TT Combat Wild West Scenery Review

A while ago, when I first heard of Great Escape Games’s Wild West miniature game, Dead Man’s Hand, I knew I’d love it before I’d even read the rules. Seems ridiculous, but sadly, I love Wild West films and a game in that setting was an immediate winner for me. I saw Mike and Adam setting up a game, then went wild (West) and picked up a small town’s worth of scenery from TT Combat.

I’d spent a while looking for Old West scenery, and there are a number of companies that do it. I started with 4Ground, because RKid has some for his Flames of War scenery, and it’s really nice, and ideally comes pre-painted. Mike also has some 4Ground stuff for Dead Man’s Hand, and again, it looks stunning. Pre-painted and well detailed, you can’t go wrong. The issue for me was the price. I wanted to have enough scenery to make Deadwood, and from 4Ground it would cost me a whole heap of money I didn’t have. A number of companies make resin Old West scenery, but they were similarly pricey – don’t get me wrong, it’s not a complaint, I just couldn’t afford them, or rather, i couldn’t afford the amount I wanted.

TT Combat

I came across TT Combat on my search, and I liked what I saw. They have a huge selection of buildings and they all look great. They’re unpainted, but they’re also really easy to paint. You can see a number of buildings in the picture below that we used in a recent game.

So how do they arrive, and how are they to put together? Well, the answer is flat-packed, and simple.

Furniture Store

The furniture store is a great set for showing the scenery, as it’s small and has internal terrain too. Once ordered the packages arrive boxed and wrapped in bubble wrap. Inside you’ll find each item wrapped in cellophane with a front sheet to show what it is. Some have pictures, some don’t. If not, you can find pictures of them on their site, so you know what you’re building. I’ve built tonnes of old west and modern buildings without using the instructions (mostly available on their site).

Inside the cellophane you’ll find a number of MDF sheets with all the required parts cut out of them, held in with a small join, usually near a corner. When you snap out the parts, you can be left with a small tuft of wood, but it’s easily trimmed off with a knife.

Building the store

Once you have the parts out, I’ve found it’s best to set them all out so you know what you have and where each piece goes. They recommend PVA glue to put them together, and I’ve always used a bottle of B&Q Decorator’s PVA. I’ve not tried any others, but I bought it years ago and it’s lasted and worked well enough. So far it’s built all my Old West and Modern terrain, and the shelves and hobby storage on my desk. Enough about the PVA though, back to the building. The walls and base have notches, almost like a tongue and groove set up, and they fit neatly together.

The sign is separate, and can either be glued to the roof, or left off so you can add/remove it as you see fit. I leave a lot of them loose as it’s easier to store them.

Once together, the scenery is pretty robust, and is well held by the PVA. In terms of the smaller parts of scenery, I’ve only ever snapped one piece, and that was through my own clumsiness.

All in all, the furniture store is an ace piece of terrain, and for just under six quid, you can’t go wrong. I’ve found that for painting, normal thickness Citadel or Vallejo paint will dry quickly on it, so you’d need to use a lot of it to paint one building. However, I tend to water the paints down a little, and you can get more coverage for a smaller amount of paint.

Industrial Set

The Industrial Set is another great set of an Old West mining works. The kit arrives exactly as above, and goes together the exact same as the furniture store.

Tracks

The tracks come as a whole load of separate pieces. I pushed all the parts out into a heap, then panicked when I realised that it all looked the same. Thankfully TT Combat have made each part so that it only fits with it’s relevant counterpart. Unless you’re not paying attention, you can’t go wrong.

Walkways

The walkways go together really easily too, and you’d be hard pushed to put them together incorrectly. Each comes with two supporting pieces, and the boards that they’re supporting. Easy to put together and glue.

Finally, we have the finished Industrial Set. The only issue I had was with the waterwheel, but that was a lack of concentration on my part. I glued the ‘buckets’ that make the waterwheel onto the wrong side of the wheel. When I came back from eating dinner, it was dry and I had to put the other side on the wrong way too. It’s not a problem, and my own fault for not concentrating.

What I will say for TT Combat’s scenery – Old West and Modern – is that it’s excellent value for money. If you want to populate a table with good looking scenery that’s great value you can’t go wrong.

It’s worth checking them out as their scenery would fit many different games. I have more of there scenery for use with Walking Dead – All out War by Mantic Games too.

For me, TT Combat’s stuff is great value, looks good, and I would highly recommend it. I have lots, and will be buying more.