I'm looking forward to seeing some pictures GC!!! I share your sentiment :-)

Thank you, Jan! Yesterday I assembled the bottom floor of the "WWII War Zone Building" and I couldn't be any more impressed. I'm going to post a link to purchase it below, but I'll give you a little review anyway. Reason is, once these things disappear off AliExpress, I think they're gone!

Anyway, if you stand up the Airfix U.S. Paratrooper in front of a door, without his base, he'd be nearly perfect, meaning I'd guess the building to be between 1/87 and 1/72. Remember, these things are made in China to be generic. The wood is a very nice quality plywood; very lightweight but strong. It completely snaps together; no glue; I've so far used only my fingers and it's well assembled so far. And it's only $14.50 USD + tax. OK, I'll update youz guyz after the weekend. Cheerz!

Link to "A Bridge Too Far" type building kit:

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804863348678.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.58.2c631802q
CDNqh&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa


P.S. If you scroll down the AliExpress page past more and more adds, you'll come to a nice large "Blow-up" photo of the kit. Click on "View More" right under it, and you'll see many more great photos of it also showing the roof lifts off, the 2nd story lifts off, so you can set up your soldiers inside shooting out just like the movie!

Those are amazing buildings. Thank you for the link GC And there are so many more, when I scroll down. It's an adventure to explore this site!

Thank you, again Jan! I spent several hours this afternoon finishing assembling the lower two stories of the full building and the bombed out building next door.

OK, so my impressions:

+ I like all the windows on the front and alleyway sides of the two-story structure.
- I don't like the fact only 4 windows on the back sides.
+ I do like all the walls and floors fit together by hand only
- I don't like the complexity of the Roof (It will need gluing and overnight drying to piece it together. (Lots of weird angles and the old square peg in the round hole mentality, but it works with TLC and patience)
+ I do like the bombed out building next door. You can literally fit a howitzer or tank in it.
- I don't like the base having a noticable rounded warp to it, and the 2nd floor also.
+ I do like it's cheap, spot on 1/72, highly playability with lift off floors and roof, looks soo cool, feel nice, and it's a nice "Playset" addition which will go well with a lazer cut bridge as center pieces to my Playset.
- I wish it had a balcony like in the movie "A Bridge Too Far."
Note 1: I don't mind admitting I ordered a second set so can have lots of British and American Paratroopers in ambush waiting.
Note 2: I did a quick Google Search for other Resin, etc. buildings and didn't find anything as cost effective as this with it's high playability and relatively easy assembly, except for the fiddly roof, darn!

OK, Saturday and Sunday are my "Honey do list days" and "Driving Miss Daisy" husbandly duty days. Have a great one friends!

VIP to Ukraine (Victory, Independence & Peace)

For you Beau Geste Foreign Legion fans, I purchased one of these gems of a Fort designed after the 1939 movie set. This says for 15mm to 18mm but it is also great for 20mm to 25mm too. I have both Airfix and Strelets 1/72 FFL and they stand at the walls the best I've seen yet, especially compared with the Airfix Fort Sahara. I'll get my wife to show me how to take pics and try to get them by next weekend. ($125 + $10 S&H USD and well worth it). Anyway, heres the catalogue pic which does little justice for it.

https://oldglory25s.com/shop/15-18mm-blue-moon/15-18mm-french-foreign-legion/15-18mm-french-foreign-legion-fort/15fft-300-fort-zindernoof/

Back to "A Bridge Too Far", I'm gluing the roof together for the buildings as I write. Also, here is a link to the bridge sets I'm going to use for this Play Set. Should still be available. I bought (2) steel bridges to make it longer. There is a nice picture like this here also:

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804589754199.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.1000014.35.2f245lJw5lJwH6&gps-id=pcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller&scm=1007.40050.281175.0&scm_id=1007.40050.281175.0&scm-url=1007.40050.281175.0&pvid=bbf46b8f-e6bf-43b2-893f-97b709579163&_t=gps-id:pcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller,scm-url:1007.40050.281175.0,pvid:bbf46b8f-e6bf-43b2-893f-97b709579163,tpp_buckets:668%232846%238111%231996&pdp_npi=4%40dis%21USD%2115.96%2112.77%21%21%2115.96%21%21%402101c6e316926491029645662ec67b%2112000030440449294%21rec%21US%21%21A

By the way, this Playset will be the Allies building at one end, the bridge, and a few tanks and British and American Paratroopers as a basic set. Add on Playsets will be:

* British Paratroopers and American Paratroopers
* Sherman Tanks Convoy and allied infantry
* Add on buildings
* German Bridge Defenders

Just some ideas. Any others?

Well, I feel kind of silly just thinking out loud on the Forum here, but I'll continue. I'm the kind of guy who likes to keep a few different soldiers or whatever at my computer to take my mind off the usual unfun stuff and kind of daydream.

Just staring at my WWII 3D Wooden Puzzle, it occured to me I can ...

* Leave out the 2nd floor and just make the shop building a single story, and
* Put a Sherman Tank inside the destroyed building shooting out of it as cover next to the undamaged building.

