The View from the Turret

15mm Pre-Painted Buildings — A Few Choices

Posted on 21Mar07 Updated on 01Feb11

We recently picked up some new pre-painted 15mm buildings.

The 15mm buildings from The Miniature Building Authority are part of the EuroVillage series. They have a number of designs including a new apartment building and factory. We got the Townhouse rows. The buildings are cast in something that feels like a ceramic but is probably not. The molding and detailing is crisp and clean. The painting is also well done and should be acceptable to all but the most discriminating painters. All the buildings have a nice feature where you can take the top off and it leaves a ‘ruined’ bottom half. This is great for destroyed areas or just for access to the interior. The only problem is, at least with the Townhouse Row, the inside is too small to fit a regular infantry stand for Flames of War. Smaller stands, including FoW leader stands, fit fine.

Jr Miniatures has a new line of pre-painted 15mm buildings and structures (they also have the same sculpts available un-painted). They are cast from some sort of strong and fairly light resin. The quality of the sculpts is typical Jr, or in other words good but not precise and the windows and doors have some slants to them. There are also some visible mold lines. These imperfections are generally indistinguishable at gaming distances but do pale when compared to the quality of 15mm buildings from The Miniature Building Authority. The roofs come off to reveal the interior. Unlike the MBA buildings, the inside area is large enough to easily hold a regular-sized stand for Flames of War. The painting quality is quite good and they use a mix of washes and drybrushing. The paint quality is not as good as a careful painter would do, nor as good as those by MBA, but certainly good enough for game purposes. Even the grass areas are painted green and flocked with static grass. This is a nice touch but the green is a bit too bright for our tastes.

Conflix makes a pre-painted line of 15/20mm buildings and ruins. Many of the 20mm pieces seem fine for 15mm especially if used as larger factory buildings. They are well cast in polystone. The molding and detailing are quite good but the paint quality ranges from good to poor. We especially did not like their winter pieces. If you need a lot of ruins the Stalingrad and Kursk pieces are a reasonably inexpensive way to go. Some of the pieces have removable sections but, depending on the piece, some will fit regular FoW stands and some will not.

Overall we like the Jr Miniature line the best and prefer them over the pre-painted MBA buildings simply because of their size. We do wish they had the ‘rubble’ feature of the MBA buildings where you get a ‘destroyed’ building when you take the top off. If you play games with smaller stands than FoW, such as Test of Battle, you may prefer the MBA buildings because of the higher quality. Conflix seem best for ruins or for 20mm games. If you need some nice, ready-to-use buildings for your favorite 15mm wargame check them all out for yourself.

We hope to add a review of the Battlefield in a Box buildings from Battlefront soon.

Also see our Landmark 15mm buildings review and 15mm Buildings and Terrain — News.