MDF Terrain from TTCombat: Cheap, but good?

Wargaming is expensive so people are understandably hesitant about spending loads on terrain when they need that money for their armies. This video is a first in a series looking at, and in some cases unboxing, terrain from different manufacturers to find out what's right for you.
License Information:
Floating Cities by Kevin MacLeod
Link: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song...
License: filmmusic.io/standard-license
Covert Affair by Kevin MacLeod
Link: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song...
License: filmmusic.io/standard-license
#ttcombat #warhammer #40k #terrain #gamesworkshop

[@JonnoDavies1]

Great video! Another con - Your hands get dyed orange and the wood STINKS. Wear gloves. I used to use wood glue, now I just use a hot glue gun and re-enforce any loose areas with wood glue in the seams. For anyone still on the fence - its worthwhile. Get some rattlecan spray paint (grey or black) and undercoat it. Then go to your nearest cheap crap store - I used B&M or The Range in the UK and bought some cheap acrylic paint. There are a dozen videos on homemade washes, making ruins look textured, printing tiny posters to put on walls, adding vines, you can get REALLY good results with a bit of extra work. If you have a 3D printer - even better. You can print ammo crates, barrels, all sorts. These kits are awesome, and can become unrecognisable if you put in extra time and effort. I always think of them as a blank canvas you can add to. Set aside a terrain building weekend and by the end of it you'll have a full table of great looking terrain.

[@GrimdarkGamers]

Pinned this because it’s full of great advice. Although I’ll be the first to admit I’m quite weird, I don’t mind the smell of laser burned MDF…

[@almostmeek]

Oh man i just got my first sets and i like them a lot but my hands where black when i was done with the first building, but hey the price is right!

[@Brissebrajan]

i have build many of TT combat kits, and dry skin is a thing, so absolutely wear gloves. This is not just a TT Combat "issue", i also own a lot of 4ground MDF buildings, and they also dryes out the skin. I guess it have to to with the chemicals used in creating the MDF. If you cut och sand anything mdf, also wear a mask.

[@neraxont.d7615]

Bought my first TTCombat Terrain pieces this month. And I had no issues putting them together. Apart from sanding a tiny bit where the pieces connected to the frame it fitted perfectly together.

[@GrimdarkGamers]

Hell yeah, that’s great to hear!

[@AK86XXX]

Great Video guys, looking forward to the next ones!

[@GrimdarkGamers]

Thanks so much ! Having decent, varied terrain to game over really spices up the experience so we’ve got in a bunch of stuff to try out which we’ll be reviewing !

[@paulramer5003]

To help your tiles not slide around, consider felt. A felt table cover along with having felt backing on the tiles will fix it. Just go to a fabric store and have them cut you some that will fit the table, then can cut and glue the tiles with smaller pieces.

[@GrimdarkGamers]

This is good advice. I’ve since moved on to a gaming mat as I like their practicality and the ability to quieten dice rolls, but I’ve still kept the tiles. I’ll look into purchasing a felt cover when I next look into using them.

[@kaz9357]

Late to the party, but I started looking at these. I appreciate your review, helping me understand the material and product.

[@GrimdarkGamers]

Thanks! The terrain has its issues but it’s rugged and super cheap so not a bad purchase overall.

[@paulofreire7520]

Great review, my man. It sure looks cool on the tabletop. 👍🏻

[@stevenwestfall7638]

A solution to the boards moving around would be to get neoprene mat big enough to fit under them and turn the mat upside down so the boards are laying on the neoprene. Should keep them from moving as much.

[@Ennomen69]

I just started with MDF terrain and I love the sets so far!

[@GrimdarkGamers]

They're a great way to start out.

[@Burnt_Hickory_Minis]

I've been building some TTCombat sets I got for Christmas and I've found the same problem with parts not fitting correctly. It also doesn't help that the instructions are a bare minimum of a picture and little else. I bought the Death Ray Designs Deadbolt Derelict corridor set for use in Necromunda and that kit is fantastic.

[@GrimdarkGamers]

I’ve definitely been hearing good things about Death Ray Designs. I hope you manage to solve the issues with the TTCombat terrain, at least I can vouch that once all is said and done, at least the terrain is rugged. I had hoped their quality control had improved though…

[@CJ-ur3fx]

All of the instructions to build TTcombat stuff is freely available on their website. it even says this on the picture you get with each kit...

