28mm castles... appreciate your opinions

[Momotaro]

So I have some castle walls and a gatehouse I made years ago from foamcore, but they're showing their age a bit.  I'd like to replace them, but I'm travelling a lot with work at the moment and getting time to scratch-build something is difficult (although that would be my preference).

I'd appreciate your opinions on what's out there to buy.

• About the one criterion I'd really like is decent battlements to have, well, a battle on.  50mm sounds about right;
• Robust (plastic) would be nice;
• Interiors are entirely optional;
• Period and locale - vaguely European, beyond that pretty much anything goes.
• Footprint - 1-2ft on a side

So far I've come across:

Plastic:

• The GW Fortress - basic but looks VERY useful and easy to convert.  This is where I'm leaning at the moment;
• Various 1/72 castles from Zvezda, Miniart and IMEX.  At the very least, they will need bigger doors and gates, but is battlement width sufficient?  Or are these more likely to be basic materials for a heavy conversion?
• Tabletop Workshop - looking good, but mostly not for sale yet

Resin:

• Magister Militum - expensive, battlements a bit narrow;
• Blue Moon - in the States, expensive to get across to the UK;
• MBA - in the States again.

Hard foam:

• Ziterdes Castle Wolvenstein and Dwarf fortress - look lovely, how hard-wearing is the foam?  Has anyone tried to convert foam buildings - easy or hard?
• Blue Moon Transylvania/Dracula's castle - Andy at Old Glory UK can ship one across for me, looks good and has accessible interiors.  Anyone got one?
• Hudson and Allen - more like 25mm and in the States, but lovely stuff.  Does eBob still sell some of the smaller buildings here in the UK?

Laser-cut plywood:

• Sally 4th/Wargaming scenics - looks nice, has usable interiors, but do they look like stone castles when painted up, or painted wood?
• This chap on eBay - will probably avoid, as you have to glue stone-texture paper onto the walls

Paper models:

• I've avoided mentioning paper models, although there are some nice ones out there - Worldworks and Fat Dragon spring to mind.  I feel that by the time I've built a solid foamcore or card structure for them, I'd be as well making my own from scratch.

Thanks!

[fitterpete]

I can help with a couple.
I have the GW fortress, plus.Its really good and can be set up in many different ways or expanded on easily.You can get add
 ons off ebay sometimes cheap too.
Miniature Building Authority. See them at the cons 3 times a year.If you can afford them they are the nicest.Also easy to expand and set up in multiple ways.Prepainted is a plus.
The BM Draculas Castle is also pretty cool.I almost bought one at Historicon this year,still might get one this Fall In.Only problem I have with it is it has a finite footprint and what you see is what you can do with it.
Pete

[fastolfrus]

There's Hirst Arts too.

But heavy, slow if you cast your own blocks (faster if you buy pre-casts).

[Vanvlak]

The Zvezda towers are quite useful, even though they're 1:72, although they suffer from the eternal problem of having apertures which show the thickness of the wall (negligible compared to real life!). Not sure about the walls as I only own a few of the stone and wooden towers.

[OSHIROmodels]

I'll build you a castle 

I'll even count the blocks that go into it for you 

On a more serious note, the GW will be your best bet. Spend a bit of time giving it a decent paint job though as most of the ones you see online are sprayed black, drybrushed grey 

cheers

James

[Dr. Zombie]

EDIT: Never mind me. Just reread the OP and noticed they were already on your list...


These guys are bringing out a castle that looks to be awesome and very versatile.
http://www.tabletopworkshop.co.uk/tabletopshop/

Right now they only have the tower on sale but the rest should be on its way.

[gnomehome]

The Zvezda towers are quite useful, even though they're 1:72, although they suffer from the eternal problem of having apertures which show the thickness of the wall (negligible compared to real life!). Not sure about the walls as I only own a few of the stone and wooden towers.

I think they have 'height extensions' kits available, so you can at least make the buildings and walls taller.

[Momotaro]

Thanks for the thoughts folks.  The GW one is definitely top of the list, although I may hang around to see what Tabletop Workshop come up with!

[goon3423]

What about Castlecraft? They have a few kits.

[Vanvlak]

I think they have 'height extensions' kits available, so you can at least make the buildings and walls taller.

In the case of the wooden towers I just bought four and stacked them on top of each other, works very easily.

[Momotaro]

What about Castlecraft? They have a few kits.

They look a little small-scale for modern 28mm figs, but they're a good price and much could be made of them... hmmm  

Edit:  A useful link though - thanks for that!

[fastolfrus]

If you are desperate for the home-made look you could wait until the start of term and I'll ask the school club to build one.
(James is a good model-builder - see our Whitehouse thread - but the others are a mixed bag)

[eilif]

Have you considered the old Mage Knight castles? It's OOP and certain packs are hard to find, but they pop up on ebay and such from time to time.  The keep and gate house parts are still available at miniatures market for $5 each. The keep in particular is a great standalone piece.

They do have a fantasy look, but they're really sturdy, hard wearing, have a farily good amount of space on the battlements, all the doors will handily fit even large 28mm figs and they are modular so they can be rearranged as necessary.  They're also prepainted!
Here's a couple pictures of ours, using only a fraction of the parts we've purchased.




One other extremely affordable option to consider is Simba Toy castles. They reportedly scale up really well with 28mm stuff. Here's just the keep section (with a bit of embelisment) of one castle from member White Knight.

You can see more on his blog:
http://whiteknightminiatureimperium.blogspot.com/2010/02/revamping-cheap-castle-kit-part-1.html

They are presently sold as "Simba Superplay" castles.  Here's one on Ebay for 20 quid
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SIMBA-SUPERPLAY-LARGE-FALCON-CASTLE-WITH-KNIGHTS-HORSES-LADDERS-NEW-RARE-/151388672298?pt=UK_ToysGames_ActionFigures_ActionFigures_JN&hash=item233f77d12a

[Momotaro]

Fastolfrus - thank you for the offer, but I think that half the fun will be making "my own thing" out of whatever I decide to get.  Thank you so much though!

Eilif - I had the Simba castle, but gave it away in a fit of madness about ten years ago... well reminded!  It looks a good base for "my own thing".

Those Mage Knight castles look excellent - postage and customs would be tough, although I could slip in a couple of other things from Miniature Market... and there's a lot of towers and walls on eBay.com.

Loads of great suggestions folks, thank you!

[Gibby]

Get the GW one, so I can selfishly benefit from us both having one.