Norman Farm Complex

In February I treated myself and got 4Ground's Norman Farm Complex 15S-EAW-S2. I had hoped to have it done in time to display at the J&M booth at Hotlead, but it wasn't to be. I finally got inspired to get it finished this past week. I think because I've been pondering more 4Ground kits (both 15mm WW2 and 28mm Samurai buildings) and I thought "James, you really should finish that other big kit you've got yourself before buying even more..."

This is a big kit. You're putting together four good sized buildings, plus walls, the pig sty and dairy shed. I was going to photograph the unboxing, but my camera was dead at the time and I wanted to bash on with it. Budget at least 4 or 5 hobby nights; one for each barn, one for the pig shed, dairy shed and walls and two nights for the farm house.

Like all 4Ground kits, time spent in reconnaissance is never wasted. Dry fit first. Make sure you're putting things where they need to go. I almost glued the side wall on one barn backwards. Fortunately I caught it before the glue set. They also sorted a design error and included a replacement sprue of corner stones for the threshing barn and side pieces for the chimneys. So keep these in mind when building and don't be a daft git like me and use the other pieces first, get them stuck in and then say "Crap they don't fit! Oh wait a minute..."

The set comes with a bag of elastic bands to help hold things together while the glue sets and a few times in the instruction sheets it even stops to recommend you do this at certain stages. I also found those little spring clamps terribly handy. I've got a set of 6 and used them all at various times. I could have done with a few more even! A syringe to control the glue is also handy, that or a box of toothpicks. Keep a damp rag nearby to wipe up excess glue as well.

Here's the finished result. I've tried to be a bit different from the box cover and lay it out similar to the venerable Airfix Waterloo Farm set we all grew up with.

Some of the wall sections could be broken to be damaged, but I opted not to. I just need to glue some flock along the wall bases and maybe add a few tufts of flowers etc.

As an indicator of some of the detail, here are the rafters for the hay loft. I'm not sure why they put this design feature in. You won't see them during play. All the other roofs are built more conventionally and are strong enough.

Of course, all the roofs and floors come apart for interior access. You can even hide some figures in the pig shed. Notice the floor detailing on the threshing barn (building in the top left corner).

Here it is beside my old Airfix set to give an idea of scale.

And I grabbed some figures to set around it to give an even better idea of size.

You can be certain this is going to feature as the focal point of my next several WW2 games. I'm even thinking of making it the objective for a Chain of Command campaign.