Lead Legionaries: Various Ruined Buildings & Such Ready for the Flea Market

Modern 'Stalingrad' ruins from 4 Ground -- first times I have built any of their MDF kits!

In keeping with my plan of steadily "thinning the herd," I've started painting things up specifically to sell in flea markets. Looking over my list of all my terrain and scatter, I realized that even if I did paint it all, I likely wouldn't have room for it! So, I've been going through the list and deciding what I can live without. The goal is to get it ready for the tabletop -- just someone else's table! Here is the first batch of various ruins -- buildings, walls, statues, etc.

I thought these stairs would be a pain to put together, but the both kits went together easily

I bought two 4 Ground Stalingrad MDF ruined buildings from my friend Jeff Gatlin at the first Hold the Line convention. However, looking at all the modern ruins I have already painted and based up in game room closet, they are kind of superfluous. So, I put them together -- the first 4 Ground buildings I had assembled. They go together very nicely and are right up there with Sarissa Precision. Maybe even better with the extra little bits they give, like a strand of material to cut and use as exposed iron rebar. The thin cardboard building accents for the outer walls are nice, too.

Base coating black and then doing two layers of gray dry brushing made these paint up quickly

I thought assembling the three stories of staircases would be a pain in the butt. It was not, though. The 4 Ground method made a lot of sense and was very easy to do. I used tacky glue to assemble all the pieces and was honestly shocked how little time they took me. One of the buildings comes in two pieces, and I used epoxy instead to join the halves together once each part was built. Once they were done, I spray painted them with Krylon Acrylic Fusion matte black. Once dry, I went over all the surfaces with a 50/50 mix of black paint and water to ensure everything seeped into all the blind spots and crevices.

I added a lot of rubble along the walls and in the corners of both buildings

Painting them was an easy dark gray dry brush, followed by a lighter gray highlight. For the wood, I painted them in dark brown, and followed up with a medium Camo Brown dry brush and a khaki highlight. I used a pale blue for the floors, hitting them with a white dry brush highlight. For the trim pieces, I used either pale blue or green for the trim pieces. For the rebar pieces, I used epoxy to stick them into their holes atop the ruins. I painted them Iron Wind Steel, then for the first time, tried a Rust effect solution from "Dirty Down" on them. I'm very happy with how it came out. I bought it from Discover Games at Buckeye Game Fest on a whim, and am glad I did. I can see myself using this in the future.

I like the accents 4 Ground includes -- like the cardboard rectangles and pieces of 'rebar'

Both buildings are much cooler than their little black and white picture on the package showed. I admit, I am half tempted to keep them rather than sell them in the Historicon flea market. They are different enough from the ones I already have to provide variety, but still have the same ruined city or town look to them. Likely, I'll still sell them, though. I really did enjoy doing up my first 4 Ground buildings!

These chimney ruins are 3-D printed and bought from Jarls Workshop a couple years ago

These three "chimney ruins" are 3-D printed from my friend Rusty at Jarls Workshop. I picked them up from him a couple years ago at Advance the Colors. I've painted 2-3 of them up already and figured that I really didn't need three more in my collection. So, they were on obvious trio to be culled from the herd. I prepared them the same way as the 4 Ground buildings. I painted the brick areas Iron Wind Red Brown first, then dry brushed them with Howard Hues Middle Eastern Flesh.

I put a lot of flocking and loose bricks to dress up the area inside the building foundations

All that is left of these ruins are the foundations and chimney, with the interior area meant to be overgrown vegetation. However, I decided to add some tumbled bricks to this area, though. I am running low on my little plaster bricks I bought at Dragons Guildhall so long ago. I need to find some more at Historicon or somewhere. And no, I won't count each brick as a piece of scatter on my Acquired vs. Painted totals. They're supplies, like paint...ha, ha! Once the glue was dry on the bricks, I painted the turf areas with my 50/50 mix of white glue and brown paint. I then sprinkled on fine brown ballast from Woodland Scenics, followed by Blended Earth flocking.

I think these chimney ruins turned out great for as little time they took to get ready for the tabletop

Similar to how I usually do my figure basing, I painted on white glue in irregular splotches and sprinkled it with Blended Grass from Woodland Scenics. Next, I added clump foliage and occasional tufts or flowers to make it look more interesting. I think they came out nicely. Not on the scale of the 4 Ground buildings, but still nice little pieces for someone's tabletop...I hope!

I LOVE my Acheson terrain, but felt I could be parted with this cat statue on its ruined pediment

As much as I love my Acheson Creations terrain, I have to admit I am not sure why I bought this statue of a cat that looks like it is part of a ruined temple. My friends all know of my cat allergy (and avoidance of them). So, there would doubtless be some serious ribbing if I put a statue of a cat on my tabletop. Sorry, Fluffy, you're going to be culled, too! Like all Acheson terrain, this was incredibly easy to get ready for the tabletop. Preparation followed the same method as the other pieces. I used the same stone ruins recipe I use for my other stuff -- black base coat, dark gray dry brush followed by a lighter highlight. Like with the chimney ruins, I added a bunch of clump foliage to show it being overgrown. It turned out nicely, I think...for a cat! Ha, ha!!

I think I did a nice job 'dressing up' this overgrown and ruined wall piece

The final piece is a section of ruined stone wall. It is from the Plastic Guys, a group of regional gamers from the Toledo area who used plastic and styrofoam to create simple terrain. I trimmed off the excess plastic and based it onto a piece of bass wood. I used a couple tiny model railroad trees to dress it up a bit, and added pieces of tumbled stone along both sides. I flocked it as I did with the chimney ruins, and added in lots of clump foliage to show it being overgrown, as well. For a piece of plastic terrain, it came out fairly well. Hopefully, someone at the flea market feels the same way and is willing to buy it!

So, there you have it -- my first batch of terrain built and painted with the express purpose of selling off. I typically double the price I paid for the item for my asking price, usually rounding it to a multiple of $5. My thoughts -- and feel free to tell me if you think they are too high or too low -- are $40 each for the 4 Ground buildings, $15 each for the Chimney Ruins, $10 each for the cat and the ruined wall. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on those prices!

What else is on my painting desk? I am in the flocking stage of the next batch of 5 Viet Cong. I'll do photos of those five and the previous ones together as one post. I will also continue to work in some more terrain or scatter to sell, as well. I have two more to do of the Sci-Fi scatter that were in the pictures with the Alien Grays. I bought six of them and want to wait till I have all six to do a post about them. Stay tuned...more to come, as always! And I appreciate the comments, guys -- it makes my day to read them and know people are enjoying my ramblings!!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025