Middle Earth terrain

I picked up some 3d printed terrain from Spain for my Middle Earth and general D&D gaming. The two pieces I bought to test them are the Garsley stronghold and the Chapel. 

With the lockdown etc they took a while to arrive but I finally got my hands on them yesterday and gave the first one a quick paint last night, though it still needs some highlighting.

I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the pieces.

And after a quick paint last night.

A comparison with a GW Middle Earth ruin.

I do need to get some materials to make scenic bases for pieces like these, hopefully once we get back to level 2 and I can gt to the DIY store.

Craig

Titan Terrain NZ and more Easterlings

Recently a new terrain company has started up down in Dunedin, NZ. Joe has turned his hobby into  a wee business and started up a 28mm terrain making company called Titan Terrain NZ  using laser cutting and was kind enough to send myself and Kent of Galpys 15mm paintshack a few samples of his products.

I must say that I am impressed. Tonight I built the 28mm Wattle and Daub hut and even without the instructions it is easy to put together with just a little trial and error (the instructions are sent via email but since when have I needed instructions?) I gave mine a quick paint as I went to make it easier than painting once fully assembled and this particular model comes with teddy bear fur for the thatched roof.

The building comes flatpacked.

Initial assembly- positioning pieces before gluing together.

 Assembling the roof.

 Painting as I go.

I wet the teddy bear fur with watered down pva, hopefully it will look the part once dry, it should do.

My new Easterlings (Fireforge Medieval Russians) protect the barn.

The semi finished product- I've yet to put the windows in and weather it a bit but I'd be happy to field it on the table top as is.

My thoughts

The building was easy to assembly and well constructed-  Joe has obviously done his homework there.

Retailing at $19.90 NZ the building is good value and a great addition to 28mm gaming and there are plenty of others in the range and are pretty reasonably priced. I can definitely see myself getting more to add to my 28mm buildings collection and highly recommend them to other gamers both here in NZ and overseas. 

A wee bit of info about Joe and Titan Terrain NZ

Joe spent his teenage years playing Game Workshop games then took a break from war gaming for around ten years before getting back into it around three years ago. Last year he was about to spend a reasonable sum on buying terrain from overseas when he figured that he could buy a small laser cutter for not much more than he was planning on spending and that if he  bought one then he could have as much terrain as he could ever want. Friends told him that what I was making was good enough to sell and it kind of took a life of it's own from there.

Joe had never used a CAD program, a vector editor or a laser cutter until a year ago so it's been a bit of a steep learning curve but thanks to the internet he was able access tutorials to help him when he was stuck. 

Joe was selling a bit of stuff through Facebook last year but only launched the Titan Terrain  NZ website in March of this year. He's already got a good range of buildings available and plans for a lot more. including a few more things for his 28mm WW2 range, fleshing out the sci-fi range a bit more, doing some 15mm stuff for Flames of War and Team Yankee (some industrial buildings that can be used for both) and then maybe do some medieval/War of the Roses stuff-so as you can see the range is bound to grow.

Based here in NZ Joe will ship all over the world and is able to get very competitive rates on overseas orders using DHL.

Good luck with the enterprise Joe, you've got a great, reasonably priced product which is a welcome addition to the field. I look forward to picking up a few more pieces for my table top games.

Craig 

Timeline Buildings

The first two ruins are about done.

Here are a few shots and comparisons with the Italeri 1/72nd/ 20mm ones (which are IMO large 20mm).

 The shutters need a bit of drybrushing to tone them down.

 A 15mm Battlefront Kingtiger and 28mm Bolt Action jeep for comparison.

 Timeline and Italeri.

 A Timeline miniatures between two Italeri. the building heights are about the same.

 The two Timeline miniatures ruins.

So two down... eight to go.

Update
Another hour or so and the the first terraced house was painted too and the shutters dry brushed on the  two ruined buildings. I am happier with the result after the highlight. I do need to find some suitable 40s era posters for on the side of the terraced building.

Craig

Black Tree Design Germans

Last weekend I decided to order some metal Germans to make my horde well, more Germanic looking. I wanted more variety than the Warlord Games plastics give, and also a few hairer figures so with some trepidation I ordered some Black Tree Design Ancient Germans. Why the trepidadation? I've ordered some BTD Muslims before but they are just too big compared to the Perry's to use in my Crusades armies so I was a bit concerned that I would have the same problem with the WG Germans. Also, on TMP it seems that  some people have had issues in the past with orders arriving in a timely fashion. Despite this I decided too order some figures last Satruday or Sunday (Easter), The order was sent on Monday or Tuesday and arrived here in rural NZ today- can't complaint about that.

The figures are as well detailed as I'd hoped they would be, nice moulds, and plenty of variety. They also fit in well with the WGs figures both is size and sculpting style so no need to worry there either. Painted up they should make an excellent addition to the horde.

I hope that these photos give a good comparision between the two ranges.

 Craig

King & Kerr Buildings

One range of 15mm buildings I've been tempted to buy but until now have not done so is King & Kerr. I needed some huts/buildings for Eastern Front games, and also was on the look out for buildings for the club, so ordered one of their Eastern Front City sets and the Lignes North Western Europe one for the club.

They arrived a couple of days ago so last night I painted up the East Front buildings. One reason I decided to go with K&K is that I took one look at the new Battlefront prepainted and thought- yuck. They look like a 12 year old made them. I don't care if they are relatively cheap and prepainted, they look far too simplistic- and by the sounds of it the roofs are a bit fragile too.

Anyway here are the K&K EF buildings. My thoughts on them? I'm a bit unsure really- probably an 8 out of 10. I like the buildings, nice clean moulds with excellent detail, and they paint up well. The only thing I dislike is the size of 3 of them. I like my buildings to be able to hold at least 2 medium sized FoW bases and some of these can only hold one. So at 45pd for 5 (roughly $NZ90) I'm not covinced they are that good value for money- I do like the larger buildings but as you can only buy them individually then you don't get access to the discount for the city sets. A minor quibble I know but that is the only thing from holding me back from sayng I love them and giving the 10 out of 10.

I have not looked in detail at the Ligne set yet but again, and at a glance, did like the look of the bigger buildings, not so much the smaller ones.

 A note on the pictures:  bought an extra building- the one on the foreground of the first picture as I liked the look of it. I'd have given them 10 out of 10 if all buildings were about this size.

Craig

Gripping Beast Dark Ages Village

I ordered from War and Peace Games in Australia and they took less than a week to arrive- since the were out of stock on the GB site I was not sure they'd have any in stock but at $20 Aus or less + postage (fixed rate to NZ) they were a damn good buy!

I don't have much in the way of 28mm terrain and at present with so many figures to paint it isn't high on my priority to make any- although I am starting to think about ideas for camps. Anyway, these fill a much needed gap and I will probably add a few more of them in time, I am very happy with the price and the quality of the buildings.













All are painted with a mixture of test pots from a local DIY store.

I intend to make balsa doors for the two with open doors and also make a palisade and watchtower to complete the village- but I' not sure when these projects will get done!