Responding to the observation "I bought the New England village book last year from a distributor in the UK. They're nice buildings but turned out too small for the project I was doing at the time (I play 25mm and these are really better for 15/20mm I think)"

David Helber writes

I Guess it's a matter of personal sensitivity to discrepancies in scale.

To me, the differences are not objectionable during the game, even though some of the figures would bump their heads if they actually tried to walk through the doors. None of our gaming group remarked on the problem, nor any of the several non-gamers we introduced to the game at a family get-together (though that may have just been politeness).

The buildings are HO scale (1:87.1) so a 6-ft man would be between 20 and 21mm tall, and a 25mm figure is not too far out of proportion. Now it's true that we were playing with older figures, closer to true 25mm in size, and on thin bases. A bloated GDW-style "25mm" fig (closer to 30 or 35), especially on a thick base, might well be visually incompatible, even to me.

There is a solution: copy the book pages on a color copier at 110 to 120% enlargement (or scan and print at 120% on a color printer).Print on the heaviest stock the machine will take, or you may have to mount the thin paper to a thicker material with spray glue. If you use the scan/print method and have appropriate software, you can customize the image, move doors and windows, add your own signs and so forth.

We used only the building fronts and sides (no roofs or backs). The fronts are attached to floor plans on buff card, showing interior walls, doors, etc. The sides are permanently attached only to the fronts, not the floors. The advantage, besides access to the interior for play, is that the buildings simply unfold to flat sheets for storage. You can fit your whole town in a large manila mailing envelope.

You can dull the surface with a matte spray, such as Testors Dullcote or Krylon 1311 Matte Finish.Don't use anything water-based, or the buildings will warp. Hope this helps...

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