Review: Studiolevel.com.pl Ready-Made Terrain

Heyhey, today I would like to take a closer look at some ready-made terrain by Studiolevel.com.pl.

First Things First

Disclaimer: The review pieces were supplied to Tale of Painters by Studiolevel.com.pl for free. Cheers!

Usually when I review something it’s stuff I bought myself. If review copies are supplied for free I always point it out just so you know what’s what.

The Company

Studiolevel.com.pl do hand-crafted terrain pieces, either ready-made such as the set I’m looking at in this post. When ordering terrain you can choose either all-done or base-coated versions. Resin pieces are either supplied unpainted and unbuilt or painted and detailled.

Check out this video for a better idea of what Studiolevel has to offer:

Packaging

The particular set I was sent as a review copy is Snow Battle Set. I got it all done and playable out-of-the-box.

The pieces are delivered in bubblewrap, all wrapped up again twice.

It does what it says on the tin – it’s all done. Just unwrap the pieces, put them onto the table, done.

So what do they look like?

Here we got the pieces unwrapped and set up, along with two GW minis for size comparison:

It’s 3 hills, 4 rocks (according to the website you only get 3 of those in the set, so a nice extra) and a bunch of bases with trees.

Details

The terrain pieces are made of hard foam/polystyrene, texture, some paint and a bunch of plastic aquarium plants (the kind we all know and love from 1€ / Pound shops / Dollar Stores) and hard, foamy snow effect. The pieces are light-weight and durable. Some of the snow does crumble off, but it’s far from problematic.

Each but the smallest terrain pieces come with a Studiolevel.com.pl sticker on the base.

There are three larger bases with holes for multiple trees and four single-tree bases. The trees are separate, so they can be pulled off the bases for transport, which is a very good idea. When put onto the bases the fit of the trees is perfectly fine. They don’t wobble around or anything. They aren’t 100% upright, but it’s OK.

Now for the quality of the trees themselves: Those look a bit cheap. Armature, some static grass, lower part of the trunk dipped in brown paint, some snow foam on top and that’s it. 

I have a bit of a problem with the look of the plants. The aquarium plants on the bases are bare plastic, and we all know that very, very ‘healthy’ looking green colour these come in. Same with the trees. The extremely bright green just doesn’t go well with a winter battlefield, and frankly the kind of green on the aquarium plants goes with very little apart from jungle terrain. It’s got a pleasant look once you’re used to it, but it still looks wrong to me.

Verdict

This set costs GBP 70.00 unpainted (just basecoated) or GBP 105.00 / EUR 126,00 painted and detailled, as seen in this review.

Looking through the various ranges Studiolevel.com.pl offer the pieces clearly are aiming at the Fantasy/Sci-Fi segment. From what I can see it’s along the lines of the traditional ways of making Fantasy wargaming terrain, as seen in various White Dwarf articles over the decades. Cardboard base, polystyrene rocks, texture, paint, a little on top, snow.

The Alternative. Couldn’t find my plastic aquarium plants at the moment.

Nothing wrong with that. It’s perfectly serviceable. Some of the larger pieces in particular look a bit implausible, especially the one hill which pretty much is a block. However, in this set you get LOS-blocking elements, pieces for cover, and so on. If you don’t like the trees you can easily replace them. I like how this terrain is handy, sturdy and looks decent.

Sure, it’s something you probably could make yourself at home, though most of us are constantly and tragically short on time. If you feel like you fall in this category, and if you have the money, you can safely invest in such a set. I don’t think you’ll regret it.

Would I buy it?

I wouldn’t use it for something like the Battle of the Bulge or anything historical like that. Would I use it for Frostgrave, Pulp Adventures, Mordheim, 40k, Age of Sigmar? Yeah, quite probably. I think I would grab a bunch of different trees and maybe tone down the colour on the other vegetation, but then, that’s a matter of taste.

Would I buy this set? No, I don’t think so. But then I’m pretty handy with scratch-building terrain, so I  guess I’m not the target audience (check out my tutorial for making trees here). I’m too much of a DIY kind of person, and I don’t see anything in this terrain set that I couldn’t do at home. But if you want to save some hobby time, and want to set up a gaming table fast, this might be a solid choice for you.

That being said, have a look at Studiolevel.com.pl’s online store. There are some quite interesting pieces on there, including more elaborate resin cast pieces.

I hope that you found the review interesting and informative. Got any more questions? Let us know in the comments!

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