Terrakami MagLev Train Mark I

I’m betting I wasn’t the only one who upon reading mission 205 from Campaign: Paradiso thought to himself: “Hmm, wouldn’t it be sweet if I actually had a train model?”

Corvus Belli’s campaign supplement is a little heavy on the “required terrain” side of things. That’s because they value the “cool” factor over pleasing everyone. Which I can appreciate. Lucky for us Infinity gamers there’s a couple of really cool terrain makers out there. And a couple of them have decided to dive into that niche that is “Paradiso trains.” Data Sphere has the pleasure of reviewing one of the coolest of these trains: the Terrakami Games Mk1 MagLev train!

Unpacking & Handling

There’s nothing like the mailman bringing in a big fat pack that you know contains MDF goodness! I had been anxiously awaiting Terrakami’s package!

The MagLev kit was packaged well. There are a TON of sprues, containing a vast amount of pieces. Fear not: the kit comes with very detailed instructions. If you like LEGOs, you’ll love this.

The kit will get you:

• Two locomotives (with removable roofs and objective markers)
• Four cargo wagons

It doesn’t come with cargo crates out of the box, but Terrakami put a couple of those in the pack anyway – and I’ll spoil right away that you should definitely get some!

On the MDF used:

I’ve handled my share of MDF terrain kits. While you might think that MDF is MDF, these kits tend to differ greatly: the thickness of the MDF used, its consistency, the way producers put their parts on the sprues…

The Terrakami MDF is a joy to work with. It’s smooth and feels very solid. With 2.5 mm in thickness, it’s on the thinner side which makes it feel elegant. Some other kits feel bulky in comparison—yes, that 0.5 mm does actually make a difference! And yet it never feels flimsy.

The use of thinner MDF allows for a detailed kit. There’s a lot of layering involved which leads to subtle differences in actual thickness when it comes to walls and such.

A small note here is that many of the MDF pieces were so loosely attached to their their sprues that they came falling out by themselves as I removed the plastic packaging. As you’ll soon see, this wasn’t overly useful when it came to constructing the train.

Construction

As mentioned the kit contains a truckload of pieces. But thankfully it comes with detailed instructions. It really is a lot like a LEGO kit, and since I played with conventional LEGO straight into my teens, that’s a plus!

The instructions tell you exactly on which sprue each piece is located. However, as the pieces have a tendency of falling from their sprues, I quickly lost track of what piece belonged where. I ended up pressing all the pieces off their sprues, increasing the LEGO experience. Remember going through your box of LEGO pieces in search for that one brick? Yup, it was like that.

A note on the design of the kit here. Dang it… flat out impressive! Whereas some MDF kits can be pretty straightforward, this kit has a lot of detail. It uses a “layered” approach: through the use of several layers of MDF it creates texture and depth. And then there’s the lasering itself, which was used to create texture on several panels: always subtle and used in conjunction with the surrounding layers.

This is best visible on the locomotive and the crates (the latter pictured below). You can see there’s patterns lasered out in the MDF, but another layer of MDF helps add depth and makes the overall look more sophisticated. Very nice.

The amount of detail of the kit is well visible on these crates (NOT included with the base train package, but HIGHLY recommended!).

The kit comes together very neatly, as well. Terrakami told me it’s possible ( intended, in fact) to construct the kit without using wood glue. Which means that a lot of the components actually come together a little too well. Though some others do still require glue in order to stay in their place.

The tightness of the various parts was a source of frustration during construction. I broke a number of pieces trying to make them fit together. This is really my only real gripe with the kit and it’s been picked up by Terrakami already (so when you get around to buying one of these kits, this issue may already be fixed).

Keeping these factors in mind (the many pieces, the difficulty assembling said pieces together), I would not recommend this kit to someone who hasn’t at least put together MDF kits before (or never touched LEGOs in his life – in which case you have my sincerest condolences. I recommend a trip to Legoland Denmark for a journey of inner healing and consolation, as you make up for your lost childhood. But, I digress…)

This shot shows the industrial look of the train, as well as its pretty details!

Playability

It took me three nights to construct the full train. After that, it was playtesting time!

Which immediately leads me to a note about versatility. This train can be used for more, than just that one Paradiso mission. In fact, I first used it during a game of Narrative Cards, which required a shuttle craft. I sprayed one of the locomotives white and… voilá, a shuttle craft!

You see, the locomotives are well designed. They feature a cockpit, two doors on each side and a larger back door. Put a couple of ramps around it and you have a very decent looking spacecraft.

The train’s indoor area is a perfect objective location!

Naturally, I also used the train as a proper train. As I’ve mentioned at the start of this article: spread out across your gaming table, it will dominate it. In a good way. It looks very impressive especially if you slap on a couple of cargo crates (which are worth it, guys— some of best looking MDF crates I’ve seen, no kidding).

As you can see, the train takes up a nice big chunk of the table (the second locomotive is not included in this picture).

We had a very tense game, naturally focusing on the train: including a cool shootout on the cargo wagons! What more could you ask for in terms of a cinematic experience?

Final words

That brings me in to land when it comes to this article. There is one more thing I have to stress. This train is affordable. It comes in at 65 euro, without crates. Compare to some other MDF trains out there, some of which come in at 100 euro (also without crates!) and look significantly less impressive (in my not so humble opinion)… you can see why I recommend this kit.

Alright, with that, let me break it down for y’all:

The good

• Impressive design of the kit
• Clear and useful documentation
• Affordable when compared to the competition

The bad

• Tons of pieces which fall from their sprues a little too easily

The ugly

• Tight fit of components can cause you to break them during construction

FINAL VERDICT: 4 OUT OF 5 STARS. GO GET IT!