So I had a pretty rough Monday on the First of April, with a 10 hour shift at the job that makes this thing possible followed by a hellish bike commute home that saw me only getting about halfway home in the time it normally takes me to get home and showered due to severe wind. All of that is only important to establish the complete 180 degree turnaround my day had when I got home to find I had received some mail from Jolly Olde England.
Yay! Terrain from Walter at Commission Figurines! Some of you will (hopefully) remember me touting this gentleman a few weeks ago here. Well guess what- here's the proof of why you should back this kickstarter. I'm going to paint up two corner pieces (in 20mm scale) right now and show you. 
The first thing that really hit we was the quality. No warping at all in the MDF, and the cuts were perfect. the tab-and-slot design holds perfectly. As advertised, the tab-and-slot design is so precise that the pieces do not need to be glued together. Simply inserting the pieces into one another makes them stand perfectly. I even took the tall corner with the tongue-and-grove attachments (no base yet) and held it upside down, whipped it around in my hand, and used it like a guitar pick air guitaring Randy Rhoad's Crazy Train solo. Didn't budge a millimeter. Color me impressed. [The cuts were so good in fact, that upon completion, I needed to use a little elbow grease to get them fit in! This by the way is perfect. I'd rather have to muscle them a bit now, than have them all flippy-floppy in six month's or a year's time.]
Now let's talk about the quality of the art. Strong pieces are one thing- bricks don't break either, but they don't make for an engaging tabletop. Let me say this- these things are sweet. Really, Really authentic looking damage. Walter put in the study time, and it shows. These aren't "what we thing ruins would look like" the way you get from some other gaming companies... these are actually battle damaged buildings right in front of your eyes. No lie, I started looking through some old WWII photos online to see if I could find exact images. And that's on this small 20mm scale... just imagine what these will look like half again larger for us 28mm blokes!
So here's the dust up... literally. 2 coats of white primer, followed by a sepia wash to highlightdetails and bring up the walls to an aged look. A stipple of an off creme color and the plaster is done. Next comes a brick red (detail painted to avoid covering the mortar which is also now a deep sepia) and some whitewashing on the windowsills. Doors painted in browns and then washed. 
Ground and broken floors got primed a dark reddish brown. Timbers received a couple drybrushes up, followed by a wash back down- nothing groundbreaking or revolutionary but quick and effective. Sidewalks drybrushed up in alternating browns and greys becoming lighter and lighter until the final neutral hue I wanted was achieved. Total project time: about ninety minutes including letting the washes dry [note: it was primered overnight, so that didn't factor in]. Honestly, these pieces are so well detailed that anyone of any painting level can make them look good- a quick prime and wash or two is enough to get them minimally "table ready." If you want to go in and add a lot of weathering, fire damage, etc (which I will), the detail is there to support it.
There you go- high quality, affordable, highly detailed MDF pieces. And again, imagine how much more detail these will receive in 28mm scale! With Spine, Warzone, DUST, and so many other solid urban themed (or at least urban theme-able) 28mm skirmish games out there, you guys really want these for your table. If you're already playing a smaller scaled game, support this Kickstarter and get the terrain you know you need at a discount. I want a city full of this stuff at 28mm!
Questions? Comments? Adorations? Recriminations? Make sure to add them in the replies below!
The Second Class Elitist
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