Rocky Outcrops - from Aquarium Ornaments

Hi Folks

Just a short posting today about Rocks. I am sure most of you who are interested in terrain have seen various wargame pieces sourced from materials used to furnish aquariums. If you have not then you are missing a great source of ready made pieces.

The problem with many of these pieces is that they come in a multitude of colours and don't always work together on the table top. Never fear a quick coat of paint can create stunning effects and help to tie in all your terrain pieces.

Whilst building my desert landscapes I cam across a couple of these rocky pieces cheap on ebay and since then I have scoured the web for other items. They are all resin and fluctuate wildly on price - don't just buy the first one you see and be sure to check out the auctions.

Two of the best pieces I have found look like these. They typically retail for around £11 but I have found them cheaper. They are about 25 cm long and c15cm tall. Their shapes are brilliant for 28mm figures.

You don't have to paint them but as I said earlier a paint job does help them to blend in.

In the following series of photos you can see the process I adopted

Step 1: Paint using a cheap emulsion the base colour. Mine is a specially matched paint of the GW Steel Legion Drab...I have a big 5 litre tin of the stuff.

Step 2: Dry brush on a yellow ochre - for comparison you can see the front set has this first coat

Step 3: Dry brush a Titanium cream

Painting these two pieces excluding drying time took less than ten minutes


The following pictures show these and my other acquired rocks on one of the desert baseboards. They have all been given the same paint treatment.

I hope you agree the uniformity of the painting really helps to bring them all together

Until next time