Category Archives: Wargame Scenery

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…

“Dug-In Tank Hull” Mostly-Scratchbuilt Scenery

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"Dug-In Tank Hull" Mostly-Scratchbuilt Scenery

Another simple piece of scenery today – again one I built many years ago but never actually completed at all, until now, finally. (There’ll be more of that sort of thing soon – hopefully!)

"Dug-In Tank Hull" Mostly-Scratchbuilt Scenery

Back when I was in my twenties, I used to purchase hobby supplies not only from the place that sold Warhammer and D&D and such things, but also from the model stores that sold trains and armour kits and planes and the like. While in these places, I’d always check out what sort of cool aftermarket parts were on sale from places like Verlinden with an eye to what I could do with them. This tank hull was one such purchase, and before too many years had passed, it was combined with some heavy card (which later buckled, as you can see), some DAS modelling clay, sand of two types and some Tamiya sandbags to turn it into a dug-in tank hull piece of cover-scenery. I did have to add an internal step from balsa so the models located inside the turret-hole could look out and theoretically aim their weapons!

"Dug-In Tank Hull" Mostly-Scratchbuilt Scenery

It was roughly painted. Well, I say painted, but it was basiucally not much more than base coated by modern standards. I added some Vallejo mud texture putty to fix up the crappy texture that the coarse sand patches had left when contrasting with the fine sand. Repainted the hull entirely, and then gave it a simple weather, some chips and rust. Highlighted and shaded the dirt, and went over the sandbags in a similar manner. Added some tufts and some slate to make it look a little more “lived in”. It’s a bit outsized for “proper” historical play, but would work well in more casual games and obviously any Weird WWII settings – much the same applies to it’s place in moderns, and as with the piece from the other day as well as the others I’m still working on, it fits in with all of the sci-fi and post-apoc, settings just fine.

Even though the base is still a bit wonky, it’s now another finished piece, and another entry for Dave Stone’s Winter of Scenery Challenge!