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Miniatures Adventure => Old West => Topic started by: Bloodaxe on December 05, 2017, 07:30:14 PM

Title: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: Bloodaxe on December 05, 2017, 07:30:14 PM
Anyone have the Plast Craft Old West buildings?  I've seen that they are untextured, no wood grain/planking. But have heard they changed this. I don't know if it's true or not.  Can anyone who has these sets give their opinion? Especially if they are newer sets. It would be much better if you didn't have to score the planking in yourself.
Thanks.
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: LeadAsbestos on December 06, 2017, 12:25:16 AM
I don't have any Old West, but my PlastCraft Dojo is an excellent piece of kit. I have no shame at all about plopping it on a table.
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: Bloodaxe on December 06, 2017, 01:33:31 AM
I don't have any Old West, but my PlastCraft Dojo is an excellent piece of kit. I have no shame at all about plopping it on a table.

The prices sure seem right.  Im just looking to see if the plastic card is textured. I have heard conflicting reports.  ive heard in the older sets that you had to score it with a craft knife, but the newer sets are textured.
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: rumacara on December 06, 2017, 08:27:07 PM
I dont know if there are new or old ranges but what i have werent textured.
I had to score mine.
I bought them more or less 2 years ago.
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: Bloodaxe on December 07, 2017, 03:00:16 AM
I dont know if there are new or old ranges but what i have werent textured.
I had to score mine.
I bought them more or less 2 years ago.

Thanks for the information.   How are the sets? They are only about $5 , so maybe still worth it.
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: dinohunterpoa on December 07, 2017, 04:24:13 AM
Looks like shit to me.

(https://cdn.miniaturemarket.com/media/catalog/product/p/c/pcgoldwest-04.jpg)
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: gnomehome on December 07, 2017, 07:18:53 AM
Looks like shit to me.

(https://cdn.miniaturemarket.com/media/catalog/product/p/c/pcgoldwest-04.jpg)

This is how they look with some additional work (just added some cardboard strips):

(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7304/9134850205_a6f41af345_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/eVduHk)

More at https://www.flickr.com/photos/kwindels/albums/72157634325932626

Not so bad IMHO
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: Manchu on December 07, 2017, 07:29:17 AM
Looks like shit to me.
Agreed.

I only ever bought/assembled/painted a single PlastCraft product (Fukei Bridge II) and that was one too many.

Yes, I ahd to texture it myself.
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: Vampifan on December 07, 2017, 09:52:40 AM
Looks like shit to me.

Ye gods! That is truly awful!  :o

I'm glad I'm sticking with the 4Ground buildings.  :-*
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: Drunkendwarf on December 07, 2017, 11:23:39 AM
For that price it is a good base to work from (looking at Gnomehome's endresult).

DJ
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: dinohunterpoa on December 07, 2017, 10:44:32 PM
Ye gods! That is truly awful!  :o

I'm glad I'm sticking with the 4Ground buildings.  :-*

EXACTLY!!!  ;)

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/54/Bot%C3%B3n_Me_gusta.svg/1200px-Bot%C3%B3n_Me_gusta.svg.png)

Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: Bloodaxe on December 08, 2017, 10:49:25 AM
4Ground is nice, but not cheap, thats for sure. Maybe I'll just try Rio Draco.
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: dinohunterpoa on December 08, 2017, 12:07:35 PM
4Ground is nice, but not cheap, thats for sure. Maybe I'll just try Rio Draco.

4Ground stuff is worth more then every penny IMHO!  ;)

And the satisfaction of a well set games table with nice minis and terrain is just PRICELESS!  :-*

Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: Bloodaxe on December 08, 2017, 12:14:14 PM
TT combat seems reasonably priced.
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: rumacara on December 08, 2017, 03:09:43 PM
And the buildings are great.
You can have 4 buildings and a gallows for 19,95 GBP plus postage.
Its a good start.
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: Vampifan on December 08, 2017, 03:23:18 PM
4Ground stuff is worth more then every penny IMHO!  ;)

And the satisfaction of a well set games table with nice minis and terrain is just PRICELESS!  :-*

