"Irish village in HO" Topic

Dover Publications makes a number of cut and assemble paper models of buildings and villages based upon historical examples. They used to have an Irish village book that had a few stores, a cottage and a tower house that would be great for IWI gaming. Only problem: they are HO scale. Reviresco uses them for their website shots for their IWI figs. Could HO buildings work or should the pages be scaned and enlarged?

"Could HO buildings work or should the pages be scaned and enlarged?"

for what size figures?

Can I recommend you look at a couple of sources for your village.

Dapol make simple kits (they are ex-Airfix) of shops, churches, garages, semi detached houses etc which would look at home in most spots. They are HO scale. I have a reasonable collection of these and despite being simple and cheap they work up well.

The other tip is to look for the ready paint buildings by Scenix, who as Conflix make wargaming scenery. First rate stuff and they do terrace rows, corner pubs, shops village halls etc. Again relatively cheap, unbeatable quality and to top it off it's prepainted. Mixes well with the Dapol stuff.

I use all of the above with 28mm. The HO stuff has a smaller footprint, is cheaper and more readily available. You can usually find these models in model railway shops. I find that suitably based they both work well with 28mm figures.

The Dapol and Scenix lot are good, but don't have that Irish feel – too much timber framed Tudor stuff, I suppose. I see how HO would work well with 28mm (the scale I was thinking in – Musketeer IRA and all that) but what if the figs are stationed in the buildings? Is it very far off?

Actually the ones I am referring to are brick not timber framed. These are some of the Dapol kits.

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Withe the Scenix kits be sure to look for the HO/1/72 scale models not the larger fantasy stuff which is timber framed. These are solid so they won't take figures inside.

I have made yards by attaching brick walls to the rear of some of my Dapol and Scenix buildings. I have found that properly built up on cardboard I don't notice the scale discepancies and my minis are Cannon Fodder, Eureka and Foundry.

To be honest, none of those Dapol kits look like Irish buildings during the IWI. Far too 1930s England.

Not many 'Irish' buildings out there really, especially for rural engagements where most of the fighting took place (unless you want to build part of Dublin).

If you want… I can go and photo the village I live in to give you some ideas…

I have used the Dover buildings as is for earlier 25mm games. Made up a bunch for a Gangs of New York game. They had so many options for the 19th century.

They might be a tad small for the modern 28mm figures. Enlarged copies seem a good way to go. Maybe 140%, or 125% to not overdo the background. These can then be glued to foamcore board for open buildings.

That was my basic idea: enlarge, print, card stock or foam. For most IWI engagements one or two cottages along the roadside would be fine (Tourmakeady, Kilmichael, Crossbarry, any RIC barracks attack). I've been tossing around the idea of 1916 Dublin skirmishes. Urban setting, concealed movement rules for IRA snipping from any number of windows and rooftops, Brits advancing up streets, etc. I envision one street, buildings on each side, maybe one or two cross streets, a few barracades. The Dover Irish village mixed with some O or S scale tenament type buildings could do it.

I don't think Dover publishes the Irish Village anymore, or their cut and assemble Mill which would work well for the South Dublin Union, but I have an old edition. I saw the Dapols you link to -thanks for the advice. I asgree that they don't look Irish enough, which is hard, I think, to define.