Terrain question for the Europeans - Houses in Western Theater

[Sinewgrab]

Late to the party, but as a born and raised Dutchman, I can attest to the accuracy of V's table. It's one of the very few I've seen that shows Dutch buildings (semi)accurately.

Buildings in the Netherlands (bar obvious transition areas along the borders) tend to look quite distinct from those in Belgium or Germany, and definitaly France. Especially when looking at buildings from the turn of the century on.
From before 1900, they tend to look more similar, but that only goes for cities; farms are very distinct to their respective regions. There is, for instance, a very distict difference between farms in North Holland as opposed to those in Brabant.

The predominant material for all buildings was (and is) brick, as quaried stone all has to be imported. So about 95% of buildings are brick. As mentioned before, some older buildings tended to have their facades plastered and painted in muted, natural colours. No blue, pink or green; it's basically all white (if there at all!). Most of these plaster facades can be found in city or village centers (as the oldest buildings can be found there).

If you do use plaster facades, use them sparingly, naturally coloured and on older (turn of the century and before) buildings only.

But having said all that; obviously there are exceptions to all 'rules', and even though they're far between, buildings wildly varying from the above guidelines can of course be found, if one looks long enough.

Chainlink fences were used extensively throughout the Netherlands by the forties, often as fences surrounding front/back yards, to about 1m high. Usually, they were held up by a steel frame (T-bar posts, with tubes connecting them on top), which was commonly painted (90% was dark green or white).

Also, predominantly in rural areas, (barbed) wire, in two or three rows along 1m tall wooden posts was used to fence off pastures, gardens and fields (when there was no surrounding drainage ditch, but quite often even then).

I hope this helps...

Are there any *on the market* houses that look right? I am really not looking forward to scratchbuilding houses - I don't enjoy it much.  And you're saying that having a 6 foot or 4 foot chainlink fence would look appropriate in a WW2 game?  If so, I am loving that, because then I can use those same fences in pulp, post-apoc, and modern games.  Multi-genre for the win.

And this is EXACTLY the kind of feedback I was looking for when I posted.  Thank you.

[Greuthungi]

For city center buildings you could go for Brownhouses from TTCombat, Multiverse and more. To complement these, use Sarissa and TTCombat City Block buildings. The only thing missing is a tiled roof, which you'd have to make yourself.
Sarissa has a nice line of Dutch farm buildings.

Here is a picture of my Dutch downtown WIP:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/740ahpaIwO8BDkaT2

Eltjo

[Sinewgrab]

That is beautiful, Greu.  Thank you for sharing!

[ork56]

Have a look at 'Ham and Jam' buildings from the UK. They are pre-built and pre-painted French style houses and very good in the opinion of our gaming group.

[Eclaireur]

ork56 - the answer isn't clear from their website. Can you put troops inside the Ham and Jam models?
EC