Vauban Fort from More Terrain

When it comes to pirate settings Vauban Forts are greatly iconic "buildings". I have been wanting to add such a mighty fortification to my collection of terrain pieces for years. In this post I take a closer look at my recent acquisition: the Vauban Fort from More Terrain.

Review: Merchant Shop from Tabletop World

The Merchant Shop is the latest addition to Tabletop World's range of medieval/fantasy buildings. In this blog post I take a closer look at the model and explain why I believe that it is their best building yet.

In November last year, Tabletop World (TW) released the Merchant Shop. I own nearly all of the many buildings that were released over the years and I have to say that this one stands out. Literally. TW already said it in their announcement on Facebook:

The Merchant Shop from
Tabletop World

We proudly present you our new Merchant Shop in heroic scale! This is the first in the line of models that will take your gaming experience to the next level! Apart from highest attention to detail we had game-play in mind when creating the model. You can easily use it with miniatures that are in 28-32mm scale. The whole building has plenty of space to move your miniatures around, with several floors connected with stairs. All doors, window shutters and hatches are hinged and fully operational so you can open and close them to your liking.

Résine Miniatures

Résine Miniatures is a French manufacturer of 28mm scale terrain and scenery for historical and medieval fantasy games.

I stumbled across their beautiful buildings on Pinterest where photos of their great work kept on appearing in my stream. It is rare that I find manufacturers that I hadn't heard of before. The photos show the Résine Miniatures logo but I couldn't find a website for them. Thanks to the messaging function of Pinterest I got into contact with Christophe Samuel, the man behind the company. While there is no website you can purchase Résine Miniatures products on Etsy and eBay.




To get an impression of the products, my first order contained the Medieval Buildings #3 and #7, the tomb and door #4.

Walls from Games of War

A few months ago, Games of War released some Spanish-style walls as the latest addition to their pirate buildings range. I finished painting my lot this weekend to show them off just in time as my last painting project for the year.

I have been loving the products from Games of War for years now - not only their nice pirate buildings, but more so the fantastic ships and boats, such as the British cutter, the longboats and small ships. With the release of these walls they have expanded their buildings range which should be interesting not only for pirate games such as Blood & Plunder but for a variety of other settings as well.

Battery by Slug Industries

In this post I take a look at the battery terrain piece which was produced by Slug Industries as part of a kickstarter project for their Spanish Fort.

In my recent review of the 28mm Spanish Fort I already mentioned that I also got the battery piece that was funded via the kickstarter project. The battery is a solid piece of resin. Aside from the main piece there is a planking piece, similar to the one that was provided with the Spanish Fort, and an MDF kit for a ladder - again, same as with the fort. So, beside filing off a few sharp edges and assembling the ladder, there is no further assembly required.

The battery, the planking (right) and the ladder kit (bottom right)

Spanish Fort by Slug Industries

The Spanish Fort by Slug Industries is a terrain piece modeled after the actual Fort Matanzas and successfully funded via a Kickstarter campaign earlier this year. In this article I take a closer look at the model and present my painted version as well as some gaming ideas for the fort.

Walls from Empress Miniatures

To complement my Caribbean pirate town I recently painted up a set of walls that I ordered together with the Spanish Church from Empress Miniatures.

Simple walls like these can be used in a variety of settings. With the pantile roof of the gateway these walls fit nicely into a Caribbean piratical setting. Empress offers all the various sections and posts individually so you can order the pieces that best suit your specific needs. I went for nine wall sections, four corner posts and four intermediate posts.

Spanish Style Church from Empress Miniatures

No village is complete without a church. To complement my Caribbean pirate buildings I got the Spanish style church from Empress Miniatures.



I had been tempted to buy the Church from Empress Miniatures for quite some time. Then, while I was painting the pirate buildings from Games of War, I decided that those few houses would not be enough to form the nice little pirate settlement that I had in mind. The church would be the perfect addition to the lot.

Spanish Pirate Buildings from Games of War

A pirate gaming table for the Caribbean is made up of more than jungle and a beach. Interesting games require buildings so I got me some Spanish-style pirate buildings for my Caribbean pirate table.

Captain Blackbeard raids a Caribbean town

Aquarium Decoration Plants for Jungle Terrain

Aquarium decoration is a great source for all sorts of wargaming jungle terrain. I recently showed off some very nice ruins, today I want to share some useful plastic plants.

Plants form the core of any jungle-themed gaming board. The occasional palm tree is nice but what you really want is dense vegetation made up of many many plants. The best source of affordable and nicely sized plants is aquarium decoration supplies. I used a few aquarium plants for the jungle terrain sections that I finished recently. Now I found some very nice products on Amazon: Plant Mats from the "Hobby" range by Dohse Aquaristik. They come in four different versions:

Aquarium Decoration Jungle Ruins

Decor Brick Gate from
Europet Bernina (234-105382)

In preparation of some upcoming pirate gaming on tropical treasure islands I purchased a few aquarium decoration pieces to enhance my jungle gaming board.

I bought the first aquarium deco piece years ago when I first started pirate gaming: the Decor Brick Gate from Europet Bernina (234-105382).  I saw this item and a few others put to great use as 28mm scale terrain on the old website of Alex Bews (aka Witchhunter, which is sadly no longer online). For the base of my jungle board I got myself the beautiful 4x6 Beach wargaming mat from Deep-Cut Studio and now I need terrain to fill it. So aside from some jungle terrain sections I dediced to get some more aquarium terrain. Here it is!

Jungle Terrain Sections Finished

Many years ago, I built some jungle terrain sections which I never finished. Now, as I am focusing on my Caribbean jungle board, I took them out again and finished them.

The first step was to paint the bases and stones. Then, I ordered some aquarium plastic plants from amazon for some simple additional vegetation.

