Rusty heaps! For hidin' them creeps!

So I'd been keeping my eyes on Micro Arts Studios hard-foam "crate heaps" for a long time...like...years.  They're more or less hard to find in the US and shipping from Micro Arts is prohibitive.

Finally...FINALLY they showed up on eBay from a UK seller with reasonable shipping.  I ordered two sets (sacrificing a 40K kit on eBay to fund them!).

Will they survive heaps of  gaming?  We shall see.  The hard foam is nice, takes spray paint without a fuss, and they're suitably large (i.e. you're getting a decent chunk of terrain for you dollary-dos).  They have tiers which can fairly comfortably hold some miniatures on 25mm bases.

At first when I received them I was excited but then realized I'd never paint them if I tried to paint each box and barrel.  So I decided to cheat.  I opted for a massed mottled brown colour (rust), and then I just did a bunch of random highlighting with various browns and rusts.  I may eventually go back and pick out some barrels, but they actually look pretty solid on the tabletop as-is.

Folks, eat your daily vitamins!  This is the dark grey foam, how they show up (in a big ziplock bag).

Sprayed dark brown undercoat..then slashed about with a ruddy brown and a fur brown - then dusted the edges with leather brown spray.

 

 There are three sets; 1x Large heap (I don't have this one), and this is set number two, which is two medium heaps.

This is the third set which is three slightly smaller heaps.  As you can see (not super obvious in pics!) I did a bunch of random dry brushing and edges, did some dirt highlighting and added grass tufts.  I may go back and add some green foliage chunks as well.  Wanted the idea that they've been sitting abandoned for a hundred years.

 

Overall, quite happy with the cheat.  The colours blend with my other rusty stuff, so that's a nice touch.  It's a solid set of terrain and lets me run a rusty old depot now as part of my tables.