07 June 2020

Scenes of the Cold War - Harburn Hamlet Edition

Earlier this year, literally just before the COVID-19 lockdowns came into effect, when life was still relatively normal, my wife, her brother and I visited her recently discovered (by us anyway) half-brother and his family in Scotland.  It was an all-round excellent trip, made all the more so for me when it turned out not only were they all wonderful people, but he is a very talented sculptor -
- but also a Roman History fanatic and armour maker:
One day we visited the shop in Edinburgh (Harburn Hobbies) that sells his range of Railway/Village/Dockside terrain accessories called Harburn Hamlet.  If you click on the link you'll get an idea of the ranges that are available.  My brother-in-law designs, sculpts and casts all these models and his wife paints them all.  They are not made out of plaster, but a very durable resin-like substance which of course I have forgotten the name of ...

It was great to visit Harburn Hobbies and get a look around a Scottish Hobby shop.  If you are ever in Edinburgh I recommend you drop by.  I happened to also be my birthday so I made sure to treat myself to a few things.  Not tons - as I had to stick it all on a plane to cart home.  I bought from the OO scale stuff and took some photos yesterday to show you what it looks like and how I plan on using some of it.  If you are getting into BG:NORTHAG on any other 1/144 or 10/12mm scale gaming, the N Gauge stuff is right for you.

Here's some shots of Harburn Hamlet stuff - very quickly set up - with some figures for scale.  The shots were also a test with my new panoramic background.  I'm quite chuffed with the look.



These are CG 219 - Corn stooks traditional (5).  I love these and think they look great - especially in a WW2 setting.


These two images show the rows of vegies I bought home!  The top pic shows from left to right CG 282 Vegetable rows (2) - cauliflower - 1 row of CG 254 Rows of greens (pack of 2) - the other row is a couple over - CG280 Vegetable rows (2) green cabbage and then CG 281 Vegetable rows (2) red cabbage.  To the side in the first and up the back in the second is CG 250 Vegetable Plot with timber edging.  The second pic has some Elhiem figures in the front and a couple of M113s in the laneway behind.  All the small buildings and telephone box are from NOCH.



That's all the individual components.  I've been after stuff to make the backyards of my houses a bit more interesting and these are a great first step in that direction.


Finally I got these two raised flower beds.  I'm mainly thinking of using them on roads like this - but I guess they could be used around fancy houses etc.  Their codes are SS 320 Platform flower bed with 3 tress and SS 324 Formal raised flower bed.

What I've shown is only a very small selection of what Harburn Hamlet has available.  If you are in the UK especially, but anywhere actually - have a look at the website and scroll through the catalogue.  I'm sure you'll find something there that will suit your wargame table.

Heartily recommended.

Thanks

Richard

5 comments:

  1. A very interesting range Richard and great for Cold War scatter terrain. Tell us more about your Panoramic background board - it looks great in the photos. Cheers Greg

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  2. Thanks Greg. The panoramic background was much easier to sort out than I thought it would be. I just found a pic I liked and thought would make a good background online. Then I got it printed as a panoramic low sheen shot through Officeworks in Australia. I'm sure every country in the world has an equivalent. It turned out a lot thinner than I thought it would be but still worked fine.
    I simply blu-tacked it onto my normal blue background - at about the height of the hedges - so you don't see the change from horizontal to vertical. I also had to adjust my lamps slightly differently to avoid a big shiney patch appearing on the photograph. Once all that was set I was able to start taking photos.
    It worked so well I'm thinking of doing a couple more back drops - like an urban one and a village one. We'll see.
    Thanks
    Richard

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  3. Thanks Richard, I think I will give it a go. I'm Sydney based so very familiar with good old Officeworks. I've use them to laminate my board game maps. Cheers Greg

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  4. Glen Alpine, just outside Campbelltown. I can be contacted on deltacoy1976 at hotmail.com. Cheers Greg

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