Irongate Scenery’s Pirate Terrain – Review

By Tom “Chairborne” Mullane

I was in the market for some of the little things that make Blood and Plunder games look so gorgeous. And while there are plenty of wonderful buildings and larger pieces on sale at Firelock’s site, there are other sources for some of the smaller stuff. And as someone whose tables are typically overflowing with terrain, I wanted to get my hands on some Market stalls and barrels.

Here is an overview of the haul I had delivered from , I’ll go over some of what they had in stock, how well it went together, and how easy it was to paint up.

On Irongate’s site, you’ll find sub categories for different types of terrain. the Aztec Ruins looked appealing, but I’ll save them for another article. I focused right in on the . I wanted to have a Bazar worth raiding and fighting over. So I grabbed a few of these.

I got my hands on a Butcher’s shop

Which includes some hanging meats! I used one of my boarding party men carrying an axe to be the butcher today. I used staples that I twisted into hooks to suspend some of the cuts from the stall itself. But most of the meat you see here is included in the kit, and appears right on the resin.

A Bread kit

The Bread comes loose, but I glued them into a pile in the bowl before painting them with some contrast paints.

A Spice Shop

This finely dressed gentleman (one of the villager set from Firelock) guards his colorful spices. This one is my favorite stall, because it comes with shelves that have the spices and textures right on them, so there is very little to assemble.

And the Fish Mongers

My Favorite addition being the bucket of crabs that comes with them. The fish all paint up great with contrasts or washes, and it really adds a splash of color to a table or a village square.

Each of them ran about 9 dollars at the current rate of exchange while I write this article. Putting them together took me all of about 10 minutes. The pieces of resin and plastic are sturdy and not brittle. Pictures on the site make it easy to see how they fit together, and simple plastic superglue made sure they didn’t come apart.

I also picked up a wagon, which I filled with some straw from my terrain fixings and some barrels and crates.

I used contrast paints to get the fun colors on the spices and my fish, and it took me a short session of about 30 minutes to get a nice coat of paint on these after I primed them outside with a nice shot of white primer. Any watered down wet palette can get a similar effect without the cost of contrasts from GW (which i know are pricey)

All of it together with shipping ran me around 65.00 USD. Which is not a bad deal considering that a piece of stone colored tile can make me a full market and a board of terrain. I will be buying from Iron gate in the future. My only advice to potential customers is to make sure you order a bunch at once to make it worth the cost of international shipping if you are a customer here in the U.S. COVID has made shipping things somewhat unpredictable as late, and getting your money’s worth from UPS or FedEx takes a bit of research and being careful regarding weight. That said, we aren’t talking resin ships here. I could easily have ordered 4 times as much and still not come close to paying as hefty a shipping bill as I would have for a bunch of MDX style wooden terrain from elsewhere in the U.S.

Bottom line, If you’re looking for something durable/low maintenance, easy to put together, that will add a pop to your pirating tabletop adventures, make sure you check out