Stargrave terrain: the Snack Stacks

Stargrave is awesome. And it gets even better if you go overboard on scenery and scatter terrain. As a rather fanatical terrain builder (also know as a 'storage challenged wargamer' ;) this game ticks all my boxes. So much so, that I went ahead and filled my shopping cart at TTCombat after playing the battle for the overgrown factory last year. I figured I needed it to play games in frontier world style sci-fi cities, also it gave me an excuse to play around a bit more with MDF terrain. Long story short, here are my Snack Stacks.

The original setting for 40K (Rogue Trader) was more a frontier settlement sci-fi exploration game. I'm glad Stargrave is here to scratch that particular itch.

I realize my blog recently has been a bit top heavy on the 3D-printing side of things. And rightly so, it is fun, interesting and new. But there is a special joy in mixing it up in this hobby (in my humble opinion). You should always take time to scratch-built, get some plastic or even cardboard buildings out or play around with pre-made stuff like MDF buildings. The joy of MDF is that it is relatively cheap; the set pictured above is called 'The Snack Stacks' and is priced (at the time of writing) at 16 quid (around 18 euro or 20 bucks). It is enough for a small skirmishing table. For the average modern 40K player it would be too much terrain for an entire table ;) </sour-grapes> (let's hope the new edition brings back a more classic approach to tables sizes and terrain*)

* Thought for the day: Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment.

The accumulated rust and the green ooze/goop (by Vallejo) on the counters really bring home the 'bon appetite' message of these snack stacks. 

For those of you who have never worked with MDF terrain: it is flat pack furniture for wargamers. The models are burned into 3mm MDF sheets, you push out bits and stick them together with PVA glue (or wood glue as it is known here in The Netherlands (making it the first appropriate use of this glue for me in quite a while)). Some details, like the lines in the containers, are burned into the wood, giving it a bit more character than scratch building with foam board or plasticard. TTCombat also quite cleverly sticks bits together in such a way it gives the impression of vents, power cables and the like on their buildings. But in the end most of what you build with MDF is quite flat and mostly square (excluding some round bits with flat sides like the cleverly made chimneys on these buildings).

The original floor of this building had the same pattern as the container sides. It looked too much like wood for my taste, so I replaced it with a diamond plate pattern pressed into air-dry clay by a Green Stuff world texture roller.

So far, so good. The downside of MDF is that it is quite a challenge to build. To be sure: the instructions by TTCombat are very clear (after you discover you can download them on their website (they are not included in the kits)). Unfortunately they don't use the numbers on the sheets to point out where you should look, making it - interesting - to find the right parts. Mistakes where made building these containers. Also it turned out that MDF is hell to paint, at least using my standard techniques. For starters you have to prime MDF or seal it with glue. Why? Because MDF 'wood' is made by compressing a mix of sawdust and glue into a 'wooden sponge' that looks like a solid sheet. If you apply paint to MDF without sealing it first, it soaks your paint into the material and everything becomes an awful mess. 

As an extra joke I decided to give the chimney the cleanest look on this 'diner'. 

So far there's no real problem, bit while priming and painting my first few test pieces, I discovered the etched in details quite easily disappear beneath the paint. Even relatively thin layers of airbrushed paint can be too much and obscure detail. This was a bit disheartening. I painted two containers and they looked like hastily made foamboard boxes when I was done. Frustrated, I put these models to the side on my hobby station and focused on other hobby projects. 

I disliked the way the paint looked on the flat roof of the building on the left. Luckily I had a few Maelstrom's Edge Terrain Sprues left to add some detail. At that point getting hazard stripes painted in seemed logical (I have to practice for my planned Iron Warriors later this year anyway).  

Over the past few months I kept pushing these models aside, while getting that annoying 'I should've finished these already'-feeling. So a few weekends back, after getting my warband slaughtered once more in a Stargrave wildernis scenario (should I do another write-up of a few scenario's I played?) I decided it was time to paint the settlement and hopefully change my luck by taking the fight into (sort of) civilized surroundings. Instead of airbrushing these building (except for the dark blue one in the picture above) I used a black rattlecan to prime them and a white rattlecan for a first zentihal highlight (my first use of rattlecans in about five years I think). Then I took a blue rattlecan to paint the light blue container buildings. I heavily thinned down some W&N heavy acrylics (Galeria I think the line is) to put green on the green containers. I used cheap sticker decals from the local 'So cheap, you know it sucks'-store as stencils to sponge on the big numbers (carefully adding a black outline by hand to them).  The hazard stripes on the roof of the building above where added with a bit of masking tape and some restoration work with a (semi-steady) hand (and rust to cover up my sins).

As a last step I added Vallejo green gunk (had to look it up, it's: Slime Grime Dark Environment) and Typhus Corrosion to select bits of the model, using a large brush to feather it out (or streak it up or down). 

The dark blue container was a test piece using the airbrush and although it photographs okay, the other buildings just look better on the tabletop (they also took less effort to paint). After applying the basic colors and decals to each container I used Vallejo Red Brown primer to paint everything that should be rusty. I then took a sponge and applied even more red brown to the sides and edges of the buildings and any other place where fancy struck me (mostly on decals to make them look worn). I added large patches of corrosion texture by AK (I'm afraid I'm going to have to buy this by the bucket soon). After the 'red brown and texture phase' I went back in with an airbrush to add a bit of an orange tint to the rusty areas. Basically just to break up the color a bit (rust should never look to monotonous). I followed this up by sponging GW Ryza Rust to the red brown areas. I sponged bits I really wanted to be metallic with a bit of Scalecolor Trash Metal. The white areas (airconditioners and counters) where painted with Vallejo bone primer. I mixed pure white into the wet paint to highlight areas on the countertops. After this dried I applied a disgusting mold paint by Vallejo in the corners and feathered this out lightly over the countertops. That should discourage anyone from eating at the snack stacks ;). This entire lot took me two afternoons to paint. All in all quite a satisfying experience. 

Its the hobby curse: every time I finish a big project I immediately add a new one, will the work never end? (I hope not!).

Fresh on the succes of my snack stacks I've finally assembled the other buildings I bought: the Slum Stacks (not pictured above) and the Shanty Town Stacks (pictured above). And because the only thing better than mixing it up in the hobby is mixing techniques in a single hobby project, I've 3D-printed extra greeblies and signs for these buildings. I think they spice things up even more. Here's to hoping they don't languish for months on the side of the paint station (they take up too much space for that, and there's a Warlord Titan construction in the way!).