I normally make my home over on another forum, but I figured I'd drop by and give folks a look at some of the Dead Man's Hand buildings I've put together.
Preface: I am the writer/designer for Shoot N' Skedaddle, an Old West miniatures game which is comin' soon. I am also a gigantic 4Ground fan --- they make the best MDF stuff I've used/built. Soooo, when DMH hinted at pre-painted MDF buildings I assumed it was 4Ground, and they confirmed it.
I immediately bought the five-building town when it was released, and will likely buy everything else 4Ground releases for the line. I am replacing a rather large amount of Sarissa and TCL buildings in the process.
The bag of goodies (with some outhouses and walls for good measure).
The bags come loaded with MDF sheets – certain sheets are pre-painted/coloured.
You can see that the MDF is pre-painted then laser cut – which actually gives a nice brown patina on certain parts after the cut.
The instructions are "okay". Decent pictures, a little confusing since some panels are out of order, and others are for pieces in other kits. Use one building as a learning experience.
There are spare parts which can probably be scrounged for use with other projects or buildings.
It's easy to paint up the signage (poorly…) when it's still unassembled.
Some components being assembled.
PROS:
4Ground makes awesome stuff. Brilliantly designed, and great attention to detail. Nice colour schemes and the laser cut work is very precise some everything slots together nicely. I personally think the prices are very reasonable – though definitely on the high end of MDF stuff, given the number of components/paint work etc. The interior walls, and side walls of most buildings are interchangeable as are the signs and roofs…so you could actually buy more of these, re-paint the front fascias and create a number of new unique buildings.
It's nice that each building (I've only built the three single story buildings so far) are unique…each has different interior walls, and window placement. No cookie-cutter stuff here.
A tiny mouse nest which is cut into one of the walls…
One of the buildings.
Interior – 4Ground does two-piece walls, which means you have paint/detail on each side. It also results in a very thick, strong wall.
The main door of each building actually swings open.
Some roofs have hatches which can swing open for roof-access.
The buildings scale well, even with Black Scorpion (doors are a tiny bit short for the BS models). Black Scorpion are probably the biggest Old West range, so no worries for anyone else.
Interior walls come with a non-swinging door which can be wedged in place, or glued in place. I will glue some in when I finish adding resin furniture sometime in the future.
The other two buildings I've completed. First one took a slow and steady three hours of figuring out how to best assemble them. The others each took perhaps an hour and a half (some of it was waiting for glue to dry)
CONS:
Well, I love the buildings…BUT: Some of the designs are really finnicky using very small pieces of MDF. I am afraid anyone who is a bit hamfisted will break components. Once assembled they're all quite robust, but some are uselessly complicated. The doors are particularly tough to assemble.
Some of these designs could have been done a little bit simpler without really sacrificing the look or quality of the kit.
Also, keep an eye out on the pre-painted pieces. I had a few (read: 2-3) pieces which had some paint splatter on the back which was causing them not to sit flush. A quick scrap and the paint came off easily.
Overall, I'm absolutely chuffed to bits with the quality and end-result. Here are some comparison pictures for size:
(L-R: 4Ground, Sarissa, Tri-City Laser, Flying Tricycle)
I'll add more when I start work on the 2-story buildings tonight.
takes another stab at building a more perfect flight stand.
