Nurgle Price Nonsense…

I had heard rumours for a few weeks now about a whole set of Nurgle releases as part of the Warhammer "End Times".

Plastic Nurgle models – how perfect!

Always on the lookout for new additions to either the 40k Death Guard or Blood Bowl Nurgle team, when I finally got to see the above photo of the Scions of the Last Plague I thought wayhay, fantastic!!

Then I saw the price tag…

I'm sorry but I find £83 for 11 plastic models extortionate in the extreme. The models are nice but not £83 worth of nice. I appreciate that they're Ogre sized too but even so, the Ogre battalion box set contains 16 models for £65, the extra £20 cannot be justified to me.

So, I'll save my money, thank you very much, and put it towards a plastic castle instead ;)

Plastic Scenery Review - part 3

So here we are with my final look at Tabletop Workshop's Monastic Scenery set. You can find part one here – Chapel – and part two here – Cottage, Barn and Stable.

Today I have photos of GW miniatures alongside the buildings, to give you lovely folks an idea of how they compare in scale. As you can see from the images, there's not a lot in it – certainly nothing to cause concern or that looks just silly.

Externally, I think the fact that the base of the building is a similar depth to the miniatures base helps the scale difference. The doors are a little on the skinny side, but not a lot. It's all looking shiny from this side!

On the inside of the chapel, it all looks good. The height of the door means that models would theoretically have to lower their heads to pass through, but it doesn't look out of place.

Similarly, the stable door is looking on the small side now that the miniature base goes against the scale difference, but not enough to cause concern. The window height of the stalls is pretty perfect.

I have to say that the difference is rather negligible – certainly a lot less than I thought it would be. I didn't have any other miniature ranges to compare but I think you can get an idea from these GW models.

The other query I had was the possibility of removing doors so that they could be opened/closed rather than a static part of the wall section. Looking at these close-up images of the stable door I have to say that I think it's a 50:50 project. I think for both this and the chapel, it would be possible to remove the door section, though you would destroy the door in the process.

In the case of the stable, I think removing the door would compromise the strength of the wall section as the door frame is quite thin. This could be negated somewhat by ensuring the wall section was glued permanently in place.

The wall sections are quite thick, so it will take some effort to remove the door if that's the goal.

I also have to point out that I said in the last review that the walls were very smooth. I have since noticed that there is texture on these wall sections, albeit subtle (you can just make it out on some of the stable images above). It is enough for a colour wash to pick up on though, so you would get tone variation in these sections.

Let's get down to 'brass tacks' here…

These kits are bloody awesome, even more so when bought in bundles as you get massive savings. If you're looking for an alternative (or significant improvement) to MDF or resin for your scenery you will not get better than this – the only thing better is bespoke-made terrain which takes hours and/or costs a fortune. The only thing comparable to this is the GW plastic terrain, which whilst excellent is extortionate in price and drowning in skulls. This stuff has turned my head and I'm very excited to see what Tabletop Workshop capable of in the future.

Stop faffing and go buy some already…you know you want to!!

Plastic Scenery Review - part 2

I'm currently reviewing Tabletop Workshop's Monastic Scenery set, which I got hold of at the weekend. You can read part 1 here, which includes the rather lovely chapel piece.

Next on the list is the Medieval Cottage. It follows a similar style to the chapel – the pieces are loose in the box and the instructions are printed on the inside of the lid. There are six pieces that fit together exactly the same way that the chapel does.

It took a similar 10 seconds to build the cottage and the scale is perfect for my 28mm models.

Inside is nicely detailed, though I'm not sure my villagers could afford stone flooring (all these kits use the same floor piece). The side walls are quite low compared to the chapel, which makes access much easier without the need to remove a wall.

As you know I already own a 4Ground cottage, so was interested to see how they compare. As you can see there's not a lot in it. The 4Ground cottage is a little taller (the side walls certainly are) and the door opens. The TW plastic has more detail across the board but I much prefer the 'teddy fur' roof to the plastic one, which looks a bit too 'soft' and plastic and not as real. I may buy some fur and stick it over the plastic to try and match the 4Ground style. The walls in between the batons of the TW cottage are very smooth – too smooth – so I will have to employ my liquid greenstuff technique again to add some texture.

Having said all that the TW cottage is still a fantastic kit and well worth a look.

