Massive MDF Megalomania

A post, three days in a row? Yes it's true, and with even more MDF terrain! This time it's the Sarissa Precision Medium Stanchion Building for Beyond the Gates of Antares from Warlord Games. The building comes on three A4-sized sheets of 2mm thick MDF so is quite sturdy.

Fully half of the first sheet is taken up by the baseplate.

The pieces were cut through so thoroughly that a few pieces fell out of the sheets when I opened the package. At first I was afraid I had lost some parts, but they were all off-cuts from inside windows or door frames and not necessary for the finished building.

Second Sheet. Most of it is taken up by the floor (to the left) and the roof (to the right).

Last sheet. A lot of support struts and all the actual walls.

Assembling the building was slightly more complex than the Village Fountain I did yesterday. Nothing overly fancy as long as you keep track of which parts are which, although I could have used a third hand holding things while the glue dried.

I started by gluing four of the supports to the base and middle roundels. I don't know what the heck it's supposed to be though.

When assembling the bottom suppor struts there are four with locating lugs and three without. Make sure you put them in the correct places so they fit into the baseplate. I didn't glue them to the base but used it to make sure everything was aligned correctly while the glue dried.

The three support struts are also fitted and then a sort of entrance... thingie... hangs in the last place.

While the support dried I started on the roof.

The roof piece. I don't know if the pattern is some kind of technology or just decoration. I guess it could be either.

The roof... errr... fins are glued into position. These are mostly decorative.

Make sure the lugs protrude on the underside, since these will be used to keep the roof in place later.

After the roof it was on to the main building. This was fairly simple to do.

A small trim is glued around the floor. Make sure the opening is wide enough for the stairs later.

The eight wall pieces and the door frame.  The door can be popped out if you want to but I left it in.

Once again the pattern on the walls doesn't really make sense, so I still don't know if it's just for prettyness (alien art?) or is meant to be some kind of technology. The walls can be arranged in whatever way you deem suitable as the patterns don't match up. I recommend you put the door at the front though...

I chose to mount the windows unsymmetrically.

A securing ring makes sure all the walls stay in place.

Only the stairs remain, which look like the most complicated part to assemble but it really wasn't. Just take care so you don't brake the quite thin hand rails.

The start of the stairs; the bottom plate, the support rails and the top step.

I used the building both as support and a guide to check that the angle was correct while the glue dried.

Next up, the individual steps. Make sure you space out the ones with notches for the handrails correctly.

Once again the building was used as support and a guide. This time I even fit the stairs correctly...

Parts for the handrails. They break easily!

I assembled the first handrail with the stairs still leaning agains the building, it was very handy.

And the finished building. To ease storage and painting I still haven't glued the major pieces together.

As usual the terrain gets invaded by a German as soon as it's finished.

But the Ghar is having none of it. Charge!

As you can see it's possible to fit 40mm bases on to the steps as well, although it's a bit wobbly and unbalanced.

There's plenty of room for two inside.

The building divided into it's different sub-assemblies. The bottom support comes off the base plate as well.

And there you have it. It's a nice, different enough design to look alien or futuristic. It's use is not limited to Gates of Antares but it could fit any sci-fi game really. Maybe even Warhammer 40K as a Tau or Eldar building.

Happy Gaming!