Back again with a scenery element review. Finally I managed to rally the guys at my club to invest in some official Infinity terrain and this is the first one I finished painting: District 5 L - Apartment from Micro Art Studio.MAS was the very first company to produce scenery elements with the "Designed for Infinity" certification. They used to produce High Density Foam (HDF) scenery before; but most of their product line is now in MDF. District 5 L Apartment is one of those MDF products.
Packaging:
The product is delivered in "sheets" of MDF in the size of an A4 paper roughly. Those sheets are stacked together and wrapped in cellophane. In front, there is the stock photo and in the back there's another paper with instructions and whatnot.
The packaging is simple but effective.
Score: 9/10
Contents:
Laser-cut MDF sheets plus instructions. You have to remove the pieces from the sheet by cutting the small connection points, think of them as sprues.
I found the instructions to be somewhat inadequate to be honest. It is just one A4 paper, front-and-back, but the instructions are generic. You will receive very similar instructions sheet with every MDF building you'll get from MAS. It gives the general idea, don't get me wrong; but it doesn't give enough info about how to build it from start to end. Also it does not provide info about how to customize the buildings, which parts are interchangeable and whatnot. It would have been very nice if they gave instructions on different builds too.
Score: 7/10
The instructions give the basics but not entirely helpful.
Quality:
MDF scenery is a sound idea. It is light, yet durable and the detail level you can get with laser-cutting is incredible. The only drawback here is that you only get details on one side of the MDF. You have to populate inside of the walls by yourself, either by painting or adding other elements.
The detail level is very satisfactory. There are two things that contribute to that: The precision of laser cutting and adding MDF elements on top of another to achieve a layered look that also has depth. Really good job here.
Once built, the product really gives the feeling that it belongs to Infinity with he futuristic design, all the hexes and whatnot. The building is not only sci-fi themed; but also designed with the game in mind with decent spots for your minis to take cover or windows to shoot from. The doors, roofs and hatches are all removable, providing the best gaming experience without knocking down everything.
The only drawback about the quality is the material itself. Once removed from the sprue, all the pieces must be filed to perfection. If you do not take your time at this step, the final product will not have smooth surfaces as it should. But this filing is very hard to be properly and takes a very long time. Actually it is the biggest hassle of building this.
Another drawback with the MDF is that this material is more vulnerable to hits and bumps compared to plastic. You can easily crack, break or chip the paint of corners with a moment of carelessness. You've been warned.
Lastly, I have another warning for you: MDF soaks up the paint! I dunno how many times I sprayed this one just for the undercoat (easily 10+). If you know any method that prevents MDF from soaking the paint without losing the details, please let me know.
Score: 9/10
Price:
I bought this from Dark Sphere online, which is also a London based brick'n'mortar store for £16,20. Buying it from MAS directly would run you €22,14. Shipping is not included.
Now I wouldn't go out and say that it is cheap as dirt; but I doubt many of us have the talent to build scenery that looks so awesome. Not at this price. I honestly think that its price is fair; but you'd want to do a group purchase here to keep the shipping fees at an acceptable level, unless you're buying from the store directly.
One last word here. If you're making an online purchase, make sure to contact with the representatives about the availability of the MAS products. The owners recently had a dispute among themselves and that had a negative effect on the availability of MAS products. They seem to have sorted things out and stuff gets restocked quickly enough; but there is no harm in checking before placing your order.
Score: 8/10
OVERALL SCORE: 8,25/10
If you play Infinity, make sure you have scenery from MAS on your table, period. They are way ahead of their competition in "Designed for Infinity" range and with good reason.
Below are some painted photos of the building. Since I managed to mess my airbrush -again-, the result has not been as good as I imagined; but it has to do for now. I just added a LED mechanism under the roof as something extra. I am planning to add these kind of lighting elements to other buildings as well.
Hope you enjoyed this.
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