I don't know, guv. I mean, we can fix it. But it's gonna cost you.
This is some 3D printed stuff I picked up in the Christmas sales from Everlayer3D (via Etsy). I really like the models, the price (just under twenty quid before postage) and the idea of doing some wreckage for vehicles I own! Slapping one down after a non-exploding vehicle death would be fun in a game, I thought.
When they arrived, however, I discovered I hadn't quite reckoned on how streaky 3D printing can be. Still good looking, and I don't regret getting them, but there were places where it looked more like a hiking map of the Pennines than a ruined tank. So my initial plan of blackened hulls took a bit of a hit. Although it's good tough plastic, the thinnest edges seemed likely to snap, so I gluegunned them to cardstock bases.
After dithering between terrains (ancient rust for the Industrial stuff? Wreathed in vines for the jungle?) I decided on a frosty look. Partly because snow could obviously cover a lot of sins, but also because my snowy ruins collection doesn't actually have very much 40K stuff in it, but has two different battle mats available. That's not a big problem, but it was originally made for Fantasy Battle and Frostgrave games, and having a few more future tech bits here and there feels nice. Homely, you know.
But actually, when painted up and stippled and striped, the contours aren't at all as obvious as I feared, so they only got a tiny bit of snow cover. Painting very thin stripes at 90 degrees to the contours where possible really helped. It also really helped that there happened to be a burnt out car wreck on my way to work, and I got some decent pics on burnt metal and paint to influence the brown and grey areas. Chuck some extra moss round it, and I reckon it'll work fine on a Jungle board anyway - that's not snow, it's bat guano.
Turned out nice, anyway! And seeing as I had Covid last week, a good way to use up my quarantine time at home, once I'd recovered. Also makes me think I ought to source a Dread for the Mantis Warriors at some point, now I know they can ruin it afterwards. Not really Marines with no Dreadnought, is it?
They look great, and you're right - compared to the "before" pics I saw, the print lines really aren't at all obvious
ReplyDeleteNo, I’m really pleased! You can still see them easily enough in person, but even from a foot or so away they blend in well.
DeleteI do also like the idea of replacing a destroyed vehicle with one of these. For something like a Land Raider to just disappear after it's been shot up by huge amounts of small arms fire is a bit odd. House rule that it counts as difficult ground so it doesn't prevent other vehicles ramming through perhaps?
DeleteMaybe a 'vehicle wreck' category with appropriate terrain feature keywords. Light and heavy cover, Destroyable (so off the table if another vehicle moves across it), something like that. Depends how much granular detail you want in your ruleset!
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