Stop here. Sit and rest awhile – Mantic’s Mars Attacks (Terrain Crate) Stop Signs and Benches.

Mantic Mars Attacks Accessory Scenery Stop Sign 28mm Wargaming

A bit over a year ago I busted open my Mars Attacks Accessory sets, and got to (slowly) working on the contents (occasionally). So far, I’ve finished the incredibly unimpressive result of 8 box stacks, from the four sets I had. Recently, I’ve finished a few other bits and pieces. Namely, the STOP signs, and the benches.

 

You can’t really tell here, but there’s a subtle metallic as part of the red and I tried out Warcolours Metallic White on the white sections. I did this to emulate the reflective qualities of real STOP signs, at least those located in Melbourne, where I live. I initially tried the metallic white over silver but it worked poorly, so I repainted the details in white, and then went over with the Metallic White. Even in-hand, the metallic effect needs to be pointed out with an “oh yeah, now I see it” result. A kinda generic grungy grey for the bases.

Mantic Mars Attacks Accessory Scenery Benches 28mm Wargaming

The benches. To me they seemed much more like public bus (or tram) stop-style benches than anything else. In keeping with this, I painted them in a horribly-plasticy bright orange, of the sort that would have been seen back in the 1980’s. Of course, back in the 80’s here the bus stop benches were made of concrete and wood, and painted a dark green. I dunno, I could have gone with a sleeker, more modern silver which would have been easier, but I felt that a harsh, bright colour (then dirtied a little) is a little more evocative of actual urban city streets. And the horrid orange just “feels” right for a bus stop. I used Warcolour’s Orange “One Coat”, though naturally, it took multiple coats to actually cover over the base silver spray. So much for “One” Coat…

Mars Attacks Accessory Pic from Iron Saint’s Children of the Kraken Blog – go visit!

I’m recycling this pic from the post about boxes again, to show the contents of the full sets, along with just how little I’ve actually gotten done so far. I have the rubbish bins and mailboxes sitting in a little container, sprayed silver. I wanted to salt-weather them, but haven’t gotten around to it yet, and at this rate it’ll be a long wait until next summer before I get off my arse and get them done. I want to do a similar thing with the picket fences. In my mind’s eye, they’re dirty white, with the paint peeling off (salt weathering) to reveal stained grey wood underneath.

Mantic Mars Attacks Accessory Scenery Stop Sign Benches 28mm Wargaming

Scale shot with thanks to a Minotaurs Space Marine and a T-800 Endoskeleton. I think these will be perfect for any modern/post apoc and even urban sci-fi battlefield that’s not too far removed from “Earth-like” environments. One day I might even paint up my Secret Weapon tiles from their Kickstarter. Seems like a Summer project…

Oh, and as an addendum. I found these yesterday. Ignore the game of Runebound in progress and note the ten(!) additional accessory packs that were inside a tub of Mars Attacks scenery when I was looking for an unassembled incomplete Imperial Bastion. That’s a hell of a lot of mould-line scraping before I can get to the easy-ish part of painting up all that scatter terrain…

Sedition Wars Terrain Set Barricades

Sedition Wars Terrain Set Barricades, Metal Cadian Shock Troops, Imperial Guard, Astra Militarum

Remember Sedition Wars and it’s incredibly-successful Kickstarter? Of course you don’t. That’s because you either never heard of it, or the complete abortion of a game and fulfilment means you’ve blocked it from your memory like a terrible life experience, which it very much was. I was one of the ones taken in by a love and respect of Mike McVey going back decades to my youth and being foolish enough to believe the h̶y̶p̶e̶ lies of the campaign put on by Studio McVey and CMON to the tune of quite a few hundred dollars for my multiple pledges. Anyway, this post isn’t to bitch about the pile of money I flushed down the toilet in a mess of warped boards, terrible unplaytested rules and nicely sculpted but terribly cast restic models.

It’s about the one bright spot of the entire project (aside from the textured bases, I guess). The Terrain Set. More specifically, for this post, the barricades. I’ve been buying a bit of stuff for FFG’s various Star Wars games in the past 6 months or so, and part of that has naturally involved looking at pictures of stuff.

Not my work. Clicky the pic to go to Agis' site for lots more Imperial Assault goodness.

Not my work, but the work that inspired these getting painted after all this time. Clicky the pic to go to Agis’ site for lots more Imperial Assault goodness.

While doing so, I came across some pics on Agis Neugebauer’s blog. Now, he’s a poster over on Dakka, and I’m somewhat familiar with his work posted there, but I hadn’t seen his Star Wars Imperial Assault stuff before. Lots of great stuff there, including an Oskara conversion that I will totally be ripping off, but Agis’ also has a bunch of the Sedition Wars stuff painted up, and looking pretty bloody sweet. This triggered the “Hey, I’ve got those somewhere!” reaction, and off I went to find the crates, and while doing so, also grabbed out the barricades.

Sedition Wars Terrain Set Barricades

The barricades got finished first. Sprayed a custom green based on Vallejo’s 890 Reflective Green, then oversprayed with Plastic Soldier Company’s German Field Grey (Don’t buy their spray cans – they leak!). I then added the Lambdas, taken from a Warlord Games decal sheet (I would have preferred some white outline tank numbers from the WLG German Turret sheet, but I didn’t have any, and Lambdas are totally a thing in modern military markings and so in my mind help these pieces fit anything from near-future to 40k. I then drybrushed the barricades with Army Painter’s Army Green, and then Vallejo Bonewhite on the extremes. Some foam-weathering with Vallejo Metal Black, Vallejo Plate Mail Metal coloured primer and Vallejo Scorched Brown. Followed up with a spray of Plastic Soldier Company’s Dirt Brown Weathering Spray (they leak, FFS!), wiped down with a damp cloth, and finally a quick go-over with some of the foam-weathering, and they were ready for a heavy spray of gloss polyurethane varnish for protection, and then the good old Testor’s Dullcote to make them look good.

Sedition Wars Terrain Set Barricades

I also wanted to avoid any overtly-distinguishing iconography that would tie them too closely to any particular universe. So this meant no Imperial Aquilas or Imperial Cogs, and the dirty weathered look fits pretty well with just about anything, except maybe an especially-shiny game of Infinity. I can’t see pre-fab barriers getting carefully cleaned before being loaded into a transport between deployments, after all.

Sedition Wars Terrain Set Barricades, Metal Cadian Shock Troops, Imperial Guard, Astra Militarum

I have 12 barricades in total and I think they came up very nicely, but I’m also quite aware that looking at the individual weathering patterns on each of them isn’t exactly enthralling blog content, so here are some more posed shots with a few of my Imperial Guardsmen from the Terror Australis Regiment providing scale. Also, a sneak preview of my next mat review…

Sedition Wars Terrain Set Barricades, Metal Cadian Shock Troops, Imperial Guard, Astra Militarum

Sedition Wars Terrain Set Barricades, Metal Cadian Shock Troops, Imperial Guard, Astra Militarum