Search for La Maisontaal- a bridge too far?

 

I expect I was not the first kid to have opened the 'big orange book' and been completely bowled over by this picture. Since the very early days of my interest in fantasy wargames this has been 'THE' table to aspire to. It appears in a few pictures in the 3rd edition rulebook, but not as many as my memory insists, and nowhere else to my knowledge. There's a strong possibility it wasn't even a Studio table as nobody seems to remember it (and I would have thought you would if you had played on it!). Of course, teenaged me was unable to identify a lot of elements on the table and didn't have the skills to get anywhere near. The best we managed was to cover my mate's bedroom carpet in earth and dried moss after deciding to just go into the woods, grab handfuls and stick it to a chipboard base with PVA glue.

Some 6 (?) years back Oldhammer Community member Justin Coutange began making his own recreation of this epic piece. Sadly Justin lost the battle with cancer before he was able to get the project completed but it was such a great experience watching his progress since it was also something I had long wanted to try. This year marks my 40th year on earth and I plan to host a big weekend battle to mark the occasion. The main hosts will be my Empire and Undead armies, the Undead, of course, based around Heinrich Kemler's victory at La Maisontaal- which just happens to be sat in the corner of this table. What better excuse to have a crack at it? I'll need something to do once I've finished painting my Night Gobbos...

There are many pieces on here recognisable to my now-experienced GW collector eye, Townscapes buildings (or better crafted versions of) and La Maisontaal from the Journal, but there are a few non-GW elements I needed some help identifying. Enter Mike from Broadswords and Beasts, an expert in dissecting old photos and finding the miniatures and scenery lurking in the graininess... These shots are actually pretty decent compared to a lot of the magazine images he has successfully recreated! He was able to identify the trees as Britains Floral Garden Oaks and thought the bridge might be Bellona, a company that did vacuum-formed terrain in the 70s and 80s. He had a couple of their bridges but after comparing the shots they weren't quite right. Now I am totally OK with scratch-building this bridge, it's not that complicated, but if an existing piece is obtainable well that just makes it more authentic, right?

Doing some Google digging I was able to locate a Bellona catalogue showing three bridges. U-RV1 top left and U-RV3 top right I believe are the two bridges Mike had, one with buttresses and the other too stubby. The one in between, U-RV2, however, looks perfect. I was completely unable to find any photos online of this bridge, but Mike but the word out through some of his vintage toy and wargames networks and found a chap who had one. Here it is (below, shown with a couple of U-RV9 'Bridge in Ruins'es)

This very example should be with us shortly, and even if it isn't exactly right it look close enough to my eye, especially as it can be easily adjusted and painted. It will probably need a bit of reinforcement anyway as 40-year-old HIPS isn't particularly robust. It's interesting outlining the stonework as, starting from the distinctive L-shaped block, much of it seems to correspond, albeit a bit distorted. There are some blocks, however, that look shifted, stretched, or just completely different. It's always possible that is down to the painting (since vac form necessitates low relief and joins can be added or removed without standing out) or addition of filler where the bridge has been sunk into the bank, but I think there's another more possible explanation... we might be looking at the other side of the bridge! Time will tell when it arrives.