Wednesday 18 July 2012

Review: Antenocitis Workshop Modern K-Rail Barriers

   
    

These were perchased primarily for use in games of Infinity. But I'm sure they'd work just as well in 40k or any modern warfare setting based game. They are simply put Jersey type barriers, and act as linear terrain... I'm going to struggle to make these sound interesting, but genuinely they've been really useful.

Product Description

You get 8 of these resin K-Rail barriers in a pack. There dimensions are pretty straight forward, they are 4" in length, just over half an inch wide and three quarters of an inch tall. Don't worry too much there will be photographs with Larry the Ultramarine to give you a sense of scale. They are cast in a pretty firm resin that, for mine at least, were a lovely shade of blue.

What you get in a pack

Usefulness 9 out of 10

If you've ever played Infinity you'll know that genuinely, scatter terrain like this is a Godsend. You can 'scatter' it about the place to break up open ground and to give your troops a bit of protection as they advance, and also give them the opportunity to fire back with ARO's too when you get the chance. This means that these sorts of terrain pieces can make gamers more willing to venture forth in Infinity and stops games bogging down too much. So they're a bit of a game changer, if you'll excuse my piss poor attempt at humour. That's it really, I don't think there's anymore to say!

Larry modelling the latest in K-Rail Barrier protection.

Character 6 out of 10

They are basically a big, long, low lying wall. With curved sides, I mustn't forget the curved sides. There are a few indentations on either side too, but... you know what? They're plain and that's kind of the point. They are not meant to be festooned with skulls and circuit boards, or whatever else you can think of. They're K-Rail barriers. That means they're meant to be bland and functional looking, and they are. You can make them as charaterful as you like with your paint job. All that's left to do now is decide whether you go for read and white or yellow and black stripes... or maybe you'll go all urban and paint them up to look like concrete with graffiti. Ar you getting excited yet? I swear I felt my heart beat as I typed that. Could've been indigestion though...

Come on what do you expect? Skulls?

Detail 4 out of 10

Erm... OK... what do you expect? They do their job and that's all that matters. They do have two circle thingy indents on both sides towards the top of each long side, and two rectangular indents below those circular indents on the long side as well. I hear its the latest fad in K-Rail design chic. There are also two cut aways at ground level on the long sides. Did I mention that the sides are curved? I did... bugger! Perhaps if it had some skulls on it.

Look it's Larry with his K-rail barrier again. He loves it.

Quality 8.5 out of 10

They are produced from simple pour in moulds from what I can tell, and as such they don't have a flat bottom as the resin has left a concave dip where it has shrunk during the drying process. However, on the 8 barriers I have found a grand total of 5 really teeny tiny, minute air bubbles, which honestly is really quite good if you ask me. The resin is a nice quality and is firm enough to put up with daily use on a gaming board. I'd have no problem recommending these to firends as hardy gaming scenery for a club to use say. The irony is that I managed to pick the worst one for air bubbles for the pictures in this review, just typical, but even so it looks fine to me.

Service 9 out of 10

I ordered these along with an absolute boat load of other scenery pieces from Antenocitis Workshop. So yeah, be prepared to be hit with a flurry of resin building scernery bling! It came in double quick time and was exceedingly well packaged so that there was no chance any harm could come to my precious order. I appreciate that.

Price 9.5 out of 10

These cost £4.99 for 8 K-Rails. That's roughly 50p for a single rail, and is in my humble opinion well worth it. I'm sure I'll eventually be going back and buying a few more packs of these when I have the money, and time to paint them up. Still not decided between red and white or yellow and black... or that left field option of concrete though... perhaps I'll put a poll up and get you all to vote. Would that make them exciting do you think?

Look it's a moody profile shot... oh who am I kidding. I can't make them exciting, but they are good.

Overall 8 out of 10

OK so this isn't the best, most exciting or essential product in the world, and I'm not too sure even I can get hot under the collar about K-Rails, or barriers of this type. Even I as a wargames geek would find that tough to do, and yeah I really tried to, but it turns out not even I'm that geeky. I've tried getting worked up about them, so I can explain to you how awesome they actually are when gaming, but the best thing I can say about them is that they don't offend my eyes, are really well constructed and do their job really well. The prices is very good and I'm happy with them. That's it really. Peace out!

