Review of Epix Haven AS: Stone House

Epix Haven AS has released its 28mm Stone House miniature terrain. The house can be use in a wide variety of scenarios. The stone house is cast in resin, and comes prepainted. The miniature terrain consists of two pieces, the large roof, about 9" wide by 7" long by 4" tall, and the smaller house, with 4 by 6 one-inch squares for gaming. The miniature terrain comes with a handy and protective foam storage case. (Treasure chest miniatures are from the Secret Weapon Miniature's Malice RPG line. Miniatures are from HeroQuest.)

The walls have a textured stone pattern. The walls are painted light grey, then drybrushed a white-grey. The house has two open windows and a door. The door is painted onto the model and does not open. The windows, however, are open so miniatures outside of the house can even "see" into the house and vice-versa. The frames of the windows and door are a black-brown drybrushed in grey for a weathered effect. Up close, brushstrokes and drybrushing are apparent, but, from tabletop view, these effects are not noticeable.

The miniature model roof itself looks to be painted in brown, washed in brown, then drybrushed in tan. At a tabletop view, the miniature with the roof looks very nice and well-suited for miniature wargames. The miniature is probably better paired with a brown gaming mat, particularly if it's supposed to be a lone or isolated house. The roof is also impressively painted underneath, and contains the two airways that the thatched roof in real life has. The floor is a deep rich brown.

Thatched roofs come in a range of constructions. An internet search suggests that the roof is of the Hangleton Medieval Cottage. This cottage is "flint cottage reconstruction based on archeological excavation at a medieval village site at Hangleton, near Hove, Sussex." This reconstruction is an open air museum and you can find it by searching on "Hangelton Medieval Cottage".

Besides generic fantasy, the stone house can be used in, say, horror, such as Call of Cthulhu. Your investigators can happen upon a somewhat rundown, but still used, stone house in an isolated plot of land. With the stone house based on a cottage in Sussex, England, the Call of Cthulhu game system has some adventures based on the English countryside, such as Cubicle 7's "Cthulhu Britannica" series. Britain, of course, is the country associated with the Dr. Who roleplaying game. Your adventurers, then, might be having a nice modern-day holiday at a Sussex recreated stone house in the pleasant countryside-- only to find themselves in an unusual alien or time-based adventure.

So beware of that odd stone house isolated but not entirely far away from town. Perhaps it really is a friendly inn. Or maybe it's a hideout for some scruffians or an unusual NPC. Or it holds a tome of dark secrets of a horrible past. Or, much worse, an impossible and unexpected future.

Hangleton Medieval Cottage: http://lionels.orpheusweb.co.uk/Singleton/Homes/Medieval/MedCot.html