15mm Shanty Town for the African Wars

Another step forward in my Portuguese Colonial War project complements of ebay. I picked up a couple of “15mm Shanty Town” pieces.

“tinned-fruit” on ebay does a whole range of “15mm Shanty Town” pieces. I got “Cluster 13”. This set includes two, basically identical, L-shaped buildings.

15mm Shanty Town Sector
15mm Shanty Town Sector

They are obviously hand made using a similar basic technique to my Generic Building sectors. For example they use 5mm foam core for the walls and have removable roofs. The detail is, however, completely different. Or more accurately “tinned-fruit” includes detail on his buildings and I don’t. 🙂

15mm Shanty Town Sector
15mm Shanty Town Sector

The most obvious feature is the (probably) corrugated cardboard clued to the exterior walls and the roof to represent corrugated tin. With an appropriate paint job these “tin” walls are really effective. He also includes some nice touches. For example the patches of corrugated tin on the roof held down by a tire or stone.

15mm Shanty Town Sector - Tops Off
15mm Shanty Town Sector – Tops Off

The exterior paint job is very nice. Lots of rusty tin. The paint job in the internal walls is adequate for the job but nothing fancy. The only gripe I have is that the lines for the cut outs of the foam core are still visible through the paint on the interior walls.

15mm Shanty Town Sector - Tops Off
15mm Shanty Town Sector – Tops Off

If you’re interested in the dimensions:

  • Base: L shaped. 120mm x 100mm with a 60mm x 40mm chuck cut out of one corner.
  • Building 1: 76mm long x 40mm wide. Roof slopes from 35mm high down to 28mm.
  • Building 2: 58mm long x 38mm wide x 28mm high
  • Roof 1: 86mm long x 50mm wide.
  • Roof 2: 63mm long x 48mm wide.

The problem for me is that these buildings are a tad narrow for the 50x30mm bases I’m using the Portuguese Colonial War. I can get the stands in but not to sit flat.

The pieces came flocked but I reflocked using my usual style. Worth mentioning that although I used sand for the ground both inside and outside the building, I only used grass static flock outside the building.

2 thoughts on “15mm Shanty Town for the African Wars”

  1. In a shantytown there needs to be open latrines- or, in one which receives at least some care- pit toilets. Trust my experience when I say that open toilets are best treated as being near impassable terrain.
    You will also need outside kitchens.

    Reply

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