Brigade Models

First, a service update – there was an issue with the power at the farm which hosts the Brigade workshop earlier this week; long story, but in summary we lost a) a morning’s work, and b) several items of kit and most of the ceiling lights, blown by a power surge. As well as that essential piece of equipment, the workshop DAB radio, we also lost the air compressor which powers the pressure pot we use for resin casting (which itself was only three months old, a replacement for the previous one that just wore out). So the upshot is that we’re a bit behind on orders, especially ones which have a lot of resin items in them. This is then going to be compounded by Tony having some time off next week, although there will be some weekend working tomorrow to try and keep the backlog to a minimum. If you have an order outstanding with us, it could be a few days before we get to it, and any orders that arrive in the next 7 days probably won’t get looked at until Tony’s back on the 17th.

Now onto this week’s new release…

In the 50s and 60s the Soviet Union faced a severe housing shortage, partly as a consequence of the damage caused by the Second World War. One solution was the Khrushchevka (or Khrushchyovka), a prefabricated apartment block made of concrete panels that could be constructed in as little as two weeks. Much of the work was done off-site – even entire bathrooms would be assembled in a factory, shipped to the site and just plumbed in. Quality was low, but as many as 64000 units were built just in Moscow in a few years.

Almost all were five storey buildings – this was the maximum height of apartment building that was permitted to be built without incorporating lifts. The dimensions varied, the modular panel design allowed extra units to be bolted on as necessary. Most had flat roofs, although some had shallow pitched roofs or have been retrofitted with them in later years.

Khrushchevkas were built all over the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries, and many survive to this day, way beyond their designed lifespan. Some have been refurbished, others soldier on with a patchwork of repairs. Similar prefab units have appeared in other countries over the years, such as Japanese Danchi.

Our Khrushchevka set includes four slightly different resin apartment blocks – all suitably drab and grey for the era.

SSS-8202 – Khrushchevka Apartments (x4) – £3.00

The Small Scale Scenery continues to grow – we’ve now hit product code 200 ! This week we have a pair of Roman releases from the early C.4th, both from Trier (known by the Romans as Augusta Treverorum) in the Rhineland, Germany.

The first is the Basilica of Constantine, also known as the Aula Palatina. A basilica was a general purpose public building used for holding courts, meetings and other public functions. They varied in size and grandeur depending on the size of the town. We already make the massive Basilica Maxentius in Rome, but this one is a slightly smaller offering. The building was later consecrated as the Church of the Redeemer within the Evangelical Church of the Rhineland. The building still stands, although it has been modified and then restored over the centuries – it was also badly damaged during an air raid in 1944 and repaired after the war. So although it’s 1700+ years old, it could be used by Cold War gamers as part of a Germany city in the path of the advancing Warsaw Pact armies.

The second part of the release is this pair of warehouses or horrea. The original examples in Trier no longer exist above ground, the buildings were incorporated into a Benedictine abbey and then a vineyard was cultivated on the site. But remnants still exist in the cellar of a wine merchant later built on top of the foundations. Originally there were two warehouses separated by a courtyard – our pack consists of this model, and we’ve also included a single free-standing warehouse in the pack just because we thought it might be useful. These models would make great objective for a game where both sides are after the grain and other foodstuffs stored inside.

Much of the research for these models came from the chance acquisition of a book of Imperial Roman Architecture, purchased for the princely sum of £2 from a second-hand bookshop in Faversham ! This book has loads of other useful reference information; Trier (also the birthplace of Karl Marx) is particularly fertile ground. So expect our Roman city to keep growing.

SSS-8200 – Basilica of Constantine – £3.50
SSS-8201 – Roman Warehouses – £5.00