7/30/2016

Frugal GM Review: Acheson Creations

Frugal GM Review: Acheson Creations
With GenCon happening next week I wanted to review something you could find at the convention. [edit] Well, you can normally find them at Origins......[/edit]

Acheson Creations is one of the entries on the +12 Links of Helpfulness page, under RPG Terrain. I've blogged about them three years ago, but never really did a review.

Personally I like the small resin bits and bobs from Acheson Creations over the large pieces, but that is more because I get a lot more mileage out of them and they are quite reasonably priced at 50¢ to $1. Over the last couple of years I have amassed a decent sized collection and I've been real lazy about getting them painted up.....until now.

Everything I recently painted up


I had a lot to do to get these painted up, starting with a good scrubbing in soapy water and then priming after the pieces dried up. Every piece got a base coat of paint depending on what they were. Wood "stuff" had a light brown base coat and stone a light grey base. On my stone work I randomly painted individual stones a bunch of other colors so they weren't so uniform. I then worked with simple washes and dry brushing.

Close-up of a barrier and some barrelsPieces like this really do help develop basic painting skills you can then use when painting your miniatures.

I really like how these accent pieces have just the right amount of detail. Not so much that they are a pain to paint and not too little that they don't have character. With the exception of the wood piles, all the wooden pieces have a nice grain to them that is easy to pick out with washes and dry brushing. The chests have recognizable hinges and lock, which is something I'd never be able to sculpt.

Close-up of some barrels and chests
I used a combination of flocking for these items. I had some commercial grass flocking and some "free" dirt flocking. Everything is, or will be (haven't completely finished yet) coated with a satin clear-coat to keep the flocking in place and to protect the pieces.

The only thing I didn't like about painting these pieces was trying to paint up the hoops on the barrels....so many barrels. When I learned that historically-speaking barrels from the Middle Ages used wooden hoops or some type of cordage, I simply stopped with the unnecessary steps of painting the hoops black and dry-brushing accents on them.

Frugal GM 5 Star Review: Acheson Creations
In my experience the website for Acheson Creations is a little bit of a pain to navigate. Some of the pictures are far too small and many don't actually load properly. I've never purchased from the website so I can't speak to that aspect, but if you can find them at a convention you can really pick up some great pieces at an awesome price. These durable resin accent pieces easily fit into pretty much any fantasy RPG and once you have them available you'll find yourself using them time and time again. Great bang for your buck!





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