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!