Bolt Action - How to Sass-Up Your 4Ground Ruined House

(Miles "jmilesr" Reidy sent me a follow-up article on his recent 4Ground purchase. When I noticed it was "just" a follow-up, I was a bit skeptical, thinking there wasn't much more to say about the piece. Boy, was I wrong. After playing on tables with tons of 4Ground tables, I feel like his dressing-up is a must for anyone with these buildings in their collections. - Judson)

The first picture shows a finished model of the 4Ground Ruined Hose #2 kit.  It's a great kit but, to me, it looks both too angular and clean - everything's a right angle, and there is no rubble.  I wanted to take a stab at "tarting-up" the model by adding some simple details.  I also need to keep the additions limited so there's still room in the structure to place figures.

Here are the limited materials I used

- a slurry of playground sand, model railroad ballast and matte medium for rubble

- Some basswood for timbers - painted with Vallejo Biege Brown (874) which matches the floor boards closely

- The precut brick rubble provided with the kit

And "viola", a dressed up version of the structure.  I went with a restrained application of the rubble and then dry-brushed it beige to match the color of the "plaster" covering the walls.  I also mixed-in brick sections and window frame parts to add to the effect.  The slurry dries rock hard after thirty minutes, and once that happens, it really isn't going to move.

A handful of timbers were added for more visual interest, but I tried to keep them out of the way so figures can still fit in the model.

One last shot.  This project was both simple and fast.  I think I spent 30 minutes putting everything on and cleaning up but the result is acceptable.

(More than acceptable! As anyone who's ever looked at my "finished" models before, I've never been one to spend extra time on details. It's all about maximizing the return on my time, in my book! After seeing this addition, however, I now feel like any of the 4Ground ruins that don't have this little extra are simply wrong! Thanks for that, Miles. 

What do you think about it? Let us know on the forum. - J)