Sunday, February 5, 2012

Sarissa Precision Laser Cut MDF House.

I just finished putting together and painting the first of my half dozen Sarissa Precision laser cut MDF buildings. I have been interested in these products for a while, but only recently decided to take the hit on shipping and currency conversion to get them from across the pond. I am really glad I did. These kits are amazing. I picked up the entire range of their 28mm WWII Normandy series. By buying one of each, I have myself a nice little French village.

I have never worked with MDF before, much less laser cut kits, so I wasn't sure what to expect. The material is nice to work with. You can cut it if you have to, you can sand it easily (though use a breath mask), and it glues well with regular old wood glue (though I also used some CA glue for some parts).

Straight out of the box, these kits are excellent. The kits go easily together and the laser cuts are precise. The kits overall are well planned and are pretty accurate architecturally for the period and region (at least to my amateur eyes). You could easily slap these together as is, spray paint them with a tan undercoat and finish off the details and you would have a great bunch of buildings. Being the kind of gamer I am, I couldn't resist using these as a blank slate for adding a ton of my own detail. I decided my buildings had to have plasticard shingled roofs, detailed chimneys, rain gutters and spouts, and custom shutters. I say this not to put down the original kits, but simply because building this kind of terrain is something I enjoy. The great thing about the kits is it saves me hours of headache measuring, cutting, and building my own. With the basic kit I just need to add the details, and since they are laser cut and so precise, adding details is easy, especially for adding the plastic sheet shingles to the roof.

Here is the kit straight out of the box from the Sarissa Precision website (I didn't get a shot of mine before I painted it). So far, I have 3 of the buildings built, and one of them painted with 3 more to finish. I also began working on some back yard walled gardens for the terraced houses.

Here are the shots of the completed version. I prefer a clean style to my buildings (except for ruins), and I use little to no drybrushing on most smooth surfaces. You could add your own interior walls if you liked. For now, I just painted the floors brown and brushed on some wood grain with a darker brown to save time.

If this building looks familiar, it's because I painted it to match my other 28mm building, the Normandy Farmhouse. I figure it could be paired with that building for a Norman farm complex.

Anyway, hope you enjoy!

More to come!







6 comments:

  1. That looks great. I like your paint job and the additional details really add a lot. How did you do your downspouts? And was the hole in the second floor for the stair already there or did you cut it out yourself?

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  2. Hey Joe,

    Thanks for the compliments!

    The gutters are made from plastic rod ([ shaped). I capped the ends of the gutter with plastic sheet. The downspouts are round plastic rod. I glued a small strip of basswood to the backside of the gutter as a hanger so it stuck out from the house and lined up with the roof and then bent the downspout to line up with it and bent the end at the bottom out for the drain.

    The hole in the second floor was already cut for (I presume) stairs.

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    Replies
    1. Keith, fantastic work, love what you've done with it.

      Steve@sarissa

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  3. That is very nice. I have never heard of this compnay, great find! I am working on a 28mm Normandy project and these will be perfect.

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  4. MDF boards are best for interior decoration.

    Thanks,

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