Wrapping it up for Lorenzo - AHPC14 - a great challenge!

Well back in December 2023 as I mulled over whether to join some online painting sessions I went and joined two at the same time, having never done these before. No regrets though. My painting capacity was stretched so that was a good thing and in more ways than I thought - I had assumed it would be just volume or rate. First up - the other event - Dave Stones "Paint what you've got" was meant for my existing paint queue. Well I managed just two lots - for 1848 - Pickelhaube Prussians and some Danish Volunteer Kepi Cavalry. I have been a bit naughty and slipped the Volunteer Cavalry into the "Final Collection picture". Its just a shameless plug for the the First Schlieswig Holstein War (which started on 24th March 1848). Hopefully Curt and my minion Sylvain will forgive me. Turning to Sylvain I must say a big thank you for his Musee des Fossilles backdrop to our Monday Crew. And I have really enjoyed discovering AHPC. Thanks to the Monday crew and all the comments people kindly left for me. The big story for my AHPC14 was I encountered the library challenge. This completely derailed my 1848 army painting plan. So the Lancers, Hussars, Cuirassiars, Dragoons, and more Artillery remained in the paint queue. In the event I managed..... 8 Danish Riflemen 8 Schlieswig Holstein Chassuers 12 Danish Guard Infantry 1 Danish Artillery piece I am happy with that, not to mention that at least another 5 units have now been started. Now back to the library challenge - this was fascinating - I got lost there. Which is at it should be. I then descended into fantasy courtesy of Doncaster Christmas Toy Fair. A venerable 1980's Games Workshop Cyclops was found hiding unloved at the back of one trade stand, who along with a Partizan freebie Empress Matilda 1140's era, made up my first non 1848 entries. Second up was a reconnaisance Spitfire from 1939 in "Camo Mint". A five quid snip at the same toy fair. I had then envisaged doing pink and then blue versions but I simply took too long on other entries that now demanded my attention. Suddenly Nissen Huts invaded my mind - apparently my first library trip was to one in a Nissen Hut. So this hut took a lot of time as it was built from scratch including the whole idea generation - Truly out of the blue: However it was the "more satisfying" for that creativity moment. Then another Partizan Freebie took my eye in the great figure heap - General Sikorski. He was duly painted up and some more DIY gave him a suitable plinth. Then it was back to 1848 with some Schlieswig Holstein Chasseurs. To complete the challenge I offered up a "figure bashed" sci fi character (magazine freebie ww2 german + bits and bobs) plus another toy fair bargain (1/32 ww2 soldier) who morphed into a cute monster - idea courtesy of the Wargaming Pastor. And last but not least was Noggin the Nog in 28mm from the little soldier company. Next here are some pictures.

As you can see a nice varied collection and Noggin the Nog sends his apologies but he is already gifted to my friend who suffers from dementia and was just delighted with him. It simply remains for me to thank everyone from Curt, organisers and minions right down to anyone who painted and presented - I really enjoyed this challenge both through my contribution and seeing what others created. thank you!

From lorenzo: I claim everything in the library - because its a library! (must be mega points - actually 60 points please)

After real life intervened in the last two weeks I am back with another surprise - thats for me of course. More building and less painting - what is going on? Well AHPC14 is what has happened to me. Yes I have painted which was the plan and yes I have painted more often since the December start. BUT........ I have made more, I have diverted into some unexpected themes and now I have scratchbuilt something out of nowhere. Lets start at the beginning. AHPC14 piqued my interest a bit more than usual and probably propelled me into joining up. The reason - the library theme. Libraries or rather books have driven my interests in wargaming. I was a reader who discovered gaming rather than a gamer who discovered the books. So the demise of libraries is sad for me personally and though book reading is picking up again, most people now consume and discover reading through image led internet systems. We should not be too concerned as human kind got by without "print" until the 1550's. Back to the challenge, I am told (Maybe apochryphal given my love of books) my first library visit was in a pram to a local Nissen hut like this one maybe: I found online a new library opening in an old Nissen Hut near Thetford Norfolk as recently as 2019. But this idea has stuck with me and when the library option appeared in the AHCP challenge, this unwanted thought simply landed in my head and stuck - "make a library" (secretly of course I would then be able to claim every part of the challenge by saying "they are all inside the building - heh heh). Yes AHPC14 has driven me mad to the point where I have scratch built a Nissen Hut I don't need, but hey ho it has been fun and I may even start building some scenery again. Right so what exactly did I build? first up how did I build it? first I dug out some old mounting board squirrelled away - I got a load of offcuts at an art framers for a few quid.

then it was find my compass set.

