Brigade Models

This week we have another assortment of Small Scale Scenery releases – two from the UK, and another pair from over the channel in France – all with a slight air of culture to them.

Starting up north with the largest building, we have the rather grand Glasgow People’s Palace. Opened in 1898, it was intended as a cultural centre for the East End of the city, which at the time was an overcrowded and deprived neighbourhood. After the 1940s it was used as a museum of social history, but it’s currently closed as the huge greenhouse area is considered unsafe.

Moving a long way south, we alight in Brigade’s home town of Maidstone. The subject is one of Phil’s old haunts, Springfield Library, which is sadly no more. The distinctive tower block with its ten-sided reading room overlooked the town for almost fifty years, but like pretty much every other interesting site in the country, it’s due to be turned into a housing estate 🙁

Finally we move over the water to La Belle France, with a pair of small chateaux. On the left is the Chateau de Morbecque at Hazebrouck. This was owned in 1914 by Baroness Ernest de la Grange. She made it available as a base for the RNAS armoured car squadron under Commander Sampson during the Great War. The second is the Chateau de Cherimont. This was the family home of Lt Charles Henkart – he was a pioneer of armoured cars in the Belgian army (or indeed any army). He was killed in early September 1914. Both of the chateau still exist – Morbecque is now a restaurant and Cherimont is an activity centre.

SSS-8188 – Glasgow People’s Palace – £4.00
SSS-8189 – Springfield Library – £2.00
SSS-8190 – Small French Chateaux (x2) – £2.00

And yes, we know that we’ve listed the People’s Palace under ‘English Buildings’ – but retitling that section to ‘British’ would break a lot of website links, so it’ll have to live among the Sassenachs for now.

Today’s releases are a trio of fortresses and castles, at opposite ends of the size scale. Most impressive is the massive Castle Krzyżtopór (not the easiest pronunciation for a non-Polish speaker), a huge baroque pile in Ujazd, southern Poland. It was built in the mid-17th century (the exact dates seem uncertain) by a nobleman, Krzysztof Ossoliński. It was captured by the Swedes and ransacked in 1655, and so badly ravaged that it was not deemed worthy of repairs. Several noble families occupied the least-damaged areas, but it was ultimately abandoned in 1787. Nevertheless, it has stood, slowly crumbling, for over two centuries since then. The buildings of the castle stand within a high wall with five huge bastions, which Phil pointed out resembled a turtle from above (!). Our model depicts the castle in its original splendour, rather than as it is now.

Rather more modestly proportioned is Nehaj Fortress, in Senj, Croatia. A fairly simple square tower design, it was finished in 1558 as a defence against the marauding Ottomans.

Finally on our castle mini-break, we come to the Forte de Nossa Senhora de Monte Serrat, a small fort in Salvador, Brazil. Don’t confuse it with the much larger fortress in Portugal of the same name, as I nearly did when writing this up… It dates from 1583, and is built in the shape of an irregular hexagon. Other than that, it seems to have little service history, but it’s a nice design. Oh, and it should be painted white, not bare stone as I’ve depicted it.

SSS-8185 – Krzyztopor Castle – £12.00
SSS-8186 – Nehaj Fortress – £2.00
SSS-8187 – Forte de Nossa Senhora de Monte Serrat – £2.00

Today we have a themed set of releases for one of Europe’s major trading centres, the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. The port sits at the end of the Elbe estuary, and is probably 50 or so kilometres from the North Sea. The river is a good kilometre or more wide until it reaches the city, making it an ideal sheltered anchorage.

Phil has created five buildings from the city in our 1/1000th Small Scale Scenery range of various types and sizes. First is the Kaispeicher B Warehouse, a huge Gothic building in the heart of the harbour area. Today it’s a museum with a shop and restaurant.

The tallest building in this set of releases is a huge water tower (Wasserturm) – nowadays it’s been converted into a rather unique hotel.

The largest building overall is a brewery grain elevator with distinctive half-hipped roof. It comes with a separate small office building.

Looking more like a government building, this dome is in fact the North entrance to the Old Elbe Tunnel (Alter Elbtunnel, or St. Pauli Elbe Tunnel) which opened in 1911. It handles not only pedestrian traffic but vehicles as well, using elevators to take them from street level down 24m to the tunnel. The South entrance building is similar but less impressive, lacking the domed roof (although whether it once had a dome which has since been removed we don’t know).

Finally, this is a Water Level Tower, used to show the current state of the tides.

SSS-8180 – Hamburg Kaispeicher B Warehouse – £3.50
SSS-8181 – Hamburg Water Tower – £2.50
SSS-8182 – Hamburg Grain Elevator Building – £5.00
SSS-8183 – Hamburg Elbe Tunnel Building – £1.50
SSS-8184 – Hamburg Water Level Tower – £1.50