Carta Bellamarina forums

Concordia · Veteran Member

IC tent

Mel (Rosario) · Veteran Member

I'm afraid I don't have access to a tent, but am glad to contribute to buy one, if someone can transport it.

ben · Member

Happy to chip in for tent but Will probably end up it free company tent

Skaven Dave · Veteran Member

I have one of the smaller Sahara bell tents, but don't know whether I will be able to bring it to Empire.

Martin · Member

I don't have anything, but I'm happy to chip in for a group tent.

Mel (Rosario) · Veteran Member

Any set ideas yet?

And how many recruits do we have now? A bell tent would do, if we only have a few, and hiring one is still an option.

Skaven Dave · Veteran Member

Does anyone live in the East Anglia area who has a vehicle?

This is based in Stowmarket and is pick up only. It's 12 by 8, and £100.00

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/110928207382?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

Lack of poles is not a real problem, as I have heard that bannister polls, available from any decent DIY shop, can be used.

Concordia · Veteran Member

This seems like a really good option until we can afford something better. If you live near Ipswich and could pick one up, do please speak up now.

Skaven Dave · Veteran Member

Bennnnnnnnn? You're Norwich based and have friends with a car, don't you?

Concordia · Veteran Member

Right, we currently have four of these tents sitting in Mark's garage. (We may not keep them all.) This means we have an excellent chance of producing a fine IC presence at the first game. We do, however, now need, poles and pegs. The guy ropes could probably also do with changing as they are somewhat blue. Does anyone know of cheap sources for these sort of things. Mark is investigating the local army surplus tomorrow, but buying the ropes in bulk off the net is likely to cost another hundred or so, for example, so cheap alternative sources would be much appreciated if anyone knows any.

Thanks to Mark for organising and bankrolling this thus far.

Skaven Dave · Veteran Member

Thanks Mark, wow, four tents! That will give us some IC presence.

I talked to a friend about this a few weeks ago when I first spotted these tents. He suggested the thickest wooden dowelling that you can find at B and Q - he recommends the stuff which is over 2" thick and is about 10' long. It should be strong enough, he reconned, as he's used it for spear shafts for re-enactment equipment before now. Bang a heavy duty nail into the top, and job's a goodun (you might need to dremmel the head off the nail once in)

I seem to recall it's about £15 per dowel.

For rope, B and Q again. You can pick up lengths of sissal rope in bags, for about £8.00 for a good 8-10 metres. They may also sell it off the roll. I'm not entirely sure what sissal rope would have been used for (possibly sash windows?, possibly just for tiying things up) but we have used some for LRP purposes before now (natural rope being, well, rope)

Skaven Dave · Veteran Member

Actually the dowel might be slightly slimmer than 2", but is still pretty substantial.

squirrel · Member

The Army surplus was mostly a bust (though I might pick up some of their £1 metal ground anchors and £5 hessian sacks for storage) and our local B&Q recently closed, so I'm stuck with Homebase, Wickes and the interwebs.

Looking around, you can buy complete 7ft sectional scout tent poles for £16 each (we would need 8 for all 4 tents).

If I'm going to make them myself then I think a 1" hardwood pole would be better than a 2" softwood dowel, but I can't find any sources for 1" hardwood poles. The best price I've seen for softwood 2.4m x 50mm (8ft x 2") Machine Round Post is £1.80 each, but that would also involve picking them up from Harrogate!

For pegs, I can't find anyone who can beat http://www.woodententpegs.co.uk where the 96 pegs that we need should come in at around £54 plus another £28 for runners and pole top knobs and another £34 for mallets and postage.

For rope, I was going to go for synthetic hemp. Sissal rope is cheap, but I wouldn't want to use it for tent guys, it's far too rough. Synthetic hemp is soft and supple, looks as good as real hemp, but is cheaper, more durable (won't rot) and more practical (you can melt the ends to seal them against fraying). We will need about 50m per tent, so at £44 a single 220m reel would be ideal.

That comes in at another £300, and that assumes we don't want ridge poles too. So if anyone has any other potential suppliers, I'd be happy to look into them.

squirrel · Member

Ok, I decided we couldn't do without ridge poles, and the cost of the wood let alone the time to make everything was too much, so I've decided to let someone else do all the hard work and just pay for it all to be done for me. As such, I've just put in an order for everything we need and a few spares.

It was more than I was hoping to spend, but hopefully it will be worth it, with properly manufactured sectional ridge and upright poles (for easy transportation), plus wooden runners (slips), finials and pegs for all four tents. Now I just need to work out how to knot ropes properly. *8')

Concordia · Veteran Member

I think you're right in that a little extra money spent now will pay dividends on the field, and even with the extra cost the tents were still a good value purchase. Thanks so much for the time, effort and money you've put into this.