The Wachau Meeting House from GrandManner

The Wachau Meeting House from GrandManner is finally painted up and ready for the battlefield.

As I began to write this post I looked up my review of the buildings from GrandManner, which I wrote shortly after I received the order. This was almost four years ago! My painting backlog is truly horrible - and I have even older pieces still in the pipeline. But let's not digress...

I previewed a work-in-progress photo of the Meeting House when I published my review of Tony Harwood's excellent book Building Wargame Terrain as this model was designed by him. For some reason it took me until just recently to finish painting the house. Now please don't mistake this for me not liking the model. To the contrary: I think it is absolutely beautiful. The textures and details are superb. In fact, I think Tony has created the best designed models in the market. The are only topped by the outstanding casting quality, material and complexity of Tabletop World's pieces. But when we talk about the details, textures and authenticity, I believe these are the very best. I like how the models strive for historic accuracy instead of making use of the artistic licence you get with Fantasy models.

The Mansion from Tabletop World

More than a year after ordering the impressive Mansion from Tabletop World I finally managed to finish painting the beautiful building.

As I described in my initial review the Mansion from Tabletop World is a highly impressive piece of terrain. The logical consequence is that it takes a lot of effort to paint this massive building. Add my habit of procrastination to that and you have a long-term project. Well, in fact, it wasn't that bad. I think I began painting the mansion in December last year. Since I only get to have any hobby time at the weekends and I spent a couple of those this year playtesting my pirate skirmish rules I did quite ok this time.

Let me say it again: the Mansion is great. The term centre-piece has been used a lot for various buildings but this one truly is. It towers over the other houses and puts the coaching inn to shame. When I began painting I was considering using a bolder colour scheme than usual. Maybe a red wall? Or at least red or green window frames? I had a look at other people's work on the model. You can find my collection of people's Tabletop World buildings on Pinterest. In the end, I went with a rather conservative approach that makes it look like most of my other half-timbered houses.

Tabletop World Gallery

Tabletop World produces some of the best terrain pieces in the market. This post is dedicated to the inspiring creations people come up with using their products.

Diorama from the Tabletop World Painting Competition 2016 announcement

I have been a fan of Tabletop World and their buildings from their early days and keep a gallery of pictures of their buildings since their first pieces went out of production. I have spent the last weeks' hobby time painting up their huge mansion building. This made me search the internet a bit for other people's versions of the mansion and I came across some incredible works.

Now Tabletop World have posted the entries for their annual painting competition on their Facebook page and again I was stunned by the incredible projects people make using these buildings. It really seems that their buildings bring out the best in some painters and make them create some of the very best terrain pieces and dioramas I have every seen. Since I like to keep things in one place I decided to create a Pinterest gallery where I can curate all these awesome works and return for inspiration.

Folge Christians Pinnwand „Tabletop World Gallery“ auf Pinterest.

Here are my personal favourites of this year's competition:

Converted building by Simone Pohlenz

Converted building by Simone Pohlenz

Diorama by David Rumeau

Window detail of David Rumeau's diorama

Diorama by Tim Ward

Diorama by Tim Ward

Diorama by Patrice Vincent

Check out all the entries for the 2016 painting competition on Tabletop World's Facebook page and vote for (aka like) the ones you like best.