Adventures in MDF

Ahhhh... I love the smell of moudly MDF in the mornings... not.

So I've had a whole bunch of MDF buildings from several Kickstarters. Some fantasy medieval stuff, some sci-fi stuff and a whole stack of Twisted Steampunk-specific stuff. I've assmebled a little bit here and there, but wasn't really serious about it, using natural terrain like trees and rocks and partly built buildings for fantasy/steampunk and Deadzone or Infinity cardboard terrain for sci-fi.

Untul this year when the monsoon was really heavy and the roof leaked. Turned out the damp got to my MDF terrain... even the assembled ones! The MDF either turned mouldy... of the damp was forcing out MDF particles. Whiever it was, it was weird.

Having no choice, I was forced to dry them in the sun for 2 whole days before assembling them.

Thankfully, this was at the beginning of the self-quarantine period so I had... not lots of time, exactly. Not with a hyperactive 3 y.o. in the house... but enough to work on them over 2 weeks.

First up were the sci-fi buildings because they were the worst off. I'd had them for nearly 3 years without assembling them. High time.

A week plus a lot of cursing and sore fingertips later, it was all done.

I spray primed them later on, after I had my Star Breach game (see batrep).

Next up were the Twisted buildings. They were definitely easier to assemble although getting the smaller parts off the board proved a chore. Still, they all went together smoothly enough and they looked good, as can be seen in my earlier battle report. The larger buildings had sub-assemblies that made it easier to assemble and put together.

The above photo was truly crazy. TONS of MDF for just one building: The Corner Shop.

I managed to finally part prime them yesterday. Ran out of some colours with limited options to get more, thanks to the quarantine.

So that's my MDF adventure.

Mini review of the sci-fi MAD Gaming Terrain (UK): good looking buildings, lots of options on how to build them, and they are very modular with many ways to lay them out. They also use 3mm magnets to attach walkways and stairs. Very useful for multi-story buildings. Having said that, assembling them was not fun. Although to be fair, these were the v.1.0 buildings and the current version available at retail is 2.0. I'll use them for Beyond the Gates of Antares, MERCS, Star Breach, Infinity, Hardwired and Star Wars Legion. Although there are several other smaller solo skirmish games I've yet to try, like Dark Metal and the 5 Parsecs series.

Mini review of the Twisted City terrain from Miniature Scenery (Australia): they have a very unique esthetic about them that fits the Twisted Steampunk game perfectly, as well as being suitable for games of Malifaux and even some of the more whimsical fantasy skirmish games. The smaller peices were problematic to remove from the boards and some of the fancier designed pieces due to the sharp, acute points that had a tendency to split apart if not gently removed from the boards via lots of cutting with a cutter blade. But the assembly was overall very smooth with just some minor filing and cutting of slots to make all the pieces fit. Unlike the sci-fi terrain. I'll be using these for Twisted Steampunk (of course!), generic fantasy (Alkemy, maybe?), Rangers of Shadow Deep, and possibly some steampunk-era Pulp Alley. Also Wrath of Kings if I can get anyone interested in that excellent but dead game.

I'm glad I have them, and my skirmish tables will now look a treat whenever I play.