SAGA Fatigue Tokens

After my last SAGA games I realized that my bead counters were a little cheesy and I decided to step up to a classier solution.  I picked up a set of the SAGA Fatigue Tokens.  Some friends also use these and I really like them.  I wanted mine to be distinct so I took my Prismacolor markers and colored them in.  You get 24 of these for about $11.50 which is a pretty good deal.

4Ground Rural Farm House

This is the last part of the farm complex and it really is the center piece of the set.  This is Rural Farm House kit number 15S-EAW-115.  I am not sure what else to say so I will let the pictures do the talking.

4Ground Stone Pig Stye & Chicken Coop

What we have here is the most epic stone pig stye/chicken coop building of all time.  This is kit 15S-EAW-116.  This thing is only big enough for a single small stand but has nearly as many parts and steps as the much larger kits.  Certainly your forward observer will be well protected, though stinky, in this solid building.

4Ground Stone Hay Loft with Cart Shed

Building number three in the North West European Farm Complex is 15S-EAW-117 Stone Hay Loft with Cart Shed.  Not much to say that hasn't already been said.  One thing I have notice with these kits is that just because a building is small it does not mean that it is less complex to build or has fewer parts.

4Ground Stone Granary & Cart Shed

This is the second kit included in the 4Ground North West European Farm Complex.  This is kit 15S-EAW-118 Stone Granary & Cart Shed.  This is another fabulous kit.  This is a really good sized two story building with lots of room for figures or guns.  This kit is a little more involved than the Threshing Barn kit.  The stairs and the arches add a little more work but it was still fairly easy to build.  This one too about an hour.

4Ground Threshing Barn Kit

This is the first in a series of posts I will do showing more detailed pictures of each of the kits that make up the 4Ground North West European Farm Complex.  This is kit 15S-EAW-119 Threshing Barn.

This was the first kit of the set that I built.  I was really impressed with the use of thinner laminate materials to provide the damage stucco texture.  I was have always been impressed with the use of layers to create depth that 4Ground incorporates into their kits.   This was the first kit where I encountered the thinner, almost cardboard, material for thinner depth relief.

This is a pretty large building and you can easily fit 5 maybe 6 standard Flames of War medium bases in the building.  There should be no trouble getting a couple of large bases in but I have not checked that.

This kit was a lot of fun to build and a great way to start off the project.  This tool less than an hour to build.

North West European Farm Complex Completed

I finished by 15mm North West European Farm Complex (15S-EAW-S2).  I have a little more than 8 hours in this project.  Like the other 4Ground kits I have built, you really have to like building models as these can be pretty challenging.  Below are are few pictures of the completed complex.  I am planning to post up more detailed pictures of each of the 6 kits that make up this set.

I really love this set.  It was expensive, but I think it really is a good value.  It will make a great center piece for my Flames of War games and is basically a stone fort.  I would love to see 4Ground release damaged versions of the main buildings.  I would certainly buy those if available.

North West European Farm Complex Unboxing

Today I took delivery of my next 4Ground project.  I have only built on 4Ground kit to date but I was very impressed with it and knew I would be adding more to the collection.  This time I went with one of the bigger multi-building kits - 15mm North West European Farm Complex.

This kit is actually 6 separate kits on one box.  There are 5 buildings and one wall set in the kit.  Each kit has its own bag and its own instruction sheet.  I have yet to start work on these but I will very soon.  I am sure I will document a few of these as I build them.

First 4Ground Building

The first item I tackled from the vacation haul was the 4Ground building.  I have really been looking forward to building one of these kits ever since I first learned of them.  This kit was $20 from Brookhurst and that makes it comparable to the Battlefront houses I have been getting on the subscription deal.  The BF houses run about $21 each.

These kits come in a plastic bag package, so nothing real fancy.  Inside there are several laser-cut sprues with the various parts.  The 'pre-painted' aspect of these involves using different painted MDF boards for various parts.  These boards are painted prior to the laser cuts and, therefore, show some scorch marks that mar the color.  In addition, the color is not on the edges of the pieces which is quite noticeable once the model has been built.

I found the instructions for this kit to be excellent.  The are full color and have a nice step by step process.  If you take your time and follow the instructions the kits is not too difficult to assemble.  If you are like me and think you know it all you might have to redo some bits here and there.

