HDF terrain new in January 2012!

A possible source of cool cheap(ish) terrain buildings...

http://www.sarissa-precision.co.uk/

These are unpainted HDF...

Cheers Laney:D

Looks promising, not sure it'd be cheap to get to the States but keep us updated all the same.

Nice looking terrain. Is it unfinished? Looks pretty good to me!

amazing what some people can do with some hdf and a laser engraver. Since that is all that terrain is it's amazing.

since microart studio came out with that first set apparently everyone has been jumping on the wagon.
Being that all you have to spend is enough to buy a laser engraver and have the know how to design the parts it's pretty easy to get into this.

Other companies
http://www.warmill.co.uk/BattleSnap_Terrain/cat814919_767883.aspx
http://www.miniaturescenery.com/
http://www.tactical-terrains.com/


A find i came across while searching for these was this though. Buy em before they get a Cease and Desist.
http://minimonsters.eu/SpaceMarineStatue.html

Hmm, $18.51 before shipping for the cheapest one. It's a shame, stuff looks great. Makes me think I need to buy some sheets of MDF and bust out my jigsaw.

I want catwalks. I NEED catwalks!

My old gaming club bought some of these. They look cool, but HDF is a crap material to use. Its just mashed together scrap wood. They are only 3mm thick and break really easily. Also, they warp if exposed to any sort of moisture (more of an issue in Scotland i suppose!)

Most of these companies are jumping on the bandwaggon because its easy to make and people want cheap terrain, but if they made it from plastic and sold it for more money, it would be a better investment. All you are paying for is crap wood cut out nicely.

I used to be a finish carpenter and we used MDF on fair occasion. While you do need to keep it away from water it is a pretty decent building material. Nothing structural, but it has it's uses. Some advantages are that it takes paint incredibly well and is pretty easy to work with.

Could it be sealed to prevent absorption of water/moisture?

We used white/wood glue all the time on it, that little bit of moisture never caused an issue. With the laser detailing (and the fact that these buildings look to be metal) I don't know how much texture you would want to do. If you're texturing I'd say be careful with how much water you add and be careful with how much glue you use at once. Other than that, I'd do a thorough base coat with a latex based paint. You could do oil if you wanted to go really crazy, but that seems over the top.

Honestly I'm tempted to see what I could get done with a sheet and just a rotary engraver. It will probably never happen, but I'm willing to bet you could get some decent results if you have a bit of artistic talent.