The value of saving time (pre-made scenery)

In trying to keep making progress on a multitude of projects, it can seem quite overwhelming for me, especially when it comes to scratch building scenery. So I've decided to buy a few ready-built pieces to speed up the process of populating my Mordheim boards with laser cut houses and some 3d printed items, which will sit alongside my own scratch builds. I've realised that scratch builds are better for partially ruined buildings and ready made scenery for complete buildings, the reason being that purchased/mdf buildings look too pristine for ruins and scratch built ones can be a bit more rough and ready and therefore a bit quicker to make. That's what I'm leaning towards for now anyway.

So here's the lastercut building, assembled and painted:

With smaller, detailed scatter terrain I used to steer clear of 3d prints as the level of finish with the typical horizontal striation lines was far too distracting on items that need to stand up to close scrutiny, however the prints are improving and I can hide any unwanted 3d printing texture with some painting techniques (such as stippling over the top to break the lines or even introducing deliberate vertical painting lines). So here's my 3d printed well and doors to the depths:

Part of the idea with these is that they can be links to an underworld gaming environment and therefore link my modular town tiles to my modular dungeon ones (this is an idea for an upcoming narrative game)

Here's a few glamour shots  for now:

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Irongate Scenery - the bar

I’ve often thought that i’ve been a bit stuck in the past with my hobby, the vast majority of my collection is lead, although there is a growing resin and plastic contingrnt. So this is me embracing, what is very likely to be, the future - some 3D printed sculpts. They are from Irongate Scenery and are to be used for a bar interior that I have planned. 

Having painted these it is fair to say that I really dislike them. It is just simply the horrible texture of concentric lines that i’ve tried to hide with my paint job, that made painting them an incredible chore (even though these are very quick paint jobs). I came to the painting table with an open mind (and fully expected a different texture from what i’m used to) but I just could not muster up any love for them; sometimes when i’m painting I can imagine the decision making or see the style of the sculptor  as i’m working and this acts as a massive motivator to “do the sculpt justice”, because i’m not the keenest painter st the best of times.

Funnily enough, the warped top right table is greenstuffed from an instamold I made as there was a missing tabletop, and the familiarity of painting on that surface was much more enduring, even if there was a horrible warp to it! So maybe my bias is about familiarity or maybe I prefer painting things that have been made by hand. Whatever the reason, i’m staying away from 3D printed stuff and not grasping the future right now.