Green and Pleasant Land

The world of Rallance IV couldn’t be more ideal for colonisation. Located slap in the middle of its G3V-type star’s Goldilocks zone, the upright rotation and near circular orbit give it steady weather patterns with little in the way of seasonal variation. The two major continents encircle 75% of the equator, resulting in a vast area of prime agricultural land with a temperate climate.

The original colonists arrived on the huge Pathfinder class explorer ship Elcano, with everything they needed to get started. Unlike very early colonies, which were founded in very spartan conditions, the Rallance pioneers had it relatively easy. They were provided with a plethora of supplies to build their accommodation and fast-track a rural, agrarian society.

The holds of the Elcano contained a series of prefabricated buildings in kit form, manufactured by multi-system conglomerate Thunberg-Haalland. These consisted of standardised external frames, with a skin of ribbed carbon-fibre panels between each one. Each one came with detailed instructions, fixings and even tools in a self-contained kit. External fittings such as ventilation and aircon could be placed as required, along with doors and windows, simply by cutting a hole in the skin. Movable internal dividers allowed the occupants to customise their living space. Compared to previous colonies these represented relative luxury. In a nod to their Scandinavian roots, T-H had even provided the skin panels in multiple colours, mimicking the look of a Norwegian coastal town, and breaking up the drab grey of other fledgling colonies. Most inhabited buildings were built on raised platforms – the abundant rains sometimes led to minor localised flooding, and it also discouraged some of the more enthusiastic indigenous wildlife from making nocturnal visits.

The T-H prefabricated building system proved to be so successful that once the colony became established and began to create its own industrial base, a plant was built to build more kits under license. Outside of the capital city, Avelour, which has begun to see more advanced high rise construction, most new building is still based on the T-H system. Homes, farms, shops, even small industrial units still utilise the same basic set of components.

So all of that preamble brings us to our new release this week. Six new 6mm buildings in a range which we’re calling the Agricultural Colony (or Agri Colony when we’re too lazy to type the whole thing). The initial batch consists of three homesteads on raised platforms, and three assorted utility buildings of various sizes. There’s also a pack with two of each homestead and one each of the utility buildings.

All of these will be available at Joy of Six next weekend (there may not be time to create huge amounts of stock by then, but hopefully we’ll have enough).

We already have the first couple of buildings ready for a second wave of releases – we might have a few of those in stock at Jo6, you never know…

BP300-1301 – Agri Colony Pack – £16.00
B300-1301 – Small Homestead-1 – £2.00
B300-1302 – Small Homestead-2 – £2.00
B300-1303 – Garage – £1.00
B300-1304 – Barn – £2.50
B300-1305 – Homestead-3 – £3.00
B300-1306 – Shed – £0.60