Wednesday 5 October 2016

EXT: The Old Taverna


Ruins of Osgiliath are briefly back in stock, GW? Thanks for letting me know. I'll take some, thanks.




I always fancied this set of plastic LOTR terrain. Fine looking stuff, even if I wasn't a sucker for ruins, but as it happens I am.


Frozen ones, obviously. Today's snow mix is a little bit of everything I had in the cupboard - 4Ground Snow Flock, Secret Weapon white weathering powder and ground glass, the remnants of a tub of bicarb and a lot of PVA. The flock helps it bind into stringy bits that you can sort of drybrush downwards with an old brush, giving that drippy icicle effect I like.


Nothing very interesting for the paint scheme otherwise - black basecoat with Eshin Grey, Dawnstone and Terminatus Stone finish. The paler bits were a grey and flesh mix, then Agrax Earthshade, Ushabti Bone, Pallid Wychflesh and Longbeard Grey. Green Ink and Typhus Corrosion for damp muck.


A couple of extra touches - some pads of clear plastic round some of the corners, so I could lay on piles of snow round them as though it's drifted. And I broke out the ivy again for the beardy king statue, one of my favourite bits.


They've turned out a good match for the Kraken Mat, which is pleasing. Lucky, too, I didn't think to go and check it first. Placing the big chunks along the road edges lets you set up some great narrow alleys for Frostgrave, if we ever get round to playing that again.

They are also taller than I realised - here's some Mantic for scale, but they rise to a good first storey at least.

A mild niggle - although the blurb on GW's website claims that they can be assembled in a variety of configurations, you'd need a hacksaw if you want those to be anything other than different arrangements of what you see here, which is how they fit together from the sprue. You could leave certain walls loose, or make slightly different shapes, but there's not a lot of leeway.


I've got plenty of snowy ruins now. But I still feel my table needs something more - a decent centrepiece, something massive and showy. And I have some distant inspiration, so watch this space...

5 comments:

  1. That's some very good ruins - and nicely suited to a city skirmish (maybe some lolly-stick walkways are needed?)

    I suspected as much about the versatility of the set (is it the same sprue three times over?), which is what I have so far demurred from getting it (that, and the fact that I seem to be under a vow never to paint scenery)

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  2. Its a pair of sprues. G-dubs current webpage for it claims you get three of each but this is a lie! Or a lazy hangover that theyve pasted from a three-for-one deal of the ruins you could get back in the day. The photos here depict one full set.

    But conversion possibilities are there,and i will prove their viability in the fullness of time.

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    1. That poor third sprue in the picture must be just crying out: "It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here!"

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    2. ...and also by 'three-for-one' I meant 'three-for-three', GW's bulk weborder discounts being appropriate for their miniature products.

      Anyone else seen the sneak hints of Laketown plastic scenery that may be forthcoming?

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    3. Yes, I've seen it: Laketown looks good.

      And the Lakeside miniatures are movie-accurate. Unfortunately.

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