Friday, July 29, 2011

[Adept Zero] Pegasus Hobbies Unboxing


Greetings, fellow Adepts, long time, no see! I come to you this time with an unboxing and mini review of three Pegasus Hobbies products, the Gothic City Building (Large Set), the City Ruins 1, and the Crater Set. Let's jump right in after the jump.

Pegasus Hobbies is a very large hobby store located in Montclair, California. They are also a branded manufacturer and distributor of hobby products such as sci fi and airplane models, model train scenery, radio control parts, and, of course, gaming accessories. They make a series of gothic buildings that are aesthetically compatible to GW buildings.


Pegasus Hobbies Gothic City Building (Large Set)
Let's start with the big kit. Your FLGS may carry it or you can order it directly here.
This box is surprisingly heavy.
With this box, you can build a complete two story rectangular building with a square alcove/entryway. Because of the versatility of the parts, however, you can also build many other configurations.

6 x 2 unit walls, 6 x 1 unit closed walls,
6 x 1 unit windowed walls, and one door section.
I don't think you need to be a Lego Jedi to be able to see the construction possibilities. You could conceivably leave all these parts unglued and rebuild for each game. And what about the exposed slots? Well, they provide plenty of gargoyles, bricks, sconces, and torches to fill those spots up.
Wall plugs.
Pros:
  • The plastic is surprisingly sturdy and very hard. I imagine this set will be able to successfully withstand the rigors of the gaming table, although I wonder if the tongue and groove joints will maintain their integrity if you reconfigure the walls on a regular basis.
  • The walls are actually different on each side, giving you quite a variety of options.
  • The price is very competitive. A similarly priced GW building will give you about half the amount of plastic.
  • The panels take primer very well.
Cons:
  • No Floor or Roof pieces. They actually recommend Plasticard. With a set this comprehensive, one would thing to add at least roof sections. The real problem is that they offer damaged floors in the other set below, but not separately.  :(
  • No thought of how to handle the roof pegs. You basically would have to shave them off, which defeats the modularity of the pieces.
  • Because the material is so strong (almost to the point of brittleness) it creates a problem when trying to remove flash. Use heavy snips and a real file. You will not be twisting these off by hand.
Tough little buggers.

Pegasus Hobbies City Ruins 1
A little over twenty bucks.
This set is the most similar to a typical GW building box. It contains 4 ruined walls, two ruined floors, and "caps" to complete the aesthetic.
This is very cool.
Once two of the walls are joined into a right angle, a floor piece can be placed without glue, but because of the clever shape, it is very secure.

Very GW-like, no?
This kit is perfectly compatible with the Large Gothic City Building kit as well, so you can make a megabuilding with a blown-out corner or two, or you could make two good sized ruined buildings, etc.. 

Pros:
  • Same plastic as the other building kit. Very strong and durable.
  • Floors!
  • Price is great.
Cons:
  • None. It's pretty straightforward.
Pegasus Hobbies Crater Set (Unpainted)
Forgot to shoot a pic before I ripped the bag open.
Last but not least is this set of 5 craters. It's very comparable in price to the GW version. They are vacuum formed but relatively thick, and they are all generally flat-based.


I really love these craters. They seem to be a lot more detailed than the GW craters, and they also seem to be emulating an urban crater more than a "moonscape" motif. They are still aesthetically compatible; you could paint these to be blown up asphalt and use the Games Workshop moonscape to show damage to nearby grass, rocks or dirt. They are very detailed, with the grooves running really deep. They should take washes and inks nicely.



Pros:
  • Quite detailed.
  • Again, the price is really good...about 25% cheaper than comparable products.
Cons:
  • They are all quite large...I'd like to see a few smaller craters.
Conclusions
These are some quality products at a great price. I am anxious to order the rubble packs. I'm not wild about their platform series, but I may pick up their cathedral and maybe another set of ruins. I'd like to find out more about this company. If any of you have more info, please comment. Be on the lookout for a report on painting this scenery, and a report about building my gaming table.




4 comments:

  1. I've used Pegasus terrain for the past 4yrs or so. I love the sturdiness and thickness of their wall sections compared to GW.

    It's really easy to add a few panels and some techno-skulls to make the cathedral look 40k. You can see an example of what I've done with the cathedral terrain set here:

    http://eyeoferror.blogspot.com/2010/09/imperial-hall-of-judges.html

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  2. Try the gothic church packs. They come with nice flying buttresses, gothic caps, and one set even has a large Rose Window. I made my own floor sections out of thin plastic card; it requires some measuring, an X-acto, and a steady hand but it's totally worth it.

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  3. Thank you for the excellent review! I've been eying these for a while, but I keep telling myself I have to finish the GW buildings I've already bought before I buy more terrain. Still, it's useful to read the comments from someone who has seen these in person.

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  4. Lucky, that's a beautiful building...quite inspiring.

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