Monday, May 24, 2021

Warbases 28mm Zhu House

I'm continuing with my Chinese terrain build; this time it's a building from Warbases' 55th Day-China line. The Zhu house kit seemed most similar to a wooden Chinese house, so I opted to forgo my usual brick texture and find some wood paneling online.

I didn't have any large wood panel images in my collection so had to perform an online search. Textures.com proved a good source, and I found some wood planks that I thought would fit the bill. Normally I would print these textures out using a good laser printer, but with the Covid restrictions, I only had access to my home inkjet printer. Sadly the images weren't as crisp and the colors not as vibrant, but I think it still gave a reasonable result.  

Modified  warbases.co.uk 28mm MDF Zhu house for Back of Beyond and WW2 Chinese wargaming

The kit was built as standard, expect for the addition of the paper textures (including window frames on the lower portion) and the plastic roof tiles from Plastruct (part 91666).  The fit tolerances were very tight on this building, and just the thickness of the paper was enough to cause some gaps on the MDF wood framing. I also had issues with the roof fit being too tight, and ended up having to shave the end caps to keep it from scraping the paint off the building.  The trickiest aspect was trying to fit the plastic tiles to the curved roof. I bent the tile strip at three places using a steel ruler edge to try and pre-shape it, but it still required several clamps and a generous helping of superglue to hold it down.


To hid the tile gaps and provide a more finished look, bit of plastic tubing was added to the top of the roof lines.

Modified  warbases.co.uk 28mm MDF Zhu house for Back of Beyond and WW2 Chinese wargaming

Modified  warbases.co.uk 28mm MDF Zhu house for Back of Beyond and WW2 Chinese wargaming

The kit does break apart so you can put figures on both floors, but again, the fit was really tight and the floors don't separate easily.

Modified  warbases.co.uk 28mm MDF Zhu house for Back of Beyond and WW2 Chinese wargaming

As with my other Warbases build, the doors were a bit on the low side for Copplestone figures on thick bases, but it was nothing egregious.



While I'd wait for laser printer access before again trying to print large texture sheets, I think the end result still came out decent, and the kit itself is one I can recommend.

Monday, May 17, 2021

Another Dragonfrog Asian Shop

The push to keep assembling buildings for my Chinese hutong project continues. This is another 28mm MDF kit from Dragonfrog Games. Its a combination of the shop 4 and 5 kits, with my usual upgrades of printed textures, card, and bits of plastic detailing from Plastruct and Evergreen Scale Models.

28mm MDF Dragonfrog Asian/Chinese Shop

The height of the upper story window frames caused some spacing issues when applying the plastic trim, so my attempt to hide the seams between floors wasn't as successful as on my other shops.  However, I don't think it will be too noticeable when looking down at the gaming table.

28mm MDF Dragonfrog Asian/Chinese Shop

As with the other shops, the building can be opened up by floor (though the attic level is too short for standing figures).

28mm MDF Dragonfrog Asian/Chinese Shop

I also made another error with the shopfront tiles, forgetting to take into consideration the lower portion of the window frames when measuring. I trimmed the bottoms off to compensate, and just have to hope the design looks intentional. 

28mm MDF Dragonfrog Asian/Chinese Shop

Below is the actual storefront in Penang, Malaysia that inspired mine.  Though I will primarily will use this for China, I also plan to start playing the Malaysian campaign now that I have a South Asian British force for WW2.


If you would like the architectural details for your own projects, feel free to use the files below.