Category: Terrain

A Slow Weekend

On By NuadaIn Blogging, Terrain, WIP, WW2Leave a comment

This past weekend was a slow gaming weekend. Family and household tasks got finished, which is nice, but no wargaming or RPG occurred.

I did manage to get the first bit of camouflage paint on my FJ support. I need to work on tracks/wheels and do a wash, but these at least are coming along. I found it interesting that the Wehrmacht did not have a standard camo scheme, and after looking at pictures of AFVs in museums or in historical texts and online, it really seemed like some were sprayed, some were painted and as long as there were three colours I’d be good. I also noticed that quite often vehicles were not photographed with designations or squadron/battalion numbers. I will be ordering some decals nonetheless, as I like the look of them. All that to say that I am happy to note that I’m not breaking the mould as there is none so on I paint!

The AFVs are moving towards completion

An additional gaming related event happened today: the arrival of a medieval tower I purchased last week from the Wargames Alchemist. The price was very reasonable, the process was quick and painless, and the product was as ordered and very well packaged. It arrived quickly and I’ve now taken to looking at the ‘Alchemist’s site routinely. It is a mix of 15, 20 and 28mm so far spanning Ancients to WW2 so I suggest that you check it out!

The tower – a great centre piece!

Sarissa Precision Review

On By NuadaIn Review, Terrain, WIP, WW22 Comments

I bought some Sarissa Precision buildings for the upcoming Arnhem campaign that Lucius and I are going to be playing. I’ve managed to get my hands on some of the aerial reconnaissance photos and that, plus the Arnhem campaign in WSS 74 have made it easy to plan for the terrain we need.

In any event, here are the first three builds:

The small house, ruined house, and ruined farm house

These three buildings were fast, easy builds. I have left off the window and door treatments as I’m getting together bits of cast-off MDF to make some rubble piles etc before painting. I am very happy with my purchases of these, especially considering the postage (through Warlord) was free, which isn’t nothing considering Vancouver Island’s distance from most places.

The chateau though, well, had me calling it Sarissa Imprecision and using choice sailor-language (in my mind only, of course). I have built Warbases MDFbuildings (excellent), Terrains4Games MDF buildings (also excellent), and the above buildings. I guess I got spoiled as this kit is terrible.

Let’s start with the ground floor. I put on the door and window treatments (thank goodness) as I figured that they would possibly interact with the construction. The back doorframe prevents the attachment of a whole railing piece and needed to be cut down to size. Which was frustrating and an indication of things to come. When putting the ground floor on the base, the floor wouldn’t sit all the way down. I tried everything, including disassembling the whole thing, but the way it is, there is a small gap at the bottom. Not enough to cause a huge issue as I’m sure it will be covered with flock.

The middle floor was okay, though the walls don’t sit IN the floor (the other kits have two walls sitting in holes, with the others coming on as end pieces so they are much more solid), which makes their placement fiddly. The floor itself though, won’t match up with the walls of the ground floor. The 2mm MDF walls just aren’t true enough and the placement of the holes is off just enough. So I figured I’d have to trim the tabs (I’m calling them tabs/joining lugs for lack of better term) to make it sit flush. Not the end of the world.

Next the top floor with the pretty garbled windows. That is not a typo. I had to use sandpaper and a modelling knife to get the roof pieces fit over the frames. This wasn’t a small misalignment but a major oversight. Fixing it was quite fiddly work and really annoying. If I’m paying $40 USD for a product I expect it to actually do what it is supposed to. I finally convinced the roof to fit on, and used the widow’s walk floor to help keep things aligned. Incidentally, if you want to remove the top and place troops inside, well, bring a lever. I’m not sure how or if this is going to work once this is painted as the roof top is not easy to remove. It may involve me cutting tabs off to make this go.

The troublesome chateau

From a distance, it looks good, but it will need the joining lugs cut on the walls, floors, roof supports. After finishing, I took a look for others with issues, and it turns out that I’m not alone, another blogger noticed the same railing issue. That was enough validation for me to tell me that there are more issues with this kit than with my modelling skills.

So, if you are looking for good MDF buildings, Sarissa’s smaller models are great, and worth the money, but avoid the chateau until they sort out of the problems.

