthaginian units for my infantry contingent. I have largely ompleted the Carthaginian cavalry consisting of Numidian light cavalry, Celtic cavalry, one unit of Spanish cavalry and one unit of Carthaginian cavalry.