Brigade Models

This week we have further additions to the Roman buildings collection in the Small Scale Scenery range.

First up we have a Roman baths complex, based on a reconstruction of the ones in Weißenburg in Germany, discovered in 1977. It has the distinctive vaulted roofs over the various hot, warm and cold baths, and a circular laconicum (sweat room – equivalent to a sauna).

Weißenburg Roman Baths

Next is the Mausoleum of Galerius, also known as the Rotunda of Galerius. This was built by the Emperor Galerius in AD306 in Thessaloniki, Greece. The 30m dome is comparable to, although much smaller than, Rome’s Pantheon and was possibly intended as his mausoleum. It has been through multiple uses over the years, as a Christian Basilica and church and Muslim mosque, from which use a minaret still survives. Nowadays it’s a designated historical monument, although the Orthodox church still uses it for certain events. Our model shows it as built, without the modifications of later years.

Mausoleum of Galerius

Previewed before Joy of Six, the next new item is the Porta Nigra, or ‘Black Gate’ from Trier in Germany (the name refers simply to the type of stone used, rather than anything more sinister). It was built in AD170 as the largest of the four gates in the city walls. In the Middle Ages it too was repurposed as a church, with significant additional building works including a spire – it also lost the top of one of the original towers in the process. This was reversed in 1804 when Napoleon ordered that it should be restored to its Roman form. Again, this model shows the gate in its original form.

Porta Nigra

Finally, we’ve created some new wall sections for the Modular Castle set. These have curved bastions with shallow roofs which match those of the Porta Nigra, so you can recreate a walled Roman city. You can see them in the image above with the gateway.

SSS-8203 – Porta Nigra – £2.50
SSS-8204 – Mausoleum of Galerius – £2.00
SSS-8205 – Roman Baths – £2.50
SSS-8120e – Walled with Roof Bastion (x2) – £1.50

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