"1930's city terrain options?" Topic

Anyone know of any good sources for early 1900's terrain? Something like laser cut wood stackable "rowhome" buildings would be great. I know there's some model railroad stuff out there that would probably be good but I'm looking for something more "wargamery". I'm trying to build a skirmish cityfight board for like around 1930 or so, but I want the buildings to be more modular so I can arrange them in different ways for each game rather than a fixed board. Oh and I'm looking for 28mm scale stuff :)

And while I'm at it how about other stuff, like cars and other things you'd see around town?

Anyone know of any good terrain sources out there for this era?

In the UK there's 4 Ground and Sarrissa along with Great Escape's Chicago Way vehicles.

Don't overlook paper! Wargame Vault has loads of inexepensive options that you can print out as you need. Most come so that you can print a building with 2 or 3 different facades to get a lot of variety.

Have a look at Warbases range of buildings for a Very British Civil War (set in the 30's).

Very modular, lots of choices, bargains to be had.

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Ships to the States quickly.

If you don't need/want building interiors, The Virtual Armchair General has the Mean Streets series:
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BWW

Thanks folks.. looking at 4 Ground, I think their Gothic City buildings are just what I need. Pricey, but perfect. I have a lot of their fantasy buildings and they're great. Forgot about them.

What about things like cars and trucks from that era, for some scatter terrain and obstacles? I guess I would have to look for die cast toy cars? Anyone know of anything good to look for, and what scale? 1:48 scale? or 1:72? or something else? I'd be fine with cheapy plastic too, i'm most likely gonna be repainting them anyway.

I've done a whole board with 4Ground buildings for GEG's The Chicago Way, set in that time period. Here's some links to posts about them, I think you'll find some useful information there

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These work very well:

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Knights of dice

Oh… those Knights of Dice buildings are great.. do they have interiors with extra floors and stuff like that? or just empty inside? I like to be able to lift off a roof or 2nd story and be able to move guys around inside.

Try diecastdirect.com in the US for cars, trucks and street stuff under train accessories.

Don't know about US, but UK try Lledo on ebay – actually many from UK on ebay.com

TTCombat also do excellent buildings.

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There are a lot of pictures of my own setup and buildings on my blog – though at the moment I'm going through Ancients! The police station is one I did earlier.

easterngarrison.blogspot.co.uk

There's a piece on the next issue of Miniature Wargames on this very subject.

John Treadaway

For vehicles,look for Matchbox Models of Yesteryear.

Scale vehicles depend on the size of your figures. True 25mm like Steve Barber's range look good with LLedo and other 1:64 scale vehicles. More modern 28 to 32mm figures look too big in my opinion so I use 1:43 scale. Some figure manufacturers make vehicles to go with their range, Dixon springs to mind along with Great Escape. Others will disagree on scale so it is up to personal choice. Best bet is to carry a figure around to Toy and Collector fairs/flea markets and see how it matches up.

Note Lledo vehicles come in a range of scales.

Anyone know if there are any plastic model kits out there for old 1920's era cars, around 1:43 scale… rather than die cast? Just thinking plastic might be more detailed and stuff.

Other votes for Lledo and Mean Streets from TVAG

Other votes for Lledo and Mean Streets from TVAG. Of course, if you want interiors, there is also Mean Sets from the same stable: thoroughly recommended.

There are also cardstock downloads fro the like of Stoezel and others on Wargames Vault.

I have lots of street for very reasonable cost.

Just found this site listing lots of 1:43 WWII plastic models…
megahobby.com/categories/military-models/1-48-armor.html

Mostly military stuff but there are a few cars and trucks mixed in, I think I might go with a few of them rather than die cast. The time perioud might be a few years later than I was planning and there's no american cars, but for what I'm doing they will still have the overall look that I was going for. I never really bothered to look around till now, lot more stuff out there than i thought.

For the buildings I think i'm going to go with a mix of the Knights of Dice and 4Ground gothic city buildings. I did lots of 4Ground's fantasy buildings before and they were fun to build and I like how they come pre-painted