Strontium Dog - Solar Farm

I've shown all of the figures that Warlord Games released for the first wave of their Strontium Dog skirmish game as well as most of my Indyclix and Wargames Foundry figures that are usable in this game. So, is that everything to show? No, it isn't. If you purchase The Good, The Bad and The Mutie boxed set you get a nice scenery set made by Sarissa Precision Ltd. to use in your games.

Made of MDF, this set contains seven scenery items - a wind turbine generator, a small farmhouse, a watch tower and four free-standing solar panels. Note that this set is only available in The Good, The Bad and The Mutie boxed set.

Having made lots of Wild West MDF buildings and scenery items in these past months I found this a very easy collection to make, providing you carefully follow the instructions. There are a few potential pit-traps you can fall in if you don't. For example, the solar panels come in two different angles so it is important that both side supports are identical. Also, note that these scenery items come unpainted. I had a lot of fun making, converting and painting them. What follows is a detailed closer look at the separate items, starting with the farmhouse.

This is the front of the house with a set of steps leading up to a pair of double doors. The doors do not open and close. You can punch them out of the wall if you wanted them to be opened, but I left them closed. The awning is made of card, not MDF, which is supplied in the set. It didn't sag in the middle when I first glued it in place but due to constant handling it does have a noticeable sag. It doesn't bother me as I feel it probably would sag in real life.

Moving round, this is the view of the right side of the building. Note that the curved section of the roof is also made of card, which has to be scored at regular intervals to get its curved shape. The roof is detachable, unless you decide to glue it in place. Obviously, I didn't. My brother is forever telling me, "you can always tell a Bryan building if the roof comes off."

At the back of the building is another window which has a smaller awning covering it. The building is 5" (12.5cm) long by 3.5" (9cm) wide by 2.5" (6.5cm) tall.

This is the left side of the building and it is identical to the right side. For its paint scheme, I wanted  a very dirty, grungy look for it, so I applied numerous ink washes of different colours to it as well as dry-brushing and stippling a sand colour around the base.

Being a simple model it does not come with any interior detail, but anyone who knows me well will know how much I love furnishing my buildings. I decided to furnish it with a few items from my Battle Systems Post Apocalypse Terrain sets. This building looks like it would fit perfectly in a post-apocalyptic setting. In the upper left corner is a filing cabinet and on the opposite side is a large desk. Note how I paint the edges of my card terrain items. It is time-consuming but it makes the items look "real" and not an obvious cardboard cut-out with glaring white edges - something I hate to see on other peoples' models.

Here's a better view of the filing cabinet. In the corner to the left of it is a fridge, although it could just as easily be a storage cupboard.

I added a piece of scatter terrain in front of the double doors to make a doormat. On the wall to the left of the doors is the back of the fridge, which I thought could be used as an air-conditioning unit or a wall heater or a power supply unit. The point is, it looks cool and it breaks up the bareness of the wall.

In this photo you get a better view of the desk. I thought about adding some chairs but left them out. If I do need them I can always drop them in when required. It is not a lot of furniture that I've added but I didn't want it too cluttered as you need to keep plenty of room to fit figures in, especially as most of mine are on 25mm diameter bases.

Moving on, here is the wind turbine generator and the watch tower. I've read a few comments from folk saying how difficult the wind turbine generator was to build. It isn't if you carefully follow the instructions, which is what I did. Yes, it is a bit fiddly and it does have a lot of parts, some very small, but just take your time, double check the fits before gluing and above all, follow the instructions! My only criticism of it is that it is fitted to a base made of card not MDF. So, I added a piece of mounting card cut to the same dimensions to my base to make it much more sturdy. What I do love about this model is that the four blades of the windmill at the top spin round.

The watch tower was really easy to build. Just make sure that the two floors match up with their support pegs for the ladder. Note that after I'd glued the four sides in place I ran a line of superglue down the joins where the sides met. This strengthened them considerably. I did not like that the top of the tower was so exposed with no cover whatsoever for anyone standing there. So I took a "corrugated iron" wall from my Battle Systems Post Apocalyptic Terrain set and cut it to size to surround the top section of the tower. The off-cut from the gap left for the ladder was glued to the base. This was a very simple conversion, but one which improved the item considerably.

Finally, are the four free-standing solar panels. These were incredibly easy to make, providing you ensure that the two side supports are identical. The panels are fitted in two angles so it would be an easy mistake to mix up the supports and then discover the panels don't align with them. Once again, take your time and check before gluing. This all seems like common sense but I watched a few YouTube videos on someone making this set after I'd made mine and he fell into every pitfall I highlighted. I just shook my head in disbelief!
My overall impressions on this scenery set are highly favourable. Visually, they look superb. As I said, I had no problems whatsoever in building them but then again, I am very experienced at this type of modelling and I always take my time. What I particularly like about this set is just how versatile it can be. Although designed specifically for the Strontium Dog it can fit in so many settings - post apocalyptic as I've already mentioned, the Cursed Earth of Judge Dredd, any contemporary zombie game or sci-fi game. Just so many choices. It's just a shame it isn't available separately.
You'll be seeing it in action when I play through the scenarios from The Good, The Bad and The Mutie mini-campaign. For my first Strontium Dog batrep (coming next post 😊 ) I decided not to include it. Instead I went for a number of my Battle Systems Shanty Town buildings and scenery items from Wargames Terrain Workshop and Warlord Games. I have played it and I'm in the process of editing it.