Modern Conflicts Call for Modern Terrain
Sarissa Precision makes a wide range of MDF terrain in my preferred 15mm scale. Among which are these three fine houses, which they list in their “North American” line.
My modern table needed a small cul-de sac of domesticity to go with the restaurants and gas station that currently dominate. I’d still like to add a small warehouse or mechanic shop, for a touch of industrial flair.
Some observations: These went together very easily. In the past, I’ve used magnetized Legos to ensure that my corners are at perfect 90-degree angles, and this time I skipped that step to no reduction in quality. The bases, walls, and roofs are sef-supporting and help ensure that everything stays at the right angle.
The chimney of the two-story house looked like it needed a brickwork patter on the outside, to match the stonework of the other buildings. Without that, I went with a nice white stucco to hide the seams – the chimneys are all made of three layers of MDF, and if you don’t spackle over the sides, it’s pretty obvious what you’re doing. That little step of extra spackle helps complete the look of the houses.
Let me leave with a couple of scale shots. Above we see some heavy-armored Khursan Figures which stand big even by the inflated 18mm standards of modern figure makers. Below is an officer of the British Colonial Light Infantry suruveying his young town. At a pure 15mm, he fits on the porch, but still shows how these houses are built more to ground scale than figure scale. As all good wargaming terrain should be.
You can also see that I chickened out on the white paint on the windows of the green house. At some point I may add grass bases to these, to add little walkways and garden and hedges around them, for even more visual appeal. That will have to wait until I use them a couple of times, and check to see how well they fit into my modern terrain box. It is a tight squeeze already, and with the extra basing material, that may not work. We’ll see at some indeterminate point in the future.