Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Old West => Topic started by: NickNascati on 19 December 2013, 01:01:52 AM
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All,
So after paying with my scratchbuilt "Purgatory" for a few months now, and getting deeper into Western gaming, I feel like I want to start stepping up my game. I'd like to slowly add some of the laser cut buildings, especially for the special ones, Hotel, Saloon etc. That being said, building things generally ends up with my fingers coated in super glue, and I have little patience. So, which laser cut buildings go together with the least amount of frustration.
Nick
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While I can't speak for the bigger buildings, Sarissa Precision are incredibly simple for the basic Old West structures. They're a bit less detailed, don't have quite as many parts - but still paint up beautifully. I assembled maybe 8 of them in one sitting. 4Ground is another beast, needing perhaps 1.5 hours building start to finish...but again they're more detailed, have interiors, working bits, etc.
Battle Flag "look" like they're similar to Sarissa Precision. Tri-City Laser Inc. are okay but they're wood and not MDF which is why I shy away from them most of the time. Beyond 4Ground I wouldn't say anything has been "tough". No more so than assembling a handful of miniatures.
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I too have found Sarissa to be very forgiving and quick to assemble, Battleflag are the same in my opinion, in terms of ease of assembly but are available with more detailed optional add ons. I got their sheriffs office with all the bells and whistles and it was a joy to assemble.
4ground are a bit more fiddly but look great. My only beef would be comparitive price and the fact that their prepainted colour schemes may not always compliment the self painted buildings, they tend to stand out a bit.
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Battleflag's basic kits have six parts: base, four walls and a flat roof. Go together in less than a minute. All the fiddly bits around doors and windows pre stuck. A good place to start, then add roof & shingle kits later if you like.
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Here are a selection of links back to my blog, the first one is a comparison piece for all the different manufacturers that I knew about when I wrote it. The rest are examples of my builds from the various manufacturers. There are actually a lot of these on my blog. You can find different examples using the list at the bottom of the right hand side of my blog both by brand and usually all linked by Calamity.
http://wargamesandrailroads.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-good-bad-and-ugly-of-28mm-laser-cut.html (http://wargamesandrailroads.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-good-bad-and-ugly-of-28mm-laser-cut.html)
http://wargamesandrailroads.blogspot.com/2012/10/review-battle-flag-28mm-western.html (http://wargamesandrailroads.blogspot.com/2012/10/review-battle-flag-28mm-western.html)
http://wargamesandrailroads.blogspot.com/2012/12/sarrisa-precission-has-arrived-old-west.html (http://wargamesandrailroads.blogspot.com/2012/12/sarrisa-precission-has-arrived-old-west.html)
http://wargamesandrailroads.blogspot.com/2013/01/trio-of-old-west-buildings-battle-flag.html (http://wargamesandrailroads.blogspot.com/2013/01/trio-of-old-west-buildings-battle-flag.html)
http://wargamesandrailroads.blogspot.com/2012/11/review-aetherworks-28mm-western.html (http://wargamesandrailroads.blogspot.com/2012/11/review-aetherworks-28mm-western.html)
http://wargamesandrailroads.blogspot.com/2012/11/review-gamecraft-miniatures-28mm.html (http://wargamesandrailroads.blogspot.com/2012/11/review-gamecraft-miniatures-28mm.html)
http://wargamesandrailroads.blogspot.com/2013/08/building-4ground-dead-mans-hand-main.html (http://wargamesandrailroads.blogspot.com/2013/08/building-4ground-dead-mans-hand-main.html)
http://wargamesandrailroads.blogspot.com/2013/09/building-tri-city-laser-redesigned-old.html (http://wargamesandrailroads.blogspot.com/2013/09/building-tri-city-laser-redesigned-old.html)
I should mention here that I own a lot of tools and clamps and I don't hesitate to use them on these kits. You don't really need much more than an x-acto knife, sharp blades and rubber bands to assemble any of them. I'm a bit finicky about how I build stuff so I use a lot of clamps.
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Yep, they're all do-able with super glue (or wood glue) and some rubber bands. Because of the laser cut precision...most of them "snap" together reasonably well so you're not stuck trying to manhandle pieces into place.