For me, Sarissa Precision has always been associated with smart designs that provide interesting depth and character to their MDF kits and this set is no exception. The Burrows & Badgers Scenery Set gives you a kit that would be equally at home in a fantasy setting, and if you squint a bit, and more grounded settings too.
I would like to thank Sarissa Precision for providing this kit for review.
This particular kit is a combination of three sets, combining Prickly Jane’s Cottage, Duntrackin House, and the Covered Market and Well for a total of £40 at time of publishing. Buying all of the kits together saves you almost 20% over buying them individually, and I often prefer picking up sets like this where I can due to savings like this.
MDF kits can often end up feeling very boxy and simplistic, and while it’s often driven by the type of terrain being replicated, the build process is usually very straight forward. The multi-layered construction of the house and cottage add some satisfying complexity it to the build. Like many others, building is a big part of the hobby for me so having a kit that took a couple of sittings to tackle was a really satisfying experience overall. Sarissa use a mixture of materials and methods to create depth in the construction and appearance by combining greyboard and MDF. I’d strongly recommend dry fitting the models before gluing anything. The instructions are thorough but it took me a couple of tries in one or two instances to get everything together during my dry fit, and even knowing how everything goes together I still made a couple of errors.
On that note I’d decided tonight was the night I’d try out VMS Flexy 5K CA. For those not familiar with this particular glue it’s a semi flexible superglue. It’s also jet black, which is a helpful property when assembling something that is going to be primed and painted, but less helpful when your pieces are already painted. My biggest lesson when using black superglue for the first time was just how much of it ended up on my fingers, and I would’ve included a picture of my hands but it’s surprisingly hard to take a picture of both your hands at once. The advantage of using superglue instead of PVA is its lower curing time, meaning the overall build process goes quicker, and I had the whole set assembled in around half a day including paint time.
I made brief mention earlier of assembling painted pieces and I prefer to paint MDF without priming in most cases, airbrushing ink directly on to the boards. The pigment dense ink gives good coverage and a faster process than priming and then painting. I spent some time comparing various MDF processes back when I tackled the TTCombat Venetian Quarter. The only downside to this approach is that when it came to painting the chimney stacks, the laser cut surface of the MDF is quite smooth. It took longer than I would’ve liked to get a decent colour on the chimney and well, but I managed to get their eventually by spraying from slightly further away and allowing more time for drying to build layers up slowly.
The buildings have clever cut aways to allow for fully playable interiors. Moving indoors things are kept simple but effective, allowing for plenty of scope in how you choose to dress them up, there’s even a trap door in Duntrackin House to allow sneaky critters a better vantage point. Laser etched floorboards and the structural ribs offer additional character and detail, and offer further inspiration to make the most of these charming structures.
Some finishing touches would really take this scenery kit to the next level, and adding some market scatter and a bit of extra dirt and grime on the buildings would go a long way. I opted for an initially simple paintjob for review purposes but can absolutely see myself going back to add a little more and continue tinkering. The box art provides great inspiration for adding wood grain the Jane’s cottage and some additional character to the other buildings.
A Burrows & Badgers Table is 30×44 and most missions call for at least one piece of terrain per square foot, with playable interiors and decent footprints you’re able to use this set for a variety of the quests as they’re laid out in the rulebook. You’ll have to decide upfront if you want to allow for playable interiors, as it could make shifting ranged animals much more challenging. Adding some cobblestone walls, a fenced in allotment, a few trees and some bushes would give a charming looking board with plenty of terrain. A couple extra buildings would take your small hamlet up to a village and Sarissa provide a variety of options for just this.
I have a growing appreciation for games that respect not only my time but space as well. The popularity of warband sized games with smaller foot prints and model requirements speaks to how pressed so many of us are for time and space. Terrain sets that can pull double or triple duty are even more appreciated. While you might have to be careful when it comes to storing some parts of this set, I wouldn’t hesitate to add it to a personal collection or a smaller club stash. The reason I mention taking care with this kit is that much of it is constructed from greyboard, so it won’t be quite as sturdy as your standard MDF fare. I’m curious to see how well this holds up to long term use, and I’ve already managed to detach one of the doors in the process of operating it as they’re held on by two thin tabs. It’s a simple thing to repair with a strip of paper and glue, or a piece of tape, and I hope it’s the only repair I need to make in the short term. I think the compromise offered using greyboard is still very worthwhile, with the greater flexibility in design and shape provided by greyboard making for more interesting kits. I imagine there’s also a cost element here, and keeping the kits affordable is fine by me.Â
This set makes for a great entry point in to a small fantasy hamlet for a variety of games, and can be easily fleshed out to a much denser board with either additional kits from Sarissa, or more traditional woodland scatter. Certainly if you’re building a board for Burrows & Badgers or Moonstone, you’ll want a bit of both anyway. I’m looking forward to getting this to the table for some games with the Goonhammer crew, and I’ll be taking a look at how I can expand the collection from the broader Sarissa range.
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