These were Christmas gifts, these “Made of Wood” craft products from a local craft store – in the varied shapes of a lighthouse, wooden pine trees and Christmas decoration houses.
The label suggests that they are made from a very fast growing timber called the Paulownia tree, widely farmed and forested in China / East Asia and now across America as the ‘new balsa’ because of its lightness and valued for its attractive grain.
A light green wash or woodstain should bring out best features of these toy like pine trees.
Airfix OO HO and Peter Laing 15mm WW2 troops for scale comparison.Just one of the games scenarios that these wood block gifts suggest … Airfix commando raids
There are some fantastic wooden buildings in this St Nazaire raid game that give an idea of how to make your own or use wooden buildings like these:
Some handy crafty pieces and ideas for future games.
Blog update from Lockdown April May 2020:
St. Nazaire raid inspiration went back a century or two – Lighthouse and houses now completed (April / May 2020) into part of a port for 15mm pirate raids.
Hello I'm Mark Mr MIN, Man of TIN. Based in S.W. Britain, I'm a lifelong collector of "tiny men" and old toy soldiers, whether tin, lead or childhood vintage 1960s and 1970s plastic figures.
I randomly collect all scales and periods and "imagi-nations" as well as lead civilians, farm and zoo animals. I enjoy the paint possibilities of cheap poundstore plastic figures as much as the patina of vintage metal figures.
Befuddled by the maths of complex boardgames and wargames, I prefer the small scale skirmish simplicity of very early Donald Featherstone rules.
To relax, I usually play solo games, often using hex boards. Gaming takes second place to making or convert my own gaming figures from polymer clay (Fimo), home-cast metal figures of many scales or plastic paint conversions. I also collect and game with vintage Peter Laing 15mm metal figures, wishing like many others that I had bought more in the 1980s ...
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6 thoughts on “To the Lighthouse: More Christmas Gaming Crafty Surprises”
Lovely, thoughtful wooden gifts. They will work really well for gaming. I look forward to seeing what you do with them.
The Paulownia is a wonderful tree, which you can see in the UK – we have one growing opposite us and every spring it is covered in mauve flowers. They have enormous leaves. Didn’t know the wood was useful, though.
I’m glad you still treasure this chess set! The joy of these wooden toys is making them your own. I must update this post with fresh links, as I have recently painted the trees for forest skirmish games. I have also now adapted these houses and lighthouse in a ‘shops closed / Lockdown’ moment into a small port of warehouses for quick pirate games – all good fun! https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2020/04/28/making-a-martello-tower-from-scrap-fort-crumble/
Man of Tin blog 
Lovely, thoughtful wooden gifts. They will work really well for gaming. I look forward to seeing what you do with them.
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They are now in the painting box awaiting ideas.
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The Paulownia is a wonderful tree, which you can see in the UK – we have one growing opposite us and every spring it is covered in mauve flowers. They have enormous leaves. Didn’t know the wood was useful, though.
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I have a big old Paulownia near my place of work with beautiful foxglove leaves hence its nickname the foxglove tree.
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Wooden crafts are really best for gifts. I remember my dad carved the wooden chess set we have in the house.
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I’m glad you still treasure this chess set! The joy of these wooden toys is making them your own. I must update this post with fresh links, as I have recently painted the trees for forest skirmish games. I have also now adapted these houses and lighthouse in a ‘shops closed / Lockdown’ moment into a small port of warehouses for quick pirate games – all good fun! https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2020/04/28/making-a-martello-tower-from-scrap-fort-crumble/
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