At the end of the instructions they have included some color signs and posters to enhance your model.  I thought this was a nice touch.  Being the 'with it' dude I am I promptly threw away these instructions, and the cool signs and posters, once I was done building the model. *sigh*

I am not going to do a step by step on the assembly as the instructions do a really nice job of that.  Besides, I forgot to take pictures as I was working on it.  One important thing I learned is that some of the parts can be quite delicate.  It is strange to me that some parts will literally fall of the sprue and others take some work.  I did manage to break one of the roof sides while taking it off the sprue.  Fortunately I was able to repair it and the damage is not noticeable.

The ability to remove the roof and the second floor for interior access is really nice.  You can fit one Flames of War medium base in each side of the building but to fit them in the bases must be facing the walls rather than the windows (sorry, no picture of that).  This not that big of a deal but if the model was just a few mm longer you could fit bases in much easier and in all directions.

Here is a side by side with one of the Battlefront houses.  In the end, being that these are basically the same price, I prefer the BF model.  The BF model is fully assembled and nicely painted for only $1 more.  The 4Ground building took me nearly 8 hours to assemble as was fiddly in a few spots.  I can see that people who do not enjoy building models will not like these kits.  The paint on the 4Ground model needs work in my opinion.  Either the whole thing needs to be repainted or I need to find the 4Ground paints that they produce to match the kits.  As hard as it is to find these kits in my area the paint would be impossible so I would have to order it online.  For a $20 kit that is too much trouble so I will just repaint it.

I will likely purchase a couple more of the 4Ground kits but I think next I will try one of the unpainted kits.  These are cheaper but, it seems, they are simpler kits than the pre-paints.

If I were t do the whole star rating thing I would have to give these 3 out of 5.  If this was a few dollars cheaper they would rate much higher.

Vacation Hobby Haul

Last week the family and I, along with Tim and his wife, spent an amazing week in Southern California for our annual family vacation.  We spent several days at the beach and going to various attractions around the LA area.  As usual, Tim and I had to take some time to hit a couple of our favorite game/hobby stores in the area - The War House and Brookhurst Hobbies.  You can read about Tim's experiences here.

As usual, I went with a rather large list of items for existing or new projects.  Mostly I am looking for items that are hard to find locally but I do have my eye out for just about anything interesting.  This year I really looking for lots of Flames of War items.  I have learned that Battlefront has a bit of a supply issue so if you see a FoW item in a shop and you want it, buy it.  Your local shop might not get it for months, if at all.

The first stop was The War House in Long Beach.  This is a cool little hole-in-the-wall shop that looks like it has been around for a 100 years.  It has an interesting mix of old and new products.  It is the kind of place that you have to spend some time in to dig through all the stuff.  But that is time well spent if you can dig out one of the gems.  This year I scored a Battlefield in a Box set BB103 Normandy.  This terrain set was originally released in 2008 to support the (then) new Normandy hard back books (or maybe it was the soft back books, I can't remember).  This set contains three large pillboxes, a couple of AA pits and lots of anti-tank obstacles.  The original price was $90 and they tend to go much higher on eBay when you can find them.  It appears that these items are not available at all from BF anymore.  I got this at the original 2008 retail price for an unopened, but shelf worn, box.

The next stop was Brookhurst Hobbies in Garden Grove.  I have been going to BH for many years and I must say it just keeps getting better and better.  I did find a bunch of items I was looking for but I have already spend a big chunk of the budget so I had to keep some composure.  I picked up a box of Perry Miniatures plastic British 8th Arny figures.  I have been waiting for a long time for these and I am excited to start working on them.  I also picked up a 4Ground 15mm building.  I have been really interested in these for a while and I was glad to find a 15mm building.  They had lots of the 28mm but very few of the 15mm.  I also picked up a box of Plastic Soldier Company Panthers for my Kursk project.  I actually need two boxes but I will get the rest locally.  The final item was a Battlefront P-38 for my mid-war Americans.  You can use this for late war but to me the P-47 is THE late war ground attack plane for the Americans.

I must say I am pretty happy with this trip even if I didn't bring back LOTS of stuff.