Micro Art Studio Barracks – F00023 – HDF, Resin, and Foam
Micro Arts Studio’s Barracks product is an impressive offering combining high density fiberboard (HDF), resin, and foam.
Packaging and Assembly Instruction
Like Micro Art Studio’s District 5 packaging, the Barracks packaging really pops out visually with strong graphics. You won’t miss this on the shelf.
The directions suffer from poor translation from Polish to English, but are also mostly unnecessary. It becomes obvious what each part is as you assemble the guard tower. The confusing part I found was that the four crenellated sides of the roof of the guard tower are not identical. Two are wider than the others.
The Resin Doorways
The resin casts of the doorways were relatively clean with only a few defects, a bubble in the corner of one sign area. While the raised lines on the door frames make for a nice surface to drybrush, their presence is puzzling. Why would you have wires just hanging on the surface of the door? Couldn’t an enemy step up and yank them out? Otherwise the doorways are well-designed and could be used for many other futuristic buildings. I plan on expanding mine with little labels, as can be seen eventually to the right. They would have a look like the destination or route signs on a bus or in the vaults in the Fallout video game series.
The Foam Barracks
The two barracks I got were equally well produced. I have seen something with the same visual look, this excellent Space Marine Armoury from MiniWarGaming, but I’ve never seen a similar item for purchase anywhere. They look superb and could even be used as modern buildings. Of course, most gamers will be using them to dress up their 40k gaming tables. For games like Dark Age they might be more of a stretch, but I could still see them on the battlefield.
One of my barracks had a little bit of damage on its top, which I didn’t bother to try fixing (not that I’d know how).
The Guard Tower
I have to admit puzzlement at why Micro Art Studio markets the product as Barracks, when it includes this sentry tower. I love that the tower can be closed, by removing the four supports. It looks a little impractical as a functioning bunker in that case, but it’s a great touch. Much better, the structure can pop right off its tower for use on the ground.
Final Thoughts
For $27.99 you get a very solid well-designed product with three separate buildings. They all paint up easily while retaining their details. Other than the damage to one of the barracks, the air bubble on one of my resin doors, and the odd wires on the blast doors, it’s hard for me to find fault with Micro Art Studio’s Barracks. The two barracks buildings can be any sort of small futuristic building that you might have in a forward outpost. The guard tower has even more utility. Gaming clubs might want to pick up multiple packs of these; I certainly would like another one.