"Multiperiod buildings?"

[eddieazrael]

Or - "Can I save money by re-purposing Napoleonic era structures still standing in the 1980's?" - And if so, what?   For example - Fachwerkhaus still exist today, so a smattering of these, wouldn't look out of place on a Cold War or Napoleonic battlefield - any other building types?  (Obviously basing such buildings matters to define time periods - lampposts and tarmac vs cobbles for example.)   Purpose of the question is that I have a 6mm Cold War setup, but I've a hankering to start Napoleonics - and wondered how best to get bang for the buck on terrain pieces.

[eilif]

Or - "Can I save money by re-purposing Napoleonic era structures still standing in the 1980's?" - And if so, what?   For example - Fachwerkhaus still exist today, so a smattering of these, wouldn't look out of place on a Cold War or Napoleonic battlefield - any other building types?  (Obviously basing such buildings matters to define time periods - lampposts and tarmac vs cobbles for example.)   Purpose of the question is that I have a 6mm Cold War setup, but I've a hankering to start Napoleonics - and wondered how best to get bang for the buck on terrain pieces.

You can definitely do this.  I've got a set of stucco and tile buildings that could span multiple continents and many hundreds of years without stretching credulity.  European architecture is not my forte, but I believe there are -as here in the states- simple brick and stonework buildings that have survived since the 18th century and in some cases the basic design is still being produced.

At 6mm, it's probably even easier, though for modern eras you'd obviously want to intermix your more recent structures with the old in most cases.

[Patrice]

One easy thing to do is to change roof (if the roof is no part of the building).

I use some of my 28mm buildings for medieval or Renaissance games with roofs representing wooden tiles, and for Caribbean pirates with red tiles roofs.

I intend to do the same with a few MDF 19th-20th century houses for pulp games (slate roofs for NW Europe, red tiles or rooftop terrace for tropical / Mediterranean).
...they could even appear also in modern of near sci-fi games with roofs including velux windows. 

[Codsticker]

You could mix and match a bit as there are 300 yr old buildings (some older) side by side with new structures. Radar's ECW travelogue blog posts often show 16th and 17th century buildings still existing beside and between structures built in the last 100 years. Although that is the British isles the same situation probably exists in main land Europe.

[Pattus Magnus]

Patrice's suggestion is a good one, of using additional roofs to change the sense of where the building belongs.

There is an example in another LAF thread, which gives a sci-fi feel to a historical building:

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=113602.msg1760202#msg1760202

[eddieazrael]

Thanks all - much appreciated.

[Patrice]

One picture I like much - especially because I know the place and I would never have suspected it if I hadn't seen this pictures some years ago, it was cleaned just after the war and you wouldn't believe it ever happened - is this WW2 German ...improvement... of the old (medieval and c.1700) walls of St-Malo, Brittany. 

So you can imagine everything to modify any medieval or Renaissance building... 

[Dr. Zombie]

I do that with most of my buildings. I add what I call timetravel scatter around them.

A stucco house is from ancient greece if you add a pile of amfora in front of it. But somewhere in rural modern day middle east if you add an aircon unit to the roof and replace the amfora with some oildrums and some trashbags.

[forrester]

I have a few 28mm English village buildings originally collected for the ECW but also usable for Doctor Who UNIT scenarios
Just add the modern workshop , petrol pumps, and red phone box.

[Daeothar]

What I'm planning to do, once I get around to building the city wall I've been wanting for ages, is to make sure I have some scatter terrain with it so I can also use it in modern settings.

Think a medieval town gate with modern traffic signs and a car or two; all of a sudden it's part of 'the old town' in an ultra modern skirmish. Replace the signs with some halberd wielding guards, and it's back to being a medieval or fantasy town gate...

The same will go for the buildings inside the town walls too.

And the estimate of 18th century buildings still existing is a very conservative one. In my city alone, we have loads of examples of buildings going back to the 15th or even 14th century (plus older ruins). And I know of (and visited) many a place in Europe that has buildings dating back even further.

Basically any 11th century and younger building could possibly be used in a European setting. And if you include aquaducts, arenas and monuments, we could actually look back even further, all the way to Early Imperial Roman times!

So have at it; context is everything in this case. Adding a couple of pieces of time specific scatter terrain, and no older building should look out of place in your games...