Shanty Town Boom!

You may recall my own efforts to build shanty town terrain for 15mm stuff a while back, well now Ground Zero Games and Battle Works Studios have come out with some really nice, made for gaming 15mm shanty terrain with a scifi twist. Each of them offers somethign slightly different but not so unlike the other that there is not reason you shouldn't or couldn't mix the two of them together.

Firt off, GZG's lovely, all-metal line of buildings -

It started with a bar/cantina and then exploded into a whole mess of fun. The bar is a single kit, but the other shanties are made from an assortment of wall and roof sections that can be mixed and matched. This is a stroke of genius on the part of Jon Tuffley and those who helped him with the designs, allowing a near endless mix of ramshackle structures to dress up your gaming table. These buildings look perfect as either far-flung colony works, warzone expedient buildings, or as home to the struggling survivors of some mutagenic future.

Also included in GZG's line are some fabulous non-shanty buildings, cargo containers, scifi barrels as well as an entire list of loose building fittings that can be used to jazz up your home-made stuff.

One of the greatest things about these buildings also demonstrates one of the great things about Jon and GZG - these buildings exist because players and fans wanted them to. The building fittings, the colony structures, all of them have either been suggested or supported through interaction with Jon's customers and potential customers. Even now I and others are communicating about new ideas either independently or through forums like The Miniatures Page.

Now a look at the newcomer's stuff - Battle Works Studios-

I don't know much about this guy and his work. Jee's a new one to me and I really only became aware of his work through some interactions on TMP and his release of these trully stellar (no pun intended) space shanties he refers to as his "Startown Slums" range. Again, this is a line that has its roots in the rumblings of fans and forum-goers and depict a slightly more spacey sort of shanty structure that looks quite like it was pieced together with ship parts.

The intial offerings in this line are designed to ortray a sort of open air market/bazaar sort of environment. With removable roofs and detailed interiors these buildings are a bit less general than the GZG buildings but also spare the player having to go through hours of finding the right details bits to fill his scifi market (not that many of us won't do that anyway). There is no reason, however, that these couldn't be used as simple living structures, battlefield expedient shelters for resting troops and the like.

These models look to be built touch and solid. They are cast in resin instead of metal and the masts, simple plastic tubing, are seperate pieces allowing both customization and eas of storage. I am looking forward to seeing where this line goes and some of the more substantial buildings in this shanty town show that the creator is quite capable of delivering more solid buildings with the right scifi feel.

Amazing terrain all around and both Jon and Jeff should be proud of themselves for such top notch work.

Keep it coming guys,

-Eli

[All the pictures used here are the property of Ground Zero Games or Battle Works Studios. They are used for the purposes of exposure and demonstration and I claim no ownerships or affiliation with either company or range. I'm sure the guys will appreciate the exposure and hope that this spotlight sends a few more customers their way]