can anybody help please with ideas/tips on building 1940s european style lamp posts from scratch.

Which scale are you doing them in? Armo does two different ones in Resin and PE, and Royal Models does a very nice one in both double and single versions. They look right to me for the '40's era. Mig Productions makes one but it is modern. If you want working ones,You may be able to find just what you need in the Walthers catalog.
If you really want to scratch them, it looks like a mini lathe might be a good investment. The bases on most are quite elaborate. Even for a simple one you'll probably want several sizes of tubing to create expanding concentric rings aroung the top and bottom of the light post, and thin strips of Evergreen or flat brass for the light itself. If it needs to work, you can install grain of wheat bulbs, but depending upon the scale, you may only be able to run one lead through the tube. In that case, you'll need to use the tubing itself as the second lead, or if you're using nonmetal, get yourself some conductive paint (also in Walther's) and paint the lead on the outside of the pot, and then paint over that with black, or whichever color you choose.

Tamiya and Verlinden both have WW2 era lamp post kits. The Verlinden one is OOP but can probably still be found. Maybe there are elements of one of those kits you can start with and scratch the rest if you don't like a particular part of the kit lamps.

If scratching is your goal here is what I would do.
Go to a specialty wood working shop and check out thier spindals for various cabinet and furniture making.
Try and piece together parts from those to make the base.
The lamp part will be pieced together over various plastic card parts.

I would mold a master and pour resin copies to get duplicates.

Greetings, and welcome to Armorama, Geoff!
Listen, before you scratch-build your lamposts, check out this set from MiniArt Ltd.


http://www.miniart-models.com/Images/ModelKits/Bulding_r0.jpg

It's a really good kit, very accurate, and quite inexpensive...look for a review on the pages of Armorama soon for this set...

Gunny
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Gunny's right a reivew is just waiting for server stabalization It should be up very soon.

thanks for the welcome & advice i will check it out.

Hi geoff,
I had a go at this a while ago,i found the best things to use are "pens",if you look around they come in any number of designs,the pen tube is the main part to use for the pole itself,you can even join a couple together and use thicker ones for the base.I even used a christmas light shade for the lantern.I have a whole tub of stripped pens of all varieties just for this purpose.Hope this helps,i forgot to add i use these for 1/35 scale