Sand Castles of the 41st Millennium

I thought this was worth a quick mention...

I was at my local 99 Cents Store this morning and wandered through their summer/ beach aisle.  I’m always looking for stuff there that I can adapt to my cheapskate ways.  Fortunately my girlfriend likes to look for garden stuff, so my dawdling doesn’t get me in too much trouble.

Anyway, I happened to look at a bunch of beach sets they had with sand molds and noticed that some of them were for castle sections.  Walls, towers, and so on.  And some of the manufacturers had gone all out and put masonry bits and individual stones on the outside of the molds (none of which would be represented on the castle formed from said mold).

I was trying to think if I could do anything with it and then it hit me—I didn’t need to do anything with it.  The sand mold itself was effectively a one dollar, 20-25mm scale castle section.  It even had flat sections on top for models to stand.  It just needed some sandpaper to scuff the plastic, primer, and some drybrushing with whatever grays and whites I had sitting around.  It’s not Witchfate Tor, no, but it also isn’t eighty dollars.

Then I looked at some of the other molds and realized if I added just a tiny bit of detail they’d make fantastic bunkers or bastions—again, for just a buck each.  And with interactive scenery being all the new rage, who wouldn’t want a bunch of one dollar bastions spread across their war-torn battlefield?  Heck, most of us could probably dress one up with leftover chaos or Imperial bits and make it look real nice.

So whichever system you play, go check out your local discount store, browse their summer/ seasonal aisle, and see if there’s a solid chuck of scenery there for you.