[@krzysztofdolinski5788]

I've got the Razed District set for the Kill Team board. In the past I've used also terrain from other manufactures (Zen Terrain and Micro Art Studio). Pros: - It's cheap as hell. Even with international postage, it costed me only a little more then two buildings from the competition. For the full KT table! - Looks like quality control improved a lot. All the parts came out without problems, and it was a pleasure to build. - Design is just spot on. Ruined buildings looks gorgeous. And one, really big con: - Holy hell, it stinks! It's been two weeks, I've put it on a balcony 24/7, I've washed it in the shower, I've kept it in nice, warm basement and terrain still reeks of formaldehyde. I had to build it over few days because I've got a headache after around one hour of smelling this. And there is so much residue that my hands were constantly black. Never before I had this problem with any other MDF terrain. I hope that getting some paint on this will remove both the smell and residue. Otherwise I'm not sure I will be able to play on this without getting dirt on models and damaging my health.

[@majortom7186]

Having just put together a Carnevale table I have to say I didn’t encounter any issues with building the various kits.

[@bigpapageek0820]

I've bought from both Warcradle and TTCombat and I love the concept. However, the pricing for both is way off base. TT comes from over seas but the pricing is still fantastic. Warcradle has better looking minis but are much more expensive than TT. I'd go with TT any day.

[@nh-wk3vd]

Had similar experiences with the slum stacks and snack stacks kits I got late last year. Harder to get off the sprue than Colour Forge kits and so stinky I worked in a garage with a through draft. Really nice when together and painted, dead cheap and seems quite tough. I like the overall designs as they seem much less large empty flat panels than the other kit I have.

[@TeethSink]

Nowadays the kits have improved a lot in terms of clever design and quality. Look at the early streets of Venice kits compared to the most recent. There are still issues, such as quality control and small, frustrating mistakes in a handful of sheets , but they seem to have gotten much better at adjusting tolerances and the placement of spurs. In my experience for every 12 sheets there will be one mistake, the instructions are much clearer than they used to be, but still require a through read through to avoid mistakes on your end. For the price I believe they are the best and there are new products constantly and consistently being released.

[@mrmatt2466]

sarissa is a high detail version of the ttcombat stuff

[@AdamK5958]

Interesting video, I've experienced the issues on TT combats kits that you have . I find a bit of Sand paper helps with joints etc :)

[@GrimdarkGamers]

I’ve heard the kits are a bit better these days but I’ll need to verify that, I like them enough that I’m willing to give them another shot!

[@benell8178]

Do you have a video where you show how you painted up your industrial bases? Looks like a nice and simple solution for my first Necromunda board.

[@rustedbeetle]

4Ground was fantastic, but they went out of business. I have quite a few of their 28mm fantasy and 10mm sci-fi kits and have very much enjoyed them. I have a dozen or so boards from Uncertain Scenery, but I am not sure if their boards would work for your style, unless you enjoy multi-level games like I do. One of the things you can do with MDF kits is raid your bits stash, or go to a charity shop and grab some new things that you can tear down into bits. Look at models with missing parts as they make good cheap sources of plastic greebling.

[@chrisnev2028]

Good review. The main issue with MDF terrain is that it can look like what I call "doll-housey" - very flat and like a toy. MDF desperately needs texture. The best way I've seen to add texture quickly is either with textured spray paint or with spackle/filler applied in different areas to break up the large, flat surfaces.

[@GrimdarkGamers]

Thank you, I definitely agree that they can look very doll house like. If and when I get more in the future it might make for a fun video to showcase different techniques like the ones you mention to get them to look a bit better,

[@jesusthugmusic]

just get some drywall mud. you can make actualy knockdown walls and all that. good for filler too.

[@thomaslomax737]

Would agree with Jonno below - the smell is an issue. I assembled several TTCombat paint racks earlier this week, the family are still complaining. However, decent product at a very good price.

[@GrimdarkGamers]

I'm definitely not the best one to comment on the smell, I've had to work in some places that smell... less than pleasant shall we say, so by comparison, I've found the smell of laser-scorched mdf quite pleasant :D

[@CraigArgyleAudio]

Litteraly just been glancing for vids on how to manage buildingthe Derelict Enclave kit I've just managed to finish. I was not expecting the level of hassle that resulted, almost every single doorway/window wall tab had to be carved into rounder shapes to fit, even so there would still be visible rolls and fraying. I have heard conflicting things regarding painting them, but its looking like you're supposed to apply a filler primer before spraying with an undercoat primer (unsure as some positive reviews state this wasn't necessary).

