1866 Austrian Buildings

[sdennan]

Can anyone suggest any building manufacturers?

Thanks

Simon

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Sure Camerionian, Mollinary and Le Manchu will chip in soon.
Most of the villages in the area fought over were somewhat deprived, so any of Timecasts timber or straw thatched huts are good.

[Leman]

What about the Polish and Eastern Front buildings produced by Esconografia and sold by Pendraken. They appear to be very generic timber buildings. there are also the Ukrainian timber buildings which have thatched roofs. If you have access to contemporary pictures of the Bohemian battlefields compare them to the pictures of the models on the website.

[FierceKitty]

Leven.

[cameronian]

Can anyone suggest any building manufacturers?

Thanks

Simon

Don't want to sound like a smartarse but I'm presuming you mean Bohemian as opposed to Austrian? The vernacular style seems to be mostly timber/mortar cottages, pantile, shingles or thatch and often painted in black and white stripes like a humbug - no comments please - like this http://www.sreality.cz/en/detail/sale/house/cottage/kounov-kounov-/1826304092#img=0&fullscreen=false I haven't seen any of the clapboard buildings that you see in Poland or Russia. Even the smallest villages seem to have a beautiful baroque church courtesy of Maria Theresa, the villages are surprisingly open and sprawl along the roads each with its own market garden or orchard. The towns would have cottages on the outskirts with more formal brick or brick and stucco buildings in the centre, always a church and often a 'plague memorial', usually a pillar with Mary on the top surrounded by saints, plain stone with gilded adornments. The town roads would be cobbled the villages probably earth or earth and rubble. Railway tracks and cuttings will enliven the battlefield and perhaps provide a vital feature, there would also be manufactories, brickworks, tanneries etc.

[FierceKitty]

Damn. You're making me homesick! I'd better hurry to remind myself how bad the food was.

[cameronian]

Sure Camerionian, Mollinary and Le Manchu will chip in soon.
Most of the villages in the area fought over were somewhat deprived, so any of Timecasts timber or straw thatched huts are good.

You know Lemmey I'm not sure about that, simple yes but not deprived if we go by the standards of say Poland or Russia. The Bohemians (Czech 67% Ethnic German about 33%) were pretty industrious and the land is very productive, ally this to generally good stable local administration and I think you have a rather prosperous region. Much of the Sudetenland still looks pretty run down but this is a relatively recent phenomenon and is probably accounted for (IMHO) by the ethnic cleansing of the Germans in 1945/46 and the subsequent dead hand of Communism.

[cameronian]

Damn. You're making me homesick! I'd better hurry to remind myself how bad the food was.

!!! Stunned !!! You think Czech food is bad, its wonderful, and as for the beer ... OMG

[sdennan]

I would never call you smart arse. So who makes Bohemian buildings?

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Knew it was too big a lure for you Cameronian! thanks for the extra detailed answers. 

[cameronian]

I would never call you smart arse. So who makes Bohemian buildings?

Dunno 
Have a look at the eastern Europe ranges on offer and see if you can get something to match; if you're planning to do biggish battles I'd scale the buildings down to maybe 6mm or smaller.

[mollinary]

Cam has given you a lot of good leads.  The towns, like Nachod, Jicin, Trautenau etc have something of a South German or Austrian feel, with largely plastered walls in pastel colours, and often continuous one or two storey buidlings lining the roads on the way in. Villages are much more rustic, and I suggest a quick google of Prerov nad Labem should lead you to pictures of the open air museum there, which contains examples of Bohemian rural architecture of the eighteenth/nineteenth century. Cam is also right about brickworks, which are pretty common. There are many references to thatched roofs, and the villages are not considered very defensible of themselves (at least by the Saxons!). Their official history, as translated by Stuart Sutherland, describes Problus thus "Apart from its solidly built church, Problus contained only lightly constructed buildings and farmsteads, most with thatched roofs, on both sides of the north-south village street., or in other words parallel with the line of the position. The border of the village had many gaps and in the main consisted only of hedges; the gardens and their vicinity were planted with fruit trees."   And Nieder Prim thus " it consisted likewise of small, mostly very lightly built, poor farms and houses which lay along both sides of the east-west road running from Nechanitz to Stosser and Koniggratz, and at right angles to the position. It was surrounded by orchards and also partly by thick hedges. On the south side was the castle (actually more like a chateau than a fortification) with a spacious courtyard, brewery, working quarters, kitchen garden and an ornamental garden. The buildings were solid and capable of relatively great defensive capacity."  These pieces give the contrast quite well, ordinary houses small and lightly constructed often thatched. Noble's buildings, or factories or industrial complexes, more substantial.  Hope this helps.

Mollinary

[mollinary]

On building sources I would suggest you give some thought to whether you want to go with 10mm buildings or 6mm. Personally, I prefer 6mm as it allows you to get more buildings in a village footprint, and the eye can be amazingly forgiving! Timecast Russian farm buildings, available in both 6 and 10mm are very useable, particularly if you go for the brown/white or black/white colour schemes. Leven and Total Battle Miniatures are also pretty good options.  Finally, some of the old Architectural Heritage or JR buildings are suitable, if you can find them.  I have a good collection of these, which I picked up for micro armour but never used, which are great for helping to represent towns.

Mollinary

[holdfast]

Concur with both Cameronian and Mollinary on this, something of a record. Must be the season of good will.
The houses give a bit of cover from view but no cover from fire, and in 2nd Army's advance to Koniggratz they apparently fired into the villages to set them on fire which flushed out any Austrian defenders.
But there were also some very large brick-built storehouses which were more like the granary at Essling scattered about. There is certainly one on the Bistritz a mile west of Sadowa which still exists though it's a bit knocked about. There is a huge one south of Jicin that would have good defensive potential if it were in the right place, but it isn't. There was one in Podol, which was n the right place, but there is no trace of it now.
In the experience of Mollinary and myself 6mm buildings fit in well with 10mm figures. Look at the (magnificent) photos of the wargames in Wargaming In History Vol 8 for some shots of 6mm buildings in action.

[mollinary]

Churches. These are much trickier. I have not found many suitable ones in either 6 or 10mm.  Leven miniatures, who produce so many superb 6mm buildings that no-one else does, do not produce a model suitable for any church I have seen in Bohemia. Timecast, likewise. Total Battle Miniatures have a choice in 10mm which will work, sadly not reprodcued, from my point of view, in 6mm. The ones to look at are in the Pike and Shotte range, and are the small or large church with lead or copper spire, and the large church with dome. The first two are  rough-ish approximations for Chlum or Problus, the latter probably better for Trautenau or Alt Rognitz.  Anyone know of any more?

Mollinary