Gedemco "Versterkte Toren"

My next Gedemco kit is the "Versterkte Toren", which translates as "Reinforced Tower" or "Strong Tower".

Box cover of the "Versterkte Toren"

As I mentioned before, putting together a resin kit from the 80s is quite a challenge compared to modern MDF kits. Pieces don't fit very well, some sanding is necessary, and cracks and holes need to be filled up with Pollyfilla or something similar. Nevertheless, I love such old kits, since they have a character of their own and feel more unique compared to the modern mass-produced wargaming items.

But anyway, after the use of roughly 5 liters of glue, adding internal struts, as well as using rubber bands to keep pieces together during the glue-drying process, I finally managed to put together the structure as you can see on the images below. There is also a small building that is meant to go on the tower platform, but then no figures can be placed on the tower, so I'll not use it.

Next thing to do is to paint the tower, and add some sort of access to the doorway. The doorway is visible in the last image, above the stag warrior. My idea is to add an intermediate platform (more glue!), and use 2 ladders to reach the door. An alternative could be to build up a rock or hill around the tower, and make some sort of winding path or stairway, but I always try to keep the footprint of scenery items as close to the building as possible. The larger the base, the more difficult it becomes to place the building on the wargaming table, especially when using hills.

The box cover shows the tower using a ladder, but an image on Rudi Geudens' site (the original owner of Gedemco, and a nice site to visit if you're interested in some Belgian wargaming history), shows a different setup, using a hill with a stairway.

Image on Rudi Geudens' site. Note the small structure on the tower plaform.

When I was putting together the tower, I was constantly thinking I had seen this building somewhere before. And suddenly I remembered, on the cover of "Fantasy Wargaming", by Martin Hackett. I have fond memories of this book, since it was the fist wargaming book I read many many years ago outside of the Games Workshop bubble. I even took part in a tournament run by Martin Hackett using these rules, at European Gencon in 1993, held in Camber Sands.

However, on closer inspection, the tower in the back seems to be a different building compared to the Gedemco kit, but the two are very, very similar. Which triggers the questions who is the manufacturer of the tower on the cover of Fantasy Wargaming (no credits in the book), and whether the Gedemco kit was inspired by this original model, or the other way around?