Old MacDonald had a farm …

Scatter terrain is an important part of any table. Most will think about crates, barrels and similar line of sight blockers. But there is more, animals for example. There are a lot of companies covering different sets and individual animals, but Warlord Games is among the first to provide a plastic kit for them. At least in 28mm, I have heard of some using Pegasus Hobbies Farm animals, but those are 20mm / 1:72 scale).

So I'll show the contents of the Farmyard Animals kit, and the predecessor blisters of small farm animals and large farm animals.

The plastic kit is available in different set ups. The boxed set covers the same sprue twice for 15 GBP. The pair of sprues are available without the box for the same price, or a single sprue for 8 GBP. There is even a set with a barn, that's made by Renedra for just 22 GBP, saving 9 GBP compared to buying them individually. And the sprue was part of the current sprue sale but sold out after 2-3 hrs, as they dropped the price to 2 GBP!

As mentioned, the box covers the same sprue twice, so you get quite a lot of animals from it. It is interesting to see, that the sprue is made by SK Engineering and the material is supplied by Hellyar Plastics. From the looks of it, this seems to be the same source as the Plastic Soldier Company sprues or "recently" released Warlord vehicle kits like the Pz 38t or Marder III.

Each sprue contains two cows, a donkey, two sheep, a goat, a pig with two piglets, four geese, four roosters/chicken, a dog and two cats. So you get double the amount of all them. Not bad for 15 GBP or 8 GBP per sprue. Proper cast, minimal mold lines and the models come without bases or slots, so you can put them directly onto the terrain or base them to your need.

The blisters are 7 GBP for the large farm animals and 15 GBP for the small animals. The blisters give you roughly the same as the plastic sprue, at a much higher price. You get a large horse, two cows and a mule in the large animal set, and three sheep, two pigs with four piglets, four chicken/roosters, a dog, a goat, a duck with three ducklings and a cat in the small animal set. They need a bit of clean up from the mould lines and flash, but are otherwise quite neatly done.

A quick comparison of the scale, you can easily mix the plastic and metal kits.

I like the idea of adding animals to the table. It gives a lot of detail to the scenarios, makes it more living and is a very broad item, as you can use it from the dark ages up to modern scenarios. They fit with Saga, with Black Powder and Bolt Action, so something that you should have around, just like a hill or trees.

But of course, Warlord isn't the only one offering animals in 28mm, the kits are quite reasonable and among the cheapest (especially with the plastic sprue), but a brief list of other companies who offer farm and domestic animals. There is - among others - Warbases, Stronghold Terrain, Wargames Foundry (incl. African, Baggage and Wild animals), Ral Partha and Northstar (incl. African animals).