Saturday, March 30, 2013

Product Review: Total Battle Miniatures - 6mm Granary/Village Terrain Tile



With the Painting Challenge coming off the books I thought I'd relax a bit and do some terrain for a change. I've been contemplating doing ECW/TYW in 10mm and in order to sort out my thoughts I decided I'd work on some buildings that could fit in with the period. (I don't get too hung up on scale for terrain, in fact I often like my buildings to be a stage smaller than my figures as they seem to look better than same-scaled models). When I was at Salute a few years ago I picked up this terrain set from Total Battle Miniatures as I thought the vignettes very attractive and the quality seemed quite solid. 


When I finally opened the box this weekend I was not disappointed. The castings were pristine, with very little cast lines or bubbles in the resin. The base is a type of heavy rubber which takes paint quite well, but I'd definitely recommend that you give it a good scrubbing to remove all the release agent in order to avoid any paint flaking later down the line.



Total Battle designs all of its terrain tiles so that you can 'slot-in' a wide variety of different buildings to suit your preference - very clever. 



I originally picked up this set as I thought the granary closely resembled the one at Essling and I've been wanting to replay the battle using 'Grande Armee' for years. (I notice that they also have a church tile which could nicely serve as the church at Aspern.)



The direction sheet suggested that the models be primed white, but I went with my traditional black approach instead and drybrushed up from there. It seemed to work OK and I had a lot of fun picking out the fine details revealed in the sculpts.

Here is the tile next to a base from my 6mm Napoleonic collection.
Overall I had great experience working on this set and I can certainly see myself collecting more from the range over time. I'm already eyeing both the charming mediterranean Hill Town and the huge Walled Town sets... Highly recommended.

20 comments:

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    1. Yes, I found them to be quite well designed.

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  2. That really is a useful and well put together product. Beautifully painted too.

    I'm looking for buildings for my 10mm stuff so I'd be interested to see it alongside something from that scale if you have time please Curt.

    Cheers,
    Millsy

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  3. Thanks Millsy. I'd be delighted to get some 10mm comparison shots for you in a bit. I'm currently waiting for some bases but will get some shots to you soon (and will try to remember to place an addendum to this post).

    Related to this is that I've heard that 'Total Battle' is planning a 10mm range as well. Nonetheless, as you know, their is a distortion in miniature gaming so the building tiles may end up taking up too much real estate on the table in relation to the scale. Something to look out for nonetheless!

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  4. Beautifully painted terrain pieces. Best, Dean

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  5. Some nice buildings you got there! Your choice of colours is superb as always.

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  6. Difficult to believe that is 6mm scale; gorgeous job.

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  7. It looks great Curt!! I've also started to move some things in 10mm and have been looking around for buildings. These look very nice and a comparison shot would be nice if you get a moment. I also understand they will do more 10mm buildings. I'm going to pick up their Dark Age set which is in 10mm.

    Christopher

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    1. Sure, once I get some 10mm stuff properly based-up I'll send along a shot of the buildings in relation to the figures.

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    2. Thank you Curt that would be very kind.

      Christopher

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  8. Nice pieces, love to see them with a mass of Grenadiers around it!

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    1. Absolutely! I love that one painting (can't remember the artists name off hand) that depicted the Austrian Grenadier Reserve swarming around the village.

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  9. I was curious about their 15mm range as I've only seen their 6mm stuff. Good to know.

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  10. Great job Curt - they look lovely.

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    1. Thanks Greg! One village to go and we can start planning for Aspern-Essling.

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Thanks for your comment! As long as you're not a spam droid I'll have it up on the blog soon. :)