Excellent Blog and good review of Laser Cut Buildings

[Heisler]

I ran into that same problem with the last batch of Sarissa buildings as well. Apparently they will get a batch of MDF that is out about 2.5mm. My feeling is that this is something that they should catch and they shouldn't send out kits made from this stock. I had the railroad station, two of the homesteads a small and a medium building show up with this. I did a lot of filing. Again they did offer to replace any of the parts but by that point I had everything together.

I definitely would prefer to see the porches as separate pieces on the homesteads. The attachment point is just to fragile and I broke it off during the assembly. I would recommend painting as much as you can before assembly as well when you have to deal with the porches.

[Mindenbrush]

I finally decided to remove all the porch railings and will build a new set after next weeks game.

As Heisler said - separate porches  - but with thicker supports would be an improvement.

I also noticed that after adding strips to the corners of the buildings to hide the interlocking pegs, the overlapping roof no longer fits............ Where is my scalpel.............

[Mindenbrush]

I got my two buildings 'finished' for our mini convention at the weekend  and got positive comments about the 2 Sarissa buildings

Painting wise I had primed them with automotive grey primer and then tried using acrylics to highlight but that did not seem to work so I switched to Humbrol enamels for basic colours and then back to the old reliable Ceramcote for the highlights. As with painting figures I find that if I wait a day to check colours I find taht the blending is normally okay.

Future buildings will have as much pre-painted before assembly especially such items as window frames and door surrounds.

Keep on building 

[Heisler]

Glad to hear that your buildings got a good review. I agree, if I had a better vision before I started I would pre-paint as much as possible as well. Especially the interiors.

[Elbows]

I have an old prototype from TLC (and I'll be grabbing one of their new Liveries) and Bryant from Nashcon gave me an old Flying Tricycle (?) laser cut building from about 10-15 years back.

It's a nice Sheriff's office with jail cell...but boy is it wildly complex.  Also the pieces are not precision cut enough to simply wedge together.  It'll be a bit of a paint.  I will definitely be pre-painting these this time round.

Previous ones (Sarissa and TLC) were assembled really quick for gaming, and the TLC ones were display prototypes I got for free (and thus had to paint them after the fact).  Hoping for a better result. 

[Heisler]

Flying Tricycle sounds pretty close. I built some of their medieval kits a long time ago for Mordheim. I'm still on the fence with the Tri-City Laser kits though. I like that they are wood rather than MDF, but I don't think they are well proportioned.

[Elbows]

Yeah, I'm not huge on the TLC kits - and I actually don't like that they're made of wood! 

My preference for simple gaming stuff is still Sarissa - though if 4Ground made some, I'd probably go with theirs.  Battle Flag looks great but is a bit too expensive for what I need (though they making chuffin' great centrepieces).

In the end, I'm happy just to be spoilt with choice.

[Heisler]

It is nice to have choices too! I watching Great Escape Games' Dead Man's Hand game announcements. They indicate that they are working with a company to produce a line of western buildings for them that will be released in April along with the game and, of course, miniatures. When you take a step back and look at the companies currently producing Old West buildings 4Ground is one of the few laser cut building companies that hasn't entered into that market. Although it could certainly be someone else I wouldn't be surprised if Great Escape was working with 4Ground. Fortunately we only have to wait a month to see.

[Elbows]

Yeah, I think 4Ground probably played it smart, and realized it was almost over-crowded now (there are what, a good 4-5 companies putting out decent MDF Old West stuff).

I still think 4Ground is my favorite company - so I wouldn't complain.  I agree with you though, simply because they said "pre-painted"...which 4Ground does now. 

[Michi]

I will admit to that being my blog, I'm glad someone is finding it useful.

Thatīs one fine blog there, Kris. We seem to share some interest in lasercut old west buildings and western railways. My blog is not that well sorted, but I have posted my stuff here on LAF too. Find it in railway wargaming and old west sections...
Cheers

[Heisler]

I'll definitely go check it out!

[Legionnaire]

I stumbled upon this blog myself a little while back when I was umming and ahhing about WHICH MDF kits to buy, weighing the pro's/ con's and price, shipping etc against each other. I read all your comments on the kits and decided to go with three of Battle Flag's buildings in the end (Saloon, Bank and Sheriff's Office and Jail). Simply because I for once could afford to splash out on some decent kit, and according to the reviews I've read, BF is the bees-knees.

I have no doubt that they are every inch what I've read, just hope my modelling skills are adequate for the task...

Already been thinking about ordering some Sarissa's too, my BF's are in the post as of today!!! 

[Heisler]

You will be fine. That's the good thing about the Battle Flag kits, great instructions and you can build the whole thing with a good blade in an x-acto knife!