Building of the Week - Spanish Hill Village

Well when I started the building of the week idea I hoped it would make sure I had a pop at painting 52 buildings in a year. Imagine that, it's more than enough for any game I would say but turn's out if I paint just 52 in a year I will have got off lucky. This weeks post for instance actually is eight buildings and it's taken up three weeks worth of posts on the subject so that's nearly three times the planned output! 

So as you will know already we have here the Total Battle Miniatures Spanish Hill Village and the whole thing has taken about 15-20 hours to do and costs £35 unpainted or £88 if you want TBM to paint it for you.

I have taken the shots without the ramps that go on the end, main reason is that I have misplaced two of the three and need to look them up LOL. Not that it's a issue as I have a set recipe for doing the basing so will fit in at some point.

I did toy with the idea of making fields of some sort out of the ground next to the houses but it was more practical to have bits of grass on it and leave room for troops to be placed on the tile. I can see this getting some use in a game sometime soon (I hope).

I went with white buildings for the Church and the rich whilst grey as rough rendered for the business and poorer residences. The rough texture of the TBM buildings really leant themselves to this. I still have a few  more Spanish buildings that I have yet to paint from TBM which I will paint up all grey so they can all be the more common colour and have the Church as the only White building. I really wanted them to pop so went a shade or two braver than before for the roofs.

A couple of the buildings show damage which I will put down to cannon ball strikes. Though one building has a couple of sections of wall cracked open showing the stone behind the render.

Whilst their is not a massive amount of detail on the buildings they have a lot of character and I think they are perfect for both the period being played and for the wargames table.

I like how the buildings are positioned on the tile. Little gaps between some of the buildings whilst you also can see obvious main routes through the village. The whole is well thought out and put into practice.

I mentioned the texture of the base last post on this tile but I think it really shines through on some of the close up shots. I will get a few shots at some point with a base or two on it.

Of course all this has done is make me want the fortified town so much more. That is a fair bit larger than this little village and costs £65 which may seem a bit rich but the footprint is rather large. I will probably buy it at the next Joy of Six where Lee and I will be doing the Quatre Bras demonstration game. 

This may be my favourite building of the set as it has the afore mentioned damage and the little enclosed balcony just screamed at me to place over the edge.

Some of the Woodland Scenic's bushes really came into their own as bushy trees, the mix of different textures and surface patterns really bring the base to life. It's a shame the base won't get a massive amount of play but it was worth it just for the experience of making the model. 

Now you get a peek at the well to do side of town, don't stand looking too long or they will call the bobby over to move you along  ;-)

I really like the rich dudes houses with private yards and in balconies in another. Of course you can place the buildings in different positions on the tile to make the village look different and as I showed last time, with a change of buildings you can transplant to different era's or parts of the world.

A number of buildings have foliage built into them just like Timecast also do and whilst this gets me to add a more realistic bit of green to the building I would prefer to add it myself if I want it.  I do like the water trough though on the grey building in the middle.

As well as the larger tiles TBM also do small farm tiles with two buildings on for £8 which is a nice little base for your Iberian adventures.

So it took me just a little over a year to get it started and only a couple of weeks to get it done. Now I can get back to the Giveaway buildings as well as all the others I have waiting in the wings.