With all the work I have done on my Legion troops, it was clear that I needed to upgrade my Sci Fi terrain to support my gaming. I also had done a good amount of scatter terrain, but did not really have any structures. I could have used my historical terrain, but that just would not be me. Why use something you have when you can spend large amounts of money on new stuff?
I thought the first terrain would be some ruins. Ruins are always nice looking and are easy to play on, as it is easy to reach your figures, no matter where you place them. So, I did some internet searches to see what I could find. Surprisingly, Asomdie does not have terrain for this game (with the exception of a bunker), like they do for their Marvel game. So, you have to look for other sources. One of the big third parties that does this terrain is Imperial Terrain. They do all sorts of things as STL files that you can download (at a price), if you want to print them yourselves. Well, I have not gone that direction yet (waiting a bit longer for the resin printers to get faster). Fortunately, some of their items can be ordered printed. These items are actually ordered from another company, but each item links on their site.
Looking over the offerings, I saw a number of temple ruins items and thought these would be perfect. I did notice that all the printing is PLA plastic. That means there would be layering, so this would normally turn me off. However, these being ruins, I figured it would work. So, I ordered a small temple, wall ruins with gate and separate damaged wall sections.
The stuff arrived in about ten days. On inspecting the models, I could see the layering on the virticle surfaces, but it was fine enough to hide or blend. The upper detail recesses would be a little more problematic, but I had an idea for that. There was no flash, so it was straight to the spay box!
I hit all the models with Krylon filling auto primer. This helps with some of the layering and adds some rough surface to boot! I went back and forth on how I wanted to shade them, but opted to use Woodland Scenics black. This is what I used for my smaller ruins, so it was better (and cheaper) to stick with the same technique to match on the tabletop. So, I slopped on the black and used some water to thin and spread over the models and let it dry.
Looking at the dry washes, I saw that I over thinned it in a number of places, but decided to go forward anyway, figuring this would work out through further steps. I started by wet brushing all the parts with a medium gray and then a light gray. I then dry brushed everything with a lighter gray and finished with some upper level white highlight dry brushing.
I wanted these to be old overgrown ruins, so it was time to get out the flock. This would also have the benefit of letting me cover up the top layering that I was not happy with! So, some white glue and Scenic Express blended turf and I went to town. I filled in the most obvious top print layers and added flock to random cracks on all the upper surfaces. The large building needed more “covering”, so I did that. I thought I needed a little more variation, so I added some random light green tufts to give some depth. I finished up with some Krylon sealer.
I’m so happy with the look, I just ordered the large temple terrain online to fill out the set! The kits are nice and give a great look on the tabletop. They do have the normal plastic #D print layering that needs to by worked on a bit (if it bothers you), but this effect is not such a problem for ruins. There are also other terrain options, for those looking for an industrial world or Tatoonie table. Definitely worth a look.
- Manteuffel