Amen to that! Yes, the 4Ground stuff is expensive but, bear in mind, you are paying for exceptional quality and a pre-painted product. For me, that is worth the extra cost.  8) 8) 8) 8) 8)
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: Vagabond on December 08, 2017, 04:21:46 PM
I think it all comes down to your budget, I would like 4ground buildings if I could afford them but looking at what you get here, even though it's cheap is not very good value.
It seems to me that the work gnomehome has had to put into making it something special would just as easily been done with a carcass of foam board for about £1:00, the only tricky bit is the veranda and you could make that simpler. Unless these kits are particularly sturdy for this sort of building I would be inclined to look elsewhere.
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: Oldben1 on December 08, 2017, 04:55:25 PM
It looks good to me, although the amount of work needed to finish them is insane.  The finished job is pretty much scratchbuilt!
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: Night Owl on December 08, 2017, 05:45:57 PM
Seems everyone is comparing apples and oranges here. To the OP: no, the Plast Craft items I received a couple of weeks ago are not textured.
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: gnomehome on December 09, 2017, 01:28:00 PM
I think it all comes down to your budget, I would like 4ground buildings if I could afford them but looking at what you get here, even though it's cheap is not very good value.
It seems to me that the work gnomehome has had to put into making it something special would just as easily been done with a carcass of foam board for about £1:00, the only tricky bit is the veranda and you could make that simpler. Unless these kits are particularly sturdy for this sort of building I would be inclined to look elsewhere.
Time is also an important factor for me. Putting together the kit and 'pimping' it up took less than 2 hours (painting not included) - the basic build itself less than 15 minutes. I cannot work that fast and cleanly in foamboard.

4Ground buildings are huge compared to these kits. I for one am not cray about 4ground (or other MDF) buildings, but as the say  - de gustibus et coloribus non est disputandum.
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: Vagabond on December 09, 2017, 05:12:09 PM
de gustibus et coloribus non est disputandum.


I guess we could all agree with that. :)
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: DS615 on December 12, 2017, 01:33:02 AM
I have no experience with either, I build my own.
But the Plast Craft ones look great for a base to build from. I will have to look at them further.

The 4 Ground ones I just looked up, and I'm very unimpressed.  I've seen much nicer paper buildings, and for far less.
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: bandit86 on December 12, 2017, 06:46:39 AM
I liked them for what they are 4ground are nice but expensive you can get a bunch for the price of 1, 4ground
https://bandit86.blogspot.com/search/label/Old%20West%20%28Hellish%20Wells%29
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: Treebeard on December 12, 2017, 08:25:56 AM
TTCombat is in my opinion the best compromise price vs quality. They have an large range of MDF buildings from 5£ to 20£ (for the biggest one) that allow you to start a nice town for a reduce amount of money.

Their "starter kit" comes for 20£ include 4 buildings and gallows

https://ttcombat.com/collections/wild-west/products/town-buildings-gallows

Some buildings even come with interiors elements

(https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0965/1274/products/ww-town-buildings-gallows-06_1024x1024.jpg?v=1498727529)

Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: Welsh on December 13, 2017, 11:40:33 AM
As people have stated, at the end of the day its down to choice and budget.

Personally I love the 4Ground buildings, when you compare the quality and what the finished product looks like there is no comparison.

I'm afraid the TT buildings look very bare and some of the stuff looks as if it designed for children.

Just my opinion guys  ;) ;)
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: Elbows on December 13, 2017, 01:56:19 PM
There is a massive sliding scale of Old West buildings.

Nothing pre-made will ever have the charm of a beautifully done hand-built piece of terrain.  Most people aren't capable of doing a beautiful handbuilt piece of terrain (or have not the time).  The MDF buildings range from very very cheap to very very expensive and you generally get what you pay for.  While my table is mostly 4Ground, I buy them smartly (on sale with free shipping, etc.). I also use them because I am in the business of occasionally promoting my Old West game.

