Wednesday, March 6, 2013

4Ground Late Saxon Hovel Review

Today, I built the 4Ground Late Saxon Hovel, which had been given to me as a gift. This is the first 4Ground structure I've ever built, and I am very impressed.

All of the parts came off the "sprue" cleanly with little effort and assembled very easily. I was most impressed by the precision of the subassemblies and how well it all fit together. In total, this build took approximately one hour, during which I paused to photograph each step for this review.



The Kit


All the parts



First I assembled the outer walls per the instructions, then while the glue was still wet (and the walls could be adjusted) I glued the walls to the floor as seen below.



Again, while the glue on the outer walls was setting up, I glued the inner walls into the structure.




At this point, I was pleasantly surprised by how sturdy the model felt.  This is clearly designed to withstand the abuse associated with wargaming and not just a static model for the display case.


I added the window as seen above.  This is the one piece in the entire assembly that had a small defect. The edges of the window are nearly paper thin, and in the one corner of the window insert, the piece separated.  I was able to fix it while gluing it into position, and it didn't affect the look or ease of assembly.


The door assembly and doorframe was next.  I was impressed by how easy the door went together even with the very small pieces.



The fire pit

Next, I glued the door into the frame and the fire pit to the floor.  I chose to assemble the door in the closed position, but tried it both open and closed.  I decided to go with closed to allow for maximum figures to be spaced inside the structure, if the scenario ever came up in a game.


Next was the roof.  Here, I made one minor error; I removed all the parts without checking the lettering.  It was only after I had the four parts out did I realize the two pieces creating the actual roof were slightly different size.  I decided to dry fit everything to make sure I understood the assembly before gluing.  All went well.



The roof before adding the thatch



Okay, here is where I was VERY impressed... the roof section slipped perfectly onto the buildings walls. The fit was just right - nice job 4Ground!


The thatch actually comes in the three pieces needed - no measuring and cutting required.


Above, I used a disposable "acid brush" to spread the glue evenly before applying the thatch.


The roof material has a natural direction to the "thatch," and I made sure to attach it so the thatch was flowing down toward the ground.


I applied glue per the picture in the instructions for the final piece of thatch and then attached it.




Here's the completed 4Ground Late Saxon Hovel.  I will wait at least 24 hours before the next step of flattening the thatch with a 50/50 water/pva mix.

This was an easy build and resulted in a table ready piece in about an hour.  I will be exploring more of the 4Ground structures in the future.  And, a special thanks to my best buddy, John, for giving me this one to build.



Sunday, March 3, 2013

Bolt Action Fallschirmjager

My figures for the Cold Wars tournament are complete. Below are some photos of the 994 point army. Enjoy.