GW Releasing Pre Painted Terrain

[Antarius]

56 minutes ago, Evil Eye said:

Absolutely- painting terrain (and to a lesser extent vehicles) in the same manner as miniatures is a bad idea that will drive you hopelessly insane, and it's definitely a good idea to be a bit more selective with colour breakup on it. I think the issue with GW terrain is that the way it's sculpted, it looks quite obviously "wrong" if you DON'T pick out a lot of the details in their own colours, whereas older terrain (Necromunda bulkheads etc) you could absolutely get away with a single unifying colour with basic shading, highlighting and weathering despite having a lot of detail. It's a problem a lot of modern GW models have nowadays, and whilst it sometimes looks spectacular it also makes painting a chore and it can give the impression that the sculptor does not understand the concept of negative space.

 

On the plus side terrain can be quite easy (and fun!) to make yourself. Scratch Bashing and the like often get me in the mood to make some terrain from random crap. I really should actually do so at some point...

Yeah, building terrain can be so fun. I especially think the combination of some GW bits with other materials works really well.

I recently built a harbour for 40K/Necromunda that I'll be painting up for the CTA next month. Basically it's just the foam packaging from a washing machine combined with a couple of different generations of GW terrain kits, but it was so much fun to make and it's (if nothing else) quite unique.

[Neil H]

In the latest Warcom Q&A they have stayed that the new scenery will be available as painted and unpainted, so hopefully that will keep people a bit happier? Shame they are not rereleasing the Cities of Death sets again though....

Edited May 15 by Neil H
Edit

[Osteoclast]

30 minutes ago, Neil H said:

In the latest Warcom Q&A they have stayed that the new scenery will be available as painted and unpainted, so hopefully that will keep people a bit happier? Shame they are not rereleasing the Cities of Death sets again though....

and that they won’t do pre-painted miniatures.

Edited May 15 by Osteoclast

[Crimson Longinus]

1 hour ago, Neil H said:

In the latest Warcom Q&A they have stayed that the new scenery will be available as painted and unpainted, so hopefully that will keep people a bit happier? Shame they are not rereleasing the Cities of Death sets again though....

 

It will be very interesting to see what the price difference will be. 

[Mogger351]

4 minutes ago, Crimson Longinus said:

 

It will be very interesting to see what the price difference will be. 

Yeah I'm curious what they value people's time at.

Edited May 15 by Mogger351

[Tastyfish]

3 hours ago, Osteoclast said:

and that they won’t do pre-painted miniatures.

I think that would be the death of their brand to be honest. It radically changes what their core product is.

 

"The hobby" isn't just marketing speak for them to also sell you paint, it's also a reason for you to sink a lot of time into their product, and to develop some emotional investment in it.

Pre-paints raises the skill floor for new players whilst discouraging them from exploring that whole side (admittedly with it's associated products), which in turn sort of changes some of the price calculus of "what do I get for my money as far as time spent on entertainment goes".

 

Currently a combat patrol etc, might be a few hours to assemble, many hours to paint + a few hours of games and also have that sense of accomplishment from having made something your own. With prepaints, that becomes a couple of hours to stick, and a game or two over a friends house start to look a lot pricier compared to even stuff like modern 8hr triple AAA games, you're getting into the realm of somewhat disposable, expensive toys rather than a hobby - something which then becomes an even bigger ask if you want them to get more. You're sort of then more into the board game model of a base game + expansion, rather than a hobby or a full collection.

 

Plus there's nothing to get you thinking about Warhammer when you're not getting ready to play a game. The majority experience would be to buy a combat patrol, play a few games, if you remember them and that this was the plan when you agreed to go over someone's house. The battle is no longer the crescendo of time initially invested into the army.

 

Terrain is kind of a different beast as it's generally pretty big, less exciting than the models in your army and often not yours. It's the plate the home cooked meal is on, or perhaps a shop-bought condiment on the side.

Edited May 15 by Tastyfish

[Paturabo]

I don't know if it has been pointed out yet but it seems that these new terrain pieces match the silhouettes for terrain from the the battlefield layouts revealed a while back.

 

[Urkh]

On 5/15/2026 at 10:27 AM, Antarius said:

Yeah, building terrain can be so fun. I especially think the combination of some GW bits with other materials works really well.

I recently built a harbour for 40K/Necromunda that I'll be painting up for the CTA next month. Basically it's just the foam packaging from a washing machine combined with a couple of different generations of GW terrain kits, but it was so much fun to make and it's (if nothing else) quite unique.

 

My first ever ruin was made from a kleenex box and scotch tape. This was in 2013, haha!

[BrutalCities]

It's kinda funny seeing the amount of raging reactions to it.
It's more expensive and not for everyone. Lots of people are saying "I'll just paint it myself" - cool, you should get the unpainted one, or build your own, then. 
It's clearly a product made for people with lotsa $ who are time poor - which will be a large demographic, for GW.

On another note, I'm a solo business terrain guy, and have some pre-painted terrain available for pre order if you're interested. It's a ruin that's not L shaped - probably more relevant for Necromunda.
But you can sure block large units behind it cos it's massive! I apologise for the sales pitch. Frankly my entire business has customers who love painting their own terrain. So I don't actually have many customers at all who want pre-painted terrain!
You can check it out here if you're interested       ^

 

 

 

mutated-city-terrain-1.webp

[Lord Marshal]

Some printable coloured templates intended for A3 now on WarCom.

 

Nothing crazy, but better than a poke in the eye. 

 

Edited Tuesday at 11:59 AM by Lord Marshal

[01RTB01]

2 hours ago, Lord Marshal said:

Some printable coloured templates intended for A3 now on WarCom.

 

Nothing crazy, but better than a poke in the eye. 

 

 

Unfortunately they don't seem to know that not everywhere has A3 paper. The dimensions in Canada are slightly different. Hopefully that doesn't cause issues.

[Emperor Ming]

On 5/15/2026 at 10:48 PM, Crimson Longinus said:

 

It will be very interesting to see what the price difference will be. 

 

Im expecting it to be double price of the unpainted stuff...servitors need paying to paint stuff