Dragons Don't Share, But Mike Does!

After three posts about my latest sci-fi terrain, I've got a change of pace today with some fantasy terrain. This batch of ruins is from Reaper's Dragons Don't Share diorama set, which includes these ruins, a very large dragon and six adventurers.

Fellow club member Mike wanted the figures but gave me the ruins, so I wanted to honor his gift by getting this project done right away before it had a chance to fall into the bottomless bin of "upcoming projects." It's a pretty impressive terrain piece -- quite flexible, though that's not always a good thing. The physical material (Reaper's "Bones" PVC plastic) was warped, even it was hard to correct the warp even after soaking it in boiling water and adjusting the shape (the common solution for bent Bones). So I glued it to some hardboard.

Each piece of this kit meets up with the others like a puzzle, so I kept the bases the same size as the terrain sections.

I wanted to add a bit more grit to the surfaces, so after covering it in black gesso, I sprinkled a bit of sand while it was still wet. I flicked some on the sides of some of the walls too. For fast paint jobs that rely on drybrushing, I think more texture is better. You can see some of that here on the largest of the two stair pieces.

Here are the large and small stairs together.

After that, I started with a basecoat of ruddy dark brown, followed by a wet overbrush with Terra Cotta, a drybrush of Trail Tan and a very light drybrush of Bamboo. Except for the mystery red brick color, these were all Delta Ceramcoat craft paints.

I finished it off with patches of ground cover from a static grass mix and some moss from sawdust-based flock. I'm not totally happy with the greenery.

It looks OK, but there are some shaded spots (notably under the large stair section) where I should have left the ground cover off. It may be time to invest in one of those tools that makes the static grass stand up properly.

Of note: the tower section is actually two parts. The interior of the bottom section is nicely detailed even where it meets the top. As a bonus, the top of the tower looks pretty good placed separately on the ground.

All in all, I think Reaper has a fantastic terrain set here. Even those who are critical of the Bones material for smaller minis tend to agree that it's a good material for larger pieces. That is not to say it's perfect, but gluing it to a base helps a lot, and a bit of sand adds some of the grit that PVC terrain may lack.

I really hope they make this kit available in separate pieces. The current package is $75, which is a bit steep for someone who just wants the terrain. Though I will mostly use it for fantasy (Weathertop, perhaps?) it's very versatile. It could easily see use in steampunk settings, virtually any historical European conflict and -- despite its lack of skulls -- this kit wouldn't even be out-of place in the 41st millenium.

-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member