I’m a big fan of resin terrain pieces. They’re durable, they can have great detail, and they’re usually easy to paint compared to most minis. In recent years I’ve moved more and more towards cardstock terrain simply for cost reasons, but a number of resin pieces are still treasured parts of my terrain collection, if only for their solid heft and “realness,” which cardstock can just never match.

When I started the Screaming Alpha project I took a good rummage around in the back corners of my gaming stuff and came across several miscellaneous packs of Armorcast terrain (vintage GenCon 2002 or so), and decided it was high time to finally paint and review them.

First off the shelf is a two-pack of dumpsters, one overflowing with trash, the other with the lids closed. At first blush dumpsters may seem like an odd choice for modeling, but think about it. They’re ubiquitous, found in the alley behind or beside hundreds of thousands of buildings, especially in urban areas. They’re made of heavy steel, making them great cover during gunfights and excellent weapons (melee or projectile) in super-powered confrontations. They’re big enough to hide in, making for great ambush positions, and they’re a good place to hide things, making them great objectives for MacGuffin hunts,

The overall level of detail is pretty impressive. The sculptor obviously went to the trouble of getting some photo reference to work from instead of just making them up from whole cloth. This is an important step that seems to be too often neglected in the world of miniatures. Especially for objects players see every day, the details really have to be right, or the end result is going to look peculiar. These are spot on.

My only real gripe is that the trash inside the open dumpster is rather roughly sculpted, with plenty of anonymous blobs instead of distinct items. There are several good boxes and bags of trash, but a lot of the inside seems to be filled with pudding or something, making it hard to do any kind of detailed paint job. I just ended up picking out what I could, indiscriminately painting the rest a medium grey, and calling it a day. A coat of Minwax dip helped out a lot, but it still felt like a slapdash job. Maybe I’m overanalyzing what is after all trash, but it didn’t seem quite up to the exacting standards I’ve come to expect from Armorcast.

Despite my minor qualms about the detail level, these are solid, well-crafted pieces that would be a good addition to anyone’s collection of urban terrain. Being free-standing, they can be easily moved around your urban boards at will to help create some variety. After all, you never know when your superheroes or zombie hunters or cyberpunks or whoever will be called on to “take out the trash.”

Pros: Well-modeled on real examples, Useful subject

Cons: Some detail not as strong as it could be

Final Verdict: 3/5

MSRP: $9

Source: Armorcast

Popularity: 13% [?]

No related posts.