Monday 6 March 2017

Wargames Terrain Workshop Future City Scenics 01

One of my favourite web-stores is Wargames Terrain Workshop, run by Dave Stone, who has become a very good friend of mine. Dave has been picking my brain for ideas for scenery and figures to use in the Judge Dredd Miniatures Game but to keep them generic enough so as to avoid copyright problems. Dave is a huge 2000AD fan so it has been a lot of fun swapping ideas. I therefore make no apologies for the bias of my review here. However, WTW are not a widely known company so the main purpose of this review is to spread the word about them to a wider audience and hopefully drum up more business for Dave.
One of the first scenery items I asked Dave to make were Justice Department holding posts. These are used to handcuff perps to the post, where they are held in place until they can be transported to a Sector House or Iso-cube facility. The actual Justice Department holding posts have an eagle sculpture on top of them but I understand why Dave omitted it as it would have made them too distinctive as belonging to Judge Dredd. Nevertheless these are perfectly acceptable substitutes. To give you an idea of how tall they are I have included a Wargames Foundry figure of Judge Dredd in my photos (this is actually the figure I use for my own Judge Scott in my JDMG campaign). A set of two holding posts includes one with two arms and one with four arms and they cost £1.00 unpainted or £1.80 painted. I bought two sets of the unpainted versions. My colour scheme is slightly different to Dave's. I gave mine gold tops not silver as Dave had done. They are listed as Prisoner Posts in the Future Scenics section of the WTW webstore. However, they would work equally well as posts for securing bicycles in a contemporary setting.
Next on my list of items I wanted sculpting were garbage disposal units. These are essentially litter bins that grind any rubbish put in them into tiny pieces to make it easier to dispose of. They have also been used to illegally dispose of bodies or body parts! These also come in two versions. As soon as I saw them I was struck by how much they look like garbage droid Ro-Jaws from the Robusters and ABC Warriors series from 2000AD comic. I just had to include this Wargames Foundry figure of Ro-Jaws in one of my photos.
My colour scheme for the garbage disposal units is almost identical to that of Dave's but I extended the yellow border all the way around the mouth section to provide a better contrast for the word, WASTE. As you can see with this photo directly above with the Judge, they are quite tall and chunky. Once again, they are very reasonably priced. A set of one of each of the two types costs £1.50 unpainted or £2.70 painted. Yet again, I bought two sets of the unpainted versions.
One item in particular that I was very keen to see was a futuristic car. Dave has really surpassed himself with this absolutely amazing sculpt. When I saw them on the WTW webstore I wrongly assumed they were quite small. It was only when I received them through the post and was able to see them in the flesh that I realised these are really big sculpts. This is why I have included the Judge figure in my photos to show how big they are.
The really clever thing that Dave has done with them is to allow you to use them as a ground car or a hover car. You can see the subtle differences between them in the two photos above. The blue car is the ground car and the red car is the hover car.
 Dave has named these as a Lamborarri 2000 Sports Car. I like the name!
 For such a big chunk of resin, these are incredibly cheap, costing just £5.00 for an unpainted model.
However, when I saw how incredibly well Dave had painted his, I knew that A) I would struggle to replicate his colour scheme, and B) it would be a time consuming paint job. So I ordered the painted versions of the two cars. They cost £9.00 each, which to me, was an absolute bargain.
Dave was incredibly helpful, and he asked me what colours I wanted them painting in and even asked what I'd like on their registration plates. Having fallen in love with Dave's red car I asked for one just like it and for the other, a blue version. The number plates do have meaning. WTW 1 stands for Wargames Terrain Workshop 1 (an obvious choice, I felt) and BS 24 is my initials (Bryan Scott) and the day of my birth.
For me, the highlight of these models are the two Lamborarri 2000 Sports Cars. They have already made an appearance in one of my JDMG batreps (see here ). These are just the start of what will be a growing range of scenery items. Indeed a few more items were only recently added and I'll review them very soon. What makes these items so special to me is the fact that they all come from ideas that I suggested to Dave. That gives me a personal connection to them, so forgive me for my unashamed bias towards them. The following link will take you directly to the Future City Scenics section of the Wargames Terrain Workshop webstore - http://wargamesterrainworkshop.co.uk/?product_cat=futurecityscenics

23 comments:

  1. Love the holding posts and the cars. They look great and I look forward to seeing them in future battle reports.

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    1. Cheers, Tim. All of these items will definitely be appearing in future batreps.

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  2. they of course look great, Dave is a fab sculptor and I now own 2 x packs of the posts as well as the waste disposal bins, barrels, gas cylinders and his grave yard range. In fact I spent quite a bit of money on Dave's stuff!

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    1. I totally agree with you, Andy. Dave is a great sculptor but even better, he is very friendly and approachable and willing to listen and take up suggestions from his customers. I've already spent quite a bit on his stuff and I'm nowhere near finished getting everything I want from his webstore.

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  3. Dave certainly undid himself with these Bryan, and I'm absolutely delighted he seems to have taken our particular gaming community to his heart with his most recent offerings. Sadly I'm still battling through some of my earlier purchases from his excellent company, but these postings of yours are great 'advertisements' for his tip-top range :-)

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    1. Well said, Simon. I still have quite a few of Dave's earlier models to make and paint but these jumped to the front of my painting queue as soon as I received them. Expect to see a lot more reviews of his work on my blog over the coming months.

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  4. Those are all great. Will be going over and checking them out. ;)

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    1. Thanks, Tom. I'd be very surprised if you don't find something you like on the web-store.

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  5. Those are a couple of really nice cars. The Waste bins and holding posts are also good but those cars are very nice and can easily be used in any sci fi setting. I may have to get a few!

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    1. The cars are absolutely superb, Clint. I can highly recommend them to any sci-fi fan.

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  6. Thank you Bryan, for your great review. I look forward to completing all the great ideas that you, Simon and Andy came up with, and all future ideas that get created

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    1. Dave, it has been an absolute pleasure working with you behind the scenes and seeing our ideas come to fruition. I hope there is a lot more to come. Keep up the great work.

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    2. Has been a pleasure for me also Bryan, and for me the greatest reward for me has been the friendship of yourself, Andy and Simon

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    3. Yeah, that's something that money can't buy. Long may it continue!

      By the way, I've just sent you an e-mail thanking you for the parcel you sent me. I wasn't expecting it to arrive so quickly with me ordering more painted items. Cheers, mate!

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  7. Very cool scenery! If I weren't out of work right now, I'd be ordering some!

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    1. Thanks, Blackstar. I'm very sorry to hear you are out of work. I know from personal experience just how hard it is.

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  8. All these beautiful things add to your already cool looking tables. I really need to invest in more of this type stuff so my own setups can look (almost) as good.

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    1. That's very kind of you, Dai. Scenery is every bit as important to me as miniature figures. It helps bring a gaming table to life.

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  9. They look great Bryan nice little touch to the table top.

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    1. Thanks, Simon. They fit in perfectly well with my Judge Dredd stuff.

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