Pricepoint
What do you get?
This mix looks to be almost entirely a single kind of rock, of a consistency sort of like chalk, ground up into a mixture of fine dust then tiny, small and large bits of the same rock. This gives it a very natural look, and the gradient of large rocks down to dust is nice and smooth, rather than just incongruously large rocks nestled into otherwise fine sand. We'll get into these rocks later on in the review.
So What Do I Think?
I've only used this mix a little bit so far, having gotten it just to see what Siege Scenics' mixes were like, but I've had positive experiences with their range of tufts and moss pads (essentially a kind of shorter tuft). Thus far it's been pretty enjoyable to use, but it's somewhat different to other "base ready" mixtures we've seen so far.
Ordinarily a single thin layer of glue and dipping your model's base into it would be enough to apply a convincing layer of basing mix, unless you're attempting something fancy. But due, I think, to the smaller particle size the mix can look a little bit flat if applied in just a single layer, and if your glue is too thick then the glue soaks through the particles and causes an issue we'll get into in the QA section. The miners above are based with 2 or so applications, adding more once the first layer dried to shore up any parts that looked too bare. While that's fine in this case, I can see it being frustrating if you're having to touch up the same model's base a couple of times because it just doesn't look right.
Once your mix is on, however, it looks good on its own as a more natural looking "desert mining world" mix than the darker red colour a lot of ranges use for their "Martian Soil" products. The rocks sit well in the basing mix, and I didn't experience any issues with the glue not grabbing the rocks right, though you might want to superglue them down before applying the rest of the mix if you're concerned about their exact placement.While Siege Scenics suggest using their dry tufts and moss pads (a kind of shorter tuft) to simulate a dry environment, I think there's another application this works for that you wouldn't expect... the jungle?
These two pictures are from the Atlantic Rainforest and the Australian outback, showing both bright green foliage and strong reddish-coloured soil. This is often due to iron-rich soil - an iron mine I grew up near dyed the landscape and indeed the miners a bright terracotta orange - making the plant life growing on it pop quite nicely. These Orang-Utangs are based with this mix and some light green clumps & tufts, but I think if you went even further with some exotic plants, either laser cut or just aquarium leaves, you could pull off some great visuals of jungle clearings. I'll be using this mix going forward for my "lost world" Pulp Alley adventures for my dinosaurs and cave-men.
QA
Here, sadly, is where we get into the one Capital-P Problem with this base mixture. Pictured below is one thin application of clear PVA, a glue I usually use when I'm worried a base mix is going to react poorly to white glues, with a layer of Mangala Plateau over the top midway through drying:
Doesn't look great, does it? This mix has the potential to darken as it dries, and not in even patches, either. I've been calling this "leopard spotting" (although you need to take your leopard to the vet if it goes this colour), and I suspect it's due to a lot of this mix being essentially dust and pigment. It wants to absorb the glue, and in doing so it goes darker in patches where the glue is thicker. This usually happens with white glue and certain sands, as it coats the sand and stops it reflecting light, meaning you can see through to the base below. The only way I found that seemed to mitigate this is to spread the glue very thinly - "thin enough that it doesn't consistently grab the material" thin, which isn't ideal either. Testing with white, clear and superglue produced slightly darker final shade in all cases, with superglue the least and white glue slightly ahead of clear.
I wouldn't call this a deal-breaker, but another good argument for applying this in 2-3 coats, and it still means the mix usually ends up darker than it looks in the tub. I wouldn't blame a new user for coming away disappointed if they don't know how to deal with this issue if it comes up.
Does it Grind?
"Wait, isn't this usually the part where he runs it through a sieve?" regular readers might ask. Well, both of you are in for a shock, because I'm debuting a new segment!
As discussed, this mix is effectively the same substance ground up finely or coarsely, there isn't much point sieving, so instead we're going to see if the larger bits can be broken up.
And indeed they can, with a light bit of pressure (slightly more than with your bare fingers but enough that you could crush it under a mug or with a pestle) we've turned one rock into 3. The rocks aren't quite chalk, but they aren't quite sandstone either, so they crumble rather than crack open, so unless you're very delicate I wouldn't try trimming the rocks with a knife unless you're prepared for them to break the way they want rather than how you want. But it's good for if you're getting to the end of the mix or if your scale of models wouldn't suit the largest rocks. Speaking of which...
Does it Scale?
These Epic Warpath minis are (roughly) 10mm. The average size of the tiny rocks works well as big rocks at this scale, and the larger ones can be picked out or crushed as discussed above. The darkening after drying is a little bit more apparent on the one on the right to the naked eye, but not so much to the camera.
This centaur is 54mm. the largest of the boulders really have a chance to shine here, and the dust of the finest granules works as an impromptu weathering powder. The shape of the large rocks also lend themselves well to having crevices underneath that you could stick your tufts into.
Final Score - 5/5 - Paydirt
.png)
The Dinosaurs are also Martian. That's wargames for you!
Comments
Post a Comment