I built the second building from Metcalfe Models that i bought a while back. The first manor house was a bit on the small side to fit in with my other scratch built Normandy buildings so i was not too enthusiastic about this one. But i was happy to be surprised with how this turned out. Scale size is always a problem, especially with buildings. I did purchase one as a trial from Loic Neveu, who makes great looking stuff, but it was tiny! I reckon it would fit better with 15mm or 1/100 scale. My home made village all comes in around 40mm per storey or 120mm minimum height for a two storey building with roof. Plus the chimney pots and 3-5mm of base. This Metcalfe village shop is 110mm in height to the top of the chimneys which is just big enough to fit in with my existing buildings without looking shrunken and dwarfish. Once you stick him in with other scenery you don’t notice the slightly smaller scale.

So onto the model. I really like these card kits. They come in super solid card stock and are really fun and easy to build. A clear instruction sheet is provided and the card pieces are very clearly marked and self explanatory. It makes a nice change for an evening’s modelling excitement. The card does a look a bit too clean and tidy, so i find basing them and throwing some brown paint around does help them blend into the “real world” a bit. While i am super keen on building my own terrain from scratch having a few of these guys adds some variety and speeds up the process a bit too. Building my own takes me weeks and weeks. For around $15 – 17 per house they are very good value compared to other resin or plastic options. I have my beady eyes on a couple of other Metcalfe kits, the terraced houses and corner store may be added to my collection. You should check them out, even more so for you Cold War and Modern wargamers, as they will fit better in that period than in Normandy 1944.