The Battlepod of Foamcore Dame

I've seen some players of the game post pictures on line of using 3d puzzles as terrain for Robotech.  I am not a huge fan of paper terrain, but the pictures look good and so I checked out some of the CubicFun puzzles at Amazon.  They are stated to be scale models, but the scale is not given and I decided to pass on buying any for fear that they would look out of scale with the rest of my buildings.

Rick, why does that building have much smaller doors and windows than all the others?

It just so happened that I was in a store and they had these puzzles on clearance, so for five dollars a piece I figured it wouldn't hurt to try them out.  I picked up the St. Peter's Basilica and Notre Dame.

The puzzles themselves are printed on foamcore.  I would have preferred card, but at least they are light.  The box contains several sheets of foamcore with the preprinted parts that need to be punched out.  Each piece is printed the same on both sides.

The parts come free from the sheet pretty cleanly, but care should be taken on thin points or small parts as the paper could start to separate from the foam center.

Remove parts like these gently.

Any corners, bends, folds, etc. are already done on the parts, just make sure not to handle them too roughly or you risk damaging them.

The parts use a slot and tab construction that requires no glue.

Church under construction...

The puzzles are fun to put together, if you like to put things like this together.  I like building models, so this was an enjoyable and relaxing few hours.
Thought went into the design on the models, they go together well, they use a layering effect to create three dimensional appearance, they are sturdy for what they are made of.

They are also quite large.

Defender and Regult with 28mm Copplestone miniature and buildings by GameCraft and Burn In Designs.

That same Defender model in the courtyard of the Basilica.  This thing is about two feet long.

Same Regult next to Notre Dame.

Aliens invade France.

UEDF protecting Vatican City.

In terms of scale, I still don't know what these are, but they fit well with the other buildings I have.  They aren't appropriate for a Macross City board, but there was fighting in other places and these would serve well as large, central features of a table.  I chose them because although they are iconic buildings, I could 'get away' with using them as generic large churches or even as a government building (the Basilica) in just about any city setting.

The Ministry of Peace.

Bonus shots, my first painted models for the game: