28mm Laser Cut 2 Story Buildings Compared

It is a bit more difficult to compare the two story buildings, there are so many options that can really change the look of the building. I'm only including 4 manufacturers in this comparison as I don't have a 2 Story building from Aetherworks. I would like to have one from them but its just a little pricey right now, maybe I'll be able to fix that issue later in the year.

Sarissa Precision Old West Heroic 2 Story Building (Option 2 I think, not positive)

Gamecraft Miniatures 28MWEST001

Battle Flag Photographer's Studio

Knuckleduster 2 Story building

Here are the candidates I have selected. Note the selection is somewhat limited at this point as these this is the extent of the 2 story buildings that I have.

                         Std Floor       Opt Floor        Std Roof  Opt Roof  BrdWalk  Awning
Battle Flag         Detailed             NA               Pitched         NA           Yes          Yes
Gamecraft          NA               Non-Detailed     Pitched        NA            Yes          Yes
Knuckleduster   Non-Detailed     NA                Flat            Pitched       Yes           Yes
Sarissa              Detailed             NA                 Flat             NA           Yes           Yes

And then of course the bad news, what exactly are these going to cost you?
                         Base Price      Options         Shipping   Total
Battle Flag         $53.16             NA                 $6.93      $60.09  
Gamecraft          $20.70             $5.00             $5.15      $30.85
Knuckleduster    $50.00             $7.50              Free       $57.50
Sarissa               $28.99             NA                $4.03      $33.02

As you can see the range in prices is substantial and of course is going to vary a bit for Battleflag and Sarissa since they are in the UK and the price is based on the exchange rate when I wrote this (the same would be true for Aetherworks as they are in Australia). I have found a lot of variety in the two story buildings and all of these buildings have features that I really like.

Battle Flag - Like all their other buildings this one does have my favorite feature the "floating" floor. On the interior both the 1st and 2nd floor have laser engraved floor details and the 2nd floor also shows where walls can go, although no interior walls are included. The kit is easy to build and definitely builds up into a really nice building, and it comes standard with my preferred pitched roof style. Its just flat out hard to go wrong with a building from Battle Flag.

Gamecraft Miniatures - I really like the exterior style of the false front on this building and it has plenty of detail to go along with it. Its easy to build, but it is definitely designed as more of a terrain piece than an RPG type building and it looks great doing it. The parts I don't like are that the floors are optional and you have to buy two if you plan on having the roof removable. You have to figure out on your own how and where to support the second floor and you need to remember to cut out the spot for the staircase before you try fitting that floor into place! It does come standard with the pitched roof as well, but the floors don't have any engraved detail.

Knuckleduster - This kit has a feature that I just love. The whole second floor lifts off as a unit so if you have a fight going on the 2nd floor you can still lift it off to get to the 1st floor with out disturbing the action. It took a while to figure this kit out as there are no instructions and there are a couple of points where its not obvious how things should go together. Although it claims to have "interior" detail I would argue the point a bit. It has one interior unadorned wall for the first floor and then three more walls for the 2nd floor that will form a hallway and three small rooms. The two short walls are actually to long and push the long wall out to far so that the end of that wall actually sits right in front of an upstairs window. So dry fit first and cut as necessary. Still its a solid kit although it lacks the engraved detail on the floors and interior walls. In contrast it is the only building I have so far that has an exterior stair. Since its made out of plywood instead of mdf it is very sturdy after its assembled.

Sarissa Precision - The Sarissa kits are made out of 2mm MDF which makes the framing detail a little fragile and the building in general feels fragile until you get it all glued together. Once you have gotten to that stage its quite sturdy though. Its 2nd story is also removable as a unit like the Knuckleduster kit. Like the Battle Flag kit it has detailed floors which means I only have to work on adding some detail to the walls. It is much narrower and not as tall as some of the other buildings and it only comes with a flat roof option. I'll be doing a little extra work so that I can get at least have a slanted roof. I tried one of their roofing kits for the medium option buildings but the pitch of the roof extends much to high for it to look right.

Sarissa Precision building with their medium pitched roof kit.
Let's just chalk that one up to a good learning experience.
I'll need to buy another medium building kit to make use of
the extra roof! Rats!

For the most part I really like the Battle Flag buildings as my showpiece buildings. They will end up on the prime real estate lots in Calamity. The other kits will be mixed as necessary although the Sarissa  will probably occupy other choice real estate spots.