A long while back, I came across this Boat Under Construction terrain kit on Firelock Game’s Website. I purchased that kit and finally got around to making it now. The one I have was made by 4Ground, designed by Things from the Basement. In this post, I quickly review this Boat Under Construction MDF terrain kit. At the end of the article, there are some scale comparison images.
Although I bought it through Firelock Games, the kit is no longer on their site. That said, you can still obtain the unpainted version through Things From the Basement (direct product link) or the version I have through TymeAgain (direct product link).
This model came as one laser cut MDF sheet.
I found the kit extremely straight forward to put together, and I had no need of instructions. That said, a best practice sheet came with the product, and I gave it a quick read. At the very top of that sheet it states that the product may smell of burnt wood and to reduce the smell or look of soot by gently wiping the bigger (and easier to reach) pieces with a soft cloth or tissue. I did exactly that.
Mrs. Must Contain Minis is extremely sensitive to scents. Wiping the parts down certainly helped with both the aroma of the cut pieces and you can see some of the soot on the paper towel there. Nothing wrong with the soot as it is expected. It is just the nature of the product. It is laser cut wood after all, but I am happy that they included the tip.
Personally, I find the smell often disappears when I paint the pieces, but in the meantime Mrs. Must Contain Minis can sometimes be bothered by my MDF projects. Being able to reduce the smell makes my life easier. With the pieces rubbed down, lets talk about building the actual model.
Building the Kit
Once I cleaned off the pieces, I then glued all of them together. Nothing fancy. I use a cut up clam shell from a pack of minis to hold the glue and add just a little bit of water to give it a better flow over the project.
I dab the glue on at all of the connection points and fit the pieces together. There are different sizes of ribs, so I placed them in the order that I felt made the most sense.
Normally I would dry fit the pieces first, but this is a small project and I just glued them in place instead. No premeasuring today. 🙂
At this point in time, the project is done. I just need to wait for the glue to dry. I didn’t time myself with the build, but I think this might have been an under 10-minute project. What took the most time for me was wiping off the “soot” from every piece, which is an optional step.
This kit came on a board that already had colour applied. As it is, I have no plans to paint it further. although I might hit it with a can of varnish in the future because I believe that helps with the durability of the terrain piece.
Now, let’s move on to the finished model.
The Finished Boat Under Construction Terrain Piece & Scale Comparison
Here we have the finished boat under construction piece. I built the model specifically for the Blood & Plunder setting, so let’s take a look at it beside some of the hot new Blood & Plunder plastic miniatures. These are some of the figures from the new Pirates Captain box (direct product link).
Not a bad piece of terrain at all and it certainly scales up alongside the minis as a nicely sized small boat. For curiosity sake, I decided to pair it up with a Blood & Plunder “Longboat” which is the rowing boats the crews use to get from their ship to other ships or land.
You can see here that the height and scale are about right, but this is clearly not going to be a longboat once it is constructed. Instead it will be a smaller boat, but still something inline with the range.
Above we have a higher level shot of the same comparison.
Wrapping it up…
If you are looking for some interesting terrain for a historical pirate miniatures game, this MDF kit will work for you. It is a nice and affordable piece that would give some flavour to any port town. I found that it was an extremely fast project, and I think it would work well for historical, fantasy and modern based tabletop games in addition to Blood & Plunder.
Firelock Games still has some excellent 4Ground terrain available on their site in addition to their other products. For scale comparison purposes, I paired the terrain piece with pirates from their “Pirates of Legend Captains Box” and their “Longboat” too. Be sure to look around their site for any other products that interest you. They are a good company that make some really pretty miniatures.
This kit I bought was produced by 4Ground. They no longer exist, but you can still buy this product through TymeAgain (who took over some of the 4Ground line). You can also buy unpainted version through Things from the Basement. As a note, the design of this piece is by Things from the Basement even though there are a couple of companies that sell this Boat Under Construction.
Direct links to the product exist earlier in the article.
Thank you for joining me on this quick MDF terrain review.
Until next time, Happy Gaming Everyone!!!
