MERCs Terrain WIP Continued

So over Thanksgiving week I worked a bit more on terrain as there wasn't too much time between family visits to work on anything else. I added a bit more detail to the MERCS scatter terrain. I added rust pigments to the barrels as well as drybrushed white on the edges. After I varnish it I will add some greenery to liven up the color a bit more. It's almost done!

I also took a spare 4x2 Zuzzy Mat I had and cut off a foot to make it 3x2 for MERCS games. The game zone's measurements are a tad weird in the gaming community as most games use an even square footage in either 4x4 or 3x3 flavors, with Warhammer being 6x4. This results in absolutely no available mats for 3x2 without customization. It also results to having taped off borders on traditional tables, or imaginary lines and odd deployment zones. Most posters that were created for MERCs had a 2x2 zone for demos, which I've already got as a mat thanks to Deadzone. But full games require that extra foot of length. The official mats that you can print that are 3x2 are fine enough, but it's expensive to get printed and it usually costed at least $50 or more. My friend Reuben already printed one out and it looked well enough, but he told me how annoying it is to get the right resolution at Staples.

I never use my 4x2 mat as the previous owner bought it to turn his 4x4 mat into a Warhammer sized mat, and I never play that game anymore. So I thought it'd be better used as a MERCS mat. After cutting it I got a bug to see what it all can look like together so I put some terrain on it. I used a building from Micro Arts Studios, some of the Deadzone buildings I put together long ago, some Secret Wars containers, Dust Tactics containers, ammo crates and tank traps I got in a steal of a deal, Secret Weapons' jersey barriers and Reaper Bones' containers and dumpsters - one of the best deals in terrain out there.

Overall it looks very good and the set up seems very fair and playable. All the elevations are equal so defining ERs for the game is simple. None of it is fully painted unfortunately but it shouldn't be much of a problem to do.

The set up is also very portable. I fit all the terrain elements in one small box short of the buildings, and I have 2 more containers somewhere in my house. If I get a slightly bigger box for it it can all be transported together. The mat is also small and rolls up well enough to not be a nuisance.

In other news I got some very good deals online last week. Miniature Market had a sale for up to 90% off some items. Since MERCS isn't as popular as other games they had huge savings for their faction boxes with most being around $26 for more than 60% off! I ended up getting three additional faction boxes including the House 4 box (which I got specifically for that epic Priest model!), Keizai Waza (a faction whose models I hated at first and now absolutely love) and KemVar (a faction I've wanted since the beginning). This will amount to a good set of models for rotation in play and demos, as well as a good pool for the FCC House 9 to recruit for their Black Ops ability.

I also got a good assortment of Dust Tactics models for around 85% off. This sale was an absolute steal.

Anyway that enough for this update!

Statue of Morr!

I worked on some terrain last night and thought I'd post some WIP pics. Earlier last week I airbrushed this piece using the zenithal technique. Overall I left it rather light grey and decided to try my first attempt at using the dry pigments I acquired about a month or two ago. I mostly used it on the ground stones to get a feel for how they behave. Overall they're a very easy product to use and produces a very smooth blend. I used black pigment between the cracks of the stone and some of the edges. These areas needed shading but were too small to use the airbrush for. Overall a very cool effect and easy to use, it's definitely another tool in my arsenal for future projects that I plan on using often. I've also got them in white, light blue and khaki. I plan on trying to use the white/blue for OSL glows and the khaki for dirt so if I use it again I'll post up progress!

Another thing of note: I tried a slight change in how I painted skulls for this piece. Normally I have a bleached bone look but decided to make it a little more stained for this one. It appears more brown than it really is since it's placed next to a light gray but I really like it. If I can remember it I think this is how I'll do bones in the future.

Anyway, it was a fun and quick piece. I'm thinking of just doing one piece of the terrain at a time (it comes with several items like this statue) in between other models to keep my interest without burning out and slowly getting one of my favorite terrain purchases done.