Monday, March 10, 2014

Top Notch Buildings - Crescent Root Studio Terrain

Not to diminish my absolute love of 4Ground and the copious amounts of terrain they are releasing at such a rate I'll need a second job ... but ... I stumbled across a company that is based in the US and is producing a absolutely top notch range of 15mm, 20mm, and 28mm terrain for several periods.

Enter ... Crescent Root Studio.  Here are some pictures I gleaned from their website (hopefully they don't mind!):

28mm Series 2

28mm Series 3

They even sell the roads/sidewalks/building bases ... man ... if I didn't already have my sidewalks/roads sorted out I'd be hard pressed not to order a heck of a lot of what they are selling ...

As I move forward on my WW2 "west front" town project I found myself with some space that needed filling - which I planned to do with a park and some additional bush/stone wall type features ... but not now ... I have quickly snapped up their 28mm series 2 and series 3 buildings which have nicely filled out my overall towns look and feel ... see below ...






What is more amazing, is both the dynamic nature of the range, how easily it all goes together, and how it comes out of the box.  I had already assembled the restaurant --- but it was a snap to disassemble and then take pictures of it being put back together ... using a unique system of pinning which you can see in the pictures below ...

Note that not a single drop of glue or tool is used to accomplish the build ... I used nothing but my bare hands ...

The building taken out of the box (the various parts
come packed in plastic zip lock bags, so all I've done
at this point is removed those parts from the bags.

Take the walls and line them up while securing the
interior guide stubs and aligning the holes.

Start to thread the pin into the hole.

Secure the top and bottom pins.

Complete all four walls by repeating the above steps.

Place the second story floors down on top of the
interior bars for support.

Get the roof sections and check the alignment of the holes.

Attach the small roof.

Attach the main roof - both front and back sections.

Done!  Front.

Side A.

Back.

Side B.

And some of the others buildings I have from them ...


Excellent details like signage and weathering.





And that it ... my hat goes off to the team at Crescent Root Studios.  Their communication was excellent and they shipped the product exactly when they said they would (they show their lead time right on their website).

If you haven't checked them out, you are doing a disservice to yourself!

Thursday, March 6, 2014

WW2 West Front Town Project Update #4

Now that I've got GameTime episode 3 out the door I'm back to my WW2 West Front project.  I've made some progress!  The hotel complex is now fully complete - all roofing tiles and touch up paint done - and I've managed to finish the paint and roofing for the police station.

Pictures below.  I can't say enough about how excellent the 4Ground roofing tiles are - they really take the buildings to the next level!

Hotel complex side A.

Hotel complex side B.

Hotel complex side C.

Hotel complex side D.

OOB you get a bit of a gap between the joints of the
two roof "directions" - the roofing tiles cleans up the
joint perfectly.

From the other side ...

Added some posters for extra detail.

Another small poster.

Back of the police station.

Front of the police station - changed the roof from
light grey/blue to black using the roofing tiles.

More to come soon!

Saturday, March 1, 2014

GameTime Episode 3: Muskets & Tomahawks

Hello all,

GameTime episode 3 is now available on YouTube at the links below (embedded as well).  This episode is all about Muskets & Tomahawks.  In part one I cover the game components, terrain, and miniatures I use in my French & Indian War collection when playing Muskets & Tomahawks.  In part two we walk through the rules and learn how to play M&T, and in part three Roy and John play through a full 400 point game.


You can watch the Episode 3 playlist here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrQUZE12Rqk&list=PLaYqyEfEe1DME4H9whj-rcyGW58Z2hR3g




Thanks for watching!