With Texicon looming on the horizon, it is time to start pulling together the resources needed to run a game. This year I’m running a 5150: New Hope City PI game. So that means I need tabletop scenery to represent a run-down neighborhood in “Little Hsia.” I ran across these inexpensive paper buildings from WargamePrint on WargameVault.com and they have a bit of a run-down look about them. Supposedly, “Little Hsia” is near the star port making it one of the older sections of New Hope City. It would make sense then that some of the buildings would still have that “space colony” appearance. The set has some pros and cons to consider.
The first con, and my biggest complaint, is there are no instructions available for the buildings. Supposedly, they can be assembled so that they can lay flat. But without instructions, I have no way of knowing how it is done. A possible pro or advantage to this situation is that it is easy to assemble the buildings without the fancy folding mechanism. Even a person with ADD like myself can do it.
The buildings are not expensive. You get PDF files for 7 buildings and sky-bridges for only $11.00 at WargameVault and DriveThru RPG. Sometimes you can catch them on sale for much less. The price is actually a pro. I looked at other paper terrain and while the cost was close, the other terrain was often just blank cardboard. You not only have to paint the buildings, but doors and windows come separately at a price. I can print as many of these buildings as I wish and now that I’ve figured out how to assemble them, the next batch will be better. You can also combine the buildings in different ways to make taller buildings.
An interesting feature of these buildings is that if you print them using the “portrait” setting they are supposed to be usable for 15mm. Printing “landscape” gives you 28mm buildings. Somewhere on a CD-ROM, I have the old Microtactix buildings which were mostly 25mm. I’ll have to find them and assemble a building for comparison.
The buildings come with sky-bridges, the walkways connecting roof tops. They are actually shorter than they appear in the advertisement. If I were to use them, the buildings would have to be so close together that players would not be able to place or reach figures between the buildings. I’m going to have to figure out a way to make the bridges longer.
The exterior of the buildings are actually a sleeve that snugly fits over a smaller box with the roof. You can adjust the exterior walls so that the roof-top is either waist-high or knee-high deep. I chose to make all of the buildings with the standard “waist-high” exterior wall.
Overall I’m pleased with these buildings. I’ll be even more pleased if they can mix with the Microtactix buildings. You can purchase them here from WargameVault.com
Final notes: The buildings were printed on 110 lb. Georgia Pacific cardstock. For assembly, I used a pair of scissors, a metal ruler (so I could score in a somewhat straight line), Aleene’s Tacky Glue and clothespins to hold things together while the glue dried.
I hope this review was helpful. As always, clicking on the pictures expands them to reveal flaws in my painting. Hope to see you at Texicon at the end of June.
Atomic Floozy Adventures 
Nice review. I like the outcome of the buildings. They can be organized in many different ways and you show it well.
Good review. I had seen these on Wargame Vault a while back and considered getting them. I think I will now, thanks to your review 😉
Excellent stuff.
Nice review. It’s making me consider getting this. Can never have enough buildings for a colony.