15mm Terrain Unboxing Review: Battlefield in a Box – European Village Walls (Gale Force Nine BB168) + Lightly Weathered

15mm Terrain Review: Battlefield in a Box - European Village Walls, Gale Force Nine BB168, Flames of War, Team Yankee

It’s been quite awhile since I did any of these, and I do have a few to catch up on – so today we’re looking at the Battlefield in a Box European Village Walls – a set I had been keeping an eye out for severla months before I finally found them for sale. BIAB’s supply is pretty spotty in general here in Australia, with things coming into and going out of stock in waves. As you can see, my walls came in highly attractive retail packaging, very reiminscent of GW’s “direct” white box packaging.

15mm Terrain Review: Battlefield in a Box - European Village Walls, Gale Force Nine BB168, Flames of War, Team Yankee

Inside, we’re back to the bubble wrap that I’ve seen so often with these sets.

15mm Terrain Review: Battlefield in a Box - European Village Walls, Gale Force Nine BB168, Flames of War, Team Yankee

After the initial bubble wrap, we find the individual components bundled by type in further rolls of bubble wrap. It may not be attractive, and may not be super-reusable for storage, but it certainly works to keep the terrain pieces safe up to the point of consumer unboxing.

15mm Terrain Review: Battlefield in a Box - European Village Walls, Gale Force Nine BB168, Flames of War, Team Yankee

And this is what you get in a set. Once again, it doesn’t look like a lot of money compared to what you can do with a 3D printer in 2024, but it does come painted and finished (and with clear resin in the fountain) and ready to simply drop onto the tabletop – so a lot of the value is right there – and that’s the value proposition that you as a consumer would need to decide on (depending on their price where you are).

15mm Terrain Review: Battlefield in a Box - European Village Walls, Gale Force Nine BB168, Flames of War, Team Yankee

Here’s the set of walls alongside a couple of Flames of War 15mm models for scale. You’re not getting any use out of these on a 40k table unless it’s just adding a bit more detail for the visual aesthetics.

15mm Terrain Review: Battlefield in a Box - European Village Walls, Gale Force Nine BB168, Flames of War, Team Yankee, Fat Frank's Roads, Cigar Box Battle Mats

I picked up two sets of these to give myself more tabletop flexibility. Purely by coincidence I found the container where they resided recently and added a little dusty/dirty weathering along the ground line of the pieces – a very low effort bit of work that nonetheless makes these walls look a little better. As I already had a mat out on the table, I staged a couple of photos, showing the two sets of walls in a slightly more realistic gaming environment than on the white table.

15mm Terrain Review: Battlefield in a Box - European Village Walls, Gale Force Nine BB168, Flames of War, Team Yankee, Fat Frank's Roads, Cigar Box Battle Mats

Destroyed Houses also from Battlefield in a Box, New Europe Just Fields Mat by Cigar Box Battle Mats, Flexible Dirt Roads by Fat Frank via eBay. I really need to write reviews of both of those when I get time. As per usual, all products in this review (including the mat and roads) were purchased by myself through normal retail channels.

15mm Terrain Review: Battlefield in a Box - European Village Walls, Gale Force Nine BB168, Flames of War, Team Yankee

Just for fun, here’s a 15mm mini’s-eye view of the walls, minis and terrain! And with that, I’ve completed another 20 pieces of not-very-significant terrain during Dave Stone’s annual Season of Scenery challenge.

Battlefront 15mm “Grey” Stug III AusF. F Platoon – Early-to-Mid-War for Flames of War

Battlefront 15mm "Grey" Stug III AusF. F Platoon - Early-to-Mid-War German for Flames of War, Battlegroup, What a Tanker, 1:100, 1/100

Here’s the last of my Panzer grey Stug IIIs – a single platoon of the Ausf.F variants, upgunned with the longer 7.5 cm StuK 40 L/43 gun. As with the previous Stugs and Panzer II’s I also added in a unit commander’s head in an open hatch taken from a PSC spare. I also forgot to mention in those previous posts that all 15 of these tanks have had some simply milliput stowage added to them following the modelling/assembly phase.

Battlefront 15mm "Grey" Stug III AusF. F Platoon - Early-to-Mid-War German for Flames of War, Battlegroup, What a Tanker, 1:100, 1/100

Once again, these were painted using the same methods as the Panzer IIs and the previously-shown batch of Stug III Es. They were all batch-painted together for the “big” elements, and then finished in sequential batches, though using the same techniques and weathering style. The numbers on this platoon fit in with the Es, though I did change the style of balkenkruz to a slightly later version – though both types were still common across one another so they do both work together in the same units and force.

Battlefront 15mm "Grey" Stug III AusF. F Platoon - Early-to-Mid-War German for Flames of War, Battlegroup, What a Tanker, 1:100, 1/100

These models are from Battlefront, and are resin and metal models. Unfortunately, the metal main guns were just really bent and warped to the point where I was really unhappy with them. Luckily, I had some spare Stug cannons in my bits box that both matched the supplied metal ones, with the correct mantlets and muzzle brakes, so I did a small amount of surgery and was able to add in these nice, straight plastic weapons to the vehicles.

Battlefront 15mm "Grey" Stug III AusF. F Platoon, Zvezda 15mm "Grey" Stug III AusF. E Platoons - Early-to-Mid-War German for Flames of War, Battlegroup, What a Tanker, 1:100, 1/100

In the Iron Cross force lists, Flames of War allows for up to two platoons of Stugs which can either be the short-barreled Es or these longer-barreled Fs.

Battlefront 15mm "Grey" Stug III AusF. F Platoon, Zvezda 15mm "Grey" Stug III AusF. E Platoons - Early-to-Mid-War German for Flames of War, Battlegroup, What a Tanker, 1:100, 1/100

To give myself flexibility (and to use all of the early-model Stug models I’d purchased) I painted all three with the same grey scheme – of course, I’m not planning to worry about tournaments or anything of the like (though I do like to use force lists as a guide to my painting and modelling) so I’ll be quite happy to play (or play against) all three units on the table at once.