Review: Leven Miniatures 6mm Buildings

A while ago at a wargames show in 2018 I had an interesting chat about 6mm buildings, and the name Leven Miniatures came up as the place to get your scenery from. So I gave it a shot.

Some of you will know my meager collection of four 6mm buildings by Baccus. Despite a little dent or chipping here and there I'm really happy with those. So at this show I chatted with one of the premier small scale enthusiasts around, he suggested to go with Leven Miniatures.

Leven specialize in 6mm and offer a wide range of resin buildings from Fantasy over Ancient Romans up to present-day industrial, commercial and housing buildings. They also offer very nice specials like a whole airport, Rourke's Drift, all kinds of specific models for American Civil War gaming, harbor sections, and of course a proper castle! Just browse their catalogue - you'll find items you didn't even knew you needed in your life.

Similar things happened to me when I did. I placed my order on December 9th and received the miniatures within 10 days. Which is pretty quick given how models are cast to order and all the general pre-Christmas insanity.

The Models

The models arrived in a cardboard box which itself was sealed in a plastic bag to protect it from wind and weather. The single buildings are individually wrapped in bubblewrap and taped shut, with a single foam packaging peanut stuck on top to keep the  more delicate parts like chimneys from snapping.

This is what they looked like once unwrapped:

At first glance they look really, really pretty. Full Resin casts. I gave them a little scrub with water and dishwashing liquid. At closer inspection I found two air bubbles (one on the edge of a chimney, one on the corner of the walkway on the side of the tavern). No biggie. Either ignore them or stuff them with some Green Stuff. I did the latter. 

This mix of buildings from across a few ranges will have me well covered for central Europe from the 17th century on to WW2, for 6mm and 10mm things. I'm lenient like that.

The only thing that threw me a little was the size of the church (CHU05 - Bavarian Church). Looks a bit small, doesn't it? Even the smaller houses are very close to it in terms of how tall they are. I did a little size comparison with the models I already got.

The painted models are buildings by Baccus I got a few years ago. While the houses fit perfectly OK (Baccus' tend to be a nudge larger in scale, but it's no deal breaker), the size difference between the churches, which are of a very, very similar design, is a bit more impressive.

In terms of size of miniatures vs. size of buildings they fit perfectly fine as well. I'm considering putting the buildings on bases; then they'll fit even better. Either way, it's really hard to get on eye level with 6mm miniatures anyway, so I have no worries about the Leven buildings looking off on the gaming table.

Modelling & Painting

There was a little flash to remove (just the odd resin 'flake' or little beady bubble here and there; easily removed with minimal force required) and off I went to prime and paint the models.

Good fun overall. Okay, painting the timber framing on the Fachwerk houses (the white one especially) was a bit of work, but it's easy and meditative. I had Deep Space 9 on in the background, the last season. Overall a bit uneven I'd say, but I'm fine with Ezri and the last handful of episodes are getting quite engaging again. What? Miniatures? Okay, okay. Here's them painted: 

Yup , the painting's been OK. First time in a while I painted something for myself. Maybe the stone buildings in the left need a bit more weathering or starker contrasts. But then again, once they're on the table they'll look fine. 

Speaking of which - some of you are probably clawing at their eyes right now. Yeah, the blue windows. I did them that way on the first few buildings I got and will continue like that on 6mm buildings. My camera for some reason has a habit of picking up on sky blue very strongly. On the table I've never had any trouble with the windows looking weird, so I'll stick to that over the alternative of black or dark grey holes in the wall. I'd rather have too much colour than too little. 

The oddity of the church sizes still stands though. But I guess churches come in all sizes, so it's all good.

Verdict

I like them. They sculpts are really good (love the texture on the stone walls), the casting quality is excellent too. Pricewise most of the buildings cost GBP 3.00, with slight deviations for size, like the orange-y Fachwerk house in the middle costing GBP 3.50 and the small wooden house towards the right being GBP 2.75. Packaging and shipping to Austria was GBP 4.40. Sure, it's all not extremely cheap, but given how these are high-quality resin casts it's perfectly OK I'd say.

Prepare to see these chaps in future army shots!

Not that I tried all that many different ranges of 6mm buildings, but given from what I hear and based on my experiences Leven Miniatures would be my #1 place to look for when I need some small scale scenery. They got a very wide range of models and the quality is really nice. What more can you ask for?

I hope that you enjoyed this review, found it interesting, enjoyed the painting and so on. If you have any questions, comments or indeed commission inquiries, feel free to let me know via the comments section, the Battle Brush Studios Facebook page or via e-mail.