Introduction
This has been a fairly busy weekend, with a full day's gaming on Saturday (2 exciting battle reports to come, in due course!) and my daughter's Christmas Dance Show on Sunday afternoon. Consequently, I've not had much time to put together a blog article for today. Still, here's a short discussion of a piece of MDF terrain that I was given for my birthday.
The Construction Office
This model is a "Construction Office" from TTCombat. It looks very much as if it's intended to be the office for a construction site or a builder's yard - some form of Portakabin or other prefabricated building and is described as "Great...to use with...28-35mm wargames". Very useful; I can think of many scenarios involving modern or even sci-fi scenarios where such a hut could be used.
The kit costs a mere £3.95 and (like other TTCombat kits I've built) is extremely easy to assemble into a very sturdy model. The parts are relatively few in number and fit together very well indeed. Although there is no interior detail in this hut, the roof can be left unglued to provide access so that you can decorate it yourself, if desired. Excellent!
So why haven't I painted it yet?
As soon as I had finished gluing the parts of the hut together, I felt that something was wrong. The building was fine in itself, but it just seems too big! I placed a fairly average-sized 28mm figure alongside the Construction Office and my suspicions were confirmed.
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| Captain Haddock cannot see through the door window, even though he's mounted on a base that gives him an extra 4mm or so of height. |
So, this lovely, cheap model of a prefab building is so far out of the scale of my figures that I won't be able to use it. It would work well for 42mm figures, though! Or maybe 35mm models at a pinch, if they had fairly thick bases on the figures and you weren't too fussy.
Here's a last, slightly flippant thought. I borrowed a Lego minifigure from one of my children for a few minutes, just to take this photo. The hut is quite a good fit for him...
That's a nice bit of kit.
ReplyDeleteIt is nice :-) . Pity it's the wrong size...
DeleteHugh, if you don't really like it, I'll happily take it off your hands! :-)
ReplyDeleteA bold offer! However, it would cost almost as much for me to send it (built up) as it would for you to buy a fresh one for yourself. Hmm.
DeleteYou have a saw right ?
ReplyDeleteBut seriously, I think it would behove traders to put a '28mm' figures wtih their models onthis evidence.
I was completely taken aback with the sheer size of this cabin! It doesn't mesh with my previous experience of models from this supplier.
DeleteBorrowed you say? Admit it. You were playing with them :)
ReplyDeleteAs for the hut, it looks really nice for something so simple.
Lego is good, but I don't normally play with my kids' stuff. Now when they were a bit younger and we had/have a lot of Brio wooden railway track - now I freely admit that I played with *that*!
DeleteHow very annoying. I think that TT Combat's terrain is designed for the Batman Miniature Game, so that would explain the sizing issues. Might have to reconsider buying some if their kit now. Can't argue with the price, but if it's not suitable for the majority of my collection, I may have to look elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I would generalise from this; other TTCombat models seem to be quite a different scale [for example, the billboards that I reviewed a few months ago are a very good size for 28mm figures]. The worry is that their scale is inconsistent and that you cannot tell from the photos on their adverts...
DeleteActually, having considered the size problem, I think I may have a solution. The problem is the height of the door and windows. An internal insert could raise the floor so that figures inside wouldn't look like children and an external step at the bottom of the door would give the illusion of the door being shorter than it actually is. If the whole size of the door bothers you, you could create a greyboard or card 'frame' insert to reduce he size of the door. Not a ideal as having one the 'right' size, but would mean you could use it. Just a thought.
DeleteAnd if you'very got some of that plastic strapping they use on big parcels, cut dome straps of that and glue it to the steps. The cross-hatching, when painted, looks like industrial steel plating.
Delete'Some' not dome. Bloody predictive text...
DeleteWhile I like it I can think of little reasons for me to get one. So I shall be on the look out in your AARs to make sure I can spot it.
ReplyDeleteYou'll fail to see this in any of my AARs since I haven't painted or used this hut. Nor will I, I think; it's just too big to fit in with the size of the figures I use.
DeleteShame, it does look good though and my first thought was ooh I want one.
ReplyDeleteI was delighted to receive this kit (for my birthday), but very disappointed when I realised how huge it is!
DeleteInteresting post as I'd had that kit done as a future purchase. You're scaling pictures do match my experience of <a href="http://weeblokes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/tt-combat-bus-shelters-completed.html>TT Combat's Bus Shelter</a> but I'd just decided to put that done to playablilty over true scale aesthetics. Maybe once the hut is on the table surrounded by other building site wares it'll be less noticeable?
ReplyDeleteI'm not convinced that all of TTCombat's buildings are made to a consistent scale. If anything, this is slightly more of a problem, because it would mean that a customer had to *guess* whether a particular building would be sized appropriately for their needs.
DeleteStill, it's important to note that I haven't seen many of the TTCombat kits in the flesh.
Nice building. I've got one myself to assemble. The buildings are intended to be used in the batman game which is 35mm. So yes it will look odd next to small 28mm miniatures.
ReplyDeleteI think they would be fine with infinity and other heroic sized ranges.
By my rough calculations, this cabin would be in scale for 42mm figures, which is a bit big even for 35mm miniatures. Ah, well - at least it didn't cost much...
DeleteI think its down to people using base inserts on the 30mm DS bases or resin ones increasing the height. But also a lot of the BMG stuff is up and down in size.
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