Review: Ziterdes Buildings

 

It's time for yet another review! This one's been in the making since 2015 when I got my first batch of these buildings. Today I'll have a closer look at Ziterdes' 28mm building models.

Ziterdes [LINK] is a German company, and a subsidiary of model railway landscaping powerhouse NOCH.

Ziterdes produce a wide range of model terrain designed for 28mm dioramas and gaming. The most remarkable attribute of their buildings and other kits (they also produce hulls for sail ships, modular gungeons, Blood Bowl pitches, etc.) being that they're made of hard foam.

Let's have a look.

The Packaging

...is an interesting one. The buildings all come as one-piece casts and thus are a bit iffy to wrap up.

The way Ziterdes tackle the problem makes for some of the most unique packing I've ever come across. Above: 2020 packaging, below: vintage 2014 packaging.

The Models

Now for the interesting part though. From the pictures above you get a pretty good impression of how the models come delivered - usually the main body is single-coloured (usually mid-grey, brown for the range of all-wooden houses). The roofs are spray-painted a different colour.

Some of the buildings come with additional MDF or resin parts, like the windmill here:

As mentioned above, the material is the defining aspect of these buildings. It's a hard foam. Light-weight, sturdy, you can cut it with a knife pretty easily. Details are sharp enough and the material has a texture I enjoy a lot.

The overall look is slightly rough, there are few really sharp edges, but instead the look is very much organic rather than sterile. Overall though it's a look I like in my miniatures (especially fantasy figures) as well, so I appreciate the style.

The downside to the material is that he buildings don't come with any interior:

The walls have to be cast pretty thickly, usually around 2cm, thick, the rest is hollow. You can build a floor and an interior into it by cutting off the roof and maybe cut out the windows, put in a floor and whatnot. I cut the roof off one of the buildings, but never got any further, because I never really missed fiddling around with figures inside buildings.

Painting

The buildings come primed out of the box (see above), and they got a strong texture, so you can apply paint without any problem right out of the box.

Details are very pronounced, so all sorts of quick and fun techniques like drybrushing and washes and so on will all work nicely and should get you quick results. Of course adding highlights, appropriate weathering, etc and so on will make them look even nicer. 

Of course you can integrate the buildings into bases as well. Bases and appropriate stuff around will always make a building more believable.

Conclusion

But really, what I like most about these buildings is that they're sturdy and generally useful for all sorts of historical periods (sometimes you gotta squint a little), and of course for all sorts of fantasy occasions:

Sure - Tabletop World's buildings are nicer looking and got an interior, but are also much more expensive and a LOT more work to paint. Sure - making the buildings yourself is cooler. But for me the sturdiness, the versatility, the "cosy" look and not the least the sensible pricing make these buildings absolute favourites of mine. In addition to that, they're properly sized as well. The smallest ones start at about 150mm by 100mm base for EUR 23,00.

They also do very large kits like this sadly discontinuned,
but beyond lovely Castle Wolvenstein.
Let me know if you have a spare. :-) (Source: Ziterdes Website)

I'm getting a ton of use out of these buildings, be it for gaming or for scenery for nice miniature photos, AND my niece played with the buildings too and I don't have to be overly afraid for her to shred them.

So I'm having a lovely time with my Ziterdes [LINK] buildings for now and I wholeheartedly suggest having a look at this incredible range of buildings. They also got buildings suited for 40k, steampunk stuff, Blood Bowl pitches (as mentioned above), dungeon tiles, desert buildings, modern city buildings, and so on. All worth checking out, all lovely. I'm a fan.

I hope that you enjoyed the review and found it useful or even entertaining. If you have any questions, maybe review requests, suggestions or ideas feel free to use the comments section below or just contact me via e-mail or Battle Brush Studios' Facebook page. The same goes of course for commission requests. See you soon! :-)