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I recently received my pledge rewards for backing the Wargame, Roleplaying and Model Railroad Terrain kickstarter.

(http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/adventureterrain/wargame-roleplaying-and-model-railroad-terrain)

This is an example of a simple product idea with beautiful execution and room for expansion.

I purchased a large forest with some extra x5 and x3 tree stands. The bases are a textured it is a resin/plastic material. Smooth and kind of shiny black on the bottom, with a nice rough sand texture on top. Each base has regularly spaced holes with magnets inset in the bottom. Into each hole goes, no surprise, a matching tree and matching magnet. Blank bases, rocks, and walls could also be purchased.

My new forest:


I backed this project on a whim and wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, but I’m happy to report that I am very pleased by the quality of the product. I find forests are a tough terrain piece to do well. They either tend to be too static – making it impossible to move through – or small clumps of trees on bases that get knocked over or send units inside them flying as they get caught on shirts. The answer to this problem, as it is to so many of life’s challenges, is magnets.

Pros
Consistency – all the holes are consistently placed, uniformly round and all pieces are interchangeable.

Modular – very easy to swap trees around, leave gaps, or add rocks, walls or scenery.

Magnets – magnet strength feels just right. You cannot pick up the entire forest base by a single tree (except the x1 base) the magnet will give out – this in my mind is a pro in order to prevent unintentional sweater-sweep re-landscaping. However, the magnets are strong enough that a gentle tap or brush of the hand doesn’t dislodge the trees.

Human Models Knocking Trees Down Like a Lumber Boss


Solid – everything felt very solid and well constructed. The forest bases feel like a durable resin or plastic – I do not know, I am not good at the chemistry. I took a single tree forest base (which I believe got dropped in my box by accident) and threw it on the hardwood floor until my wife asked me politely (more or less) to stop. The base was undamaged. Having said that, I wouldn’t want to drop the x5 tree base on a cement floor from 5 feet… in the same way I don’t really want to drop any of my gaming products on a cement floor from 5 feet.

Cons
Tree Flock – There is a noticeable amount of flock falling from trees as they were unpacked, swapped between bases, or batted about by the cat. I’m going to try a coating of model sealant spray to try and seal any stray leaves.

Basing – The bases come pre dry-brushed in generic wargamer brown, which, as you can see in the pictures pretty well identically matches the color scheme on most of my models. I can see it potentially being an issue for some people, but I think repainting/dry brushing the bases to match a custom table should be very simple and certainly no harder than if they just came black. I’m planning to flock with a matching color and call it a day.

Ogre Base in Woods - Mixed Media


Conclusions:

I am really happy with the forests I received from the kickstarter. Not only do I think they look great out of the box, I think they represent a great base to work from – adding rock piles or custom details – or even getting a bunch of blank bases and adding some other trees from other ranges to mix up the forest a bit.

This is a product that, on a theoretical level, I could make myself. But on a practical level… I thought of trying to make the inset tree bases and how hard it would be to make them look as good or as consistent. Or about making sure all the magnets were all lined up – perfectly level with the base and all the right polarity. Yikes – just thinking of it and I can feel magnets and tree flock superglued to my fingertips.

So kudos to Richard P. Chalone, and I hope he can continue and build onto this line.

Cheers

One more picture - 2 x5 Tree bases pushed together with a warjack in the center and a few trees removed.

Awesome, thanks for sharing!

The idea for this campaign (modular magnetic terrain) was solid, and a lot of people seem very happy with the end results.

The sole issue/Con I'd add to the list would be the massive delays. The KS campaign ran from December to January, with a tentative February delivery date, which turned out to be incredibly optimistic. Citing delays due to spinning issues, fixing molds, and just mass producing the thousands of pieces needed, this one man operation got held up over 7 months. I believe people just started getting their packages at the end of Sept/early Oct.

Yes, yes, "kickstarters are always late, etc, etc", but it's worth noting that it came up again. Luckily, the reviews I've seen on the meager campaign comments section indicates that even those most put off by the delays have had a 180 degree turnaround on their attitude once their boxes arrived.

That said, he never expected the campaign to be quite so popular/successful, and I empathize with one guy trying to deal with what must feel like and overwhelming amount of work to do.

My small forest has yet to be sent out (I know this because I sent a message to change my address a few days ago) but it has blanks, rock inserts and multi-rock inserts as well as trees, so I'll see what I can do about contributing to the reviews once they're in.

I missed out on this one, and even though it was really, really late in delivering, I'd have loved to have been in on it.

Getting any kind of forest set up is expensive...

I'm looking forward to these things hitting his online store.

thanks for the review!