Sunday, August 05, 2018

Charlie Foxtrot Models - Tidewater House.

A few days away and a chance to crack on with the construction of Tidewater House from Charlie Fortrot Models or Plantation Oiseaux Moelleux as it will be known in the ongoing Haitian campaign.
The instructions are a little thin so I thought I would document some of the stages for those interested.

After the initial scare of opening the bag and being a little surprised at the amount of 'bits'. The good news is many of them are windows and shutters which once separated make the task somewhat less daunting.


The construction can be completed in two parts, which means you can work on both at the same time. It's quite imposing once you put the shell together with plenty of room to put figures in, some of joints are a little tight but they do fit together rather well with no gaps between connecting walls.


I should have added the sills in first before adding the shutters as this made the task of adding them in some what challenging espically if you don't leave enough room either side of the windows. However ignoring the fact I should have read the instructions first. I found the back of a tea spoon useful to ease the sills in to place before the wood glue dried.


Whilst the windows and shutters were drying, I completed the porch and chimney stacks, not overtly complicated once you have all the pieces put by. Although you will need to sand down the stacks to create the right angle for the roof.



Next up the steps and doors, the doors are a little loose in the frame, so I added a small block to secure the doors in place. I am not expecting to be opening them during game play, but it was nice to have the option to leave open or closed.


The roof fitted together very simply with a central support to keep it strudy, I found securing this first easier to create the right angle for the end sections and matching fascia.
 

Now for the trickest part, the front porch. The plastic columns are a little short, you will find a couple of spare cut outs from the column bases, I glued these to the plastic tubing to give that little bit extra length to secure the roof and floor by the columns. A strong elastic band allowed it to dry in place (thanks for the tip Steve.) so it did not lift up from the base.


Finally a liberal pasting of PVA glue and the adding of the paper tiles covers the gap in the roof apex and the entry slots of the wall to the roof.
 

Now complete it's quite the mansion and an imposing piece of terrain and will certainly fill the table top. I am toying with the idea of basing it adding in some shrubs and lawn, but will probably wait to consider this once it's painted.



I am still not sold on the MDF buildings over resin, whilst their might be an initial saving, once you factor in the man hours to construct and how resilient they are on the gaming table is their really that much difference in value/gaming return?

In any event it's nice to get it complete. Now just the task of painting it up.

11 comments:

  1. Knew you’d get there in the end

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  2. Wow, that's quite a structure. I quite like MDF buildings, but you raise a valid point about the man hours required to get them on the table.

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  3. That's a very nice building and worth the effort IMHO. Glad the elastic band tip worked for you. I suppose the big advantage of mdf over resin is not only the cost, but the fact you can put figures in the house.Should you be so inclined, they are easy to convert as well.

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  4. That's a fine looking plantation, I'll need to find a use for a similar estate for my SYW campaign. I prefer the MDF over resin. I like the feeling of accomplishing something by building over opening a box. The big attraction is cost, with shipping to the Cold Canadian Prairies being prohibitive for the mass of resin kits.

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  5. Mdf buildings are usually considerable lighter than resin ones.

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  6. That does look rather splendid. I had a chat with the guy behind Charlie Foxtrot at Colours last year. Very nice bloke and full of enthusiasm.

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  7. This looks like it will be a great addition once fully painted! Re the comparison of mdf v's resin, I think for smaller structures, there is not much in it, but I am sure a large building like this in resin would be twice the cost (at least) of the mdf version....

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  8. A very nice building ...
    It even looks grand without the paint...

    All the best. Aly

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  9. In the words of Darth “Impressive!”
    I am an mdf building man they don’t take that long to assemble, they’re cheap ist, easy to paint, are light, sturdy and forgiving when dropped (i.e. easily repaired)...

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