Destroyed Concrete Wall sections

25mm Acheson Creations Concrete Wall sections with my 20mm Modern Africa figures

At Advance the Colors 2016 this Fall, I was sorting through Bryan Borgman's bins of Acheson Creations products. I was looking for some more terrain I could use for my 20mm Modern Africa games. One of the things I really like about this scale is you can often find 25mm and 15mm accessories or even buildings that work for it. I saw these Concrete Wall sections and began to wonder if they'd work. I decided they'd make a perfect ruined factory building, or destroyed warehouse complex.

 

The Concrete Wall sections come in a variety of angles, corners, and straight sections

They make a number of different pieces -- some straight wall sections, some corners  -- including those with either the left or right adjoining wall destroyed. I loaded up my bin with eight of the pieces of different sorts. Acheson terrain is always very affordable, with these pieces running only $2 each. They could be rearranged in a variety of positions to create the effect I want for the scenario.

 

The posters were simply downloaded images from Google searches and resized in Photoshop

I did my usual Acheson method of painting them -- starting with running them through the dishwasher to get rid of the mold release agent. Then I spray painted them with acrylic black, following that up with a 50/50 mix of black acrylic paint and water. Once dry, it was a simple two stage process to get the color I liked. I began with a thick wet brush of a darker gray. I followed that up with a drybrush of Howard Hues Rebel Gray. While drybrushing, I discovered a very nice lined effect that was modeled onto their surface which made it look even more like concrete that I'd anticipated. Normally, I do a black wash at this stage. However, I liked the color exactly as they were and was afraid the wash would darken it too much.

 

I really like the subtle "grain" that Acheson Creations molded onto the surface to look like concrete

I flocked them by painting the ground a reddish earth, and then with white glue and dipping them into Woodland Scenics Earth Turf. Next, I painted blotches of the dry turf with white glue and sprinkled on Woodland Scenics blended grass. Finally, I added dark green or light green pieces of clump foliage. Once dry, I dullcoated them with Testors spray.

 

These pieces can be rearranged to produce a variety of options for scenarios

At this point, I decided that perhaps they looked TOO plain. The thought struck me that some wall posters or graffiti would really spice them up. Previously, I'd done Google Image searches on African Independence propaganda posters and saved a bunch. I opened these up in Photoshop and resized them to an inch tall. I printed them out at the local office supply store in color on white cardstock. Trimming each, I painted the backs with Tacky Glue to apply them to the walls. After they were dry, I had to go back and paint the white edges of the paper with black paint to make them appear to blend into the walls. The graffiti was easy, too, simply painting various slogans on in black paint directly onto the wall surface.

 

The graffiti was simply painted on with a thin black brush -- any irregularities can be blamed on the spray painting vandal!

I was very happy with how the wall sections came out. I *may* have gone overboard on the posters, but it certainly looks better than a blank concrete wall. They will add to the atmosphere of my African games.