Just before Christmas I spotted in Marks & Spencers store some white porcelain houses containing an electric LED “tealight”, intended as a Christmas decoration. “Hello” says I, “These look like they will work with my imagination of Belgica.” They are in fact a bit on the large size with dimensions 65mm x 65mm (ground area) x 105mm (to the roof ridge). The front door is 26mm tall to the apex of the triangular lintel. My 18th century Belgican troops are “Risk” playing pieces about 20mm tall including the base.
The price when I saw them was GBP10 each, on a 3 for 2 offer. I decided to wait for the post-Christmas sales to see if the price would come down. Being a sad wargamy person, I checked the prices on 24th, 25th, 26th and 27th December on line. (M&S stores would not re-open until 27th December).
24th December GBP10.00 Buy 3, pay for 2. 3 houses = GBP20
25th December GBP10.00 No offer. 3 houses = GBP30
26th December GBP10.00 at 07:00, GBP3.75 at 10:00, no stock!
27th December GBP3.75 no online stock.
We were out shopping on 27th so I made a detour to M&S (Bad move – wife bought shoes after about an hour looking) but I got 8 model houses for GBP30.
Next step (I would include step-by-step photographs but my PC says the memory card is empty!!!!!) Can I remove the battery container and lights? Unscrewing and probing with a knife says “no”. I tried the cave-man approach and hit one of the plastic battery cases with a small hammer. Perfect! It fell into the structure leaving a jagged edge which was quickly tidied up with a file. This worked well for the next two, but the fourth attempt resulted in shattered porcelain all over the workbench. I decided that 3 houses of 7 remaining that could be occupied was enough and gave up with the hammer.
And so on to painting. More photographs not apparently saved…
I hope to get a photo of the finished products that I can actually transfer to the PC
General Whiskers' semi-historical wanderings 