Last year in the late fall I first got into Frostgrave and joined a number of Frostgrave groups on Facebook. One of the things that really stood out with the Frostgrave groups was how much they re-purposed non-miniature products as scenery. Everything from birdhouses to aquarium features to Christmas village dioramas got used for Frostgrave. Some of it wasn't great and it was obvious that the main appeal was that it was cheaper than conventional hobby scenery but some of worked really well.
The other day a friend of mine posted some street lamps that he had gotten and it made me think I should bust out some of the stuff I've acquired the past few months and share what (in my opinion) cool stuff can be had on a budget.
First up the thing that really got me to start considering this a year ago; trees. There are loads of retailers that carry trees for Christmas village dioramas this time of year and last year I made the mistake of waiting too long to get some and by the time I circled around to it they were sold out everywhere. This year my wife remembered that I had been trying to get some and one one of her trips to Michaels to get yarn got me a bag of trees.
This bag was $29.99 sticker price but basically went on to the shelf marked at 50% off so it actually cost $15.
Here are all the trees spread out and to give you some idea, those small trees in front are basically 1" tall so this is a lot of trees for the money. I'm pretty sure that anything short of a full forest on a 3'x3' table can be done with one bag of these trees.
Also given that I play the undead for most fantasy games I figured Halloween clearances might have some options for me and they did not disappoint. Again Michaels was the big winner with coffins, headstones and a cemetery fence (not shown). Unfortunately I left the fence (which is really cool) at a friend's house so I don't have it to show off.
These packs were $5.99 at full price but by the time I bought them they were 60% or 75% off (I can't remember) so for some scatter terrain they're pretty good.
The only downside with the Halloween pieces is that they are a little big (only just a little) and they're unique looking enough that buying multiple packs isn't as appealing as for the trees.
Last but not least back to the place I started. When I saw Tod's street lamps and I had just gotten the Suicide Squad starter for Batman which means I need a pile of street lamps. Unfortunately by the time I decided to grab some my local Michaels was sold out but my daughter wanted a few things from the Dollarama and they had some lamps that look perfect to me.
These were $2 per pack (so super cheap!) and to be honest the reason I only bought 5 packs is because they only had 5 in-stock. When I'm on the road over the next week or two I'm going to hit up other Dollaramas in my area and see if I can find more.
Well there you have it. I think this stuff works great and it was really inexpensive which leaves more money for toy soldiers.
-Jay
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