Building of the Week - Hougoumont Leven Miniatures

Well as a quick glance at any of the images will tell you this is going to be big, VERY big. The board you see the buildings on is A4 (American Legal size paper), that should tell you most of what you need to know.

One of the most iconic locations ever thought over. Rorkes Drift possibly being one of the few that could stand taller than Hougoumont. This is just one of the Waterloo campaign buildings that Leven Miniatures are working on right now. This is one of the first out of the mould and has been sent to me to paint up for there show display. I received a second set that I will paint up at the same time for my own battle so it's going to be really special.

The set will come with ten building sections, all the walls and gates etc and the well that is not shown in the photo as this was loose. This view is showing the walled kitchen garden bottom left and the main gates top right.

Mike has made some of the tile detail a lot deeper and smaller, this has involved making each tile separately on a number of the buildings. I also have Mont St. Jean where he did that process on all the buildings and the effect is amazing. More on that on a separate post but yes I will be painting that up as well, but just for me.

View from the road, in the middle you can see the open gate, I just love this model and can't wait to get started. I have already removed the pieces from the board and cleaned them up, just waiting to prime them and then it's on with painting them.

The detail is amazing even by Leven standards. You really can get lost in this model and it's a good job as it will be getting a lot of attention come the game next year. Typically Mike has given me free rein to do as I see fit, I have started to look at lots of images and I really want to do it justice (twice). I plan to have the road with a surface rather than the painted ones I do for the town and that kitchen garden needs extra effort. I have plenty of time to get it painted up but I don't think I will be taking months on this.

Before I can start on it though I need to clear the table as this will take up all my space. This means getting the French done and dusted but also the two regiments of Zulu's I just need to do the shields of. That will do the trick.

Here is a shot with a Baccus gun for scale. The base is 30x30mm and I look forward to placing it there and canistering the fleeing British!!!  :-) 

Due to the size of the project it will take up a number of Building of the Week posts as I post progress reports, OK I may add the odd other building just to keep up but expect this to dominate that part of the blog for awhile.