Rocky Outcrops …from cheap Aquarium Supplies.

Like rather a lot of the scenic items I’ve been showing here recently, I picked these up ages ago – a couple of years, in fact. After getting some pretty sweet ready-to-use pieces on massive sale from the local Pet Warhouse (which all seem to have disappeared – before I could game with any of them or even photograph them all!) 😦  I thought I’d do one better and see what eBay had to offer. Turned out that eBay was actually pretty crap. While the price was alright, for my money I got four pieces, one of which arrived broken, made of a cheap, fragile resin, painted badly, and with smooth black internals visible. I mean, for your cheap Aquarium they were probably alright, but for scenery, I did the only thing I could do – put them in a tub and forgot they existed.

Fast forward to a few days ago, I found them while rummaging around looking for something else, and once again, with Dave Stone’s Winter of Scenery Challenge being a thing, I recided “fuck it” and got them done. Vallejo Mud Effects on the insides of the holes to cover that horrible smooth texture, black primer, a pretty bad brownish-grey spray from Bunnings, several layers of drybrushing, and then three shades of weathering powders mixed with brush-on matte varnish added and tissue-wiped to give some variation to the colour. A tiny application of my Sepia-Black mix of Vallejo model dip in a few spots to uneven-out where the powders dried too uniform, and we’re done. As out models show, they’re an ok size for line-of-sight blockers and will work well enough across most genres.

Mantic Terrain Crate Lookout/Observation Platform

Mantic Terrain Crate BattleZones Lookout/Observation Platform

The next decent-sized bit of terrain I’ve finished this month is this …Lookout, or Observation Platform. I stole the build concept from someone else’s construction that I had found from some random GIS. Sadly, I’ve lost the page so I’m unable to give the original architect their credit right now, but if I ever see it again, I’ll edit this post and drop it in. The reason I really liked the look of it was, essentially, the flexibility it offers.

Mantic Terrain Crate BattleZones Lookout/Observation Platform

This is why I once again decided to go for a dark green – so it could fit into either a battlefield or industrial setting role – though I brought the shade up a little. I think it’d also work for post-apoc settings, though for that a bit more paint chipping and wear would probably help, though I’ve added a bit of that kind of weathering regardless.

Mantic Terrain Crate BattleZones Lookout/Observation Platform

I added the lambda/chevron decals to it as well to give it a small visual tie to the Sedition Wars barricades I painted several years ago. I figures since they both had dark green paint in common, and I wanted to use some more decals to add a touch of interest to this piece. Sure, the shade of dark green is quite different, but, you know, close enough. 😛

Mantic Terrain Crate BattleZones Lookout/Observation Platform

The other decals I used were of course Roman numerals inside a yellow circle, from the many Ultramarines/Space Marines decal sets. Again, combined with the dark green it creates a small visual consistency link to the Micro Art Studios Outpost Vents I showed yesterday. (Or in the background of the pic up top!) And yeah, I had some lighting issues today for this one. Due to the size of the thing, it didn’t fit in my light box properly, and so due to the placement of lights for the gaming table, I had a choice of dark front barriers, or a dark platform. So I kinda went with a mix in the end.

Once again, I’m submitting this for Dave Stone’s Winter of Scenery Challenge but . With one day left of August, I’ve got another 2 posts worth of terrain for it already ready to go up over the next two days, plus depending on how productive I can be tomorrow, another 4-6 posts worth of terrain that are thaaaaaaat close to being finished before September. Plus a personal round-up post. Gonna be a busy day tomorrow!