Please remember I'm not around at the moment to respond to any questions or points you might have. So could I ask you to be patient and bear with me, I'll get round to it eventually I'm sure. Thanks!

19 comments:

  1. Nice, straightforward terrain (and no embedded human remains is a welcome change.)

    Do the indentations have purpose? They almost look like they would be used in conjunction with something else.

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    1. the slots on the bottom are so you can get a forklift underneath and the circular and square indents are for a crane harness to move them around

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    2. @Mike, Yep as others have pointed out they serve various purposes in real life, not so much in wargames though. They're there just to look present and correct I think.

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  2. I bought these for the same purpose.. Infinity.. bought 2 packs of the 4 inch and 2 packs of the 2 inch ones..

    Was my first dive into resin though, and I didn't clean them too well, so they are chipping and losing paint in areas now. Have to redo them I think.

    Pretty straightforward review of them, which is not surprising considering that they are a pretty simple pieces, but have major play within games.

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    1. Yep they're really useful, and Antenocitis is full of such useful pieces of terrain to add a bit of 'life' or a touch of 'reality' to your gaming boards. I love most of the stuff Jed produces. There will be a fair few more reviews of Jed's stuff over the next few weeks.

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  3. The indents are there because they're there in real life.
    I would guess that it's how cranes hook onto them for positioning, lifting on & off transport etc..

    Have a look at the real thing here:
    http://www.discountcrowdcontrol.com/barrier-jb10-ca

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    1. Lol, seems painfully obvious now that I'm seeing it. Thanks.

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  4. May have to snag some of these for myself. With some hazard stripes painted on top they would look ace!

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    1. They are brilliant and I can confirm they are really, really useful and I'm glad I have them kicking around.

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  5. Great review. You had me in stitches too.

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    1. Well I'm glad I made a few people laugh with the review anyway. I really wanted to review them because I think this sort of terrain is often overlooked by us gamers, but it's just so useful. So I thought at least try and make it light hearted.

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  6. Very amusing review, and I'm amazed you managed to write so much about them! Not sure if this will work here, but here is a link to some K-Barriers of my own which I painted up for an Infinity Board (using them as road works): http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v246/Pacific81/Models%20stuff/Infinity%20stuff/rworks1.jpg

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    1. Looking good Pacific. It'd be good to see some pictures of the board you play on when everything is finished.

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  7. there's surprisingly few companies that make k-rails, and most of them just aren't very good. Most companies get the shape wrong, or they don't have the slots right. There are road dividers without the holes and indentations, but they're permanent and usually poured into concrete forms on the spot. The nice thing about k-rails is that they're supposed to be movable, so you can use them for highways or roads or just to cordon off areas and provide some cover on the table.

    So even though they look simple, I haven't seen any other company get it right like antenocitis has and the price is better than most of those other ones as well. They may be simple, but they're spot-on, they're cheap, they're incredibly useful, and they add a LOT to a gaming table table both in terms of looka as well as gameplay. I'd say 8/10 is lowballing their value for infinity or any urban game.

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    1. Yep, there are surprisingly few companies that make many pieces of scenery like this in all honesty. So its great that Jed does the stuff he does as he fills a niche that people like me want filling. As to low balling the total, nah 8 out of 10 is fine, besides if you want to know how useful they are in games you just look at the useful score, which ws 9 out of 10.

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  8. I will have to give these a try. I have some from Secret Weapon and Armorcast but I always like to find a new source for them just in case.

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    1. Haven't tried the Secret Weapon terrain, but I have used some Armorcast stuff in the past. Jeds stuff is really quite decent quality for the prices he charges.

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  9. Low price, decent quality scatter terrain that is usable in a variety of games beyond warhammer?
    I'm in. Ordering now.

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    1. You won't be disappointed. There really is some splendid stuff available on Antenocitis website.

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