"Villages"

The great debates in wargaming (well, among the many...) is the problem of scale.    It is not the 15mm vs 28mm debate and which is the 'true' version, or even that 28mm is a measurement and not an indication of scale argument, but the vertical vs horizontal debate.
We have a miniature representing X number of troops. Fine. But how large an area does this number of troops occupy on the battlefield we are trying to respresent?  If the battlefield is X yards to the centimeter (or to the inch if you want) then how many miniatures can occupy that space?  If a to-the-miniatures 'scale' building is added, how large an area does it occupy?  3 or 4 hectares? Many acres? Huh?!  If a very nice two story historic farm building with the appropriate scaled doors so a 28mm figure could enter, would have of the horizontal footprint of the Airbus factory how is that on our tabletop vis-a-vis our field scale?

So how does one work around this?  Most wargamers downsize the models; use 15mm buildings for 28mm games. Some make them correct size vertically but severely shortened horizontally so the buildings are very tall but extremely thin.


OK for single buildings but whole villages?  I went the way of many, and went with the single building approach on a somewhat larger base.  This should work even if one of our elements (the size of which you can see in the pieces of wood in the photo below)

I guess I am thinking in the future with my age and all I will be unable to lug around the 40 kilos of lead and terrain like I have done in the past, so again for the weight consideration, I have made the 'villages' from some old card building prints I had stocked away (I have no idea when or how I acquired these but I suspect from my mother-in-law...) I had copies made varying the tint each print so each would look somewhat different.

28mm Perry cavalry charge past the village

Anyway the price was right at only a dollar a building and with a bit of paint touch up to eliminate the card stock white edges and darken the chimneys and such; and with the ground work and shrubbery attached to the lightweight foamcore base, they should do the part until something better comes along.

The mini trees are merely twigs jammed into the foamcore and topped with some green foam bits.  The brick wall is a strip of foamcore covered in a brick print.  Very light weight!  I glued some fine grit sandpaper to the bottom to grip the mat and prevent movement during a game.