MERCS Terrain WIP - Novus Design Building

Hey all!

So I've recently done some work on the Novus Design building I featured a while back. I also bought another one of those buildings between now and then. I said it before and I'll say it now, I love these buildings.

This is the state it's at right now. I sprayed it black with rattle-can primer so I wouldn't take all day and waste airbrush primer. I then took a light olive color (can't remember the name) and mixed it with Wolf Grey. I messily airbrushed it over the black. Then I took Cold Grey and sprayed the ground. 

It still needs plenty of work but I was amazed how in essentially an hour it became playable. Of course I had to pose my little toys in it.

I also couldn't help setting up a quick table. In the back you see the other Novus Design building, one that's more standard in design but still very cool. I don't know what color I want to paint it yet, but after working with this one I know it should be a breeze.

Due to the large footprint of the buildings not many more terrain elements are necessary to fill the table. Some crates block long lanes of LOS, and some scatter provide cover for vulnerable approaches. With this set up the road becomes a valuable lane to cover or bound through. The center becomes a close range firefight with hardly any covering fire to support without being close up, and the opposite table edge becomes a race to get there first. I think it would be an interesting fight with this set up, although elevation isn't a huge element outside of climbing on the crates.

The great thing is that you can shift the buildings around to create some vastly different set ups. Since they're essentially just a series of walls you don't lose any playing surface. A closed off building that's, say, a foot squared means that the foot of space is unusable. With these buildings you block off long lanes of LOS but the game opens up once you enter them. For the price they are a great bargain and look awesome.

I believe they were designed with WWII games like Bolt Action in mind, but they're generic enough to fit in most games of that scale. I know this wouldn't look out of place in both Infinity and 40k, and I wouldn't feel weird about using them in Malifaux. 

I think I'll keep the base/ground colors fairly dark so it helps blend into the mat's surface more. Although they're obviously different colors they don't look out of place together. I usually brighten up my paintjobs with some highlights but I think I may leave these buildings more muted and muddy.

I can't wait to get a game of MERCS with these, it's a really cool addition and really gets you immersed. It can fit in well with the MERCS fluff as an area in the Lost Margin, where the FCC House 9 members reside. I imagine using the scenarios with objectives to represent data drop zones with opposing squads trying to intercept them, or a place for the Ambush scenario for the FCC to stage against a KemVar last stand. 

If anything painting this has gotten me aching to get more MERCS stuff done! Also reading Sync's blog gets me pumped. You should check it out, it's a great place to see another MERCS fan's work. Maybe one day I can get off my lazy butt and paint my whole FCC squad and my other stuff so I can do a proper demo!