Category Archives: Fantasy Gaming

40k 3rd Edition Starter Set Ruins (February Terrain 2019)

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40k 3rd Editon Starter Set Ruins

How excitement! Yeah, I know. These aren’t the most impressive or exciting pieces, but they’ve been hanging around for years unpainted, so I managed to finally get them done and into the terrain cupboard. These actually aren’t the originals from my own 40k 3rd Ed set – I did actually get those done a few years ago.

40k 3rd Editon Starter Set Ruins

Instead, these came from a batch of second-hand models I got years ago, along with other bits and pieces, including a crashed Aquila Lander missing it’s tail fin. I still need to finish my first one of those first, though (didn’t get it done in Jan of Feb).

40k 3rd Editon Starter Set Ruins

Being models that I got in a more or less random box is also why some of the pieces were mismatched and (in some cases) missing, so I decided to also build these based on making slightly different corner combinations to the “proper” ones. (And patched the corners with putty!) At this point, years ago, the idea was still to paint them in the same manner as my existing (grey) ones.

40k 3rd Editon Starter Set Ruins

At some point – last year, I think – I sprayed them in a cream/bone colour. The idea now being to paint them to go with a more arid or desert-y table. At that point, they got forgotten about again for several months until this challenge got them out. As it happened, these were the perfect kind of models to paint while Dad was in hospital again. Simple on so many levels, but an achievable task.

40k 3rd Editon Starter Set Ruins

Since then, the Sector Imperialis terrain has been released, with the “showcase” pieces being in a similar colour, so I decided to press on with them, and also use them as test pieces for my own take on that style of scheme to – in turn – help me decide how to paint my Sector Imperialis stuff.

40k 3rd Editon Starter Set Ruins

The paint then was done in a “quick and dirty” manner. Sprayed (gloss) cream from the hardware store. A few details picked out, such as the exposed bricks under the plaster and the grates. The whole lot was then drybrushed with a bone/off-white. Next up was an all-over wash with Vallejo Model Wash (thanks to Dave Kay from Scent of a Gamer for the heads-up on this stuff existing!) followed by a wipe-off while it was still wet, to get that combo wash/stained effect.

40k 3rd Editon Starter Set Ruins

In the end, I have another 5 pieces of smaller-but-modular terrain that are generic enough to again fit into many genres and timelines. I think that they look pretty decent in the shot above with the LotD moving across them. They’ll look even better with other terrain around them in a proper gaming situation!

On an unrelated note, Leonard the Cat appears to have truly gotten a big head due to all of the recent attention!

Ruined Watchtower: January Terrain 2019

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Not a GW kit for a change, today’s terrain piece is a ruined watchtower. I can’t tell you who produced it, though – as I picked it up quite a few years ago now in a job lot with a whole lot of other bits and pieces.

Speaking of pieces, it was in several until I finally assembled the thing earlier this month, with this month’s challenge and the good spraying weather finally motivating me to finally get the thing done!

It went together simply, if not easily – with some drilling and clipping needed to get the pieces together. The different segments don’t fit together perfectly, but they’re close enough so that it can be difficult to notice.

Once again, the sheen from several layers of varnish combined with a lot of lights belies the more matte appearance that it has in person. It looks almost like flowing mud here! What can I say? My lighting options for larger pieces are pretty shithouse! It’s kinda hard to see, but I’ve attempted to have the orientation of the grass on the tufts “flow” with he contours of the model, as the whole thing has a pretty windswept look to it.

That big section where it looks like it’s fit together extraordinarily badly is part of the sculpt – it’s intentional – rather than being the result of my terrible modelling skills. I’ve mounted it on an inexpensive wooden teapot stand to give it a nice sturdy base, and rather than trying to bevel it to the ground or try to paint the edges in an awkward (to me) brown so it “fits in better” with my table surfaces, I just went full fuggit and gave it a similar black rim as I do with many of my bases. I did roughly sculpt some simple flagstones in the ground, giving the indication of a small path that may or may not continue on the battlefield surface.

The scale of this model seems a bit smaller than most “heroic” scale models. Here we have it with a few Heroes of Men from the LotR range, with their slightly smaller scale showing the sizing. True historical models would be a touch smaller yet, so would fit in even more nicely with the tower. I also thought our friend The Imperfect Modeller would appreciate how close this almost gets to a proper diorama! I’d just need an appropriate figure to put in Gandalf’s place there, and a pin to hold them there on!

FInally, as a point of contrast, I thought a couple of more modern-scale AoS Bloodbound figures (ok, one is at least 50% Shieldwolf) would be a nice counter to the above – as you can see, it’s still very much usable for Fantasy of pretty much any stripe. And the number of times that Space Marines have fought their foes over terrain that resembles Terra’s ancient medieval castles must be beyond count!