The Stable kit uses many of the same pieces as the Cottage – in fact only the walls are different. It's a clever idea to save on production costs but does mean that your buildings are the same size, which is a bit of a shame.

The new wall pieces are very detailed, as I'm learning to expect from TW, with tools leaning up agains the batons. One side is quite open which gives some great cinematic opportunities with archers.

Scale is obviously identical to the other pieces and again it's a lovely bit of kit.

The Barn kit is virtually identical to the Stable, with only a single wall different.

The same tools lean against the wall as in the Stable, but this time we have a double door front. This kit more than any other could have done with opening doors. I'm not sure how much of an extra expense it would have been, but it did feel like a bit of a missed opportunity. 

Also, the Barn being the same size as the Cottage didn't feel quite right. However, TW have managed to squeeze three building out of fundamentally the same kit so that is a major bonus.

Together, as a whole, the Monastic set sits together very well. Once painted and a bit of scenery added it will look rather stunning rather quickly. The set of four buildings came in at £50 with free P&P – that's just £12.50 each!

They all snap together very easily and have plenty of detail to make painting a breeze and a joy. As you can see my Citadel trees sit comfortably alongside them as do the 4Ground buildings so it's a win on every front.

The one thing that's got me frothing now is… if this is how good the small buildings are, how stunning is the castle going to be?!!

Next post I'll try and get some photos of the buildings next to slightly different scale models – GW Fantasy, Reaper, Darksword, etc.

Read Part 3…

TW Plastic Monastic Scenery Review - part 1

For some reason our postman decided to leave a red card through the door, rather than leave my parcel with neighbours as he usually does. This meant three days of me frothing at the prospect of my new Tabletop Workshop plastic terrain, without being able to collect them. Finally on Saturday they were in my hands.

They came in a rather large brown box packed with green 'wotsits' making the whole thing rather solid and safe. Rather than have loose or bagged up pieces I was pleased to see that each of the four buildings were in their respective boxes.

This blog post is going to review the Monastic Chapel in detail then we'll follow that up later in the week with the rest of the set, for reasons that will become obvious.

Upon opening the box, the first thing I noticed was that there were no sprues. All the pieces had been removed from their parent sprue – mostly with no ill effect – and the building instructions are on the inside of the lid, saving on bits of paper. The bits do rattle around in there as a consequence.

The pieces themselves couldn't be more straightforward – a floor, two side walls, two end walls and two halves of the roof. Very chunky pieces of plastic and full of detail.

To be fair, I didn't read the instructions as it was so obvious how it all went together, and 10 seconds later there was a monastic chapel sitting on my dining room table. You could almost leave this built without the need for any glue at all. The side walls slot into the floor piece, then the two end walls snap into place holding everything pretty secure. Only the roof would need gluing together as I found the two halves kept sliding apart when in place.

Outside, the scale looks spot on, certainly for the models I will be using. The Norman miniatures here are Perry 28mm and look perfectly at home.

Inside, the scale is again perfect, and you can already start to see things come to life. There is as much detail inside as out and you could easily build and paint an entire village in an afternoon, with a simple basecoat, wash and minor detailing.

I've noticed Games Workshop's plastic terrain tends to be over-cluttered with details. Not so here. There is enough detail to give each piece a wow factor whilst remaining quite neutral so you can put your own mark on it, adding extra detail if you wish.

A couple of things to note though. The inside does have several circular mould marks on it, so if you intend to use the inside of the building a lot you will have to go at it with a file somewhat to remove these.

Whilst these marks don't occur on the outside of the building at all, there is a bit on the end walls where the sides are clipped in place. Reminiscent of some of the MDF buildings we're seeing but not a problem unless you're as fussy as me. 

Aside from the circles on the inside there were no mould lines at all to file off, just a couple of places where the sprue was removed might need a little attention.

Overall a superb piece of kit. Solid, chunky, lightweight, detailed (but no skulls cluttering the place), so easy to put together and no doubt a joy to paint. It costs £18.50 if bought separately, but as part of the bundles it will come in at considerably less.

My only real niggle – and I'm clutching at straws here – is that the door doesn't open.

Despite that, I would heartily recommend this kit. It will surely fit in with other genres besides historical (Mordheim, Witch Finder, etc).

Next time the Cottage, Barn and Stable…