Buildings for VSF London

[Bullshott]

As a break from painting colonial British and opposing forces I have started work on some figures for VSF skirmish games set in England, in particular London. This has got me to thinking that, having got some figures to play with, what buildings models  (and inspiration for scratch building or converting  buildings) is out there to enable me to represent Victoran London with a VSF/Gothic twist. Both complete buildings and ruins will be needed for the scenarios I have in mind. Any suggestions (or photos of any of your own building projects) will be welcome.

[WitchfinderGeneral]

I don't think there are any model buildings for Victorian era available.
But for sure one can make use of the many old style lamps and fences that are available for railroads!

A tutorial on how to build your own fences would also be very interesting.

[warrenpeace]

speaking of lamps, I just picked up 16 streetlamps from Michaels from the Lemax Village set for about a dollar a lamp.  Not only do the streetlamps look good enough to justify the price, they also have electric lights in them!  So I can use them to put on an actual night scene.  They look appropriate enough for the Victorian era.

I wonder if Lemax produces British style buildings?  That company produces a line of buildings made in China for the US market, many of which have styles that date back to the Victorian period.  But they are clearly in the style of US buildings, and many are too cute to use for a game with a dark theme.  But Lemax or some other company might be making British style buildings in ceramic or some other material for the gift market, and maybe they could be repainted to be appropriate for a dark game theme.

Warren B.

[Lowtardog]

Hello Gents, if you fancy some cardstcok buildings or inspiration take a look at the TVAG B`hoys Town. They are designed for gangs of Newyork but could be useful
 
http://fauxtoys.com/tvag/231-btowne-bldgs.html

[Malamute]

Bullshot,

I have a similar project that is nearing completion. Victorian London with Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, The league of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Dr Jeykll,Fu Manchu, and just about every other turn of the century characters you can think of.

I have had my buildings made for me by TM Terrain. It has not been cheap to do, but I have taken the last three years in building up the collection. Here are some photos os several buildings taken from their website.Go to galleries, projects and layouts and Victorian London. You will see the some warehouses, a terrace of houses and a government building.

http://www.tmterrain.com/

I have since added a factory and museum. I have built a dockside too. We play on a table 10 x 4. This incorporates 2x4ft of river and a graveyard as well.

In the works shortly another set of warehouses, some slum buildings and a fine house suitable for Jeykll and Hyde to reside in with a laboratory!

For lamposts try these:

http://www.langleymodels.co.uk/acatalog/Shop_Front_OO_Scale_Accessories_F77_to_F95_22.html

I use the square ones. They are very nice and are just about acceptable for 28mm.


If you look at my Displaced gallery you can see some photos of the street lamps and one building in the Queen Victoria's Garden Party folder.

http://www.displacedminiatures.com/Malamute/galleries.html

There are no commercially available buildings that I am aware of for this period. So I chose to have them made. I simply Googled images of London warehouses, Victorian london etc to get some inspiration.

I will endeavor to get some photos of the whole set up soon and post them for you. If you need any  further info, drop me a note off board. I am in London, near Twickenham, so if you are up this way let me know.
 

[Westfalia Chris]

Pardulon now have a nice, if pricey selection of "Brick and Mortar"-style Factory buildings, which might make nice... erm... factories.

http://pardulon.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=34&osCsid=f41717fac977871b1708127b05a42e96

[Mike D. Mc Brice]

Bullshot,

I have a similar project that is nearing completion. Victorian London with Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, The league of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Dr Jeykll,Fu Manchu, and just about every other turn of the century charcaters you can think of. ....

Very impressive! The warehouses trio looks very docklands like. What material are the brickwalls made of?

[Westfalia Chris]

@Malamute: Awesome stuff you have in those galleries! My favs must be the Castle, the Steam Tank (wheeled) and the four-horse stagecoach. One thing, though, a pic in the "nautilus" gallery is defunct.

[Malamute]

Mike - The walls on the warehouses are thin plastic sheets of bricks cut to size then glued to Foamcore.

Chris - Thanks, I will look into the defunt picture if the Nautilus.

[Bullshott]

Pardulon now have a nice, if pricey selection of "Brick and Mortar"-style Factory buildings, which might make nice... erm... factories.

The large and small facades with some side pieces it would be possible to easily make up a row of dockside buildings - and the modular nature of these kits means it is possible to grow them upwards to make taller buildings. But Malamutes construction method would be cheaper if you hav eht time!

But what I really like from the Pardulon range is the fantasy buildings - they scream out to be used for gothic horror games

[Bullshott]

I will endeavor to get some photos of the whole set up soon and post them for you.

Malamute - those buildings are inspirational  - please post pictures of the whole setup soon. I especially like the government building and the warehouses. The links will be a great help too - especially the separate doors and windows available from TM Terrain in the Hardware Store and Grandt Line sections on their website. These could get me doing some serious scratchbuilding.

One thing I have been thinking about is what would be the effect of VSF technology on a late 19th urban or industrial environment, for example how would steam technology get integrated into buildings? I'm thinking here along the lines of the images of London that appear in the original LXG graphic novels.

[Malamute]

Bullshot, - Yes I agree about building something similar to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic images. That would be an awesome games table.

I will endeavor to post some photos of the complete set up soon.

[Westfalia Chris]

One thing I have been thinking about is what would be the effect of VSF technology on a late 19th urban or industrial environment, for example how would steam technology get integrated into buildings? I'm thinking here along the lines of the images of London that appear in the original LXG graphic novels.

I´d suggest you read William Gibsons awesome "The Differential Engine". It features a rather vivid description of a late 19th century London catapulted into the computer age a hundred years in advance by the actually working differential engine of Charles Babbage.
While most modifications are inauspicious (Manchester being the new capital, there, it might be different), there´s a huge building block housing the punch-hole card data storage facility of Scotland yard, basically a huge steam-powered computer storing data on all known criminals of the United Kingdom (and those pesky french anarchists) on hole cards. An awesome description and, IMHO, a must-read for "modern-style* VSF", along with Stephen Baxters "Anti-Ice".

*: "Modern-style" as opposed to, say "contemporary VSF", like Jules Verne and H.G. Wells.

[PeteMurray]

"The Difference Engine" was written by both Bruce Sterling and William Gibson. I think it's very easy to tell which author wrote which parts of the book.

To my mind, this was the best example of "hard" VSF that has yet been written. It's one of my favorite science fiction stories ever, and I wish I hadn't loaned my copy to someone.

[Westfalia Chris]

Welcome to the club! I lent my DifEng to a buddy some three years ago and still haven´t manage to get it back, along with my LXG graphic novel, Black Hawk Down DVD and GitS2 graphic novel... hm. I MUST get down to asking him to return them.

SOrry that I forgot Sterling. I assume Gibson is "overbearing".