Laser Cut Buildings: Let's Cut To The Chase!

    Some of the best things about this hobby of war gaming is that there are now so many companies out there to help you on your vision. And when it comes to terrain, I tend to get a little crazy with. I admit that it is like a disease. I am always looking to improve. Not everyone is like that, though. I have played games with people who brought only felt pieces cut in different shapes and colors and used that only as their terrain. I have even read somewhere in a war games magazine that one person drew their terrain on a white dry erase board. That was it! No lie!
  However, I like making awesome terrain, but I still have not gone to the point of making my own buildings. There are two reasons for this. One, I am having the trouble about how to go about designing and building them. Which leads to the second reason, I would want it to be made of resin. As a quote from Boris the Blade in the movie Snatch: "The weight is the sign of reliability. I always go with reliability. If it doesn't work, you can always hit him with it." Now, I am not planning on beating anyone down with a terrain piece, but I have to agree with old Boris. I once was carrying a box of my buildings across a parking lot and then, tripped and fell. Nothing broke! I think we all have those scary moments with miniatures. The point is, I don't seem to break heavy resin stuff.
   So about laser cut buildings. I tend to still keep an open mind about modeling. My wife, Kalissa and I recently gained a few MDF projects. A lot of these buildings are for our near future Bolt Action Tournament. Kalissa has gained a lot of support from our gaming community. We got Impudent Mortal to help out as well, as a few of our friends. Warlord Games is helping and well as Gothic Line Miniatures. All great things when doing a first time tournament. It is something to look forward to.
   For buildings, we have several 4Ground Buildings I am building for a friend. The trade off is that I get to use them and his mat as a table in our tournament. We bought a Sarissa building from Warlord with more tanks to try out. And lastly, Impudent Mortal donated buildings for us to use.
   Okay, it is time for my feelings of laser cut. I have found that they are alright to work with. Until I paint a bunch of them tomorrow or the next day will I not feel satisfied. I tend to do this with all projects. So do not use my current feeling of unpainted as a decision making guide. I think my main thing that bothers me when I see them are the unpainted painted ones. I am annoyed when I see the laser cut burns on the edges. This brings us to reviews.
   The 4ground buildings:
   My friend, Danny had five of these to build. They came pre-painted. Now, to give credit to 4ground, they can't really do anything about laser cut burns while be painted at the same time. However, I feel people need to finish painting to edges. Of course, everyone of the pre-painted ones I have seen, no one painted any further. They are strong buildings with lots of reinforcement. They have nearly everything doubled walled. That is great to make it tough, but I felt like it was a little overkill. This is a problem for me when using lots of glue. I tend to use Loctite Control Gel for most of my projects. It tends to be on the expensive side, but I like that I can just count to 30 when gluing metal and it is done. Other materials are even quicker. Here is an unfinished example of one of 4ground's row homes below.

The temptation to paint those edges are killing me.

The double wall does allow for some extra detail like holes in the walls.

They added stairs for an extra touch, though more glue!

     Sarissa Buildings:
  I've been looking at these building forever. We got one of their Dutch houses, because I have been modeling our WW2 stuff mainly around Operation Market Garden. Now, unlike the 4ground buildings, this building was stupid quick to build. I think it took me five minutes. I was informed by my friend, Hugh, that these were their first production runs, so there is a chance they have added more detail. My only complaint is that with simple, I am going to find myself adding 3-D elements later. Also, the rooms are small. As in really small! They are closets for my 28mm Germans. Again, they most likely changed with newer production lines. I will probably get more of these for Market Garden games. Here it the one I got below.

It is a little small, but matches up with other resin ones I have in size.

The up stairs closets!

Down stairs.

Impudent Mortal Buildings:
    This is a smaller company in the U.S.A. I first saw them from my friend, Hugh who purchased them from the vendor table at the Siege of Augusta Convention. This was before we started going to conventions. They have nice detail and are fairly simple to build. They have a fairly large footprint, but not a lot of choices for historical. After the tournament, we will see if we an push for more. However, simple is good in this case. The roof is not designed to be one solid lift off piece. Not really a problem. I found their way of addressing multi-floors interesting. They cut out a section, so you do not have to lift multi-floors. In a way, it makes for a stronger building. Besides, I do not think there is a need for that much room on the top floor. As long as, people can stand up on the next floor, it is playable. I would show the Stable, because it is awesome, but I have to finish building it. Here is a example of theirs below.

I glued one side of the roof for more stability, since there is plenty of room.

      Like I said before, I tend to be more judgemental before I finish projects. I am looking into Charlie Foxhole Miniatures building in the future, since they have some good designs. But first, I will finish what I have. I'll post the finished stuff soon enough.