Bones for Terrain.

Recently I came across a few cool pieces of terrain that features large exposed skeletons.  It reminded me of something from Star Wars or the bone yard from Pitch Black.  I wanted to build some terrain that features large bones.

I was planning on going local to pick up something at Michaels.  Before I did I hit the internet, and came across the following item:

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B013DISYEE?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

$10.99... Canadian.  Free shipping?  I gave them a shot and they arrived quickly.

I haven't built anything with them yet, but I thought I would post a few photos so you could all see them in scale with a 15mm as well as see how they take paint.

	The packaging they come shipped in is minimal.  Just the packing box and plastic bones in the bags. Nothing special, nothing to add to the cost.
The scale of these is large.  Dinos are big, yes, but these will do the job at 15mm of being extra large.  Here is a Rebel Minis Sahadeen trooper standing on the rib cage of the Triceratops skeleton.
	Close up the skull.  It is split in two, like the rib cage.  This will allow you to potentially build twice as many skeletons.  Also note the cool cracked texture, this is on all of the bones.
This will be my painting test piece.  I plan on just giving it a quick wash and then dry brushing it.
	The bone with the initial wash.  The wash brought out the cracks decently, but also identified a solid mold line that will need to be cleaned off.  Not a big deal, I just hadn't noticed it till the wash.
Finished with the drybrush, next to an unpainted.  I think, I would use a darker wash next time, but overall the extra detail provided by the cracks are a nice touch.

Overall for a random bunch of plastic bones for $11, I am pretty happy with the product.  If you are looking to incorporate a long dead monster in your sci-fi or even fantasy terrain, I think these are a pretty decent place to start.

Smooth Cast 300

All of my castings had been with Alumilite's Super Plastic.  It was readily available at my hobby store and I was anxious to start casting starships so I could work on a simple ruleset for ship to ship combat.

Over this weekend I went down to my local plastic store and picked up a $27 set of Smooth-on's Smooth Cast 300 on the advice of the great guys at https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/Stargrunt2/.  It has a pretty similar working and set time when compared with Super Plastic.

However the A and B part of Smoothcast are less viscous which allows it to take finer detail in the molds that are being cast.  That is a win.

I haven't seen a compareable size of Smoothcast vs Superplastic in the stores.  But I know from the small bottles of Super Plastic I got in a kit, that the $27 set of Smooth Cast will last me a lot of castings.

I also suspect the lower viscosity of this resin will allow air bubbles to be removed easier, although I haven't personally had an issue with it.

In the end Smooth Cast was easily worth the purchase price.

Thumbs up on this product.