"15/18mm Apartment building for AQotMF from Martin's Models" Topic

Its blogging time!

Here's an update from Martin's Models, showing off my new Lasercut apartment building, suitable for 15mm to 18mm gaming.

link

And here's a picture!

I designed this kit when I realised that doing a city board for All Quiet on the Martian Front might prove dangerously expensive using model railway kits. The detail on many HO scale models is breathtaking, but it is also far in excess of what most wargamers require, so, I'm trying to offer a cheaper alternative, that still looks good, while being practical.

My intention is to make this model available as a kit, which you good folk will be able to buy from the Martin's Models site. Also, if all goes reasonably well, I will have a few available for sale at Little Wars Adelaide, 2014. Follow the link below if you don't know about Little Wars Adelaide, and I hope to see you there!

littlewars.com.au

- Martin

That is very nice indeed….

Lovely!

That building looks really nice Martin, have you thought about painting the mdf sheets red and white before you laser cut them, the way 4Ground do. I've made a heap of plastic HO DPM building kits and painting brickwork is a real pain in the horses to do. If the kit was pre coloured it would possibly be more appealing and sell faster.

Interesting point, Ewan. I think I'll investigate that. Thanks!

Beautiful work.

That….. is perfect.

very impressed, you have a customer in Sydney when these get to market.

nice looking

Ewan: a quick way is to paint all the brickwork your chosen brick colour using enamels. Leave to dry a couple of days. Then paint over with off white acrylic, then wipe it off again. The mortar colour remains in the channels but leaves the less recessed bricks in their base colour.

Martin – please put one aside for me, I'll pick it up at Little Wars!

Entranger

That's how I do it myself, but it gets to be a bit of a pain around moulded on windows and doors.
By marketing as "pre-painted" the model becomes more appealing to a wider market. In my experience most wargamers are lazy, I myself would rather pay an extra dollar or two if it means that I don't have to paint the model as well. My first thought looking at the building was "wow" then I look at the fact that its got bricks and my shoulders slump.
Also if you don't like the models colour you can easily paint over it in your own preferred colours and treat the pre-paint as an undercoat.

Etranger – will keep one aside for you. :)

Ewan – keep in mind, one advantage of the design of this building is that the window frames and facade are on a separate layer, which is intended to be glued over the MDF inner shell (which has the brick pattern.) There's no reason why one could not simply spray the MDF layer with a suitable red basecoat, drybrush, and call it done.

Its only borderline OCD cases like me who pick out individual bricks! :D

For those who have bought one of the preview kits of the Apartment building, there is a PDF instruction booklet now available for download at Martin's Models.

link

Thanks to all for the feedback, too – some great ideas here! Everyone's thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Coming soon – some pics of the second kit in the range – a nice big Civic Building for the Martians to raise to the ground!

And Martin did keep one for me. Very nice it is too. Well thought out & looks even better in the flesh.

That's a lovely model!

How bad is shipping from Australia to the US?

Hello Lion,

I'd be happy to find out if you like.

Here are some new pics of another example building I've just completed.

As an experiment, this one was built with the unadorned alley-way side on the right, which allows me to match it alongside its bigger brother, with a narrow alley between. Just the place for a troop of Roughriders to lurk, waiting for a passing tripod!

Okay, no offense to the Martian players, but I don't give a pip about the whole martian thing. But I WANT those buildings! Very, very nice and useful in so many ways. Please post up what the cost would be for the buildings, plus shipping, to the USA. That way I can decide if I can afford them and, maybe, how many of each I'd want.

Love that I don't see any of those damned tabs that ruin so many MDF models for me. They are ghastly and I know they don't have to be there (at least not as glaring oddities). Great job!

You will be expanding this range, right? So my wife can be angry with me, yes?

Early -

Yep, more buildings are planned. Next cab off the rank will be a large Civic Building, with two wings and resin-cast dome and columns, which can be used as a City Hall, Library, etc.

You know, one of the reasons I started experimenting with making laser cut buildings was those tabs! I too find them annoying. There ARE tabs on these buildings, but they are carefully hidden away beneath the 2mm card facade layer.

Prices: (PLEASE be aware, these are subject to change!)

(In Australian Dollars)

Ground floor Section: $35.00 USD

Upper floor Section: $15.00 USD

Basic Roof: $4.00 USD

'Fancy' Roof: $5.00 USD

So, a 3-storey Ground Floor Section kit, with Basic Roof, comes to a total of $39.00 USD.

I will investigate postage to both the US and UK over the next few days, and advise everyone. Whatever it comes to, I will ONLY charge at cost – no more.

These prices are not 'locked in'. I am aiming to have them finalised about this time next week.

Patience, folks! And thank you for your enthusiasm.

- Martin

Excellent! Another Aussie here that will be looking to buy in the near future :)

Thanks, Peter! There's been a delay here (Mafia control of building unions, I'm told…) but I expect to have production models ready to ship at about the end of next week. There will be an announcement on TMP, and the Martian Front forum, as soon as I have them in my hands.