Dux Terrain

On By NuadaIn Dux Dalmor, TerrainLeave a comment

Last night I got to put some of my recent purchases on the table, and rather than cluttering up the other post, I figured I’d put some pictures up here. So here is a short post with a few terrain pieces.

 

This started as a white plastic/resin piece. I’m very happy with how it turned out. It’s from Thomarillion
Fallen King – a plaster cast from Thomarillion that was great fun to dry brush as it kept revealing new details
The other Fallen King from Thomarillion. This one has more obvious detail but is also great. The stream is from Terrain4Games
The ruined brick building, field, hill, and the fallen standing stones in the distance are from Terrain4Games, while the aqueduct and statuary are Thomarillion

 

Review of Terrains4Games Terrain

On By NuadaIn Review, Terrain1 Comment

This is going to be the first of several reviews I’m hoping to do in the coming months. I’m not being paid or given free products so I’m not beholden to anyone when making my comments. If I do raise an issue, I will attempt to do so in a constructive manner and be pleasantly honest with what I write. So without any more preamble…

Earlier this year I ordered some terrain from Terrains4Games, a terrain manufacturer based in Poland.  I will admit to being a bit trepidatious about ordering from a company who I would potentially have problems communicating with, but I have been blown away by the quality, price, and customer service.

After navigating their site, I decided to get some MDF products, as well as some of their premium line of pre-painted/flocked terrain. The prices are very competitive, even factoring shipping over 8,000km.  Please note that if you navigate away after confirming payment your order won’t be processed. You’ll be returned to their site to confirm once again that you’re ordering from them.

The order was split in two, and apparently a little delayed (though I did not notice). As a way of apology, they sent me a handwritten card and a free 15mm Prussian Barn! That is a great way to retain customers and I really appreciate the personal touch.

Here are the two “small” factories in 15 and 28mm. The one in the foreground is their “2nd” generation MDF build. You’ll notice that there are two layers to the structure, so you can’t see any of the joins and there is more depth to the windows. Despite being called small, they are definitely not! Their prices are great, especially considering the detail in this kits. The more detailed 15mm building set me back $16 USD and the larger one $17.50 thanks to a sale at the time.

For scale, I’ve placed my unpainted Tiger and an FJ in the 28mm building. (Some day soon I’m going to finish painting my 28mm Germans…) The construction of these buildings wasn’t difficult, though I strongly recommend dry fitting any of the parts.

Here is the 15mm Prussian barn and a 28mm house with one of the “burned village set.” These paint up well enough. I haven’t applied any weathering, but they look pretty good. The 28mm house does have a detachable roof. The wood framing is separate layer, which makes it easy to paint and then attach to the model. The 28mm house appears to have a small issue with the framing, and I had to cut and move one small piece of wood to fit the door. It was simple work with a hobby knife and some PVA glue and overall didn’t detract from the kit as it added only 2 or 3 minutes to fix.

Here is a field, a hill “Natural Hill II Rocksy”, and a portion of the 60″ of stream I purchased. The hill is not overly steep, and has two distinct levels as you can see here. The side facing the camera is the steeper slope, but is still manageable with figures on larger bases. These are all in their premium line so are more expensive, but not overly so. The field was $2 USD and the hill was $13 USD. Again, there were sales on, but the prices are excellent. The stream did warp a little in transport, but it is hardly noticeable and I’m looking for wargaming terrain, not a modelling diorama.

Here is one of their pre-painted/flocked ruined buildings. I have several of them and do not regret having them around. The detail is great. When considering buying pre-painted or not, I had to think about what my time was worth. Being a busy individual with the ever-growing lead pile and project list I figured that springing some extra money to get my terrain finished was a good decision. Also – not a back-lit photo! I figured this out once I had packed away all the earlier products. Live and learn.

Their large tree base is pretty interesting and very flexible. The trees come with detachable bases (and one objective marker). These bases look great without the trees and the brush-style conifers look good on a gaming table but may not satisfy a model-railroad junky. I like the flexibility this piece gives me and I’ve used in my recent forays on the table.

Overall, I am very happy with these products. There are very few issues, and these are all so minor as to be practically non-existent. The resin pre-painted pieces are fantastic, and the MDF buildings are, in my opinion, better than what you will get from Sarissa Precision and equal to Warbases. If any of you are looking for flexible, quality, well-priced wargame terrain, check them out!