I did have to reverse the walls for the destroyed building on the base and just snip a tiny bit of the pegs to fit in the existing mounting holes. Remember, these parts fit together tight enough you don't need glue (except for the roof on the undamaged building) so you can enjoy some simple conversion work without any hassle.

There is no reason you couldn't hide a Tiger or Panzer inside the destroyed building so you can make all sorts of urban warfare ambush scenarios with your 1/72 tanks or howitzers collections. There are lots of these themes on Youtube for ideas.

And as an afterthought, the design of this gaming playset is generic European enough I believe, so there is no reason you couldn't use this for Napoleonic's, etc. also.

Cheers

No worries with thinking aloud GC!

It’s great to read about your thoughts and ideas. It’s especially useful to get a ‘user’s assessment’ of these as terrain pieces. Can’t beat a review from someone putting them to the test.

Designing (scenarios), planning (dreaming) and setting up are a big part of the interest for mine. Recently, I have been reviewing my orders of battle for some of the major Napoleonic battles fixing a few errors and making them more detailed. I’ve adjusted my ‘ultimate’ scale and so have found that I’m short a few figures. Oh dear…!😁

Keep setting up, planning, dreaming and telling us about it. We await photos with bated breath. I’ve don’t think that there is any way to post images directly here. You’ll have to put them on a site somewhere and use the image link.

Cheers James

Dear James,

Gosh, it's so nice to read your kind and thoughtful words. I've rummaged through my library (Hobby Drawers) and couldn't find my bridge sets so I re-ordered two more, but it takes about two + weeks from China, so for now, I found some pictures Harris of HaT fame posted to his website back in 2008.

You are right about not being able to post directly to this Forum so for now here's a link to one of my older projects. By the way, you so kindly posted a description for us of how to do upload pics for posting back in July of 2020. I saved a copy/print of your instructions, thank you!

A link to my version of the 1966 Beau Geste movie fort. I made it, took pics, never played with it and kept it high on a bookshelf for safety. Then I adopted a street kitten and she jumped up and slept in my Ft. Zinderneuf every night until she outgrew it. She seemed to know Foreign Legion Forts were actually homes for those of us who needed a fresh start in life. The highest and best use of my toy fort - Who could guess she'd know! Link:

http://www.hat.com/Othr8/Clay01P.html

Please enjoy, and it's Friday, so have a great weekend! VIP to Ukraine

OK guys, my "A Bridge Too Far" really is too far away. In fact the new order for the bridge itself, as they say, is somewhere on a boat between China and here. My fault!

But what I do have in my possession is, Chinese Gordon's, or Gordon Pasha's Khartoum's Palace pieces for this playset. Charles Gordon's Palace, where he supposedly was killed by the Mahdist Warriors (like in the Charlton Heston movie "Khartoum") was actually much more modest than the building of today. The rebuilt structure is today called The Republican Palace, or The Presidential Palace. There are enough illustrations of the Gordon Pasha Palace original to make a pretty accurate Playset, I think.

Here is the set from China which I will use five (5) of these on a base to represent this now gone, yet fabulous landmark. This is exactly 1/72 scale. I'll explain more when I've got some pics done. Link:

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804441266524.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.45.6f5c18028EGPuY&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa

Link to "Khartoum" movie opening about the Nile River that is majestic!:

https://www.tcm.com/video/1040078/khartoum-1966-movie-clip-leave-egypt-behind/

VIP to Ukraine and the rest of us! - GC

Hi Garrison, thanks for sharing. Khartoum was a great movie! I noticed the Egyptian army flag in the movie had 1 x star? I think the 3 x star version was used during Gordon Pasha's tenure? Am I right or wrong?

Hi Baratheon,

The question regarding the Egyptian flag is a good one. There is a photograph of Kitchener's men raising the Egyptian and British flags over Gordon Pasha's Palace after taking back Khartoum in 1898. The Egyptian flag clearly only has one star. I also looked at the BritishBattles.com site and all the medals given out during the battles at that time only have one star also. A photo of the Palace in 1936, though, clearly has 3 stars on the Egyptian flag.

In britishbattles.com, Battle of Abu Klea, 1885 when Gordon was killed the Campaign Medals also have only 1 star. Scroll down to the bottom.

https://www.rct.uk/collection/2942145/the-flag-raising-ceremony-in-the-ruins-of-the-governor-generals-palace-khartoum-4

https://www.alamy.com/sudan-khartoum-the-palace-from-the-river-side-drive-ca-1936-image370960764.html

But if you look in Wikipedia.com, they show a flag with 3 stars which was used up until 1885 when Khartoum fell to the Mahdists.

So I'm going to guess that from 1885 until at least 1898 the flag only had one star. That's what I'll put on my Playset Palace anyhow, but could be wrong.

So, I'm no expert on the history of flags and I'm only making assumptions by looking up any kind of pictorial evidence. I can only hope it helps, but please don't hold me to this.

Cheers and good luck - GC

Thanks Garrison, this was helpful. I also lean towards your theory about time-periods used for the 2 flags being right. I was always surprised to learn The Sudan-Mahdist war consisted of several campaigns over a 18 year period. A fascinating time in history.