{"id":260,"date":"2011-01-13T10:04:21","date_gmt":"2011-01-13T10:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bucksurdu.com\/blog\/?p=260"},"modified":"2011-01-13T10:12:42","modified_gmt":"2011-01-13T10:12:42","slug":"grand-manner-buildings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bucksurdu.com\/blog\/?p=260","title":{"rendered":"Grand Manner Buildings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Right before Christmas I ordered four buildings from Grand Manner. \u00a0This is a UK company that makes really nice resin buildings and terrain pieces. \u00a0You can buy their buildings unpainted, as I did, or painted. \u00a0You have two painted options: wargame quality and museum quality. \u00a0I bought mine unpainted, because I couldn’t afford to buy them painted and because I enjoy painting them.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The four Grand Manner buildings from their Guilford Courthouse set<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This picture shows all four of the buildings in the Guilford Courthouse set. \u00a0They were cheaper as a set, plus Grand Manner had them on sale leading into Christmas. \u00a0What really struck me about these from their add in the British gaming magazines and their Web site was the very obvious chinking between the logs.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The largest of the log cabins<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here is a close-up of the largest of the log cabins. \u00a0You can really see the chinking. \u00a0The roof is removable. \u00a0There is a removable attic floor as well. \u00a0The roofs should probably be brown bark shingles, but I decided to paint them as slate for some color variance. \u00a0The bases are textured enough that I could have painted them instead of flocking them, but I like the look of the flocking. \u00a0Note the small tufts of grass as well. \u00a0It was Sam’s idea to dribble some brown ink down the roof for added interest.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The porch of one of the buildings<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I really like this building. \u00a0The porch and porch roof are really nice. \u00a0I can imagine this building in a cowoby game, French and Indian War game, or a Pulp game with moonshiners. \u00a0I have the Beverly Hillbillies truck from Blue Moon that would look great next to this building. \u00a0The porch roof supports both snapped off during prep for painting, but they were nice clean breaks that were easily repaired.<\/p>\n

\"Guildford<\/a>
Guildford Courthouse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is the Guilford Courthouse building from which this set derives its name. \u00a0This picture doesn’t really do this building justice. \u00a0It \u00a0is really nice. \u00a0Note the combination of rock and brick on the chimney. \u00a0Very neat.<\/p>\n

\"Interior<\/a>
Interior of Guilford Courthouse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The shot depicts the interior, upper floor of the courthouse. \u00a0In both buildings with removable top floors, there is an open trap door. \u00a0In addition, a few small terrain bits, in this case a crate, are molded to the floor to provide a convenient handle to remove the floor. \u00a0This is a really nice feature of these buildings. \u00a0Normally I have to glue some other terrain bit to the floor myself.<\/p>\n

The interiors of the buildings have detailed floors and fire places. \u00a0My only complaint with the kits is that I couldn’t really get a paint brush inside the buildings to paint this detail. \u00a0I had to settle for merely dry brushing over this detail so you can see it.<\/p>\n

These are great buildings at a reasonable price (at least I thought the sale price was good). \u00a0They are easily prepared and are fun to paint. \u00a0Service was excellent too. \u00a0They shipped from England about 24 hours after I ordered them and arrived within a week. \u00a0I highly recommend these buildings.<\/p>\n