Plank fort - Gerendavár / Plank fort from Hungary

image © Kadmon
sculpt © Unknown
painting © Kadmon

The Gerendavár (Plank fort) from the unknown Hungarian company (probably from Kassa György) is a wooden fort intended to be used as a 18th Century US Army outpost. The design is based on the Fort Riley cenery set from Atlantic.

* * *

Details

Miniature scenery: Plank fort (Gerendavár)

Miniature category: Plank fort

GN Code: -

Set: Gerendavár set: includes 1, Parány Peti vára: includes 1

Sprue: ?

Range: Historical

Company: Unknown (Hungarian)

Production: 1980s? (Out of Production)

Type: plank fort, Size: ?, Technology: Ancient/Medieval (Archaic) / Early Modern (Advanced), Based on: plank fort

Accessories: 2x ladder

Material: Soft plastic (probably soft PVC)

Priming: Primer is not necessary

Scale: 1:56 (28mm / 32mm) scale

Proportions: Realistic / Heroic

Assembly: Multi-piece (Tight fit peg), possibly Sprueless, No cutting required

Posing: Medium

Paintjob: Unpainted

Base: No base

Conceptual design: unknown (Atlantic)

Sculptor: Unknown (Hungarian)

* * *

Review

The sculpt is based on - but not identical - to the Fort Riley from Atlantic. As I don't have the original, I'm not sure whether some parts were just recast, or were they only used as inspiration for a very similar design.

The Gerendavár set includes the Gerendavár with 1:50 scale American soldiers. There is a sticker on the gate, green background with black fonts, and some variation in the text. Known variants are "Fort Henry" and "Fort Danielson". The soldiers are based on Atlantic American miniatures from the 7th Cavalry and Custer set, but their colours are reminescent of the Marx resculpts, so I suppose they were based on the Marx copies.

Packaging: My copy came in a green nylon bag with no markings.

image © Tóth Norbert

Gerendavár from Kassa - Variant with Fort Danielson sticker, and the miniatures (with a missing tower)

Variant - Parány Peti vára

The same resculpt was used as Parány Peti vára, that included the Gerendavár plank fort with Parány Peti American soldiers in two colours. The sticker says "Parány Peti vára" (black font on cyan or orange background) or "Parány Peti erődje" (red font on cyan background).

The Parány Peti miniatures (recasts/resculpts of the SuperCharly miniatures from Dulcop) were produced by Kassa György, and I suppose both versions (1:50 and Parány Peti) were created by him.

According to Csörgő István, the orignal Fort Riley has already been used with SuperCharly miniatures in Italy at the time, as it's a similar scale.

Differences from the Fort Riley from Atlantic

This is not a simple recast of the original sprue. The original Atlantic version is more toy-like, while the Hungarian bootleg is more lifelike.

The planks on the Atlantic fort are blank. The Hungarian cast is more wood-like.

The roof of the shed is different. The Atlantic original is tiled, the Hungarian version looks like it's straw or wood.

The walkways are separate casts in the Atlantic set. The walkways are cast together in the Hungarian recast. This also means that the support pegs for the walkways that are quite visible on the original are also missing.

The rooftops of the tower have holes in the Hungarian version, so you can insert the flag.

The gate hinges are more robust on the Atlantic fort, probably less prone to breaking.

The Atlantic walkways have railings that is missing from the Hungarian.

There are 2 long and 1 short ladders in the Fort Riley set. In the Gerendavár, only the 2 long ladders are included.

Usage

I got this set in the 1980s, used it extensively at the time, so now I had to do extensive repairs before it could have been used. I can imagine that anyone who get their set nowadays will have to do the same. As the piece is made of soft plastic (probably soft PVC) it may be warped. The pegs and hinges might be broken.

* * *

Size comparison photos

* * *

Using the miniature