Category Archives: Small Scenics

Small Scenics: Mantic Terrain Crate bits and pieces…

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Mantic Terrain Crate

More little bits from Mantic’s Terrain Crate Kickstarter again today – not from any particular pack this time – these were taken from the box of “winner” parts – that is they weren’t warped to an awful degree (may or may not ever get to), weren’t warped to a (probably)-fixable degree, but were from the (sadly, too-small) portion of that KS that provided me with pieces that weren’t really warped at all and could actually be painted without too much hassle.

Mantic Terrain Crate

Due to this, they’re not especially “themed”, though I’ve done my best to do so in these pictures. As sculpts, the Terrain Crate stuff isn’t bad at all, and the PVC, while not amazing isn’t nearly as bad as the hydrophobic, spray-rejecting, sticky shit that Reaper’s Bones is usually made from, but it ain’t a patch on the Wizkids/Nolzurs’ stuff when it comes to being able to paint it. The wildly uneven quality of this first Terraincrate’s delivered product is a big reason why I skipped the second one outright.

Mantic Terrain Crate

As far as usefulness goes, it’s not bad, though clearly the fact is that this stuff is much more suited to RPGs than miniatures games. I mean, I could some of this stuff along with some tents to make a nice little campsite area for a SAGA game or whatnot, but even then it’s really just that much set dressing scatter detail rather than meaningful “terrain” to fight over (or around).

Mantic Terrain Crate

…or maybe a blacksmith’s shop. Like I said, they’re pretty RPG-appropriate. I doubt I’ll be doing much roleplaying anytime soon, though! Still, in finishing these I’ve also got another 25 little bits that will also count towards Dave Stone’s Winter of Scenery Challenge! So thanks yet again to Dave for the motivation as I doubt I would have gotten to these things anytime soon otherwise…

Zombicide: Green Horde – Barriers (Chevaux De Frise)

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Zombicide: Green Horde - Barriers, Chevaux De Frise

About 2 years ago I painted and posted up the other half of these Zombicide 3D Obstacles – the Hedges. These “barriers” have sat around in a primed state ever since, mostly because painting all of those ropes looked like a hellish task.

I didn’t get any pics of them alongside the Zombicide: Black Plague models this time, but I can do that some other time in the future. I did get a couple of these sets, though – and it makes for a decent amount of table coverage as can be seen here alongside my Spartans.

Zombicide: Green Horde - Barriers, Chevaux De Frise

After putting them off for so long, I resolved to paint them last week and did so the day after I did those traffic cones – not too terrible a task in the end, though still not fun. I sprayed them a dull mid-brown, then painted the cut sharp ends with bone, dipped them into my jar of Vallejo Sepia Model Wash, then painted over the ropes using Citadel Contrast Wyldwood, a bit of weathering powder mixed in with matte varnish for the lower parts of the “legs”, then drybrushed the lot from top-down with Vallejo Bonewhite. Then Sprayed with Gloss, Satin and then Matte.

Zombicide: Green Horde - Barriers, Chevaux De Frise

As with so much of the terrain stuff I’ve been painting in the last couple of weeks, these spiked barriers will work in a variety of periods. Mark Morin has a rather interesting history lesson on these types of barriers, more correctly known today as Chevaux De Frise. Although there’s evidence of them being around as far back as the medieval period, I’ve been playing that 100% accurate historical document known as Assassins Creed: Odyssey, and they’re in plentiful evidence there, so we now know that these have been around since at least the days of Leonidas and Socrates!

And once again, these count towards Dave Stone’s Winter of Scenery Challenge!  My Challenge Round-up post for Dave’s Scenic challenge is going to be interesting for sure…