Mark of Crescent Root Studio keeps creating excellent 28mm terrain. I already own eight of his Middle Eastern buildings and they’re superb for Pulp gaming.
Earlier this year he expanded the range to include several taller buildings with domed roofs and I couldn’t resist any longer. I ordered a couple of these new buildings last week and they’ve just arrived so here’s a quick review.
As usual I ordered unpainted buildings because they’re cheaper and I enjoy painting them myself. All of Mark’s terrain comes pre-primed and is cast in a sturdy yet light resin product. He must use some kind of micro-bead filler to extend the resin because with handling the buildings are always noticeably lighter than they appear to be. However they’re still weighty enough to stay in place during gaming.
Parts and Prep
These particular buildings consist of two large parts: the slightly raised basic building and a removable tower room. Both roofs are also removable which is important during gaming, and you’re supplied with two drop in doors for the doorways.
Prior to painting I find it’s a good idea to check everything fits well as occasionally light filing is required for ease of use. It’s also not a bad idea to spend a little time examining the doorways and windows as you may have to file off a little extra resin left from the casting process.
After this basic clean up I’ve always painted my Crescent Root buildings without any further preparation or priming. I use Resene interior acrylic house paints which bond very well with the pre-primed resin as I’ve yet to chip a building and they’ve been extensively handled.
Building Design
I purchased these buildings primarily because of their towers and domed roofs. Both these features distinguish them from my earlier Crescent Root purchases and mixing them in with my painted buildings gives the table a very nice Middle Eastern feel as shown in the table layout.
These buildings are noticeably taller than my others, mainly because their base is quite built up, with three steps leading up off the street to the ground floor. Pulp gamers will also notice the small, three windowed tower rooms make excellent “sniper nests” for your Rifle or SMG armed villains. Unfortunately there’s no way to get up to that tower room without a ladder – which means I’ll have to scratch a few together from balsa wood, or simply reuse the crude ladders I made years ago for my Mordheim table. Possibly Mark from CRS might consider creating some ladder accessories for these fine buildings.
One thing that does concern me about that tower room is that it simply rests on the walls below it. There’s no system for locking the tower in place at all which means it could be at risk from clumsy hands on the gaming table. I’ll probably end up drilling some aligned holes in the base of each tower and then applying some short ‘pins’ made from bamboo skewers in the wall below so the two pieces do lock together.
As usual I’m perfectly happy with my latest purchase from Crescent Root Studios. That’ll probably do for buildings now, although once I’ve laid them all out I notice there’s an obvious lack of fenced in back alleys. I suspect I’ll end up purchasing some of CRS’s matching Middle Eastern Walls at some point…