I don't like MDF buildings

[Cat]

Just choose the right tools for the right job.

MDF is the right tool for a lot of my projects.  It's highly durable so it stores and travels well to the club and conventions, and holds up to the rigours of many gamers removing roofs and stories to move figures about inside.

On the inexpensive end, Sarissa does the trick for me for cost and speed of building.  The detailing is only etched in, not layered, but that's why they are inexpensive and quick to build.  It took me about a week to knock out 4 of these houses.  Paint up, and hold up over time, just fine.

Just a little bit up the price chain are Things From The Basement.  More cost and more time for lots of layered detail with strips of separate roof shingles.  I spend about a month on each kit giving them a full sprucing up.  N.B. that MDF does just fine for brick and stone by the simple expedient of using multiple colours of spray paint.  The roof shingles I coloured with a stack of markers.

[Ragnar]

The roof shingles I coloured with a stack of markers.

Nice stuff Cat.

Can you please elaborate on using markers?

[Cat]

Can you please elaborate on using markers?

Sure, these photos should pretty well cover the elaboration.  These are all Prismacolor markers which I really like.  I also did an overall weathering with paints after assembly.

[Cat]

And the colour choices for this set of models was going for screen-accuracy:

[Lost Egg]

I am digging the attention to detail, and they look great for it.

[mcfonz]

I'll 2nd that.

The brickwork on the house in the 2nd image is 

Honestly wouldn't be able to guess that was mdf from appearances. Very well done that.

[carlos marighela]

I'll 2nd that.

The brickwork on the house in the 2nd image is 

Honestly wouldn't be able to guess that was mdf from appearances. Very well done that.

Yes, it's amazing how such an apparently widely reviled medium can deliver top results. 

As I said several pages back, you get out what you put in and that's just as true with any medium from resin kits through scratch built multi-media builds to MDF and plastic kits.

Now, can we do I don't like... Mondays/ Bob Geldhof/ The Daily Mail/ American beer, etc, etc, etc?

[Ragnar]

Sure, these photos should pretty well cover the elaboration.  These are all Prismacolor markers which I really like.  I also did an overall weathering with paints after assembly.

Cool, thanks!  Gives me some ideas.

[sundayhero]

Nice pics of  well detailed mdf buildings, but does it still follow the purpose of mdf building (wich is for me, a fast - but not that cheap, finally- way to obtain terrain) ?

Assembling it, painting it, detailing it, what is the interest of buying a kit if you spend almost the time you would have spent in a full scratch building ?

[carlos marighela]

The premise that MDF is just a cheap and cheerful substitute is not necessarily true. For some people I’m sure it is. For others it’s a convenient start point, much like a dolly for a figure. Cutting complex forms can be daunting and having a basic shell you can detail is handy.  In that sense it’s no different to a plastic kit, an acrylic shell or even a resin building, save for the fact that MDF is much easier to work with than carving chunks of resin.

In this way I’ve built a village, which if I had to scratch build it all, I probably wouldn’t have started or lost interest. For me, it’s been a good way to get projects underway.

I’d also question the relative cost of the material. For larger structures, it’s definitely cheaper than a resin equivalent and doesn’t require a forklift to move. I rarely view any kit as the finished product, the fun is in detailing it or converting it and making it your own.

[Captain Blood]

Yes, it's amazing how such an apparently widely reviled medium can deliver top results. 

It's amazing how it can deliver top results if you're prepared to use it as a base for your own creations. As Cat shows, if you're willing and able to spend time and creative skill modelling a building on an MDF shell, then it can of course look as lovely as any other scratchbuilt building. But let's not pretend that's what most people do.

As I'm sure you understand, when I (and I'm guessing others) say 'I don't like MDF buildings', we're not talking about the minority who merely use MDF as a base for lovely bespoke creations of their own. We're referring to the majority who simply plonk them straight on the table with all their printed, 2D, textureless, jigsaw-cornered, slot-roofed shortcomings

[Cat]

As I'm sure you understand, when I (and I'm guessing others) say 'I don't like MDF buildings', we're not talking about the minority who merely use MDF as a base for lovely bespoke creations of their own. We're referring to the majority who simply plonk them straight on the table with all their printed, 2D, textureless, jigsaw-cornered, slot-roofed shortcomings

Ahh, that complaint is not with the medium, but seems to be with folks who do not take the time to do even minimal modelling work on game terrain.  For my tastes, I don't think mdf fairs any worse than resin cast or any other medium if just used in its raw state without minimal prep work.
 
Note that I also posted the quartet of Sarissa houses which are from the most inexpensive end of the market and were put together in a batch of about a week's work for the block when speed was more of a concern for that project than loving artistry.
 
For me, the minimal work called for to get any mdf kit to look decent takes a few simple modelling steps, neither of which calls for skilled labour.  This minimal work is all I applied to the Sarissa houses before painting and plonking:

* File all exposed burnt edges.  I use a basic shop file for this to grind through the work quickly.  You could use tiny modellers files, that will just take a little longer.  There may be tiny corners where the modeling files will be helpful.

* Fill in joint gaps with a smear of putty.  I use Testor's Contour Putty; super cheap, simple squeeze it straight out of the tube, and does the job.
 
* Spray prime before painting.  MDF absorbs an amazing amount of paint, priming is essential to get any sort of even paintjob.  If the burnt edges have not been filed, they will not absorb very much paint and always stick out.
 
Here's another set of buildings I knocked out in about a week.  Very inexpensive kits from Blotz.  Aside from the above steps, I did do some very quick customising work in that week: used strips of styrene to frame the outer corners of the walls and to cap the roofs just to completely hide the dovetailing.  Even though I was covering the dovetailing, I still used the shop file on the joins after assembly to even everything out so the strips would lie nice and flat.  But you can see from the rooftops that schmearing a bit of Testor's Contour Putty into the tab cracks completely hides all the tab locations.