Total Battle Miniatures

We all know that the scaling down done in wargames doesn't just apply to the miniatures. When it comes to terrain, a dozen model trees must represent a wood, and a few model houses a village.

When it comes to buildings, I try to help this process by using models a scale smaller than my troops, so that the footprint of the models on the table is reduced. If I used 25-30mm size buildings with my RSM95s, I would often be stuck with using just one building to create a 'village'. But if you match 15mm buildings with 25-30mm figures, 2 or 3 buildings can be used, which I think creates a more pleasing effect.

One company has taken this process a little further by producing model buildings that have a deliberately minimised footprint on the table, in relation to their nominal scale. The company is Total Battle Miniatures and I finally got around to buying a couple of their products recently, namely the 'Town Tower' and the 'Three Storey Single House', from the 15mm Black Powder range. My idea was that these 2 models could be added to a built up area to make it seem more like a large village or small town, whilst adding only a very small amount to the space taken up on the table. Each model is only 50mm wide by 50mm deep, but has a good height of at least 100mm.

The photo shows the models as they arrived. The Total Battle website shows how they look painted up. They are cast in what seems to be a durable resin, and are good quality castings, although a few minor holes from air bubbles are present. Only a tiny amount of filling will be needed. For their modest size they are not particularly cheap (see the website prices), and postage is charged at a fairly high rate. They also took about 2 weeks to arrive, which is slow by contemporary standards. Nevertheless, I definitely think this company is on to something and the product range is well worth looking into. I'm looking forward to getting them painted and on the table.

However, any minor price reservations about Total Battle Miniatures fade into nothing compared with Hawk Wargames. If you haven't already heard about them, check out this link. Quite frightening really.

For Stokie Steve (9th April)

Hmm... Yes, it would have been a good idea to have some figures in the photo to show how they match up with the buildings. Readers should note that these Total Battle models are very compatible with the JR Miniatures 15mm buildings which can be seen in the photos of my SYW battles throughout this blog. In the picture below the figure is a Minden Miniatures 1/56th scale officer, 30mm from bottom of boots to top of tricorn.

I hope that helps Steve. Personally I think these buildings would work very well with your smaller 1/72nd scale figures.