Modular Terrain Recommendations Please

[Omenbringer]

While the Plastcraft stuff is nice it can be a pain to put together because they love to curve their walls. Rubber bands help during assembly. Also they don't print on both sides so one side will be just the base color.

21 hours ago, -Loki- said:

What puts me off 4ground is mostly the scale. It's true 28mm while Malifaux is 32mmm so everyone looks slightly too big around the buildings. Doesn't bother some people, and I normally don't mind slight variations in scale, but it irritates me with 4grounds stuff. That's why I really want Plastcraft to do some more ColourED ranges for Malifaux, or at least redo their original city stuff as ColourED.

 

 

A bit surprising as I found the opposite actually, the Plastcraft stuff is quite a bit larger than other terrain makers ranges so the models (on their bases) look correctly proportioned to the structures. It does look odd though when you have an assortment of buildings from different manufacturers (4 ground is quite a bit smaller than Plastcraft).

I would like them to produce more sets though would love if they would start printing on both sides and stop including curved wall connections.

On 9/4/2016 at 5:03 AM, Butch said:

I like the Wolsung and Wild West Exodus buildings from Micro Art Studio.

And the western buildings from the small german shop War Mage.

The Wild West Exodus set is nice though again a bit small compared to the Plastcraft stuff. It is a bit of a value though and if you get multiple sets it is easy enough to kit bash more complex structures.

On 9/3/2016 at 0:29 PM, Captain Black said:

Game mat's, Hmm now would you go for Cloth, PVC, or mousepad type? Not having any experience of game mat's what would you suggest?

For game mats it is difficult to beat just producing your own. A cheap drop cloth (washed and dried first is a good idea), couple tubes of paintable caulking, and some crumpled tin foil (to texture the caulking) makes very nice mats (depending upon the size of your drop cloth it could make quite a few). It doesn't take that long either most of the time is spent letting it dry.

If purchasing though I like the vinyl ones as opposed to the mouse pad ones.

[Captain Black]

23 hours ago, -Loki- said:

This was just quickly thrown together. Didn't throw any scatter terrain on there, just the mat and the Plastcraft stuff.

 

The setup looks really good  Suitably grunge

[-Loki-]

1 hour ago, Omenbringer said:

While the Plastcraft stuff is nice it can be a pain to put together because they love to curve their walls. Rubber bands help during assembly. Also they don't print on both sides so one side will be just the base color.

I hear this a lot and I don't understand why people don't just bend them first? The material takes to bending really well. Abnormally well. So much so that you'll generally get parts that are meant to be flat that arrive slightly bent in the box. I've found bending them over your thigh or arm is a good way to do it without the risk of snapping the part. The biggest complaint I've seen is the caravan roofs where people complain you need to glue a straight roof over a curved area and need 3 hands to do it. Just bend the roof over your arm gradually until it dry fits in place.

[Omenbringer]

Loki even bending panels didn't fully solve the issue, the rubber bands (and I had to use quite a few) did a lot more to aid construction.

[-Loki-]

On 08/09/2016 at 11:09 PM, Omenbringer said:

Loki even bending panels didn't fully solve the issue, the rubber bands (and I had to use quite a few) did a lot more to aid construction.

Very strange. It's just been my experience that bending works great - the material holds the bend you give it really well (which unfortunately leads to pieces that are meant to be flat arriving curved). And once superglued, the bond is immensely strong. Like, it'll break somewhere else rather than the superglued joint again. Not sure why you used rubber bands? The superglue bond is pretty much instant and very strong.

I guess I'll see when I build them.

[Omenbringer]

The glues I used (and I tried several different types and brands) did not bond instantly or strongly unless I used the Rubber bands to hold everything in place.

[-Loki-]

 

4 hours ago, Omenbringer said:

The glues I used (and I tried several different types and brands) did not bond instantly or strongly unless I used the Rubber bands to hold everything in place.

What were the brands and types? I'm mostly curious, because I've used both Zap brand superglue and cheap $2 tubes from budget stores and both have had an instant, strong bond with the foamed PVC.

[Omenbringer]

I have used Zap-a-gap, Gale Force Nine, Super Glue, and Gorilla Glue. When I had such little success with these I also tried plastic glue.

[-Loki-]

Very strange. With Superglue I've found that it bonds so fast that sometimes I realise I haven't gotten the best fit and after just seconds I need to cut the join to rejoin it.

[Omenbringer]

I did not have that experience. All the glues I used took a long time to form a solid bond that would not come apart.

I also utilized the rubber bands and temporary substructures to keep the buildings from collapsing while the glue set to get the best fits (and no gaps).

Perhaps my pieces had more mold release on them, I don't know. What I can say for sure is that the curves did not help with construction, adhesion, or gap reduction. It was most difficult in the smaller Train Halt than it was in the larger Train Station.