Wednesday, 17 September 2025

More Ruins......'Cos I Need More Ruins!

Browsing the web - as one does - I came across an MDF terrain company in handily adjacent Australia, with listings in NZ dollars AND relatively benign freight charges. Scrolling through, I spotted a couple of particularly cost-effective packs - of course, I did not buy them immediately - I let the idea germinate and stew away for a few weeks, until last weekend, I pulled the trigger.

And, hey presto, a few days later (the benefits of proximity!) a parcel turned up for me at work.


The original order for a total of eight ruined buildings!



Contents of the package




These are the 3 x 3 story buildings



Very easy to slip together and obviously you can combine the two sides and three floors in any order you like.








With a couple of 28mm figures to give an idea of the scale of the buildings


And as a bonus, here is one of the 4 story buildings!






Now, rather than excitedly slapping on PVA the day the arrived, I had the sense (for once) to pause to think - and I have printed off some 1940's wallpaper in approximately 28mm scale, plus a batch pf brick paper - so I will probably apply this to the mdf before I assemble the buildings, as I believe this will enhance the look of them (although I would not object to using them "as is" - they are pretty nice looking kit! I may even use the mdf as templates to replicate something similar using some of my remaining cork tiles - we shall see!

For anyone interested, here is the site - 28mm Scale Terrain – Dark Castle Terrain   I can see me possibly "investing" in this excellent model at some point



but I probably won't go this far......



Of course, one can never be sure how deep the insanity may run - only time will tell!

Thanks for visiting and extra big thank you to all those who leave a comment!


34 comments:

  1. Those look great! Nice find!

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    1. Cheers Bill - I do think they offer better value for money than many of the other mdf suppliers out there - and they are very nicely finished off, too!

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  2. Nice we all need more ruins but you need space to store them as well 🤔

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    1. Ha....thanks for pointing out the problematic side of my new purchases Matt...very helpful indeed!

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  3. The only way to deal with temptation is to give in;)! Very nice buildings there Keith and I look forward to seeing them papered and painted:).

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    1. Excellent counsel, Steve! Hopefully I can get started on one of them this evening.

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  4. They look rather nice, perfect for Stalingrad

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  5. More interesting finds. Are these offered in smaller scales?

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    1. Pretty sure they had some in 20mm and 15mm, Jon.

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    2. They offer 10mm as well. However the designs are licenced from JB MDF Wargames in the UK who have a larger selection and may offer cheaper shipping than from Australia.

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  6. They look really decent Keith, make up really well and it's always better to give into temptation!

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    1. Thanks Donnie...sure I replied earlier but it's not here!

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  7. Great terrain for skirmishing, they provide good cover/concealment for shooters!

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    1. Thanks Dean, they should work very well for fighting in built up areas, from Stalingrad to Berlin!

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  8. Very nice, Keith. They look like they'll paint (or paper) up nicely.

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    1. Thanks Richard....I certainly hope so...it will rely on my paper cutting accuracy and attentiontodetail....which is a bit of a worry!

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  9. They do look nice Keith, although the Reichstag looks like it could be very fiddly if you ever did go that far.

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    1. Thanks Lawrence and totally agree re the Reichstag....apart from cost and nowhere to store OR deploy it, AND the fact you can't repeatedly play an assault on the Rechstag over and over....the challenge of putting this together is another reason I won't be getting it....I doubt they sell very many of these!

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  10. C'mon Keith, you know that you wanna play Berlin '45 and it would look so good on ya table (and shelf)!
    Seems like you are having a big buy September (as one who had a big buy August, which crept into Sep a little bit...). I have caught up on three posts at once (enjoyable they all were too), so here's a composite question. Why is it that you buy ruined buildings, but simply print casualty figures?! 🤪😁 A teasing comment/question of course. The casualty figures are a beaut idea and far be it for me to 'critique' you (even if completely tongue-in-cheek), as the one who rightly got me to 'just do it' with those 1/3000 ships!
    Best wishes, James

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    1. You know what James, you are probably right - BUT - to do it properly, it would have to be at Barrys place on his 6' x 18' table - and to do THAT - I would need to buy about $1000 worth of ruined buildings - so it's never gonna happen!
      There are just some things I have issues shelling out money for - with a limited budget, I generally go for useable figures only (I have virtually no limbers, for example, because they cost a fortune, are a pain to assemble and paint AND include horses - which add a bit of extra pain too! I like the idea of actual casualty figure miniatures, but you would need so many, and I am too mean to buy them! I have thought about those mdf casualty counter things - but I doubt it will ever happen - unless they turn up on Temu for $1 for 5 or something like that!

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  11. Dark Castle is a great company and I have bought all their offerings in 10mm.

    I like using ruins rather than complete buildings as they are much more practical for placing figures in them.

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    1. Thanks Ben - yes - great buildings and great value. I saw a post by Ray of "Don't Roll a 1" blog earlier today with some Eastern front ruins from Charlie Foxtrot - nice model but a single one was £20! So that is NZ$40+ for a single building whereas Dark Castle are $38 for the 5 x 4 story ruins.
      There may be a catch however - one set of 4 telephone poles are $5 with $13 postage - fair enough, you have to have a minimum freight cost - but when I did a test by making it 4 sets of poles, the postage went up to $30 ie almost double what they charged me last we for 8 ruined buildings - I have asked them about it cos it seems like an error in their shipping calculator!

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    2. Quick update on above as I would not want to put anyone off...the guy has responded to let me know the telephone pole weight was loaded incorrectly so he has fixed it, so should be all good now!

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    3. They have great customer service. They sent me 15mm instead of 10mm but replaced them straight away and told me to keep the 15mm ones!

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  12. They look great and I am looking forward to see where you end up with this. Berlin or Bust?

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    1. Thanks Mark....hopefully Berlin, by wat of Stalingrad, Kiev, Minsk, Warsaw and East Prussia, not forgetting Prague, Budapest and Vienna! A ruined building is very flexible!

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  13. Decent looking mdf buildings, I'm too tight to buy ruins it seems, mmm,Pavlovs house, that's a nice idea!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks Iain....I was thinking of you when I posted that image of Pavlovs House!

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    1. Thanks Stew....at this price, I am happy to buy!

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  15. Very nice buildings Keith…
    Yeah… Your going to buy the Reichstag 😈🤣🤣🤣

    All the best. Aly

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