"What to do with a static harbor diorama (pic included)?" Topic

I know this is an odd thing to bring up here, but I'm stuck. I acquired this harbor diorama a few years ago. It's made up from the Langton 1/1200 line of buildings. The board is about 30" square, and plywood…so it's kind of heavy. It's thick enough that it's hard to just plop it on a sea mat. I have been staring at it for a couple of weeks now, sitting on my game table, and I'm trying to decide what to do with it.

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Just keep it? I've had it for probably five, six years and haven't done a thing with it.

Take all the pieces off? It kills me to undo the hard work someone did to create it.

Sell it as is? It's not even conceivable to ship it, so I'd have to haul it to a convention and try to sell it.

Pull the pieces off and sell them separately so someone can rebuild to their liking?

I'm not desperate for the money; I just don't use it as is and I honestly don't know what to do with it.

So, let the fun begin…what do I do with a (town full of) drunken sailors?

Plan a game using it in a combo land-sea game. If not 2mm figures then use counters to represent the attacking/besieging force. Cutting out operation in the harbor during the assault and attempt at plundering.

Then bask in the glory of a truly memorable game.

You could see if your local FLGS would sell it on consignment or buy it from you.

Buy a sheet of matching height plywood and cut it to raise the rest of the table, so the harbor piece can fit flush with your table top. Then use it in games more often. Seems like an easier fix to level the tabletop than to re-do the harbor.

You can treat it as a hobby in and of itself; extend it, add detail, plant trees, add some ships. etc.

If you can't sell then maybe you can donate to a club or shop who can give it more love than you. Imagine showing up and someone playing a game on your table.

You can just throw it away.

I'd chop it up for parts.

Remove the buildings and the fortifications in sections and clean up the bottoms so you can use them again. Then touchup the blue and areas of missing flock. You can then keep all the buildings and fortifications.

What's left will be a great generic table for anyone who wants to do some kind of amphibious assault or a sea-invasion type of game.

If you don't want the fortifications, then pluck the buildings, cover those areas with more flock and then sell it with fortifications in-place.

Good thoughts there…I'm not dying to sell it 'cause, to be honest, there's a good $300 USD or so in buildings there and as soon as I sell them I'll have a game that screams for such a diorama…figures, doesn't it?

So far I like the idea of raising the surface of my game table. I hadn't thought of that!

That's a very cool terrain bit. It would be a shame not to use it for something.

Ideally, the shoreline containing the town and the harbor walls should be separate pieces that lay on top of a sea-colored tabletop – but that's a lot of modification to an existing artwork. :-\ It might be easier to make a sea surface to go around the piece (and even match the sea surface colors) using a material of similar thickness.

As to how to use it:

Easiest recommendation: use it as background. No need for it to be important, it can just be shore terrain that livens up the table, naval game *or* land game. Naval games are actually much more interesting to gamers when there is a shoreline full of cute little vignettes like towns, farms, woods, hills, cliffs, etc. along one side.

Some more complicated naval scenario ideas:

• A small naval force must sally from the harbor to stop/intercept activity elsewhere on the table.
  
• An enemy force has to sail past and forces in the harbor have to intercept them.
  
• A friendly force must sail from the far end of the table all the way inside this harbor without being destroyed by a larger enemy force entering the table after them.
  
• A small force must break through a blockade to get from the edge(s) of the table past all the patrolling blockade ships and into the harbor.
  
• 1850 or later with longer-range guns -an approaching force must conduct a shore bombardment of buildings inside the walls or guns along the walls, and a smaller naval force inside the harbor must try to stop it.
  
• Play a multiplayer game where each player has a different role selected from one of the above ideas.
  

Or you can go wild setting up actual historical scenarios with some research and a little more terrain building. This harbor could stand in as Toulon in 1793, Salvador da Bahia in 1624, various fortified Caribbean colonies or Meditrranean cities in the 18th C., etc.

- Ix

Stage a public game at a show or convention, and auction it off at the end. Someone else gets to take it home and you may see it again.

I would try and lift the model off the base. I used steel plate as a base. Its strong, light and flat. I would also cut it up into smaller parts. You could also lose some of the sides and back (to the walls?), use the lost buildings inside the town. The hard bit would be the lift, but if you are making it smaller you can let some damage happen!
Don't let it go! If you only use it once a year, it's still being used. My harbour comes out only 1 to 2 times a year. It looks good and it cost me a lot in time and money. A harbour model is a thing that most Naval war gamer would love to own.

Where abouts do you live?

I'm in the Richmond VA area.

I was looking at it just this morning, thinking how much more usable it would be mounted on a thinner base. It's on 1/2" plywood now; 1/4" or some masonite would make it easier to use with a hex mat.

Sigh…yet another project to add to the list. If it's true that a gamer can't die until all the metal is painted and the projects are all done, I'm good until I'm about 150.

Siege of Toulon, the "bathtubbed" version?

It's a lovely piece of kit, as you say somebody's labour of love, so it would be a shame to break it up.

Flock the water and make it into a land fortress, then play games with it per normal.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
bunkermeister.blogspot.com