My Franken-Alamo Set-up - Pt 1

I like putting together toy soldier set-ups but every now-&-then they become quite a handful. This was one of them. The space used for this was the same space I used for last year's Christmas layout, battery operated Korean train, the Gettysburg set-up, and more. It measures 44" deep x ca76" wide and is in no way sufficient enough to properly depict the real Alamo compound, which was actually quite large. Of course, the original Marx playsets featured a very small compound because they were meant as a child's playset. But using components from an original Marx set as well as two Marx re-pop sets - along with components from a variety of other manufacturers - allowed me to cobble together a reasonable toy resemblance to the original compound.

Sooo, what is it we have here? I first used the original Marx Chapel as well as several original Marx walls. In order to make a bigger compound, additional walls from the re-pop (Marx Toys Corp from 1995) were used. As an homage to the original Marx playset I put the "Davy Crockett At The Alamo" gate on the west wall (that's the wall in the very front that you're looking at in the main photo). Of course it doesn't belong there because entry into the compund was managed by a port cochere' in the south wall. For that I used a second Marx "Davy Crockett At The Alamo" gate. I cobbled together a Long Barracks in the upper left (the north east corner) using extra wall sections. There are two foam gun ramps from an early Classic Toys Soldiers (CTS) playset and a foam repaired north wall from The Hobby Bunker (The real Alamo had a breach in its north wall which had been hastily repaired prior to the siege). Figures are Marx re-pop, CTS, BMC/Americana, Wm Britains, and Britains DSG.There's only three cannons in the compound and one used by Mexican artillerymen. Depending on which account or which drwaing you're looking at the compound had anywhere from13-15 cannons. I don't know how many the Mexican army employed.

I culled this drawing of the Alamo compound from Pinterest. It's about as good as any and while some details may differ from drawing to drawing that you come across, the basics are there.

My set-up as it looked on 12 Mar 2021

Jim Bowie's Last Stand is represented here in the Long Barracks, but in truth he was in his quarters next to the port cochere' on the south wall.

Notice the well near the Long Barracks