I tried to avoid spending too much money... but that may not have worked. A couple of great wargaming terrain companies had stalls, and I couldn't resist buying a few kits to try out.
The first of these is this set of gothic ruins from Knights of Dice. As you can see from the price sticker, these kits are very affordable. Since I've been collecting and painting 40k/30k lately, I figured some urban ruins would be very handy to give my Iron Warriors somewhere to dig in.
Here is the kit as it comes, straight out of packaging.
One of the things I love about well designed MDF terrain is how beautifully easy it is to assemble. This is the result of about ten minutes work.
Not too shabby. Only one problem reared its head - the window sills, which aren't attached in the above picture, are made of 3mm MDF, while the slits for them to insert are intended for 1mm MDF. It's possible the design was changed slightly and I got a mispacked kit, but regardless, it made almost no difference, a few minutes with a knife fixed the problem. Here are the offending parts.
The whole assembly was complete in about half an hour of work, and the next day I undercoated and painted it. I went pretty heavy on the weathering powders, and I'm not totally happy with the results, but it's perfectly suitable for everyday gaming, which is really the goal here. Painting took another two or three hours all up.
All in all, I am very pleased with how this kit came together and painted. Even allowing for the minor assembly issues, the end result is great. And the for very low cost, this is ideal for clubs wanting to get a table of great looking terrain on a budget.
Best Feature: Price
Biggest Flaw: Incorrect Connector Cutouts
Rating: A
And here's a link to the product in question: http://knightsofdice.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=67_78&products_id=210
Hopefully the review will be helpful to someone, I hope to make more of these soon for different gaming products I purchase!
~Magos/Alex
