Ode to Tabletop World

People get into this hobby for different reasons, but for me a major factor was the narrative aspects and the splendid vistas of the Old World. I started the hobby with Warhammer Fantasy in 1995, and my imagination was carried away by the beatiful timber-framed houses, the little forests and the rickety bridges shown in publications at that time. Now as anyone who lived through the glorious era of Books for Hills can attest, a handsome table can really make the difference. 

Making decent terrain has been something of a passion for me since I learned how to do it when working at Games Workshop in 2005-06, but my already potentially worrying passion was given a boost in 2015. Specifically, when GW dropped Warhammer Fantasy. Those familiar with my Age of Rebuilding project will know that I had no intention of adapting to their new world, but what I realised at that time was that at some time along the way, my own gaming board had been coerced. I'd slipped into the habit of buying GW terrain, and whilst some of the pieces were nice, the overrall effect seemed to be that someone had put Clive Barker and Tim Burton's works into a blender and then drizzled them across my table. I decided it was time to restore my terrain collection to what the Old World should be. Cue lots of individually based Gaugesmaster trees... and Tabletop World. 

Tabletop World is a small Croatian company that specialises in scenery which, whilst never outright stated, seems aimed at Warhammer Fantasy players. Now straight up, let's be clear: these models are expensive. Like, almost GW expensive. I'm warning you of that now not because I think that as a wargamer you're averse to high prices (!) but because once you've got one of these kits, you'll immediately want to outfit your entire table with them.

These models are beautiful. The detailing is incredible, including interior detail. Details as small as crumbling plaster are sculpted. They aren't the quickest models to paint because of the sheer amount of features, but honestly they're among the most enjoyable I've ever worked on. 

The roofs and sometimes the individual floors of buildings can be removed, which means that garrisoning can be done by literally placing models in the building rather than abstraction. 

Tabletop World uses a very nice, cream-coloured resin for their models. At one point I tried painting one without washing to see if it worked. To my surprise it almost completely worked fine, though I would still always recommend washing resin (I was just curious at the time). I don't remember ever encountering flash or injection lines on the kits. If your only experience of working with resin is the horrible defect-ridden stuff that GW uses (Forgeworld and Finecast) then TTW kits will leave you goggling in astonishment and thinking you've forgotten something. 

I should emphasise again: if what you want are cheap and nice but not awesome, this isn't the range for you. 4ground do some decent stuff that's easy to get ready. But if you really want to create an immersive and beautiful tabletop environment, Tabletop World is well worth the investment!