My terrain projects continued this week with a new building for the battlefield. In my quest for good sources of houses i thought i would try out one of the cardboard models from the English company Metcalfe Models. They are slightly cheaper than plastic and resin kits out there, but still way more expensive than scratch building your own. I think this guy cost me around 10 pounds plus postage. Most resin and MDF buildings out there cost from 12 pounds up to 20, so the cardboard option is not much of a saving anyway.

There is also a bit of a problem with scale. Listed as HO/OO scale, mainly for those railway people out there, this comes in a bit more like 1/76 or smaller. Other companies like Najewitz. Hovels and Charlie Foxtrot produce buildings that match better with 20mm or 1/72 scale models. If i am building my own houses i tend to use a measurement of 40mm per floor (or the height of two people). These Metcalfe kits tend to be more like 30mm per floor and therefore do look a little small. So my home made two storey plus a roof houses would be 120mm high plus chimney stacks. This Manor House comes in around 110mm inc chimney stacks, so you can see how the size difference would be noticeable.

Anyway scale aside the kit is really fun and easy to put together. All the bits are well labelled and construction can be complete in an hour or two. Initially the result looks very much like a cardboard model, which should be no surprise, but with some basing on MDF and some brown dry brushing and streaking and messing around, you can rough him up a bit. So i was very happy with the end result. But i think due to the small scale size of this range i will not be buying any more. I am better off to continue to build my own houses from foam board, MDF, balsa and modelling clay.

Check out a few photos with a Panzer 3 and a SS private, gives you an idea of scale.