Urban Streets

A great new table set on the market is the Secret Weapon Miniatures Tablescapes Urban Streets set, that can be used for campaigns fought in Aradi's cities, and for any other urban warfare scenario. The tiles are 1'x1' molded plastic with X connectors underneath to securely lock the board tiles together. The set comes with a multitude of different patterned tiles, including both clean and damaged streets, and together with the small size lends to almost limitless combinations for gameplay. This page will serve as a repository and tutorial of sorts for the Tablescapes Urban Streets set being used for the Aradi campaign.

How to Paint Tablescapes TIles Using Only Standard Brushes
1. I spray painted a flat black primer on all tiles. I used the cheapest black paint I could find ($0.90 a can) because 64 tiles will require a ton of paint, and because the cheap flat black gives an almost chalky, textured finish on molded plastic, which for the purposes of city streets is just what I was looking for.



Where many people have started investing in airbrushes, I do not yet own one nor am I skilled in the use of the contraption, so I will complete all my tiles by hand using standard paint brushes. This is going to take a long time, but with luck I can achieve similar results. Even so, I would still advocate for the use of an airbrush if possible, if nothing else to save an immense amount of time.

I chose to paint the tiles in the same color scheme as the resin bases for the Celestine Monks to match the theme of the army. This includes 4 colors and one weathering pigment dry brushed in succession to achieve the final look. The streets will require 2 more colors and 1 more weathering pigment for the various metal grates and manhole covers on the tiles.

Because my miniature bases were painted with Citadel paints, and they only come in 1/100th of an ounce bottles for $50 each, I took color samples of the paints to the local hardware store and had a quart of high acrylic-content house paint made for each. This way I have more than enough paint for the tons of tiles and later buildings without having to worry about color match to the army. As an added bonus, house paints are incredibly durable, which will help reduce damage to the tiles during gameplay and in storage. The weathering pigment bottles last so long, they shouldn't be a problem.

2. I first drybrushed a rather heavy and very sloppy coat of Dawnstone onto the entire tile using a random stroke and dab to get an uneven color layer. I used a large round flat brush bought at a craft store in a 10 pc. bag for $1 - it's a cheap brush that will get destroyed with all the dry brushing, which is fine. A 1" course house painting brush also worked, but I found it held too much paint to get the effect I wanted without wasting a lot of paint. As I drybrushed, I found the surface to be extremely smooth. These tiles don't have much texture, and many places showed brush marks instead of even color. To remedy this I had a brush in one hand and a paper towel in the other, and rubbed the paint around after brushing it on. This had the effect of splotchy uneven coverage of the black without a bunch of streaks of grey that betray the use of a brush. Don't rub too hard though, or you'll pull the paint off, leaving an ugly blobby ring around the area. This required a complete restart early on.

3. The second drybrush layer was much lighter than the first, using Celestra Grey. I kept the random brush/blot and rub technique but went heavier on the sidewalks than on the street.

4. The next layer goes just on the sidewalks, so I taped up the street edges to keep the paint off. Then I very very lightly drybrushed Ushabti Bone on the sidewalks, focusing mostly on the edges and cracks, again keeping it very uneven.

5. The final drybrush layer is a light coat of Dheneb Stone on all surfaces to tone down the yellow of the Ushabti Bone and pull the street and sidewalk together, which gives the tile a dirty, abandoned look.

6. I then went through with a small brush and painted the metal elements with a nice even coat of Rhinox Hide as the base of the old, rusted metal look they will have when complete.

7. To make the metal pop a bit I lightly drybrushed Leadbelcher over the elements. I considered also brushing on a flat grey of some sort to take off the shine and bring the metal closer to the color of the street, but decided I'd let the weathering pigments do that work.

8. For the metal I used Forgeworld's Orange Rust weathering pigment, and applied sparingly (yes, all that orange is the result of only a tiny bit of pigment) with a dry paintbrush, making sure to get it into the recesses and cracks. I then made the mistake of wetting the brush to make a grimy pigment slush for the rust, which turned out terrible and overly clumpy. It turns out the pigments have a lot of pigment in them, and the color runs FOREVER when wet. I had red-orange all over the tile, and in the brush hairs that rendered the brush useless for several hours after scrubbing and washing. Lesson learned, use a dry paintbrush for weathering pigments.

9. The final touch is the Grey Ash weathering pigment that pulls together all the elements with a fine dust in the cracks, metal parts, gutters, and sidewalks. I applied the ash liberally with a large brush, pushing the pigment around until it found homes in all the little crevices. I made sure to do this unevenly as well, a uniform coat of dust would not create the right look.

10. And There you have it! A complete urban street tile, ready to be repeated 63 more times. I will also add in some fallen leaves fastidiously scattered about to add a bit of color and texture, just as soon as I go buy some more PVA glue.

Next up: Do this over and over for the rest of my life. Enjoy!

Update
After some trial and error, a whole ton of time, and a complete re-do of a full set of tiles, I developed a different methodology. I truly don't have the skill or control to dry brush such large areas multiple times with the same amount of paint and pressure to get consistent results. What I had looked alright tile by tile, but when combined the differences became obvious to the point of distracting. The end effect was not that of city streets, but more a patchwork of varied blocks, which was not what I was going for.

So, my new technique is to use spray paint to put an uneven gray layer and a light misting of tan over all the road sections, then paint the sidewalks and apply weathering pigments like I did before. The result here is a bit of a cleaner look than I originally envisioned, but the time saved and consistency gained was well worth the change.

As you can see in the photo above, multiple tiles combine nicely given the even road color and texture derived from the spray paint base.

I will post additional updates and pictures as this project progresses, until eventually I have all 64 tiles complete and set up.