sho3box

I prepped and painted some hi-tech/lowlife Deadzone 3rd edition terrain.

To keep things simple, I built the set to pretty closely match the layout on the box art. The Lego-like freedom with this Mantic Terrain Crate terrain can generate analysis paralysis, so sticking to the pre-determined “paintball terrain” set-up kept me from potentially stalling at the assembly stage.

I did add a handful of other bits from Terrain Crate kits to these six elements, but they were mainly because I either 1) wanted to keep another similar piece for some other plan, 2) I thought that adding a piece would make an element more sturdy or 3) I thought that swapping one piece for another might generate more gameplay options in a ruleset that encourages a lot of interaction with the intentionally cuboid terrain.

There are zero requirements to build the terrain to match that layout – the game rules and scenarios don’t require strictly definied set ups – but doing it this way minimised cognitive load for a while. I’ll get more adventurous with the rest of my DZ terrain.

Adding the PVC Deadzone Ruins and Sci-Fi Scatter Pack elements that I got in a recent Kickstarter to the process (image above) made sense. The design of the walls in those PVC sets is identical to that of the rigid HIPS plastic walls used in Deadzone and most of Mantic’s other sci-fi games, so it visually fits perfectly.

Unfortunately I missed a few finishing touches on the PVC scatter that I didnt see until after taking these photos (such as the deliniation between the yellow crates and the base above). I have finished them all off since.

Painting was all about simple techniques. There is a fair bit of work involved, but most of it is simple stuff that can be done with very little use of valuable brain capacity:

• Spray black
• Spray a mid grey blue from 45° approximately. Its not a zenithal really, but black is left in all of the recesses.
• Spray a light grey from 45° approximately. This stage is closer than the former step to what the internet tends to mean when it means “zenithal” spraying.
• Roughly sponge on a light grey blue to blend areas together and give visual texture. Doing this twice, with less paint gives a superior result to doing it once with more paint. It doesnt take very long and really is not very demanding.
• Quickly and lightly drybrush everything with white or off-white.
• Paint Contrast paints or Speed Paints or whatever you fancy on some details. How much you decide to embellish is entirely up to you.
• Apply as many transfers as you can manage without losing your mind. Grafitti transfers look better when they are layered on top of each other, which means this will likely take a few sessions with time in between, so prepare for this part of the process to be the most tedious step.
• When the transfers are sealed, sponge and /or drybrush over them with the colour underneath to visually integrate them into the terrain.
• Drybrush appropriate colours over whatever detailed elements you think warrant it.
• Sponge browns and blacks on to whatever edges and surfaces you think will benefit from it.
• Uses washes, thinned paint of “Contrast”/Speedpaint etc type paints to deliniate different surfaces here and there, if things have become too indistinct.
• Pick out anything that you think had become too dark from weathering with a light colour.

I got the set shown about 90% finished before I spent a weekend playing Deadzone third edition with three buddies. I took some photos of those games, but I plan to make a separate post for those.

The now ubiquitous Jon Hodgson Backdrop Books were used in these photos. Highly recommended.

A big shoutout to Mikko at dawnofthelead.com for printing me two simple shapes to hold the backdrop book in place: now indispensible items that I never knew that I needed, thanks Mikko!

Thanks for looking!

Filed under: After Action Report, Games in Progress, Miniatures, Terrain | Tagged: Deadzone, Mantic, Marauders, Orks, Sci-fi, science-fiction, Skirmish, Warpath |