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.

Marvel Crisis Protocol: Cosmic Terrain Pack (Part Two) – Generators

Marvel Crisis Protocol: Cosmic Terrain Pack - Generators. Logan, the Wolverine

Here’s the last of September’s minis, sans of course the Monthly Round-Up which will follow in a day or two. We have the next parts of this Marvel Crisis Protocol Terrain Pack with this pair of Generators (or something) – one intact and one damaged. Logan here provides us with the scale shot.

Marvel Crisis Protocol: Cosmic Terrain Pack - Generators

As noted in the previous set of these things, this sea-green-grey scheme is my third attempt in getting something I liked. I’ve gone for a rough look on these via drybrushing over zenithal spray, edge highlighting and then the same kind of chipping I apply to my WWII tank models.

Marvel Crisis Protocol: Cosmic Terrain Pack - Generators

Here they are alongside Logan from MCP as well as a couple of models from other well-worn genres. I think the lights would work fine alongside all three scales. I used some Tau decals to emphasis the sci-fi look to them, as well as Irish Air Corps roundels from an old set of decals I have for random markings on things. Shout-out to those of you from Eire and Northern Ireland (yes, I know NI is part of the UK!)

Marvel Crisis Protocol: Cosmic Terrain Pack - Generators

The point wasn’t to make them Tau proxies, but to simply emphasis their unfamiliar designs with unfamiliar symbols. And hey – if I ever manage to paint and play with my Tau, so much the better, right?

Marvel Crisis Protocol: Cosmic Terrain Pack - Generators

The biggest trial on these is something that most people won’t have even noticed – I chose to drill out all of the thick, dumb-looking broken cables on this terrain piece and superglue-insert short lengths of actual insulated electrical wire in red/blue/black/white. Trust me, it’s night and day compared to the original castings on these things!

I mean, the whole set looks a little goofy, but I did only pick it up because it was on clearance at less than half price, so if with some different paint and some tiny tweaks I can make a decent looking set of “alien” looking buildings as something to use in games as an alternative to the standard skull-encrusted 40k stuff….