I had no idea how to make a Nissen Hut - wikipedia has some useful information. I decided on a skeleton and went big on it. This included deciding the cover would not be the structure. As it turned out this was wise as corrugated cardboard does not like to be curved much.

I have tons of unused corrugated cardboard for as yet unbuilt mediterranean towns......but as it happened a new hoover/dyson promptly offered up the exact corrugation I was looking for. So a piece was fortunately intercepted before it went for recycling. Mind you it only just fitted and was already damaged......

and curving corrugation suddenly seemed to make this side project rather complicated. Fortunately a spare tube and some rubber bands from a post office/newsagents (another dying piece of social fabric) came to the rescue. I had by this time decided on the base - the edge of the hut would be a concrete plinth and one end would be the backdoor with a slightly bigger area at the other end, for the main entrance. Now I had to paint it - more choice - too much choice. In the end I went for military grey and decided to try some contrast paint despite the absorbancy of the cardboard surface. Now I happen to know that you can get all sorts of tarry painted steel and so by chance I ended up with a look of "this was painted with tar paint over some grey paint but now its an ageing mess".

Now I was gaining a feel for this behemoth. I suddenly decided I would have a library entrance at one end and then a military style back door at the other. This even extended to the three quarter view foliage differences. Railway modeller grasses helped here. Bright bushes for the library and wintry scrub for the military end. Two Huts in one!

To add some character and reflect how Nissen Huts were made to have some light, I embarked on some dormer windows. Colouring pens helped here as they did for the library door.

Things were coming together in my head and I opted for simply a grassed site. I used Javis turf and added a footpath as well. I decided the worn ground would be pale, maybe sandy like the heathlands of east anglia. Paints wise I used a selection of craft shop paints - some showing their age but still viable while that new pot of GW contrast basilicum grey made the roof effect I wanted.

In my search for all things nissen huts I came across Wymondham College. If you scroll down a bit you get an eyeopener into the 60,000 US troops based in east anglia during world war two and that Wymondham College used former hospital nissen huts after the war to house its pupils. Britain had borrowed itself to death and the country was skint while army surplus was, well, surplus. You can also find out here what happened during the war years as well. time for some retro pics.

What about that pram visit to a Nissen Hut library - well its no longer there but I would like to think it maybe started life as a base for the home guard in the eastern counties bravely awaiting the arrival of the german army under operation sealion...... Above all, I remember my first library visit once I was walking - all those books stacked on shelves and you could just take them home with you - any of them (well only from the childrens section of course) and I was hooked even though I did not know it then. So I give you the nissen hut library.

The building dimensions are sort of 9" x 4" x 2".

So my points calculation is local history entry 20 points please then building scenery = 72 cubic inches or 2 x 6 inch cubes? = 2x20points GRAND TOTAL = 60 points? oh does "squirrelled" cardboard count? finally my map is as shown below  

Sylvain: You may indeed be diagnosed with "squirrelism" and I would encourage you to take part in the squirrel duel next challenge as a treatment. Very interesting description and very good looking scratch built project. I really like how you provided a detailed account of the building steps as well as pictures of the material you used. You may inspire a few challengers out there. As for the points claimed, the rules are calling for fractions when it comes to "volume". I would say your project would fill 1.5 "cubes" (6"x6"x6") for 30 points, plus the "local history" bonus for a grand total of 50 points. However, all the scratch building you've done is easily worth 10 points. So there is your 60 points. Excellent work!