As I’ve constantly been alluding to in my recent reviews of the many prepainted Gale Force 9/Battlefield in a Box/Flames of War terrain pieces, it wouldn’t take much to really upgrade them from the stock out-of-the-box and really elevate them. As I’m sure you guessed by now – and I’m sure a lot of you saw this coming – that’s what I’ve been doing with many of the pieces (and will likely do to most all of them in some manner eventually).
I started on doing this with the Ruined Desert Houses set last month almost immediately after getting a second set, and it wasn’t until the last minute when I decided to leave one of the buildings untouched so I could do a direct “before” model next to the “after” ones. So this heavily damaged house ended up with both of them weathered. I guess given the state of the walls I could have gone with a lot more interior blackening and scorching, but I reckon they still look decent enough. Or should I go back and add more? What say you?
These next few images show the other buildings from the Ruined Desert Houses sets – you get two in each set, so I’ll have to go back and dirty up the one I left clean (on the left, as it happens!) soon, now that it’s use as a comparison piece is done! I’ve tried to give them an overall consistent look in terms of the colours, while varying the burn/scorch/etc marks a little. Again, to avoid them looking too much like cookie-cutter structures.
Originally these models had their interiors painted black, even though there’s actually a little bit of sculpted detail there (again, see left). It didn’t take much effort to make them look a lot better inside by adding some colour, and then adding some wear patterns and picking out those details.
The more interesting model of the ones I reworked was the Ruined Large Desert House. Again – I’ve purchased a second one and am using the newer one as the comparison pic (and will have to go back and weather/ruin that one now!)
As can be seen, a bit of paint on the ruined exterior adds a bit more of a story to the piece than it had beforehand. Particularly on this angle!
The landings also look a lot better once given a bit of weathering.
I’ve given you three angles already, so why not the fourth?
Here’s where it gets good, though. At least, where I’m happiest with them. Shout out to Kuribo on this pic (and the next) as I’d already done these when you made the comment about just using the outsides of these buildings – just had to bite my tongue and wait till I had these photographed and ready to post. 😀
This one shows the difference between the two with troops added. it obviously doesn’t matter in terms of gameplay, but it improves the aesthetics, which is why I paint and play with toy soldiers. So… y’know…
Anyway, I hope y’all enjoyed this little post. As I’ve said a bunch of times now, the BFIAB range is pretty nice for prepaints, but as I was opening them I felt that a little polishing could really make them shine. And it turns out, I was right! No surprise there, obviously! 😉
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
The building interiors look so different without that black floor – simply painting those makes a big difference. Great work with the rest of the weathering too!
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Yeah, it really makes a huge difference visually. Looking at these pics, I might go back and fill in that section I left black, even though it would only ever be seen when lifting the floors above to access the bottom. I left them plain in the style of cutaway images, but it may be better to just have them blend in more with the mail building…
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Nicely done! 🙂 I’d have said you’ve got the look spot on! They do look that much better for the makeover!
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Cheers, John – I’ll take that as a really solid seal of approval!
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The basic, is okay, but what you’ve done with them mate, elevates them to exceptional.
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As mass market products they’re pretty good – and that makes them great as a starting base for upgrading yourself! 😀
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I was thinking that the originals looked pretty good until I saw them next to your improved versions. What a difference!
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Thanks Wudu! We did have a game a few weeks ago with the basic buildings and it looked SO much better than when we used the card terrain (rather unsurprisingly!) So out of the box they’re pretty good – hoping to get in another game or two in the next week with some of this updated terrain. 😀
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I’m glad you lef tin the ‘before’ shots, as it really brings home the improvement your painting has made. Great work, I love the scorch marks!
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Cheers Dave – and a good point! I may have to add in some shots from the reviews as “before” shots for future repaints and weatherings.
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As Dave said above, I think you’ve really elevated these terrain pieces with the weathering. They did look too clean to be in a battle but now they look like they’ve seen some combat. As others have said above, redo’ing the floors made the biggest impact and should make your WWII games look that much better.
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Yup! Redoing the black walls and floors made a big difference, and I knew you’d agree once you saw them 😉 A lot of the other pieces I’ve gotten and opened recently also suffer from black interiors, perhaps with a floor painted. I’m not looking forward to painting all those walls, though!
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I can relate, mate. I’m painting a lot of walls for my current MDF project and it isn’t horrible but it isn’t terribly exciting either. The more you have to do, the more tedious it becomes.
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Nice work- well worth the effort especially on the bomb blast parts.
Cheers,
Pete.
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Thansk Pete – now I need to figure out how to dirty up the second one without makint it look like a clone of the first upgraded one! 😀
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Damn you Az! Now I’ll have to do similarly with mine before I game with them again!!!
Seriously, I love this and am inspired to emulate! (a good thing!)
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Haha thanks Mark – on the bright side at least it’s pretty fast and simple to do!
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