Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Boxer Rebllion terrain additions

I've been accumulating some terrain pieces for my Boxer Rebellion project, some from trolling eBay and some from careful (ummm, carefree?) spending on various hobby sites. Unfortunately, I've had to pack up the entire project (along with most of my other gaming stuff) in anticipation of selling the house and moving in the next few months.
 
Perhaps the oddest occurrence with the pieces below was an order from Curteys Miniatures. They carry some Chinese houses with my much sought-after curved and tiled roofs. Fortunately, they sell only the roofs (rooves?). These are the most difficult to recreate accurately when scratch-building but I can easily create the buildings then plop the Curteys roofs on top. The odd part? I ordered them to be shipped to my home near Toronto, Ontario but they somehow found their way to my son's home outside Quebec City, Quebec! That's a separation of only nine hours by car and one entire language, for those unaware of Canadian geography. The invoice apparently showed the correct billing and shipping address in Ontario but still ended up in Quebec. My first thought was that I had ordered something in the past for Daniel from Curteys and had had it shipped to him. They might then have his address in their database and have made a simple mistake (we share the same initials). But he had never heard of the company. Very odd! Another possibility? Curteys owns (or is owned by) another company from which I've ordered items for Daniel in the past.
 
Chinese roofs from Curteys Miniatures.
 
 
A lovely Chinese pagoda I picked up from eBay. This is the stock photo and the model I received has about a gazillion pieces (and yes it has the option to install internal lighting). Unfortunately, it's rather small for 28mm miniatures. No matter, I'm sure I'll find a use for it.
 
 
On a recent trip to Atlanta to visit good friend Ken Cliffe of All the King's Men Toy Soldiers, we stopped in a giant pet supplies box store (cuz that's what guys do when returning from a fishing trip in the hinterland of Georgia) and I picked up a nice little Chinese gate. I've put a 28mm Boxer figure in the picture for scale.
 
Another nice find at the same pet supplies store, a small garden pagoda.
 
This city gate was a nice find on eBay. Again, it comes as a multi-multi-multi-part kit but in this case the scale is perfect. It's even molded in pre-coloured plastic (just as in the stock photo above).
 
And one last pet supplies store find, a larger pagoda. This will make a nice set-piece for my eventual Chinese port area.