Review: Gamemaster terrain kits by The Army Painter

The Gamemaster range from The Army Painter is growing and growing with four new terrain kits: A selection of paints, primers, flock, and accessories, all in a convenient box to help you theme your terrain as four different environments. Let’s take a closer look in this review.

Gamemaster is a product range by The Army Painter that makes scratch-building terrain more accessible. We’ve reviewed the core set a while ago, since then, we’ve seen additional terrain primers, and the foam board, hot wire cutter, and brushes from the core set became available separately. The Army Painter’s YouTube channel has also been updated with a number of terrain making tutorials.

Available from September 19th, 2021, there will be four more expansion packs (or “terrain kits”), each themed around a different environment: Desert & Arid Wastes, Snow & Tundra, Ruins & Cliffs, and Wilderness & Woodlands. Each set has an RRP of 39.99 €.

These items were kindly provided by The Army Painter. Opinions are our own.

Features

Each terrain kit comes with a tutorial booklet, a 300 ml terrain spray primer, one 50 ml bottle of acrylic paint, three 18 ml bottles of paint, a 18 ml bottle of wash, 77 tufts, a 150 ml container of scenery sand, some sort of flock (small rocks for the Desert & Arid Wastes set, snow flock for the Snow & Tundra kit, moss for the Wilderness & Woodlands set, brown static grass for the Ruins & Cliffs set), and a free razorwire.

As we pointed out in the review of the Core Set, Gamemaster terrain primers have a unique formula that doesn’t corrode or dissolve foam like spray paints usually do. Each primer matches a colour from The Army Painter’s Warpaints range, very handy for inevitable touch-ups. I found they don’t apply very well over bare plastic, metal or resin, but you can use them over a primed miniature. Just try on a spare model first to get the hang of it, as the paint can go on a bit thick.

The paints have the same heavily pigmented formula as The Army Painter’s core Warpaints. Some require a little bit of shaking, but in general, they cover very well, similar if not better than Citadel Base paints. The Gamemaster paints might have different names and labels, but you can find the matching colour from The Army Painter’s core range printed on each label, and there is also a flyer to point you in the right direction. Each kit comes with a selection of five paints, three regular-sized, 18 ml dropper bottle paints plus a wash, and a larger 50 ml bottle for the base colour. As the paints are regular acrylic paints you’re not limited to using them on terrain, in fact, the Gamemaster terrain kits are also a great way to expand your paints and base materials collection.

The razorwire, tufts and flock are the same products as in The Army Painter Battlefields and Basing range, so the quality is as decent as you would expect. I probably wouldn’t have needed the additional container of sand, as there is already one in the Core Set, but it doesn’t hurt either, as each kit has a decent saving over purchasing the items separately.

The tutorial booklet is the same as the one in the core book and therefore doesn’t contain any extra content specific to each kit, but you can find a lot of tutorials on The Army Painter’s YouTube channel, for example, this one:

Value

The terrain kits have an RRP of 39,99 Euro, which translates to about £35. Purchasing the items separately adds up to about 45 Euro, so essentially, you get the razorwire for free, just as advertised (as well as the Gamemaster tutorial booklet).

Not too bad, but not a groundbreaking discount either. I think the value of this product lies more in its convenience, as the contents of each kit have been hand-picked, so you just have to choose your theme and make a single purchase. I’m sure there is a certain appeal to that, especially if you don’t have much experience in creating your own terrain.

The Gamemaster range is available directly from thearmypainter.com, or at our partner stores Wayland Games and Element Games at a 10% discount.