[@almostmeek]

I just got my first couple of sets for Crisis protocol and yeah the price is right, i got 2 apartment buildings. I found that they do really smell strongly like another commenter said as well as my hands where black by the time i was done assembling one board and i am going to have to wipe them down with a damp cloth before painting. as far as quality control they where fine but man have a sharp and thin bladed knife for the small pieces i broke several of the window frame elements trying to get them out of the boards

[@GrimdarkGamers]

Other than the window frame pieces, I’m glad to hear you didn’t have too much problem with them!

[@supermackyt4569]

Hey, I’m currently building some TT Combat Necromunda terrain and I’ve not needed to modify any pieces (so far).

[@CommisarSnakePlaysbadly]

I just put together Their Alpha Sector Beta loads of walkways ect for about £26 bargain no issues with assembly the only negatives I would say are the smell and the ash from the laser cutting process.

[@GrimdarkGamers]

Good to hear!

[@hannahdawg6829]

I've been looking at TTCombat for a while as while there are better quality MDF terrain makers like Kromlech, I'm also on a budget and I'm kinda getting sick of all the industrial terrain and ruined buildings GW puts out. Definitely planning on getting some of the Convent buildings on my next paycheck. Also, it took me to the end of the video to realize your art was from Blazbaros, and he's one of my favorite artists XD

[@GrimdarkGamers]

Woah, good eye! We indeed comissioned Blazabaros to make these for the channel a few years back, but only got around to launching the channel properly last December. I was familiar with his stuff because he did a lot of commissions for the 40kRPG community that I used to be a big part of (i'm meaning to do a lot more 40k RPG content on this channel at some point). If you're on a budget, you can get TTCombat without much worry. Yeah it can be a pain to put together because of the lack of QC, but it's not that bad, looks good when it finishes and is very tough. I've been using mine quite harshly for a few years now and it's as good as the day I finished painting it.

[@hannahdawg6829]

@@GrimdarkGamers that is definitely good to know, and I'm familiar with sometimes having to jerry-rig models in order to get them to fit together properly, or at least good enough that it doesn't look terrible, and I have a dremel for that exact reason XD I also saw someone else's comment that it stains your hands orange, any truth to that?

[@GrimdarkGamers]

@@hannahdawg6829 It can do, it's just burned mdf from the laser cut. Then again, I actually don't mind the smell of it and I know it bothers a fair few lol. You can wear gloves for sure, but for me it wasn't a huge deal.

[@hannahdawg6829]

@@GrimdarkGamers Highly doubt the smell would bother me, I regularly work with testors plastic cement, just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to stain everything around me orange or black or something XD

[@tayjaytesla1142]

What sized boards are these on? I'm trying to figure out how many industrial hive sets I'd need to fill a 6x4 board.

[@GrimdarkGamers]

These boards are both 4x4 ft.

[@tayjaytesla1142]

@@GrimdarkGamers cheers for the fast reply

[@jponeill2151]

I love TTCombat. However as a KT/Warcry player, I've found myself awash with brilliant GW scenery from the various box set releases. Nothing TTC can produce matches the Red Harvest or Moroch boxsets

[@GrimdarkGamers]

I agree. I’ve been keeping up the Kill Team releases (purchase wise, not painting) and it has done wonders for my terrain collection.

[@andrewmount5717]

4ground make some decent terrain, but it is more expensive than TTCombat

[@davidbrown5912]

Your Union flag at 34s is upside-down. Are you in distress?

[@GrimdarkGamers]

When I was making this terrain? Yes. Results were worth it though.

[@athollmcnicoll1028]

Anyone who says setting up a board with terrain and just being happy to construct straight from the box or pack is not what I'd class as a modeller. And maybe because I am old school, I started modelling at the age of 7 years building aircraft then during military service moved onto Military vehicles at 54mm scale (1/35th). And in them days of kits were warped, you had to find a solution to overcome it and that got me into becoming a real modeller. So MDF for all its good points has criticisms and people need to understand that. Modelling is not straight forward take of a sprue, glue together and paint up - its about individuality (Kit bashing) for want of a better word.