Some more Belgian wargaming history

I earlier reported about the importance of The Tin Soldier for Belgian wargaming, a shop started by Rudi Geudens almost 4 decades ago. A full story of the shop can be read here. I also have written many posts about some of the Gedemco buildings, made and distributed by the same shop.

I rummaged through my archives and found an old flyer of The Tin Soldier (in Dutch), dated 1989, shown below. Nostalgia!

 

Gedemco "Versterkte Toren" (4)

I painted in some more details, added some cardboard windows and doors (always useful to have a collection of those lying around), and some heraldry (again, cardboard). Instead of choosing classic medieval heraldry, I went for a heraldic sun motif. Looks more fun, and somewhat mysterious. I did add an heraldic blue lion though.

I dug out some of my old fantasy miniatures (80 skaven and an old Ral Partha wizard) to show off the relative size of this tower - rather huge!

Perhaps with the Keep, I can setup a game in which 2 wizards are duelling each other from their respective towers ... not only hurling fireballs at each others, but summoning minions, creating chasms and fog, etc ... could be an idea for a future convention game!

Gedemco "Versterkte Toren" (3)

Work in progress ...

Gedemco "Versterkte Toren" (2)

In my last post, I was wondering where the inspiration for the Gedemco model came from, since I also noticed a slightly similar tower on the cover of Fantasy Wargaming by Martin Hackett.

It seems the model can be traced back to a modeling project by Ian Weekley. Many of the modeling projects were punlished in the book "Buildings for the Military Modeler" (1989), which contained articles previously published in wargaming and modeling magazines. So I suspect the Gedemco model was probably inspired by one of Ian Weekley's modeling articles.

The same tower can also be seen on George R R Martin's page, which makes an explicit reference to Ian Weekley.

The pages from Ian Weekley's book are shown below.

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?

Gedemco "The Keep" (2)

As reported previously, I put together an old modeling kit from Gedemco. I painted it during the past couple of days. Spray-paint a black undercout, drybrush in stone grey, paint in some details, and attach a cardboard door and trapdoor. Then apply a coat of matt varnish.

The finished model is shown below, along with some 80s Citadel miniatures.

Gedemco "The Keep"

This weekend, in between sessions of working in the garden, I started putting together one of the Gedemco sets I reported on before.

Assembling a resin kit from the 80sis quite a challenge compare to the MDF plug-and-play sets of today. Nevertheless, the discerning wargamer is not put back by a few hindrances along the way.

Step 1: straightening out the pieces. Some of the wall sections were warped. Since they are made of resin, put them in hot water, straighten them again, and leave them to dry on the kitchen sink. Ignore the cries of horror of other carbon-based humanoid lifeforms in the house. The pieces below are from the Tower set, but the idea is the same.

Step 2: Start glueing together the kit. These old kits are not, shall we say, made to fit. Several tries, a lot of cursing, and using various wooden beams to keep everything together, did the job in the end.

Step 3: Admire the final result. Some period figures are shown for scale. The stairs form a seperate piece, I won't attach it permanenly to the keep, so I can still use a ladder in some scenarios.

Step 4: Fill up the cracks and holes with some filler, but this still needs to be done. Painting as well, of course.

Some more Belgian wargaming history

A longtime gaming friend was cleaning up his basement, and asked me whether I was interested in old box of wargaming stuff. I always answer ‘yes’ to such questions, not in the least out of curiosity to see what shows up.

After our regular boardgame night, I loaded the box (unopened) in my car, and only unpacked it when I came home.

Lo and behold - a large treasure of Belgian wargaming history was revealed. A number of boxes of 25mm buildings by Gedemco. I already reported about Gedemco before, but I was pleasantly surprised to see so many boxes suddenly in my possession. That’s why I never say no when someone is offering me old wargaming junk ;-)

The boxes contain the address of the Tin Soldier shop in Sint-Niklaas, one of the first wargaming shops in Belgium, whose history can be read here.

Some Belgian wargaming history ...

Recently, I acquired a nice piece of Belgian wargaming history.

Two hobbit houses in 20/25mm scale, originally made by Gedemco (late seventies?). The history of Gedemco can be read here, on the pages of veteran wargamer Rudi Geudens.

An original image from the above site:

A nice addition for my fantasy collection!