As previously trailed I need more 19th century Chinese buildings. After some searching around I decided to take a punt on a bundle of buildings from various suppliers on Temu. Minimum order size was £20, and I ended up placing one for £21.88 (including postage), and saving - according to Temu - £74.
Of course these things never go smoothly, although it wasn't the fault of Temu. Much. They gave me a 17th June delivery date, so we went away, safe in the knowledge we'd be back in time. Then the order update said they'd be here 6 days early. At least. Accordingly I switched the delivery instructions to pick up from a Parcelshop. The delivery company being Evri the meant they were returned to the depot for relabelling, re-loading and shoving to the back of the cupboard for a few days. Luckily the notice that they'd finally arrived got to me in time to go and pick them up this afternoon, 10 minutes before the pick up point closed.
I ended up with 17 buildings in a mix of brass and plastic, intended for aquariums and bonsai gardens. Most are about 25 - 35mm tall. I also picked up a pack of miniature Chinese style garden rocks and "tower houses", which had a bridge and a sampan, plus another bigger bridge and a pack of small boats to populate the Grand Canal and generally get in the way.
One of the plastic buildings arrived damaged, but was easy enough to repair with a collar of thin card to connect roof to base. They're probably slightly smaller than I'd want, but to go up a size means they end up being both much too big and also much more expensive. It also looks like I may have been sent an extra pack of the plastic buildings too, so certainly no complaints there.
I've spent the afternoon spray undercoating the brass buildings, and dry brushing the roofs on the plastic ones to create a bit of variety. They look okay, and will make some nice table clutter within the city walls, denoting built up areas.
There'll be further pictures as they will be featuring in next week's game if everything goes to plan.
All things considered the punt was worth it. And also the sampans.
That is a very impressive collection for just over £20! All looks suitably Chinese.
ReplyDeleteI was worth taking a chance. Normally I'd avoid Temu like the plague.
DeleteNow, there's some serious Khitai town planning potential there! You might well find the slight down-scaling rather a bonus: more varied urban clutter in a smaller space. I find I prefer under-scale buildings and whatnot, and make my own scratch-built architecture according.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Ion
I normally go one level down, so 6mm for 15mm, 2mm for 6mm etc. These look like 2mm to me, mostly, so a little bit small. I do scratchbuild, but the shape of Chinese/Japanese roofs defeat me.
DeleteIt looks like a useful set of boats came with the buildings.
ReplyDeleteThe two grey sampans came with the garden rocks set. the light brown boats were a separate pack, which cost me 89p. Alas none are really big enough for more than one or two figures.
DeleteInteresting to see what you got, and you got it! I presume you have to sigh up for Temu as with ebay?. I can't do Chinese roofs either.
ReplyDeleteI didn't sign up for an account but ordered as a guest.
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