Building sight...a review of MCP terrain
Before I start I should really say that this is not a review in terms of me passing judgement on these products so much as a review of how they actually go together and ease of painting. These are not the cheapest terrain compared to mdf terrain but what you choose to spend your money on is none of my business and if you can afford this stuff all well and good. As such I will limit myself to the actual kits and not pass actual value judgements.
First up is the Building Site Office and Construction Vehicles. In the picture above you can see a selection of the items in the pack, there are more barriers and barrels than you can see in this pic - 6 of each I think. Assembly was straightforward and there is next to no mould lines or flash. The only thing to be aware of is to make sure you cut the handrail pieces very carefully as i nearly snipped off a tiny connecty piece thinking it was flash.
The Site Office really benefits from airbrush painting as you can get a weathered look just through shading different areas in ever lighter shades of grey. Its not stand out visible but I also sprayed the stand out vertical corrugations (?) a bit lighter than the indented areas. shadow color was left in beneath the horizontal rails as well. Windows were painted too blue for real life but to get some nice contrast. Actual weathering was straightforward with mig ammo streaking grime for the vertical brownish streaks and a layer of ground dust around the base done with vallejo desert yellow lower to the ground and vallejo dark sand going a bit higher up the sides, you can see this on the barrels as well.
The digger was painted without the actual blade part glued in for ease of painting both parts. As most people know its best not to yellow over black so any yellow stuff i always undercoat brown, doesnt matter which brown as long as its not dark. After that I use citadel averland yellow thinned down with flow improver. This is a great base and you can yellow up using whatever you want after. I went a bit lemony so corrected with a thinned rowney yellow ink. This sprays nicely and gave the more JCB/Caterpillar yellow. Weathering was done in a similar way to the site hut but I did a bit of chipping as well. I am not a fan of super chipping and less is more for me. The blade has some scratches and then i just dumped two or three colours of pigment inside the blade to get a random earty effect. Tyres were drybrushed before a thin spray of dusty colour for some contrast. Streaks as from the bolts at the rear was again done using mig ammo streaking grime.
I like this set and if I owned it would use in Batman games.
Set Two is The Kiosks and Cars. This is an excellent set and assembly is an absolute doddle, especially the cars which are 8 pieces total including 4 wheels and 2 mirrors. The taxi sign is an option. Clean casts and snap together really well. I went primary here with a big yellow taxi and a snooker ball red. The uneven look on the side of the red car is my crap photography skills i'm afraid as its good in real life. Windows in marvel style again!! Cracking little models.
The kiosks similarly are easy to build but keep checking the instructions just in case. The bins, dumpsters and hydrants are a bonus. I would probably make a few small paving bases for these as they might get lost otherwise.
I particularly like the dumpsters and did a bit of chipping and dusting on these which you can see if you look really carefully. I did think that a cool option would have been an option to have one with an insert of bags of rubbish so it was almost overflowing. Again Batman usage seems a natural.
The traffic lights and streetlights were also fine except that the streetlights had a bit of a bend, nothing terrible but not exactly straight. I forgot to photograph these...
Set Three - The Truck. From the packaging I assumed there were two trucks in this pack but there is one chassis with two optional builds. Both can be built as i did here as they can be easily switched back and forth.
The Oscorp Tanker is ok but a bit dull. I didn't do any chipping on this as I assume that tankers tend not to get chipped that much for common sense reasons. Im guessing if you drive a tanker full of fuel or chemicals you probably drive carefully....
Much more interesting is the rubbish truck with more opportunity for weathering especially at the rear as you can see above. If you are interested in doing chipping I recommend watch Herseybrush videos on his website as he is the master and explains far better than I can. https://www.heresybrush.com/en/tag/chipping-en/
Streaking and dust applied as previously mentioned. If you decide to use mig ammo streaking products make sure you varnish all your existing work beforehand as they are enamels and you will be thinning them with white spirits.
I love the garbage truck but was a bit disappointed that there was actually only one truck.
Set Four - Apartment block
This one you need to read the instructions and decide on your options before you start. There are various options for doors and windows and the pieces are printed both sides so lay them out beforehand!. Construction is clever with sort of reinforcement bars at each floor to keep it all level and in line. Make sure you clean these properly to get best fit.
There is also a ton of roof furniture as you can see - all of which is optional but I built and painted it all including 3 pigeons!
Once again an airbrush lets you get lots of variety in the brickwork without resorting to drybrushing and there are lots of windows here as well. The biggest time sink on this is the edge highlighting around the window frames. This isn't stand out obvious but if it wasn't there the whole effect would be flatter so it is worth it.
If I was using this alongside mdf terrain I would be tempted to put the roof stuff on the mdf to give it a boost as this is detailed enough to stand alone.
That is all I have done to date but have another set inbound in March or April I think which includes Dr Strange's house so that should be fun. Hopefully this 'review' may help somebody and feel free to send any questions.