Building of the Week - Total Battle Miniatures

Total Battle Miniatures made a rather big splash when they released their 6mm Small Footprint range for the Waterloo Campaign, a nice smaller scale set of buildings that would suit those downsizing the battle to a smaller table or those wanting to scale down the buildings similar to the way we scale down unit sizes. However that's not the subject of today's post :-)

I bought these buildings a few years ago now in a sale with a bunch of others but never quite got round to painting the last three. These are the Villa with Arched Veranda (6SPBB08U) and costs £3 each.

Many houses in Spain during the Napoleonic Wars would have been just rendered and not painted white as we tend to see them today. Indeed if it was painted white it was seen as a well off occupant. I have to admit most of my buildings do have the white exterior though I do have a reasonable amount that are plain.

Trying to even up the numbers is another plain rendered offering, in this case Villa with Yard (6SPBB07U) also £3.00 each.  If you go back a few years you will see that I was quite a fan of these buildings, time has not really changed this view and as a range it's fairly wide has some excellent tile sets (I painted and posted about the Hill Town Set).

Given the general lack of detail in this type of building TBM's have managed to squeeze a fair amount out of these buildings and the rest of the range. Their other ranges tend to have a fair bit more detail as there is more to go at. 

I am not really a fan of the added vegetation though I think it's better done than the Timecast ones (I still prefer the Timecast buildings overall). I would normally cover it with clump foliage or other scenic's and may yet go back to that. 

Back when I first started painting TBM buildings I thought the texture was really good, not just this range but all the buildings I have painted of theirs. However whilst I still like it it feels a bit clumsy compared with the likes of Leven. I am very much aware that this is not really the case so much as style and I still enjoyed working on these buildings I kind of feel they are more in my past than future. That's not to say I would not buy more TBM buildings as they do produce some good buildings, they are somewhat bigger than the Leven models and like Timecast not the best fit when mixed together within the same cluster of buildings but separated over the table still work well together. Lee has also bought and painted some of these Spanish buildings and I have to say has done a better job than me. 

In summery the range has eleven buildings and three tile sets for your Iberian pursuits. Prices range from £3 for a 30x30mm footprint building to £35 for the Hill Town Set. The buildings are well designed and feel right for the period and with the buildings you get with the two farm tiles can make up a varied looking town. For me the range comes first for variety but last for desirability when compared with Timecast and Leven. From the point of personal numbers I have more TBM Iberian buildings than either Timecast or Leven and have almost all the buildings from all three suppliers.