"Have you ever used Girder and Panel sets for gaming terrain?" Topic

My brother and I used to play with these construction sets a lot, back when we were kids. Ditto Erector Sets.
I'm happily surprised to see that Girder and Panel is still being made.
Now, back in the 50s and 60s, I had no clue about 28mm skirmish gaming, but muscle memory tells me that these buildings would be beautiful for things like 40K etc gaming. And you could build entirely new buildings for the next game.
Heck, you could even make the Granville West Virginia high school building for a 1632 game. All you need then would be a bunch of 2nd Amendment townsfolk and Croat and Finnish cavalry.

So. Does anyone else still play with these sets?

The thought had occurred to me and I looked into. I'm trying to remember why I didn't follow through? Price maybe?

I still have a bunch of the girders in my random terrain stash.

The 60's vintage plastic panels all brittled and crumbled by the end of the 70's.

A quick Google search reveals that they are still available, the prices are reasonable, and they would probably work very well. I may invest in a couple of sets!

We used to use them all the time – so much so that we wore the out!

I did not know they were still around – I also might buy a few

I may ask for a commission if sales take off…

I loved these as a kid in the 70's. I also looked into getting them for wargaming. I think my conclusion was they were small. A single layer of girders would be at or below head height of most 28mm figures. I think.

Xin

Absolutely, the girders anyway. A rusty overcoat and some cross stitch stuff (don't know the proper name) and you've got some nice industrial elements.

I remember these things! I used to have one but I couldn't remember the name. I thought of these a long time ago, but thought they might be out of production.

They would be great for a construction site for modern or sci-fi gaming.

I wonder what scale the people are?

I had some of that stuff but I'm fairly sure it was marketed in the UK under a different trade name. I only had the bridge building parts though you could get panels to make buildings I think.

Yes. I don't seem to have any panels remaining, but a number of girders ended up painted with rust and mixed into rubble piles.

I have a set I got at a garage sale a number of years ago for $2. USD Never used it, still somewhere in the basement.

They had a great chemical factory set, too. With pumps and tubes and transparent tanks so you could send colored water pumping and bubbling all over the place--including the floor :)

As for the size, I'm pretty sure the standard vertical piece was about 2" long so the buildings would be be plenty tall for 28mm figures.

I don't ever recall seeing those toy sets around here.

Meccano, sure. All those teeny-tiny nuts and bolts and panels with rather sharp edges (well, they were once all the paint was worn off the edges, after several decades of handing down.

"Bridge & Turnpike", "Girder & Panel", I got the motorized set as well, my brother the water pumping one. A lot of it's gone but I saw the potential right away as I started getting White Dwarf magazine and visiting the TerraGenesis miniatures gaming terrain site.

I had those when I was a kid! I have no idea what ever happened to them.

My bits came from one of my older brother's Electric Skyrail sets.

I had Girder and Panel sets as a kid. Donated to a school since then.

There is a new brand, Power City, that is basically the same thing. I have a couple sets to work with. They are actually cheap when you compare to an equivalent floor area of other terrain.

The cross-stitch stuff is called "plastic canvass" proper, or "granny grating" more commonly (in both senses of the word).

I did a Google search and found the website of some collector. Wow, I had no idea how MANY separate kits there were! Over a hundred were listed. And some had the girders in a gray plastic rather than that bright red.