More Terrain for Saga (Ruins, Rocky Ground Scatter Pieces)

    28mm Carolingian archers take cover amidst Acheson Creations rocky ground pieces

Normally when I create terrain, I do a fairly decent job of documenting it on my blog here. However, after creating three different types of areas awhile back (rocky ground, ruins, and fields), I didn't do a post. I just put in some pictures of them on one of my Saga battle reports. The good news is the pieces worked out great, and I decided to do a second batch of all of them. 

    Acheson Creations tumbled columns and ruined stone columns and walls

My friend Bryan Borgman, who used to be a rep for Acheson Creations, had a garage sale a few weeks ago. I found a number of boulder pieces and a couple toppled columns that were perfect for the "scatter" to set atop my flocked terrain pieces. I have always loved Acheson Creations' stuff, and find it easy-to-paint, looks great on the battlefield, and relatively inexpensive. I also took some Graeco-Roman columns from the Mantic Games temple terrain I'd purchased at the local game store. So, once I finished my Carolingian army a couple weeks ago, I slotted these pieces in to paint up and flock. 

    The pieces after "Step 3" -- the 50/50 mix of water & black paint has been brushed on

Step one is running them through the dishwasher on low heat to get rid of the release agent. Otherwise, the paint will bead up like rain drops on a newly-waxed car. Step two is spraying them with Krylon flat black acrylic. Step three is to brush on a 50/50 mix of water and black acrylic craft paint. Once that has dried and "shrink wrapped" itself onto the pieces, it was time to dry brush them.

    The rocky pieces from Acheson Creations after their first dry brushing of medium gray

I gave them a medium gray dry brush first, then followed that up with a light gray highlighting. Once dry, I did a final black wash over them to blend int the dry brush lines, so to speak. After that, it was on to flocking!

    The column pieces after their first drybrush - note the extra stones I added to the column bases

The first layer of flocking is painting the surface with a 50/50 mix of white glue and brown craft paint. While it is wet, I dip the piece into a tub of Woodland Scenics fine brown ballast. I spray a Krylon clear coat over it when dry. Then, I gently brush on a 50/50 mix of white glue and water over the ballast. While wet, I dunk it into a tub of Woodland Scenics Blended Turf.

    The ruins & rocky pieces after drybrushing, washing, and the first layer of flocking

The final stage is dabbing on full strength white glue and sprinkling Woodland Scenics Blended Grass in random patterns -- much like I do for my figure bases. Think camouflage -- irregular patterns to break up the outline. While it is still wet, I dab three or so areas with more white glue and press on various shades of Woodland Scenics clump foliage to give it an overgrown look.

    The Mantic Games terrain box that I got the columns and broken columns from

One final spray of clear coat, and they are done! These took remarkably little time, and are enough scatter for plenty of terrain pieces. For most games, I prefer to do flocked pieces of styrene plastic with these type of scatter pieces (or trees for woods) atop them. You simply move the pieces out of the way of the figures and you have terrain that looks good but is fully functional on the tabletop.