Troublemaker Games Terrain Sets

Troublemaker Games was kind enough to sent me a few samples from their range of plastic terrain sets.

Who are Troublemaker Games? They are a small wargaming studio offering multiple products, among them nuns with Guns and artillery pieces in 28mm. But that is not all, they hosted a few Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns to finance the 6mm terrain range, we'll take a look into today. The range is available through Vanguard Miniatures, who carry further small scale miniature and items.

They send me half a Ruined Gothic City Set, various samples from the Industrial Sector, Fortress Walls, Gothic Building Set, Gothic Detail Sprue, and a Novan Domed Gun Turret Set. If the design should look familiar to you, that's due to the case, that Benjamin sculpted the terrain range for Mantic Games, thus the resemblance of the square / box designs. But not in 28mm but the smaller 6mm scale.

The parts are intended to be highly modular, so you can combine and build them to your needs, I'll go into detail further below. But first get an overview on the parts I have to tinker about. There are regular wall pieces, detail parts and struts, as well as buttresses. All of them were already clipped from the sprue.

The pieces are sculpted on both sides, making them more versatile (but creating a minor design problem with open buildings). As an overview, on the left you see the front and on the right side of each image the backside. There are gothic fronts, with flat roof designs on their backs. Reinforced walls with industrial roofs / plates on the other side. Very Necromunda looking industrial walls, as well as the gothic designs with a rose-window from the Gothic Building set, perfect for cathedrals.

For the fortress are slightly prolonged walls along with angled halfs, as well as half plates and multiple buttresses and arches. The only metal parts in this (there are resin domes and roofs for example as well) were the Novan Domed Gun Turret, a set of two domes with different weapons. And the pieces from the Gothic Ruins, that come as a regular wall piece, with a door, two ruines walls, two different ruined floors and a small strut.

As for the casting. The details are there, you see the punch from the mould release on some parts. There is minor flash and few mould lines. Mostly you have to clean up the parts where the pieces were connected to the sprue.

That's a lot of information to take in for the moment, so let's see how they assemble and how the design works.

As you can see the plates have two sides, both sculpted / with details. Along the edges they have an angled frame, as well as tongue-and-groove joints, that let's you combined multiple pieces in a 90° angle to eachother.

For the first build, I went with a small industrial building, covering four walls and a flat top. As you can see it is best to create a corner for stability and then go from there. The pieces are moulded in regular plastic, so you can glue them with your usual glue for plastic, for example Revell Contacta.

You can see the corners are angled and you could further parts, like struts or further walls / floors.

The parts on the left and right would be used for angled fortress walls, but as I only had a few of them, I tried to build a low shelter. Making use of the half high walls and a floor / roof plate in a similar design as the prolonged pieces, it looks like a good idea to do. So basically I build to ramps and a C-shape middle piece. Unfortunately the tongue-and-groove doesn't line up that way, so you either keep them modular or put them on a base. I guess with a few small pipelines or a fuel tank next to it, it will work quite well as a terrain piece of its own.

I wanted to make use of the gothic tiles, but didn't just want to build small cubes. For that reason, I used the "trick" that I used with the Adeptus Titanicus terrain, build ruins to make more use out of the parts that I have. I thought of a single church tower, that was partially destroyed. So let's begin with the ground floor, using one of the walls with tall gates (on the back is the rose-window) and create a cube.

On top of that I used the walls with the open arches, but cut one piece in two and used the partially destroyed floors to support the corners. On top of that would sit the rose-window, but as I didn't had enough fitting parts to create a full floor, I decided to use ruins for the sides and lay it on the side, to show how it lays in ruins next to the tower.

But even with the destroyed top floor next to it, this terrain piece could use a bit more attention. For that reason I used the buttresses, a half tile along with the support arches from the Gothic Detail Sprue, to build a balcony.

Next up the ruin set. As mentioned above, this is the content of half a regular ruin set, you get for 25 GBP. I am most eager to build these, as I am really looking for ruins and the old epic terrain sprues (with the ruined building fronts) are very hard to come by.

I layed out the pieces, to get an idea of what I want to build and how far the parts would hould out. These connect in the same way as the other parts, with the tongue-and-groove connection and can be build in cubes. They are sculpted on both sides, but the otherside is "just" the inside, with a groove to place a floor into, not an alternate design as with the full plates.

Let's start with a small ruined building. To reduce the cube look and to better integrate them into the terrain, I cut off the lips on the bottom and top. As well as the tongues on the outside. I'll fill the grooves later on, to finish the actual build. I think that step increases the look of the terrain by quite a bit, and it is not that much effort.

Quite happy with the result, just what I was looking for.

You can do that cutting step with multilevel buildings as well, as it will smoothen out the transition between the parts. To build wider buildings, you'll need the struts to connect, or you cut not only the top and bottom, but the sides as well. A sharp hobby knife and durable (ideally metal) ruler is strongly suggested for a clean result. Multiple shallow cuts are more likely to produce a clean and safe cut, compared to one with a lot of force.

As you can see I was able to create quite a bit of ruines buildings from only half (!) a kit, fair price point for me.

The domed gun can be placed upon the roofs / floors, but the small, round diameter makes it very compatible with the Civitas Imperialis Spires or Manufactorum Imperialis kits.

And the whole set of terrain, that I build from the samples. You have to combine a few parts more than I did here, to create something larger, that looks less boxy. As for the ruins I am quite content with the results.

How are these buildings size wise? Are they compatible with other terrain?

The tiles are 5 by 5 cm, so a bit larger than the tiles you get from the current Adeptus Titanicus range. They are described as 6mm, but work great with the Adeptus Titanicus ~ 8mm scale as well for my taste.

Conclusion
I have seen the crowdfunding campaigns in the past, but never had the kits in my hand. It is easy to dismiss them as too boxy, and you have to put a bit of creativity into your building to avoid that, as you don't want a group of cubes to inhabit your terrain. If you go for kits that cover detail parts, like buttresses and such as well, you can build quite impressive kits, for example a large(r) Gothic Cathedral at a reasonable price.

As for the ruin set, the 25 GBP is very reasonable, as you receive a lot of sprues and parts to cover a lot of ground. Combined with bases and some rubble, two of these sets should enable to cover a gaming table of at least 4 by 4 easily.

Yet, if you see these kits more as a foundation to further enhance, you get just what you're looking for. For example with the modification that I did, with cutting the lids off and make them blend in more, worked very well with the ruins. I assume, that if you use plastic card to create panels to cover some of the tongue-and-groove or angled edges, or use the parts for something less boxy, it will go a long way too. These might not have the amount of details that the more recent Civitas Imperialis have, but we're comparing a 25 GBP set with a 100+ EUR boxed set (the administrative sectors), that will cover a similar area on gaming table for a 6-8mm tabletop. These are clearly more easy on your budget, and especially the ruins give you quite something for your money.

Troublemaker Games range of small scale terrain and miniatures is available through Vanguard Miniatures.

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.