The team at Micro Art Studios recently sent us their latest Pre-Painted building set for us to put together and review. We have previously covered their Normandy Town set here, and given how great it was on the table (and how many compliments they got at UK nationals), it was exciting to have a go with their new Normandy Farm Set.
The Range
The new releases all come together to form a Normandy Farm Complex. The set can be bought as a complete bundle or broken out as
WW2 Normandy Homestead with Stable (2 Buildings)
WW2 Normandy Farmhouse W.Outbuilding (3 buildings)
Getting them on the table
In the same way as the their Town set, all the items come with clear colour instructions and the buildings are surprising simple to put together. I got all the buildings done in a few hours. The high quality printing means its immediately ready for the table. It is worth pointing out that each set has a range of window and trim colours so you can have variety if you want multiples.
This time I used multi-purpose craft glue which is clear and thick(and quick drying) which worked fine, however comparing this to my use of PVA previously, I would stick with PVA. it just allows more control and less stringing of the glue.
If I had one negative it would be that the walls are quite time consuming to assemble. This is pretty inevitable though given the small size (wouldn’t be an issue at 28mm) and the fact that it has a clever system to lock the walls together between pieces. That said the results are worth the extra time.
In game
The key things with these kits is that they are designed for use in games (multiple systems) and work great for FOW bases. As you would expect multi-story buildings open up by floor and roofs are removable, either as a whole or with pieces sliding out. Its surprising how many little guys you can pack into the farm complex!
Equally when you open up the buildings the interior floors are printed with a design so things still look nice during play rather than the standard blank MDF or single colour you get from other options.
Value for money
Each one of these sets is between 21 and 29 Euros however you can pick up the whole range for 105 Euros which makes the following
Now these items certainly are not cheap, but they are high quality, and also massively convenient. Sure you can get loads of plain MDF buildings on Ebay for 100 Euros but they will be simple, un-textured and not pre-painted. Therefore it really depends what you are going for. I would suggest that this is aimed at gamer’s who value a great looking table and want to tell a story in their battle. This isn’t so important to every player (hence why some people have grey models!). If you want great looking buildings and especially if you don’t have the skills/time to paint buildings to this standard (definitely me!) then I would massively recommend these.
Summing Up
Microart Studios continues to expand their range with eye catching and quality buildings. I will be adding these to my collection and taking them to Scottish Nationals in a few months (and UK Nationals in Sep). I love having a great looking board and these fit in so well with other items I have in my collection. Importantly these also work well for events with their removable roofs and floors.
While the focus thus far has been on Normandy, i hope to see them expand into the Eastern Front and maybe some Mediterranean options.
