Is it Gallowdark? Into the Dark? Hell if I know. I just know it looks cool.
When they announced (and I’m just going to use Gallowdark here) this terrain kit, I was instantly engaged. I’d been thinking about setting up a Zone Mortalis board for Necromunda and, even though that started of as a 2D set, it’s now 3D and people have made some great things with it. But this edition Necromunda started off with 2D rules and there are a bunch of scenarios that literally call for them and I thought it would be fun to have the option.
Also, since everything I had was Ash Wastes, it would be a good way for me to get an underhive set going. The fact that it was built to be modular was its biggest selling point to me. Sure, you could not glue down Zone Mortalis boards but there are some real pros and cons that go along with that (fodder for a different post).
Fortunately, I had a buddy who may or may not be associated with a certain game company and he was willing to sell me some Gallowdark at a cut rate price! In fact, it was even better than that because it was essentially two of the starting Kill Team sets that came with the extra bibbs and bobbs sprue which really add to the feel. Unfortunately, as most people know, it was a real pain in the ass to fit together!
Not the models. Everything came off the sprue just fine. Everything glued together just fine. But the clever little interlocking system they designed had zero give and you basically had to jam them together and use a cap to lock them tight. Or… knowing this… you could file down the edges and tape them off so no primer thickened them back up again.
I chose option B.
It took several weeks with a file, filing down the male connectors and testing how they fit then taping them off with painters tape before I could even put a lick of paint on them. But eventually they were set!
Besides the interlocking bits, there were also corner covers that finished off the sides. And, of course, the 10,000 caps. Those, I solved by using some mini-masking tape and taping them together in blocks of ten, with a hazard stripe pattern after they were already primed. Then I applied the yellow, peeled the tape, dry brushed the top, cleaned up the lines, and there you go. Ten caps at a go.
Where I could, I applied decals just for some additional color and those turned out real nice.
All in all, it took me less than five weeks to do two whole sets of Gallowdark terrain and I think the results came out great. I even used what I like to call “poor man’s OSL” to reflect the light and screen glows.
The trick for me was this: prime everything black. Dry brush it all a very dark silver. Paint every single skull. Pick out where a thing should be bronze. Then, if doing the lights, do the lights in a single color and add the poor man’s OSL. Turns out, I could get four sections done in a day, once I was on a roll. And a painted set, in whatever quality, is always better than an unpainted one. And, once it’s done, it just looks great. I frequently use panel sections to back up my photos of my gangs like in the Escher post.
And then action shots always look good…
There’s nothing that makes playing miniature games more immersive than great a great table filled with characterful terrain.