The jungle section after painting without additional vegetation

Aquarium decoration plastic plants

Some aquarium plants and simple grass is obviously not enough so I ordered some more stuff from PK-PRO: A box of Ground Detail Jungle Forest from Reality in Scale and various laser-cut paper plants by MIG.

Jungle scenery from MIG

Laser-cut paper plants from MIG

Finished Terrain Sections

Below are photos of the terrain sections with the various scenery and vegetation applied. I am quite happy with the result and will probably do a few more pieces like these.

Tutorial: Painting Stonework

In this article I describe the way I paint stonework on my models. From cobblestone streets to the walls of medieval houses - they all are painted following this recipe.

First off, as with all artistic things there is not the one right way to do things. Stones come in endless variations of colour and shape and there are many ways to paint them. Over the years I have developed (or let's say, I got used to) a certain technique that creates results which I am quite happy with (even though "technique" makes it sound more complicated and elaborate than it actually is, as you will shortly see). Since questions about how I paint stones come up frequently, I decided to write this detailed tutorial for reference. I hope it can serve as a little inspiration or helper when painting your own stonework models. Let's start!

Pirates at the Port of Gierburg

After finishing the basic section of the Port of Gierburg gaming board, I thought it would be a good opportunity to set up a little diorama on the new board. It is also a good opportunity to finally present my pirate crew painted by Simon Bradley a bit earlier this year. The crew is led by infamous Captain Blackbeard and used for my pirates game Dogs Ahoy. Enjoy!

Blackbeard's crew terrorizes the port

The Port of Gierburg - Part 5: Dock Section II Ground Level Painted

In the previous installment of my Port of Gierburg project I described how I built the base board for my dock section. Now that part is finally finished.

Section I, the Water board and Section II set up together

Wow, time sure flies. And, wow, am I good at procrastinating. I posted part 4 of my Port of Gierburg project log in September 2014! I really had a tough time deciding how to continue with this part of my board. I have made some progress since then and decided that the other buildings and raised level section will be a single removable piece. This meant that I could move on and just paint the board section as it was.

Cobblestone Gaming Mat from Kraken Wargames

At the end of 2015 I backed the Kraken Mats kickstarter thanks to a convincing unboxing video over at Beast of War. Today the mat has arrived - does it hold up to my expectations?

The Kraken Wargaming mats are now available from FantasyWelt and today I received my version of the 4 x 4 Cobblestone City mat. First off, some images of the design:

The Cobblestone City mat image from the Kraken Mat kickstarter

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.

Ocean and Cobblestone Gaming Mat from Deep-Cut Studio

Two new gaming mats have arrived for my collection: The ocean mat and cobblestone mat from Deep-Cut Studio.

After my great experience with the cobblestone gaming mat from UrbanMatZ I was looking for an appropriate sea mat for playing piratey ship battles. I found a suitable mat design from Deep-Cut Studio. At that time their mats were available only in two versions: PVC and cloth. I hadn't really seen any good feedback on those materials and I was very happy with the "mousepad material" which I got to know from UrbanMatZ. Just recently Deep-Cut Studio (DCS) made their mats available again in that version as well so I gave them a try. While I was ordering the Ocean mat I thought why not save on the shipping costs and try their cobblestone mat as well?

Unlike the UrbanMatZ mats, DCS mats do not come with a free carrying bag. If you already have one this is no big deal as you rarely need to carry many mats around. For storing the original package is sufficient enough, if not nearly as nice as a proper bag, of course.

The first thing I noticed is that the DCS mats have sharp corners where UrbanMatZ has rounded corners (true mousepad style!). I think I do prefer sharp corners although it doesn't matter much to me.

Another thing I noticed later on is the smell: The DCS mat smell a bit of rubber. It didn't last long, though - after a few days it was gone. But I didn't notice this with the UrbanMatZ mat.

The Ocean Mat

Detail image of the Ocean mat from
the Deep-Cut Studio website

I chose the large 6' x 4' version because - well - ships! If you plan on running 28mm ship battles you better go with the largest option.

Surprisingly, the design of the actual mat appears somewhat different to what you expect from the pictures on their website. The pictures show an uneven curly surface. Of course, I am not talking about the physical surface here - I mean the graphic design. The actual mat is more like a flat blue surface with the occasional white foam. The curly design is just missing (as if you had hidden a layer in Photoshop). Here is a photo to show the difference:

Detail of the Ocean mat from Deep-Cut Studio

I have to say that the design looks a bit better on photos than in reality, yet is still nice enough.

The different design aside, the mat is quite nice. The production quality is high and I look forward to playing my first ship battles on the mat. I believe gaming mats like these are the perfect solution for representing water surface. The material is perfect for moving ships about as the models slide smoothly across the board.

The Cobblestone Mat

I ordered this 4' x 4' cobblestone mat as a kind of bonus. I was already quite pleased with the UrbanMatZ mat but I wanted to have a comparison (and I was too impatient to wait for the Kraken Mat that would come sometime in May).
When I rolled out the cobblestone mat I was quite pleasantly suprised. The design is very nice. The details are sharper than those of the UrbanMatZ mat. The cobblestones are nicely small, very well fitting for 28mm scale. I also like the colours: The UrbanMatZ mat is kind of blueish while the DCS mat has a more "normal" brownish grey tone and fits my buildings much better.

A scenic shot with some buildings and highwaymen

A comparison between the UrbanMatZ cobblestone city mat and
the cobblestone mat from Deep-Cut Studio

The mats from UrbanMatZ and Deep-Cut Studio and their backs

All in all, I can definately recommend the mousepad version mats from Deep-Cut Studio. Of course, the different design vary a lot and it is very subjective whether you like them or not. At least the cobblestone mat I find absolutely excellent.