Saturday 27 October 2018

TT Combat Drum barrels terrain review

As I am in the process of building some terrain for Necromunda I previously reviewed the large crates set from TT Combat and was thoroughly impressed with them - you can find part 1 here and part 2 here.

Because the kits were so good I thought I'd also order the drum barrels kit as the large barrel looked quite cool and at only £3.95 I just couldn't resist!

On opening the kit the pieces pushed out pretty easily with only minimal T & C needed at the attachment points. I quickly sorted this with a craft knife and a nail file.
Cleaning up the attachment points
There were quite a few pieces in the kit as the smaller barrels are made up by stacking the disc shaped pieces. It took about 30 - 45 mins to get all of the bits smoothed over.

Lots of bits!! 
Large Barrel
I made the big barrel first and used PVA to stick it all together. I am going to paint these terrain features once built and I didn't particularly like the laser cut designs so I built the Barrel 'inside out' with the designs on the inside where they won't be seen.
I put the designs on the inside

The completed build took about 5 mins!! As you can see some of the lines aren't exactly straight but I think it adds to the model.
The finished barrel with not quite straight lines
Small Barrels 
On to the smaller barrels and these were a real problem!
They were made up of 3 large discs and 6 smaller discs that are held together by 4 edge pieces.

I had 2 issues with these:
1 - When the discs are stacked they aren't exactly the same size and so you can see ridges in the barrel which doesn't look particularly good:
The barrel showing the ridges as the discs are all slightly different sizes
2 - When stacked the discs didn't fit into the 4 edge pieces!!
This meant that when I forced them in the edge pieces either bent or snapped.
Damage to the end of the edge pieces
The bent edge pieces 
The finished product and overall view
Below are the finished barrels


I really like the large barrel, I think that will fit into my table terrain nicely once painted up. The small barrels I was really disappointed with as they ended up ill-fitting and damaged. I will probably still use them as scatter terrain and will have a think about how I can disguise the issues I had with them.

Overall I think I'd give this kit a 6/10 as I would rather the kit be £2-3 and not have the small barrels at all.

These are my 2 kits together and I do think they look pretty cool! I still have my eye on some other stuff too so will review any bits and pieces I get as soon as I put them together. 



Please let me know of any experiences you have had with this kit, or any other laser terrain kits out there - TT Combat or not.

All the best

James


fourdadsoftheapocalypse.blogspot.co.uk – A blog about Warhammer 40k and the Horus Heresy by four Dads

3 comments:

  1. Attempts at doing curved stuff in MDF invariably require some compromises.

    I actually kind of like the look of the barrels with the varying diameters*, but it sucks that they didn't get the length right for the struts that hold them together.

    The big one looks to me like it really wants some wood filler or something. It'd be a pretty leaky storage tank otherwise ;)

    *I have a water tower from Miniature Scenery that was done similarly, and it took me a while to get used to it, but I have come to like it.

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  2. Thanks for the comments WestRider. I am in the process of painting them all up and will see what they're like. As some scatter terrain i'm sure the small barrels will be fine as they will 'get lost' in other pieces. As for the big barrel - it's funny I really like the look of it, even though there are gaps the aesthetic just does it for me. I am struggl;ing with what colour to paint it though so any suggestions would be much appreciated!!

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    Replies
    1. If you like it, roll with it. It's your terrain, not mine.

      My default colours for industrial stuff are orange (because I have a Ryza AdMech force), or Mechanicus Standard Grey. A dark red or green might work well too, tho.

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