Saturday 11 August 2012

Tiny Worlds Stone Walls: Review and Painting part 1

I spent ages towards the start of the year looking for some decent stone walling in 28mm scale. Everything I found was either a ghastly pile of kitty litter, or way over the price I was happy to pay. The nicest I found was from Architects of War, while I really like their hedgerows set, I couldn't quite justify the cost - the walls cost the same as the hedgerows but seem worse value for money to me - no foliage and only 34" of wall, as opposed to 40" of hedge.

Eventually, eBay came up trumps: these resin casts from eBay store'Tiny Worlds'. I bought two sets a four and a six pack. I think together they a bargain price of £16 including postage.


So they score highly on value for money as there is over 45 inches of wall here. The arrived well packed and surprisingly nicely sculpted, including good variation - two sculpts of the long 6" lengths, as well as a ruined section. Then there are two sculpts of a shorter section of 3" and a ruined one of that length, plus two end-pieces. I like the mix of lengths, should be able to snake them around the board a bit more naturally.

I've two relatively minor gripes:
-the casts had a lot of small air bubbles and needed quite a bit of tidying with a knife. I had to do a fair bit of work filling the bubbles - you am be able to make out the darker spots above, where I'd green-stuffed them. And of course I haven't caught them all.
- they are perhaps a little bit low - 20-22mm including the base. I did consider mounting each piece on 3mm board to add a little height, but decided it was far too much faff. I'll post a shot with some 28mm minis in my next post.

Other than that, I'm really happy with them for the price. Overall a solid 8/10.

I dint normally post painting tutorials, mostly as I wouldn't presume to have that many original techniques to share, especially with terrain. I think my style is too clean to lend itself well to making decent terrain. But I remembered to take photos at each stage for once, so I will use them.

After the prep and a burst of white undercoat, I thought I'd save on using modelling acrylics for the a decorating by buying some decent emulsion - Little Greene Stone Dark Warm seemed a nice start. This is how they looked after two coats.


Next up, some washes, on the earth banks rather than the walls: two washes of Watered Vallejo 'Earth'. Then, a wash of watered Vallejo 'Charred Brown'. Finally, some sparing use of precious Devlan Mud, in the very deepest recesses. Each stage was quick, but all these layers meant they took the most part of a week of evenings to paint as I'd have to wait for each stage to dry. But doing them between other projects meant this wasn't much of a problem.


You may note one end has no wall and was sprayed black. This is to make a piece which merges into the AoW hedgerows I mentioned earlier. I knocked this up by mounting a short piece onto Foamed PVC (great stuff!), building it up with wood filler then some sand for texture. It'll get foliage later.

Next up: drybrushing of course! Vallejo Earth plus some GW Bleached bone, highlighted to bleached bone on the earth. The wall being lighter, I started with bleached bone and did a couple of highlights with white. And here we are, looking pretty good, but not quite finished...

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