Over the years, one of my main frustrations with using plaster houses and buildings has been the inevitable piece that breaks when dropped in transit or while picking up following a game (after spending a week doing a great paint job on a house or barn 1).

I've used plaster pieces for their low cost for many years, and have also used cast resin (more unbreakable). Recently, I became hooked on a relatively new line of miniature wargaming accessories from the Australian company, Miniature World Maker. They sell a huge line of 5-6mm, 15mm, and 25mm historical houses, terrain, fields, stone walls, hedges, roads, and rivers, all made out of unbreakable latex rubber. The pieces are finished, painted, and flocked, and look very realistic on the wargaming table.

There are a variety of lines produced by MWM. In 5-6mm scale, they have terrain squares depicting villages, cities, seaside ports, medieval and ancient farms, as well as road sets, rivers, etc. Since my friends (my sons) and I play 15mm Civil War, I'll focus on MWM's extensive product offerings fo this period. Miniature World Maker first caught my attention via an internet link from a civil war wargaming web page. I ordered a variety of pieces for personal use, including six or seven different fields and an American 1860s period house and barn. MWM air-expressed the shipment (free shipping on most U.S orders) around two weeks after my credit card order. Upon opening the box, I found the pieces to be terrific! The fields are quite lifelike-- flocked and painted well with flexible (non-chipping) paints, so that years of wargaming abuse will not harm the look.

Plowed fields, vegetable fields, vineyards, orchards, grassy meadows or pastures -- all were in scale and easily used with all periods of historical miniatures, not just Civil War. The fields are various sizes, up to two feet in length, and can be easily cut apart with shears if desired to make smaller gardens and fields. MWM makes two types of rubber fields -- those containing molded walls and those with walls shipped separately. As they are very flexible, the fields can be used on flat land or as terraced farming patterns on hillsides. Some fields contain rock formations (Gettysburg!) or pathways. MWM also makes a large variety of smaller specialty pieces as well, including rocks, crags, shell holes (for WWI, WWII and modern gaming), rifle pits, gun emplacements, fortifications, etc. They also sell Vietnam accessories, including rice paddies. Again, all are finished, painted, and flocked where appropriate.

Of particular interest to historical (and fantasy) gamers is their line of flexible roads and rivers. Most come in 1'strips, with dirt roads, sunken roads, cobblestone streets, and paved roads all available. Again, one of the charms of unbreakable latex rubber terrain pieces is their ability to conform well to curved surfaces such as hills. I tried a couple of road strips up steep slopes using my GHQ 4" Terrain Maker hexagonal foam pieces, and the MWM roads looked quite realistic. They also work well with GeOHex systems, or with plain old grassy green felt cloths. A basic road pack will pretty well cover most historical gaming scenarios. A variety of shades and colors of flocking are available for the roads (ditches and surrounding grassy areas). The sunken roads are useful for American or European venues, and will provide shelter and cover for f igure stands up to 1" square. With all the road types, junctions, tees, crosses and "Y"s are available to network the roads.

Similar to the roads, the river pieces come in roughly one foot strips, and are very durable and realistic -- with rocks, reeds, grassy banks, and dark blue water. Specialty pieces include bridges, river crossings or fords, ponds, ocean beaches, and smaller streams and brooks. As with the roads, junctions and river merges are included in the large full river sets, or can be purchased separately to custom tailor your model watershed for the battlefield of any era.

Miniature World Maker also makes rubber houses, hovels, shelters, and temples (for ancient Roman or Greek gaming). I found the 15mm Civil War barn and farmhouse to be a little too large. They are more suitable for HO 22mm or 25mm gaming. I much prefer the "N scale" rubber buildings, as they are smaller and are more to scale for 15mm. Still, the pieces are well done. Just for kicks (and since I'm a scientist and used to testing samples in my lab), I decided to conduct a durability experiment with the MWM pieces. I threw several against the wall and against the floor, with no damage at all (not even any significant loss of flocking). The housecat even tried running off with a piecel Again, no negative resultsl I was truly impressed with the durability of the MWM materials. I crumpled up some pieces (to simulate being crushed by heavier boxes of lead figures, and the pieces returned quickly to their original shape after 10 pounds of pressure.

Miniature World Maker is a small Australian company run by James and Pat Mason. Their 14-year-old son designed their impressive on-line internet catalog. Mr. Mason had for years used foam and similar terrain for his wargaming needs, but did not like the lack of durability (pieces were always chipping and cracking, and needed repairs). A few years ago, he began experimenting with various rubber compounds (similar to vinyl floor mats) and found a suitable formulation that he could cast into wargaming terrain.

Over the past 2-3 years, his line has grown remarkably. New additions have just been included in the product catalogs, and much more in the works. I received a sample of a prototype "N scale" Southern manor house that looks very nice, and would make a great addition to those Virginia battlefields for ACW gaming. Pat and James do take requests, and on their website, they openly ask for suggestions from their customers for future expansions. In this era of globalization, Miniature World Maker ships their latex terrain to gamers all over the world (again, postage to to the United States is included in their prices). With the Australian dollar weak against the U.S. dollar, Mr. Mason's prices are competitive, and his quality is very good.

North Coast Wargamers of Greater Cleveland uses MWM's products in their ACW gaming, and featured MWM products at the recent Advance the Colors'99 wargaming convention in Dayton, OR Samples of MWM's products were given out free to lucky convention goers to show others what this terrain can do.

Miniature World Maker can be reached at: 27 Howard Lane, Mount Barker, South Australia 5251. Phone: 61-08-83912213, Fax: 61-0883912236, or e-mail: world@merlin.net.au. Check out their web site at: http://www.miniatureworldmaker.com.au