Amera Future Zone Factory (Z233) Review

So Last time I did a review type post I tried for a more obscure title to intrigue and entice. Since I got bugger all hits I'm going for the more useful approach and stating the obvious and after the break will be reviewing Amera Plastic Moulding's Future Zone Factory (Z233)

For those Interested in my unboxing of the Tablescape tiles that arrived towards the end of last year can be found Here.

I can't quite remember how I found out about the company, probably a post on a fellow blogger's site, but once I visited the website I was definitely intrigued. With fantastic prices and seemingly beautiful terrain it appeared to good to be true. 

Deciding to see for myself I chose the ruined factory as not only does it go well with my current industrial projects, it should also give a good demonstration of the companies products, at £9.95 with £3 P&P it looked a steal. 

The Factory arrived well packed in a good sturdy box, once opened the whole things comes in a plastic bag with some basic instructions.

Eagerly I ripped open the package and promptly ignored the instructions instead looking over the components, taking in the details and getting an idea of the kits possibilities and limitations.

Comprising of 5 main components and a number of smaller bits for the roof the first thing to note is, as I had suspected, the vacuum forming used to make these kits is inescapable. For every raised detail on the outside you get the inverse on the inside, not only that but thanks to the detailed edging the walls are 'hollow' for lack of a better word with a lip all the way round.

For quick easy terrain this is a non issue (as can be seen in Amera's promo photo) with some simple texturing and a paint job it's not all that obvious, and with the addition of a few cities of death leftovers you'll have a great looking piece of terrain. The only other change I would strongly suggest is to stiffen it up a bit as the plastic is quite thin for supporting larger models.

The only advice I would give the company on future kits is to try and invert the mold designs, the detail is so much crisper on the inside which is a shame and though I don't have the vacuum forming experience I'm confident it would be possible to do with some cunning design.

For me though I wanted to push the kit to it's limits. Firstly I see it as a great trial run for combining the cities of death terrain from GW with my quite blocky city style. The goal of which is to get the more expensive GW terrain to go much further as well as revitalising my old terrain.

At this point my plan was to line the 'hollow' walls with corrugated card and then decorate the new inner wall, along with integrating some of the cities of death panels such as doors and some windows.

Sadly PVA glue is not a fan of the plastic used and the corrugated card lining all fell out (a possibility for adding sand texture as well), on the other hand I'm happy with how well the cities of death terrain fits once some suitable holes are cut.

The project has been put in the loft while I work out the lining issue (hot melt glue may be my answer) and my hobby challenge. Still I keep looking at their website and Amera will definitely be getting some future business, especially the kits that are single piece such as hills, trenches and ruins.

so until my next Hobby challenge update I hope this proves informative and check out those prices they are truly a steal.