About us

G'day!

My name is Ryan, and I've been playing miniature wargames and building terrain since I was 10. I made a detailed post apocalyptic model for high school ‘art’ (a good excuse to make Warhammer 40,000 terrain) and enjoyed it so much I started a career in architecture.

Photoshoots are always a highlight of the job!

From Graduate Architect to Terrain Designer

I graduated with a masters and worked for 5 years in architecture in Sydney and Newcastle, Australia. I worked on both residential (detached, and multi-res) and commercial projects. But, after discovering Infinity I got too excited about new terrain ideas. I wanted to bring real-world architectural design and concepts to the tabletop world and give miniature wargamers more options. So I went all in, and left that job to start Brutal Cities!

With that architectural experience behind me I want to create stunning MDF laser cut model kits to give gamers the best gameplay experience within a memorable world.

Part of my year 12 'Art' work

What tabletop games do I play?

Games wise, I've been playing Infinity for 10 years now! The fantastic Infinity terrain tables inspired me to start Brutal Cities, actually. I play Yu Jing primarily, but lately more vanilla Aleph.  The terrain you can find here is optimised for Infinity the Game tested by Australia's competitive meta and we've taken on feedback from some of our most competitive players. It's been a real pleasure to make new friends in the infinity community here in Australia.

Other games I enjoy are Warhammer 40k, WWIII/Team Yankee - and Seven Days to the River Rhine. 

SDRR is a cold war setting, with a dynamic activation system, and you can use command tokens to activate your units in the enemies turn - It's a bit like Infinity mixed with bolt action, and plays fast. I think the elegant simplicity is a great strong point. It tends to also encourage more real-world tactics than more abstract games like Team Yankee - which is largely the traditional I-Go-You-Go old school 40k rules. I play Seven Days using my 15mm Terrain. But you can also play it in 6mm.

I'm also a big fan of Zona Alfa and have been playing it over the last few years. Zona Alfa is a Roadside Picnic / S.T.A.L.K.E.R themed game of salvage and survival in the Exclusion Zone. I've played it in both 28mm, and 15mm. (I think I prefer it in 15mm actually!) We have a couple of battle reports in the terrain news blog if you'd like to learn about the game, or see the Zona Alfa Terrain we have available.

Here's my brother, Michael, and I playing a game of Zona Alfa - you can read the battle report here

If you want to see what I've been up to games wise, be sure to follow me on Facebook

Favourite Terrain Scale?

In 2026, I've just started playing Battletech Alpha Strike. It's a refreshing scale and setting. 6mm scale terrain is really enjoyable to design for - It allows terrain designers much more room to play with novel forms of architecture, as well as more realistic scaled buildings. 28mm terrain buildings are much more popular, but we are somewhat limited to smaller buildings, for practicality and storage's sake.

I hope you enjoy my designs, and that they bring some diversity to your table top and give you a great immersive experience. The models are inspired by cyberpunk and Sci-fi cinema, modern architecture (especially Brutalism, go figure), and real world cities.

Youtube Channel

From the end of 2022 I have been making more Youtube videos - please give the channel a follow. Next video will be an oil paint tutorial to help you get your terrain looking great with minimal effort! If you sign up to the email list that's a great way to be notified of new releases or hobby tips and videos when they are live.

Brutal Cities Blogs

I have also been writing semi frequent blog posts. You can find some hobby tips in the Tabletop Terrain Tips Techniques & Tutorials blog and other news in the  Terrain News Blog - If you are interested, with each release I typically will write a bit about the design process or concept, and how the terrain can benefit your own games and tabletop collection!

 

Sustainability

All the terrain pieces are designed and made in Sydney, Australia. We are trying to minimise material waste and practice sustainability. MDF itself recycles sawdust, and is a carbon sink. That means it is storing carbon that may otherwise be in the atmosphere. Although unfortunately it cannot be recycled in most countries. You can learn more about it here

Our plastic use in packaging is kept to a minimum. We don't use bubble wrap, unless we are recycling it. We do use shrink wrap, which I haven't found a better alternative for yet to protect the kits from moisture. Australia post, our main shipping service operates ships carbon neutral.

If you do end up buying anything from our hobby store, if you use Shop Pay, Shopify allocates part of the transaction fee towards carbon removal projects. You can read more here - https://shop.app/carbon-removal

https://www.shopify.com/climate/sustainability-fund

Acknowledgement of Country

Brutal Cities recognises that we live and work on First Nations Gadigal Land and pay respects to elders past, present and emerging. 

3D Printable Terrain Design

A newer aspect of the tabletop hobby we know and love is of course, 3D printing. I would love to release .STL files for you to print terrain at home, and may license designs to printing companies.

After conducting a survey to get community feedback and input, I've started slowly releasing 3d printable terrain. You can check out the terrain designs for 3D printing here.

If you have a moment and you're interested in Brutal Cities .stl designs, tell me what you would love and any thoughts you have about that!

There is still room of course, for MDF terrain. I really think it's a better medium for many designs, but it's good to give you guys options.

 

Collaborations and services:

I am going to be moving away from manufacturing and distributing products myself. I'm open to working on different creative projects such as set design, concept design for architectural or hobby projects etc. I've recently designed a cardstock full colour terrain set for an upcoming tabletop miniature game by Cardboard Dynamo - titled 'Grave Trigger' Check it out here!

Please email or use the chat function if you are interested in collaborating.

 

 

Copyright Brutal Cities 2026

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