Thatos Terrain Done Unreasonably Quickly

Who's got John Williams on in the background? Just me?

Fast terrain projects seem to be becoming a bit of a specialty of ours. About a year ago, Charlie, Drew and I went in for a pair of boxes of boarding action terrain and painted it as a team. It was a success and renewed my own enthusiasm for terrain projects. I previously completed a very rustic non-imperial human settlement we lovingly dubbed Shit Town, but was annoyed at how interactive the terrain set wasn’t: while it was effective at blocking lines of sight, looking thematic and framing a board of miniatures well, the buildings were essentially impassable obstacles that models could not easily interact with, due to being closed off with awkward domed roofs. A normal response might have been to not sweat it, to enjoy the terrain I had, and to consider a future project in vein other than outer-rim settlement.

Nonsense.

The Necromunda team are putting out some absolutely glorious terrain, and one set we had all admired at different points in the past was the Thatos Pattern Hab Modules. After much wishlisting (and leaving it to sit in a box assembled but otherwise unfinished thanks to REAL LIFETM), Stilt Town has been born. I’m pretty happy with it, and it is perhaps the most ambitious project the crew of Deep Space Nein* have completed yet: 6 Buildings, add on greebles, 8 platforms and a double set of walkways all completed over a single (long) weekend of (admittedly intense) painting. While the Boarding Action terrain undoubtedly had a higher level of finish, the sheer bulk of Stilt Town relative to the time taken to get it into the out-tray is remarkable. The process was mostly based on Charlie’s quick technique for grey buildings outlined here, but here’s the full process for posterity:

Day 0: Masking and priming

Surprisingly time consuming

This was most of a day, and admittedly could not have been completed at the speed it was without the summoned help of other Charlie. Regardless, I don’t really count this as an official day spent because rattle cans and masking, while time consuming, sure can be done while binge watching X-Files at the same time. It’s more prep. Don’t question it. Shush.

1. Prime with Colourforge Hyrax Brown spray.
2. Mask off everything that will end up exposed metal: For me this chiefly meant the bars that gantries attach to, the stripes on the roofs, and the moving parts of pistons on the foot plates, but there were a few other details that needed masking off here and there (like the closed doors that are clearly metal slats). This took most of the day, and honestly would have been much more strenuous without other Charlie. Thanks!
3. Zenithal spray with grey seer. I was perhaps too heavy handed at this stage, and could have done less, but the large flat panels on the sides of the houses do benefit from a more uniform coverage. No harm done.
4. Leave that to dry for about an hour, then remask around the strips on the roofs. I was concerned they were going to look a bit bland with metal roof bits, so wanted another colour for visual interest. I settled on a mid red, both because I had half a can of red primer lying around, and because light grey and red is a classic combo.
5. Spray the roof strips with Halford’s red primer. Any medium red would do the job, this was what I had lying around. The result is a pleasing contrast and added visual interest.

The end result by the end of day 0 is a good base from which to add the brushed on details that make basic painted terrain good:

OK, maybe it counts as a day's effort. I suppose.

Day 1: Everything-but-the-grime

We had Drew for day 1 before she abandoned us in favour of going abroad (honestly, fair) and on this day we did a lot. Every stage bar the dirtwash was done, and Stilt Town was in danger of looking completed already. Complacency begets heresy, however, and I am very pleased we continued with a second day.

Day 1 was a bit chaotic, with the stages not necessarily being done in order by all 3 of us at once, but at times with each of us doing something specific. I’ll order them roughly below:

1. Sponge chip the grey and red areas with Rhinox Hide. This didn’t show up amazingly on the red, but added visual interest was provided on day 2.
2. Drybrush the gantries with Mournfang brown and Jokaero orange. This was a deliberately uneven and patchy drybrush to provide a low effort suggestion of rust beneath the exposed metal of the gantries, since they were by far the largest areas of exposed metal in the project. They needed it.
3. Paint the exposed support cables with the Army Painter's Gunmetal, then wash them with Agrax Earthshade followed by Nuln Oil Gloss.
4. Drybrush the exposed metal areas with the Army Painter's Gunmetal. This included all the add-on bits like gantries, railings and ladders. Could we have done a different colour for the gantries? Maybe. Should they have been grey? Potentially. The bare metal works fine though. (Charlie: Honestly I think your instincts were good; the bare metal provides some dark contrast against the light buildings.)
5. Drybrush the most exposed hard metal edges with Vallejo Air Steel. This was mainly to provide added visual interest to the gantries, which needed it, but also went over some of the details on the various aerials and weather-vane bits.
6. Go over the exposed wiring with Black Templar. This is honestly my favourite contrast paint, it's all you need to help obviously rubberised wiring stand out. Anything that looked like it might be in some sort of casing or bracket stayed grey.
7. Pick out the external boiler casings with Averland Sunset. This was a welcome suggestion for a bit more added visual interest from Drew and it really helps sell the look: In the same way as the red stripes on the roofing, the boilers break up the grey nicely.
8. Dot the lights with White Scar. 5 Dots in the full square sections of each grill light is all that’s required to imply lighting, we didn’t bother with OSL aside from on the hanging lamps (thanks Charlie).
9. Glaze the lights with Yriel Yellow. Get lit.
10. Drybrush the awnings Steel Legion Drab, then with Zandri Dust, for a nice low effort rustic brown.

Day 2: The long dark of Dirt Spatter

Day 1 was long, but varied. Day 2 was pure grind. Charlie and myself spent the whole day almost exclusively applying thinned Vallejo Dirt Spatter to the recesses (messily) of an entire village, and then promptly wiping most of it back off (the only other task was applying some thinned Garaghak Sewer to the little ovals in the red for added contrast). The process is better described by Charlie in the previously linked Goonhammer article, so I won’t go back over it, but the difference it makes to the stilt houses is, um, stark:

Why you follow through on painting recipes. I'll come back to this photo if I ever feel lazy about something in the future.

The Finished Result

It is, it’s fair to say, a lot of terrain. It’s also about as modular as can be while also retaining stability, which is nice as it allows for maximum DOLLHAUS energy before every single game, with almost infinite configurations of stilt town. I know this terrain is largely OOS from James himself these days, which is a real shame, since I was consistently impressed with the amount of thought that went into its design: The modularity, the way it interacts between pieces, the way it plays with other Warhammer terrain, it all speaks of a product that was excellently designed and executed. I also appreciate the lack of 40k specific grimdank accessories, not one skull! It helps the set feel like it could just as easily be a pirate base, a new colony, or a research outpost, keeping it relatively versatile in terms of narrative application.

Seriously, I swear I can hear Binary Sunset

I also want to add that making significant terrain projects into group efforts is 100% the way, if like me (us) you're inclined to play with fully painted and based miniatures on fully painted terrain. While terrain doesn't need the same level of detail as miniatures might, it's still a huge amount of plastic to get through: Stilt Town took 40 combined hours of work between the assembled cast of Deep Space Nein (not including day 0, which was another 24), more than my usual working week. The thing would have taken me a long time to chew through, and was monotonous enough that I likely would have been distracted by actual miniatures halfway to boot. The assistance of friends turned a lengthy slog into a sprint, and while we were very done by the end of day 2, we've now got a whole new village to fight over. You love to see it.

Get interacted with, xenos scum.

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* Deep Space Nein refers to Harvey, Drew and Charlie's first joint project, the space hulk terrain. Subsequently, they are the crew of Deep Space Nein, since apparently the name 'terrain painting club' is too basic. -ed.