There are heaps of middle-ground MDF which will look just fine.  The benefit is that they're very easy to paint and assemble.  The original Sarissa buildings I had could be assembled in about 2 minutes a piece.  Something which can't be said about custom hand-built stuff (I've been an entire Mordheim table out of foam and coffee stirrers...it's not a fast process).

The plastcraft stuff - it seems useful to me if the price is right and you want to get a "basic" shape cut out for you.  Cutting accurate posterboard is annoying at the best of times.  I don't know how pricey they are, however.
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: hentzau on December 13, 2017, 04:25:28 PM
I've gone almost 100% 4Ground for Zenda.  I have way more money than time (and talent) to be able to build out a western town by scratch.  I've looked at a few other companies buildings, but the pre-paint really sells it for me.  The less time I spend on painting buildings, the more time I can spend painting gangs.
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: Oldben1 on December 13, 2017, 04:40:41 PM
I have Hovels, Perry Bros.  and some scratchbuilt adobes.  The plasticraft stuff would probably make an excellent shell to build on.  I do love the resin pieces but only have one due to the price.
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: dinohunterpoa on December 13, 2017, 11:34:56 PM
I've gone almost 100% 4Ground for Zenda.  I have way more money than time (and talent) to be able to build out a western town by scratch.  I've looked at a few other companies buildings, but the pre-paint really sells it for me.  The less time I spend on painting buildings, the more time I can spend painting gangs.

Well said!

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/54/Bot%C3%B3n_Me_gusta.svg/1200px-Bot%C3%B3n_Me_gusta.svg.png)
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: Manchu on December 14, 2017, 03:52:08 AM
Went by the LGS yesterday and they happened to have a table set up with Plast Craft Old West buildings. Whoever worked on them did a fair job and it made me reconsider the line.

I already have some 4ground Old West buildings and they are great, especially if you want to use the interiors in gaming. I have many 4ground products, everything from feudal Japanese stuff to the Chicago Way shotgun shacks. Even have some Gothic City stuff (that line actually doesn't have interiors as far as I know) on order at the moment. So fair play to 4ground and all that.

Back to Plast Craft: have been getting into Malifaux and I'm not interested in the branded Plast Craft offerings, especially the stuff that comes with printed surfaces. I also don't think the 4ground buildings do justice to the weirdness (should that be Wyrdness?) of the setting. But I got to thinking, I could probably use the Plast Craft Old West line to make up some much more creepy looking terrain suitable for Malifaux.

Thanks to Miniature Market, I picked up all six buildings for under 5USD each. That's a pittance, even for an experiment. I will post my results once I have some time to dig in over the holidays.
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: Elbows on December 14, 2017, 03:02:07 PM
Yep, I'd pay $5 to have someone cut out shapes for me to scratch-build from anyway, so I think that's money well spent. 
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: Manchu on December 20, 2017, 10:38:47 PM
So I received my Plast Craft buildings from MM last night and started assembling them.

Good news: the wood grain texture is already embossed into the parts, where applicable! The only thing missing is lines indicating separate boards. But TBH the wood grain texture is probably sufficient.
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: Bloodaxe on December 20, 2017, 11:40:58 PM
So I received my Plast Craft buildings from MM last night and started assembling them.

Good news: the wood grain texture is already embossed into the parts, where applicable! The only thing missing is lines indicating separate boards. But TBH the wood grain texture is probably sufficient.

Ok thanks!  So woodgrain- but no individual boards- strange.  Maybe put a pic up sometime? 
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: Night Owl on December 21, 2017, 03:45:00 AM
I wanted to come back and say that I too received some more on Monday but didn't look that close at them until today and sure enough they are textured now. Good on Plast Craft for for bettering their product without raising the prices.
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: white knight on December 21, 2017, 08:41:28 AM
I'm assuming they switched from plain plasticard to textured one, which means the cutting time remains the same and would explain the fact there are still no individual planks.
Title: Re: Plast Craft Old West ?
Post by: Manchu on December 21, 2017, 03:25:46 PM
The whole building is stamped/cut into a single card of plastic foam. Only the applicable parts (walls, porch) have wood grain texture.