Progress on the Poltava 1709 Project – Playing with Matches (TMT)

On By The OneIn 6mm, Terrain, Towards Moscow Triology

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The accounts of the Poltava Battle and the Siege of the town itself states that the houses/village outside the city were burnt down in a measure to avoid them being used as hiding places for the Swedes as they laid Siege to the town (the rather big model of the Poltava itself can be found here).  This was a very common measure as a clear area was needed in front of the defensive walls.

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Poltava Town

I wanted to mark this on the mat for the battle by doing some ruined/burnt down buildings.  I checked quickly what was available to buy from various sellers but found mostly WW2 biased stuff in the scale, like bigger buildings and in general two storey buildings – it did not really fit my 18th century rural Russian theme.  I reckoned I could have a go at building something myself that would do the job, here is a rough guide showing how I made them.

This is a very simple project and I hope it is of some use! It is very quick to do! – provided you have some glue and matches. You could of course use tooth picks as well.

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I took some bases and basically cut some matches and used some PVA glue to build these kind of structures. I did the first level complete but then proceeded to some random parts.
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When it was dried I put some black ink (mixed 50/50 with water, the ink works better than paint giving that kind of coal glow – if you know what I mean) on the wood and some brown sand (or any sand just painted brown) for ground cover. I also added some additional matches, to represent collapsed beams etc.
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Grey dry-brush and a little bit of dead grass. I guess I could have added a little bit of more grey here and there to add to the effect.
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I then added them to some tiles that I decorated to blend in with my normal ground cover.
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Good enough! – no Swedes will hide here
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I also made a few tiles for the Villages not burnt down. The buildings are from Timecast Miniatures (http://www.timecastmodels.co.uk/) and the Churches from Battlescale (https://battlescale.com/). Both companies doing some really nice 6mm stuff.

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village tiles
Some Riders from Nylands Cavalry Regiment! (these and the other miniatures are of course from Baccus, https://www.baccus6mm.com/)

That was all for now, Please play with matches carefully!

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By the way, you can use them for other periods too 😉

18 thoughts on “Progress on the Poltava 1709 Project – Playing with Matches (TMT)”

  2. Phil Carrington

    Just like the last post (photo backgrounds), this seems so obvious and simple when you think about it. I’m just glad someone did ! The finish is also excellent and really has that burnt effect. I imagine the applications are quite widespread as well.

    The complete Poltava is going to be quite something when its finished. I really hope that one of the major magazines picks up on it and runs an article as they are always looking for small scale eye candy / inspiration. Worth a few pics to the editors ?

    Great stuff. Phil

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  7. Very effective Per, and as usual I love the historical references. When I began reading I actually thought you were going to build something and then burn it! Did not need to, as these are effective. Really neat project!

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