You are Cleared for Landing (part 1 - Halt! - a Review)

 A quick last terrain post before the end of Dave Stone's Summer of Scenery challenge and a bit of a cheating affair as it's not strictly "Finished", but I'll throw it in there regardless as any hobby progress on my end is better than none at all.

I recently started work on yet another project that brewed up in my addled head all of a sudden and I went on a deep dive into the internets to get the pieces to make it happen. (One day I will finish a project... promise.) Currently, I only have one terrain setup for my 28mm WW2 games and as my regular reader will know, that's my Winter table. I now have (I think) enough terrain completed to set up a nice looking, modular and relatively full setup for my games of Bolt Action (and Chain of Command whenever Luke and I eventually try to learning that rules set). But that's it, just Winter theme and I really wanted another option to play on, something more suited to a Spring or Summer theme, but something you don't see too often - a German airfield!

Airfield Barracks. Nice little buildings and I have two more to construct along with an air-traffic control building, radar installations and another small building from their airfield set.

So enter Father and Son Gaming, an affordable MDF terrain store that is stateside (Wisconsin I think?), meaning postage rates aren't atrocious (Free S&H for orders over $75). I'd heard of these guys from the SNAFU Bolt Action Wargaming podcast and they seemed pleased with what they'd gotten so I took the plunge and ordered a number of kits. My order arrived swiftly considering Father and Son say they cut each order as they receive them, and in nicely shrink-wrapped parcels within the postage box. Communication from the vendor was great as well, with quick responses to my emailed queries.

In glorious black and white, a photo of a WW2 German sentry hut. Those stripes are actually red, black & white and applying that pattern to the side of my own sentry hut is going to be a right pig I bet.

So far I've put together four of their kits using white glue which has been just fine to stick them together. Their quality has been decent with sharp simple detailing and the finished models seem robust enough for regular gaming and also for transport to and from gaming venues. Instructions are provided through their website via links showing step-by-step construction processes for the more complex kits or short videos via their Youtube channel. Construction went smoothly for the most part on the kits I've put together so far with only a little trimming down to make pieces fit better here and there (As I've found with other mdf kit makers), but otherwise I found little trouble making these models which is great for this medium-skilled hobbyist.

This Crossing Barrier kit was simple to put together and came with three signs with "Stop" in German (As above), Russian or English - pretty cool. Here the barrier has it's base coat on and attending Sentry Hut in the rear, primed and ready for crazy zigzag pattern. The smoking German Guard fig is a kind donation from best gaming pal, Luke, who applied the basic colours of a Luftwaffe trooper for the project - I'll be basing and detailing him up a little more as time allows.
(Please ignore the intrusion of Ninja Turtles, Conan O'Brian and Charmander - there's definitely too much crap on my hobby workspace.)

I have always liked mdf terrain models, having constructed multiple from different manufacturers during my years as a gamer (4Ground, Sarissa Precision, etc). Father and Son Gaming kits so far seem more hardy than others that I've encountered, but more simple in design and lacking in detail of pricier alternatives. This is fine by me as these kits look good regardless of their lack of complexity and will be fine for tabletop wargaming whilst still looking great on the table. I still have to apply paint to the ones I've put together and will post pics once done. 

Hope all enjoyed this little review/preview post of my new terrain project for my games. I also have more of their range to construct and I'll post my experiences with those kits here at a later date along with my other planned terrain features for my Airfield project.

- Dai