Category Archives: Small Scenics

Small Scenics: Mantic Terrain Crate Battlefield “Pikes”

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Mantic Terrain Crate Battlefield "Pikes"

At this point, I’m pretty much just grabbing random small and medium sized bits of terrain and seeing if I can knock them out in a day or three. All good, since they all count for Dave Stone’s Winter of Scenery Challenge, but I do need to get back to the final three models from The Tray and then try to do my “Reward” models which will also work for Jewel of Julyaugust – and what’s worse, two of those three just need tattoos, and the third just needs some cardboard patterns…

Mantic Terrain Crate Battlefield "Pikes"

So anyway, these two sets of defensive “pikes” came from Mantic’s Terrain Crate Kickstarter. When I got my pledge from that campaign, I had to seperate the parts from all of the many different boxes I got into three overall sets – stuff I could get done pretty easily; stuff I could get done with a bit of (usually hot water resets of warped PVC) repair; and shit that was so badly warped it was essentially going to be a fucking nightmare to try to get to the point of being worth putting paint on. These two bits came from the former. I found them in a baggie in a plastic tub, and so started on these and also some dungeon trap tiles – those will be forthcoming shortly. I did have to completely cover the “Reaper base cauliflower” texture of the ground with Vallejo Mud Paste and then use various weathering techniques to make them look less cloned from one another. Anyway, another two simple but versatile pieces done and into the pile of finished work!

Small Scenics: Secret Weapon Miniatures’ Traffic Pylons #2

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Secret Weapon Miniatures' Traffic Pylons

Seventeen years ago, back in September of 2019 I painted the first batch of “Traffic Pylons” from Secret Weapon Miniatures. I picked up 50 of the things on sale at a local retailer in however many little baggies of them, and then set to painting half of them. They weren’t hard to paint, but in such numbers they’re pretty tedious and so my original plan of getting to the other half got a little sooner than now got sidetracked initially by my hiatus, and then by not really wanting to do them.

This second batch then had been sitting in a chinese food container-style disposable plastic tub since last year, and sitting on top of a pile of my modelling supplies and such I kept seeing them, so resolved to getting them onto an upcoming Tray. Since official Tray business is kinda suspended right now, I’m allowing myself to work on terrain as well as D&D board game models, because Dave Stone’s Winter of Scenery Challenge, and also because terrain can be a bit rougher and doesn’t need that fine freehand and careful highlighting and shading like regular models do, so it fits in pretty well for allowing me to keep getting stuff done right now.

Secret Weapon Miniatures' Traffic Pylons

The only difference between this batch and the first batch is I changed the “orange” to a slightly different shade, a little darker and a little more muted. I just wanted that slight variation that you tend to see between two sets of “identical” mass-produced products that have come from different batches that then often tend to have a small but uniform difference between the two.

…and now I have 50 Traffic Pylons for my modern+ games. Hopefully this coming summer I can get my urban Tablescapes painted…