Terrain in the Grand Manner

To me, terrain is one of the most critical aspects of a table top game.  Good rules, beautifully painted minis, they all fall flat if the table doesn't look good.  Here's a couple of examples of what I'm talking about.  This gentleman does it right, in my book.  This is his Breed's Hill set up.  There's not too much on the table, but this does not look like a table.  It looks like a battlefield.  Even better is this War of the Roses table.  It may be the best looking battlefield I've ever seen.  

Image from Grand Manner Web Site

I've been collecting a lot of terrain for the last year.  I started 15mm Sci/Fi, which was a whole new scale.  I'm also going to be playing Bolt Action in 15mm until I can get the 28mm models for it.  I also started historical gaming, which is not a good fit for most of GW's terrain.

My EI Roman army is coming along nicely, but Jonathan and I have both felt the lack of terrain to go along with our armies.  Coincidentally, we both ordered stuff from Grand Manner at the same time, and it arrived on the same day. If we were SMRT we would have discussed this and combined the order to save on shipping.  Next time, I guess.  

Grand Manner has some gorgeous terrain, and a lot of it.  Their prices are reasonable, at least in the realm of 28mm resin terrain.  Their shipping almost made me choke though.  I paid as much for shipping from the UK as I did for the product.  I'll have to play with it next time and see if buying more makes the cost, proportionally, better.

There was another piece of foam on the top.

The piece I ordered is the image at the top, the Roman barracks.  It arrived quickly, considering the customary customs delay.  The box was small but brilliantly packed.  Foam all around.  Plastic peanuts filling the voids.  Four layers of bubble wrap around the building itself.  This package could have gotten destroyed but only if a truck drove over it.

My resin burrito is ready to be unwrapped.

The resin piece.  I have now cut out the center door and the windows.

The detail is great on this.  The roof comes off.

The rear of the building.  It's the back and everything, I don't really know what else to say.

The interior is textured, at least on the floor.

Happily, the maker's mark on the wall even matches my first legion.  Legio II Augusta.

The builder's mark on the building.

The resin smell on this was horrible.  Happily, it forced me to wash it immediately to get rid of the stench.  I'm really looking forward to getting this painted and on the table.  It's supposed to be fine today, so I'll be priming it this afternoon, along with a couple of the pieces I bought last year.  My goal will be to have these painted by the 20th for my next game with Jonathan.

All in all, with the exception of shipping, I'm very happy with this transaction.  The piece itself is as nice as it looks on the site.  The service was excellent.  I'll definitely be ordering a few more pieces from Grand Manner, though they will have to be boutique pieces since the shipping is so bad.  I have to say that in general I'm doing much less business with companies in the UK due to the shipping prices these days.