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Anyone have a review of Kromlech's HDF models. I'm specifically looking at their stompa variant, but I have never worked with HDF before. What are the pros and cons? Worth the money?

I have a huge selection of their terrain. From what I understand, HDF is very similar to mdf, but a slightly different composition.

It's going to come in a huge number of sheets, and you'll need to cut out various pieces at the connection points. It helps to wipe the HDF sheets down with a damp paper towel on both sides to get rid of any residue from the laser process.

Both superglue and some sort of thicker pva(I use Aleene's Tacky Glue) work well for assembly. Obviously, the pva will give you a longer working time.

On assembly - take your time and work in subsections if you can. You'll have to deal with a huge number of parts, and don't want to get lost partway through the process. Pay careful attention to the part numbers on the instruction sheet, and note that sometimes you find that something is mislabeled.

I usually prime with Krylon ColorMaster Black Primer and haven't had any issues. It does not "soak up the paint" as a lot of people will tell you mdf has a tendency to do.

If there are cons to the product, I would say that the tendency to get very small scrap pieces everywhere. The bigger builds can have very, very long instruction/assembly manuals, so it's not a quick process to build.

Thank you, Mr. Grey. One more question for you. Do you find the material to be more or less durable compared to plastic? I'm thinking if the model is hit with something, how does it hold up?

zoltan88 wrote:
Thank you, Mr. Grey. One more question for you. Do you find the material to be more or less durable compared to plastic? I'm thinking if the model is hit with something, how does it hold up?

It's hard to say, but I'd lean toward "less durable". It's still some kind of wood composite, and Kromlech likes doing very thin sheets of the stuff for their builds because they add dimensionality by doing multiple layers of details. Now if you're talking dice rolling into your terrain pieces or into the not-a-Stompa that they make, you're probably ok. A 2-foot fall from your hand onto the table? Maybe not so much, and you might lose a few bits here and there. All the layers do add some nice weight, too.

Helpful tip: the "Encounter Wargaming" channel on youtube has a TON of build and paint videos for a lot of the Kromlech/Tabletop Scenics range. Think it's mostly the buildings, but you get a great overview of what building some of these things is like.

Broadly speaking, the hdf is very sturdy. Joints are well interlocked, and because the complex shapes of the models have so many component pieces, most of it is very chunky and rugged. The weak areas I encountered were detail bits where a single layer of hdf board had been cut into narrow pieces and left unsupported. On the kustom workshop for instance, the hanging chain bits were very prone to snapping at their narrow points. And to fix them I often had to 'splint' the break with a flat piece of plastic or wire.

I don't think they'll have worse issues than something like a Leman Russ: the chassis itself is basically bulletproof, but if you drop it wrong you could snap off detail bits like a pintle-mount gun or antenna.