"ww2 buildings" Topic

I'm making the switch to 15mm ww2 from 28mm. The armies are well under way, but now I need some terrain and especially buildings. In 28mm, I used MDF buildings from Crescent Root and Empires at War and I enjoyed them, but I'm leaning towards resin for 15mm.

Our scenarios are almost always set in France and usually in Normandy and I'm located in the Western United States.

As I plan out my purchase, I had a few questions.

1. Since I'm considering switching to resin from MDF, I'd love to hear what people think of the two options having experienced only MDF.
2. Is there an updated list of 15mm ww2 Western Front specifically Normandy buildings. A lot of the lists seem to be out of date now. I've loved what I've seen by Goldfinger and Tiger Terrain, but I'd love to see more options and more options in the US to reduce shipping prices.
3. I'm planning on getting a good number of buildings like 10-20. In 28mm, I only had intact buildings. Now, I'm considering getting some destroyed buildings in the mix. What have people found most useful in setting up scenarios? I was thinking of like 75% intact and 25% destroyed mix. Since many assaults on villages followed artillery barrages it seems like many of the buildings would be destroyed? I guess overall, I'm just wondering what people are getting the most mileage from.
4. Any other tips, tricks, learnings to share when selecting a set of 15mm buildings/terrain?
5. Bonus: I'm almost looking for odds and ends to spruce up the board like telephone poles, road signs, debris barricades, etc

Thanks!

I thought Crescent Root also did 15mm buildings?

I think they are reworking their western european 15mm line. It's not available right now.

I have both MDF and resin and really they can mix quite well on the table. As to your dilemma may I suggest Miniature Building Authority. The have discontinued their 15mm line unfortunately but on the plus side are still available on Ebay and have found some at convention flea markets. Completely painted the buildings come in at least two parts. You get a perfectly intact building but when you lift off the upper piece you have a nice ruin complete with blackened paint. They can be pricey but good quality. Added advantage is that during a game very easy to show a building that has become destroyed.

An awful lot of resin is solid or has very small interior spaces making putting troops inside problematic.

More and more I am going the other way – switching out of resin and going to MDF.

How about HO scale railroad models?

HO matches with 20mm. Some larger buildings, such as factories, doesnt matter so much but they look out of scale, to my eye, with 15mm.

Marc33594: Thanks for the suggestion of MBA on ebay. I'm looking into that.

Extra Crispy: That's super interesting. I hadn't realized that space can be a problem in the interior of resin buildings. I was leaning towards resin simply because I felt like the exteriors could look better.

I guess overall, my biggest questions are what are people's experience with resin vs MDF and for those that have battle damaged and intact buildings which do they end up using (I'm sure the answer is both, but I'm talking more about ratios)?

I did compile a list of current resin and MDF terrain.

Resin Buildings

US Maker or Distributor
Mark IV
GameCraft Miniatures
Novus Design Studios
Miniature Building Authority

UK Maker or Distributor
Escenorama
Total Battle Miniatures
Peter Pig
Ironclad Miniatures
Tiger Terrain
Kerr & King
Hovels
TimeCast – Mostly sold out

Worldwide Maker or Distributor
Goldfinger
Epsilon Wargames Scenery
MIniature Worldmaker – No specific WWII buildings

MDF Buildings

US
Crescent Root Studios – Sadly temporarily out of print while reworking the line

UK
Sarissa Precision
Empires at War
Battlefront
Warbases

Paper Terrain has some very nice 15mm WWII sets.

If it were me I would go with Sarissa. One could put together a good looking town in France with complete and destroyed versions of the same buildings.Town, farm, industrial billings and the more specific ones a church , a chateau. Excellent range.

@Sundance: Thanks for the tip. I use cardstock in 6mm sci-fi and 32mm western and enjoy it. I'll look into it.

@GReg BRad: Yeah, Sarissa does very nice work. Thank you!

Mark IV. As you can see on their who they are page Mark IV was originally Musket Miniatures. The son took over the business from his dad and while still has some of the older models he continued to bring out new items. I have plenty of their buildings and they are very good and paint up very nicely. Roofs are removable and no problems with interior room.

Novus. I have their ruined city buildings (1032-1035) and they are really excellent. Great for scenarios where you have an urban area which has been heavily shelled. NO issues with them holding stands of figures.

MBA. Already covered.

Crescent Root. LONG time fan. My collection of Mark's items goes back to the resin buildings he used to do. Quality speaks for itself.

Timecast. Have a fair number of their buildings. You are correct, no longer making their WW II line that I know of. Pity as they were very nice. They tend to be on the smaller side. Some say they are true 15mm. I know several folks liked to use them with 10-12mm stuff. Best bet is Ebay, flea markets at shows.

I just want to share my thoughts on MBA buildings. I sold all of mine years ago because they were really heavy and the walls were so think, there was very little room for figures. I went with Crescent Root and never looked back. It will not take long for them to get their 15mm back up and running.

Crescent Root, I hope his new MDF & 3d printed building are better than the ones he discontinued at the end of the year with the series 3 MDF buildings, as they were nice but I don't think up to the standards of his MDF buildings.