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WWII and WWI Urban Warfare & Destroyed Cities / Buildings on the Cheap - FYI
In the past 3 months, I've collected both Allies and Axis (Quick Build) Tanks for the European theatres. From watching YouTube documentaries and Google Images the aspects of WWII that interest me most so far are Urban Warfare in destroyed cities ie Battle of Cologne, The Battle of the Hedgerows, and Battle of the Bulge.
For the Hedgerows I'll use the old Marx Tree Lines.
The Bulge, nothing in particular, just lots of tanks.
But destroyed buildings for the Battle of Cologne are expensive.
To my surprise, I bought one of the inexpensive made in China sets linked below and what do you know, the 3 building pieces that fit together like bricks are exactly 1/72. The minor pieces like rifles are not, but the buildings are perfect. I stood up some of my Airfix, Strelets, Pegasus, Caesar, etc. figures and they can shoot out the windows while kneeling. Perfect height. And if you check the images, they are also detailed on the inside too. One set costs $.99 + 58 cents shipping from the second set on plus 5% off. I can put them in the shape a building (U), or a city block corner. 4 sets can make a whole block so I bought about 65 sets all together to make any size urban battlefield I want for dioramas, playsets or wargaming. Try buying 65 Airfix Resin kits of one building corner and see how expensive that gets!
Add 1 Bachmann / Plasticville snap together "Cathedral" with Bell Tower for sniper for $16.00 on eBay,
And a $7.98 bag of 4 Town Square Fountains to attach to round Pringles lid(s),
And Bingo! Play out the Battle of Cologne complete with town square and Cathedral, or T.V.'s Combat episodes, or any movie like "Saving Private Ryan";
Lastly, it all unsnaps apart and drops into a box, city walls, buildings, and Cathedral too! (or just throw it into a box because you can't break this plastic - doesn't matter)
Re: WWII and WWI Urban Warfare & Destroyed Cities / Buildings on the Cheap - FYI
Love useful posts like this, yes those ruins are perfect for any urban setting. For those with more cash to part with, laser cut mdf ruins are available in 20 mm, also from ebay at, at least to me, affordable price:
You get a bunch of buildings that looks realistic, much cheaper than italeri, dio72, miniart and so on. They also sell a big factory model which is very tempting:
Re: WWII and WWI Urban Warfare & Destroyed Cities / Buildings on the Cheap - FYI
Thank you Travelor! A must have recommendation for the Small Buildings in Laser Cut. The advantage of yours are with multiple floors, you can get those pesky snipers and machine gun nests on multiple floors. This adds a whole new dimension by getting the soldiers up off the streets and a lot more exciting battle scenarios.
I got my Cathedral today with the bell tower and it is really nice. Small enough to set up and take down in one to two minutes. This one came in a white color for walls and tower and gray roof pieces with paper stained glass to set up in the windows if you'd like. And a German posed for running behind a tank for protection being hunched over, leans out of the bell tower and looks very nicely after I cut off the base.
The factory would work great for having a Panther or Tiger Tank hidden in it to take out Shermans as they drive by unaware. There is an actual photo I recall on Google Images of exactly this.