Category Archives: Wargame Scenery

Mantic Terrain Crate/Star Saga Storage Tanks (Bacta Tank)

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An underwheming scatter terrain post today! These two storage tanks were originally started back during (and for) Technical August but not completed. In fact, they’ve sat around annoyingly taking up space ever since, so I finally got them to a (slightly shitty) tabletop standard last weekend. I’d actually fished them out of the tub they’d been sitting in since I lost interest after August, to try and get them done for Mechanical November, but that didn’t work out, either. As part of Technical August’s theme, I tried using transparent paints over a silver base to see what kinds of effects I could achieve, inspired by the Bacta (healing) tank from Star Wars, specifically the Empire Strikes Back. The “water” is gemstone turquoise (or sapphire?) by Warcolours over the silver, while the “empty space” is Warcolours’ transparent white. The turquoise worked …okay, but the white seems to have been a bit of a failure.

Of course. “real” Bacta tanks are filled to the top (and feature adults wearing nappies inside them), but I felt that if I “filled” these to the top then they’d just look like they were painted blue. In the end, they’re pretty rough and not to the scatter terrain standard that I like to adhere to – but at a tabletop gameplay distance they’ll look …fine. Still, experiments by definition can’t always be a success, so I’m just calling these done and getting them the hell away from my painting desk. I’ve still got a few more of these things. I think they’ll be painted grey with some “warning” decals on them. I think those will actually look pretty decent. When I get around to them.

“Endor”-style scenery …from the pet store.

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I actually picked this up a couple of months ago now, but as I haven’t posted for a little while, I didn’t get a chance to photograph it until last night.

I first saw this at the local pet warehouse in the Aquarium section a couple of months ago, but didn’t have the spare funds at the time. I went back a couple of weeks later and they luckily still had a couple of them left. Now, at AU$50, it wasn’t cheap – but when compared to scenery kit prices, both from local places, GW, GF9 and many others, it’s actually pretty reasonable for something that’s finished and ready to plunk down on the tabletop and go. It’s the sort of thing that will work perfectly on a jungle-themed table, in a deathworld kill-zone, and across a whole lot of themes and time periods – from Borneo to Endor to Catachan.

I think it looks pretty bloody good, actually. The bridge and cave also offer additional “playability” for many wargames, which is always welcome. Having a piece that can be interacted with by your troops is almost always preferable to something that simply acts as a LOS-blocker, after all! Though let’s face it – a great looking LOS-blocker is always welcome as well! Our Space Marine, Primaris Marine, Wookiee and Imperial Officer provide scale. I’ll need to get some WWII infantry painted up for these things. Maybe I can do some over Christmas..?

Sure, I could spend a lot of time going to town on it and improving it further, but I’d much rather call this thing done without doing anything to it at all and using that time and energy on other stuff that’s yet unpainted or unfinished. I’ll need to keep an eye on the aquarium scenery in the future for more decently-priced pieces that can just be dropped straight onto the table with little to no work.