Monday 26 May 2014

4Ground Medieval Dwelling

I'm very conscious there has been very little blogging of late; my work/life schedule has taken a massive bite into my free time in recent months, although I have been (sort of) productive during this time; no reports have made it online.  

Having said all that, the academic year is grinding to a close and with it, most of my current commitments; which should allow more blogging again...

Anyway, enough of my blubbing and on with the update! During a great visit to Salute recently, what stood out for me was the very prominent 4Ground kit that seemed to dominate a lot of the display games. I always had an open mind about laser cut buildings and their inherent qualities, but having seen them firsthand I have been sold; yes, they probably don't look as convincing as resin/plastic etc, but given the time saved, flexibility and so on, they are hard to beat. Not only that, they do look impressive 'in the flesh'.


I decided to take the plunge and try one out, hence the Saxon/Medieval dwelling here,which I picked up for £14, which is fairly reasonable. For those who haven't encountered the model before, I found it very straight forward to build. The only 'dodgy' bit, I think, is the so-called 'teddy bear fur' used for the thatch. However, once it is treated with a PVA/water mix as outlined in the instructions, it isn't too bad. I may yet wash and dry brush it to give it a little more depth.


The interior, out of the box is a little sparse, so I painted and dry brushed the floor before adding some brown static grass as 'straw', along with some firewood and 'ashes' in the fire box.




I intend to base the dwelling and add some wattle fencing, currently on order from Northstar to create a centre piece for a bit of Dark Age skirmishing - probably using THW's Swordplay rules.


Finally, the obligatory scale shot, using a couple of Conquest Games' Norman Infantry; as you can see, they fit very nicely. To sum up, I think 4Ground are the way ahead and ideal for skirmish-type games and intend to order a few more.

That's it for now,

Monty 


12 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thanks Phil, must admit, they are better in real life ;)

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  2. That looks great. A friend of mine has some 4ground Japanese buildings and they are very impressive. Looking forward to seeing it based. Cheers, Paul :-)

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    Replies
    1. Cheers Paul, I will put it up once I get the fencing in ;)

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  3. I love these, they really are top quality.

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    Replies
    1. I have to agree, Michael - good time savers too ;)

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  4. Looks really great - nice finishing touches with the straw & ash inside.

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  5. Nice looking model Monty.
    They re up for a reason: skirmish games. I think they fill the task

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