"Thoughts on Curteys 28mm Chinese Walls & Buildings?" Topic

I am NOT an expert on Ancient China -- despite four years of Japanese language in high school, and one undergraduate course on Asian History a longtime ago in another Galaxy…

I am looking @ raising a 28mm "Later" ("Eastern") Han Chinese Dynasty army for use w/ "Hail Caesar!" using Curteys figures (principally). I'm thinking about some "terrain" to juice up an otherwise bare table-top --- okay, aside from some trees and a "bump" or three!

I am looking for some CONSTRUCTIVE comment/critique of the 25/28mm Curteys Chinese Warring States to Sung-era Walls & Buildings…

a) How accurate to the Han Era?

b) Are the buildings "only" hollow (if hollow at all?), or, do they have floors and interior detail?

c) Worth the dosh??

d) Any better alternatives in 25/28mm on offer??

No "Time-Wasters, Please!" Thanks in advance!!

I certainly don't want to fall into your "Time-Waster" category, and I cannot comment on the Curteys buildings… but I know GrandManner (which has some very nice products) has a decent selection of 28mm buildings and structures for "Eastern Asia" that may be worth a look…

link

~ Jonathan

They look like the basic buildings shown in pictures of China.
They are hollow.
Have floors but not internally detailed.
You'd likely have to pay more for internally detailed bulidings.

Don't know much about Han era architecture per se, but the place I live has been a major city since it was a Warring State, and has some very old architectural traditions.

The roofs aren't so great. The tilework is indistinct, and the gables don't really make sense: they should be clearly above & around the roof, or clearly below with a slight overhang.

White plaster walls suggest the South: the area around and below the Changjiang [Yangtze] River. These would look right with slate-colored ceramic tiles, and "wall"-style gables, maybe stepped into 3 or 5 sections.

For the north, browner walls and redder tiled roofs would make sense.

Classical Chinese structures use a courtyard plan. Even fairly humble farmhouses are built around courtyards, or are in the process of expanding into a courtyard. Imagine you are the farmer: if you only have, say, 2 buildings, put them around an imagined courtyard, and uses fences and piles of supplies to complete the square. Subsequent generations will build structures the rest of the way around and enclose the whole thing in more proper walls.

Agree with pigasuspig, I've only spent a couple of years there while working on different construction projects in Tianjin and Xiamen but they do not have a 'classic' feel. Han Chinese is generally red or red/brown. Roof edges overhand the walls by up to a metre, many times coming down to form an enclosing 'porch' type structure.

Peasent wood buildings are odd in that the wooden slats or planks that make up the walls go up-down rather than across in western style.

I've seen many out of the way buildings near Tianjin (that had yet to fall to "Shanghai" Building Fever). Here the court yard entrance is almost circular, not a rectangle with an arched top but a real circle. Looks odd but rather pleasing.

Soooo, if I understand you, pigasuspig & Narratio, Simon, Michael and James have made a FEW slips with the choices of artwork they have mimicked -- but NOT catastrophic choices from which we table-top gurus could not recover??? E.G.:

White plaster walls suggest the South: the area around and below the Changjiang [Yangtze] River. These would look right with slate-colored ceramic tiles, and "wall"-style gables, maybe stepped into 3 or 5 sections.

So, first off, they ought to show their same buildings as painted in an alternate "northern," along with their "southern style?" [I'll mention roofs below…]

I COULD be wrong, but their WALLS are clearly marked as… "Supplied unpainted." I suspect that the houses and house parts are also "Supplied unpainted?" It is CERTAINLY a question I ought to ask before I buy any pieces!! Therefore, thanks to you, pigasuspig & Narratio, for the heads-up!!

For the north, browner walls and redder tiled roofs would make sense.

On the other hand, if the buildings are actually supplied as I suspect, as "resin in the raw," then its an easy matter to choose between "southern" white-wash and "northern" earth-colors??? That's as I would have to paint the things myself anyway!!! Nescafe?

Classical Chinese structures use a courtyard plan. Even fairly humble farmhouses are built around courtyards, or are in the process of expanding into a courtyard.

Ahh, "inconvenient" then, but NOT catastrophic!!!! It might have been nice had they also added (or might eventually add) some courtyard wall sections to their line-up. However, these could either be built from scratch, or bought from another vendor, eh? E.G., as long as nothing too elaborate were needed, simple lengths of foam-board could be cut out. The hardest part might be adding wall toppings? I assume "miniatures roofs" of tile are the preferred wall toppings? I'd also note that John Jenkins Design makes a "Japanese" courtyard enclosure in 28mm??

[At] …out of the way buildings near Tianjin… the court yard entrance is almost circular, not a rectangle with an arched top but a real circle.

So, aside maybe from the gate, those Jenkins enclosure pieces would do?

The roofs aren't so great. The tilework is indistinct, and the gables don't really make sense: they should be clearly above & around the roof, or clearly below with a slight overhang.

That seems your major objection then? "Arguably," simplest choice for a roof is to go slightly "up-scale," with tiles instead of thatch, and buy some pre-formed pantile sections at a good Railroad or other modelling store, and install one's own roofs, making sure to at least manage an overhang on the long sides of the buildings?? It might be desirable to make a hipped roof with the overhang on the short sides… Like this Eastern Han Funerary pottery model?

However, wouldn't it be adequate to simply extend the roof line out over the short sides to add the overhang there? I.E., like this second Han model, which also seems to have an enclosed "porch" as mentioned above?

That would meet the principle objection?

You do not mention the choice of window dressings (bars & lattice work?)?

This third Han model seems to suggest slats or bars (or lattices?), and also seems to suggest the "porch" could just be a raised platform?

Is that a "cat flap???"

So, the solution for a gamer who is stressed for time… but also "not made of money!??"

Buy ONLY the Curteys houses and maybe the bases (to save time!), but, WITHOUT the roofs. Then the gamer contrives his or her own roofs using inexpensive pre-formed tile sections? Or, they buy some cheap black towels and "have at it" --- if they must have thatch??

@ Jonathan J

I'd looked at the GrandManner 28mm "Eastern Asia" buildings and structures for this project early-on. I'd have to defer to the China-hands here, but from my vague recollection of artwork associated with readings in my Japanese language course all-those-years-ago… too "Japanese."

That said… the YURTS may be handy when the time comes for me to raise a Northern Horse-barbarian army… Always ASSUMING that the Yuezhi, the Xiongnu (Hsiung-nu; Huns?), and other nomads ca. 200BC to 200AD were good little nomad barbarians living north of "China," and lived in yurts (a style of nomadic living which I associate most closely with the Mongols)??

If possible, compare models and walls with pictures and models of actual buildings or other reputable references to the architecture of the period. This helps you gauge how accurate and detailed the models are. retro bowl