A Load of Old Rubbish
On the left are two bases of wheelie bins, a dustbin and a stack of black bin bags from Black Cat Bases and on the right is a big bin and an accompanying pile of rubbish from Ainsty Castings which are now owned by Old Crow. The BTD Cyberman is there to ambush scavengers or to give an idea of scale, whichever you prefer.
I was given the Black Cat items at Colours 2006 by Ben Parker who made them and owns Black Cat Bases so that I could paint them up and see what I thought. The Ainsty items had been lying around for some time and it seemed natural to paint everything at once and compare the results.
Both companies make their scenery items in resin; it's usual to wash resin in warm soapy water before you begin painting to remove any grease from the casting process, I didn't bother because I'm lazy and there was no release agent on any of the pieces anyway. I mounted everything either singularly or in groups on some 60mm round bases and got to work. Everything was quick to paint, after a black undercoat the bins were given a coat of Foundry 26A Forest Green and then washed with GW Chestnut Ink to dirty them down. The ink was dabbed off with a textured tissue as it was applied to give a stippled effect rather than an overall brown sheen. The bin bags and the rest of the rubbish bits were drybrushed with Foundry Charcoal Black 34B and 34C and then a Chestnut Ink wash and some Flesh, Ochre and Canvas colours were applied to the rubbish to bring up the textures. The dustbin was painted GW Mithril Silver and then given an wash with GW Armour Wash ink to make it a bit grubby. The bases were finished off with Dried Earth Basetex, scatter and static grass (there's a step-by-step guide to this in my FIW section). Once the Basetex was dry, everything was matt varnished and finally the bin bags were painted with gloss varnish to give them a polythene shine.
There's not much to choose between the two company's products, both are very good. There are a few air bubbles in the Black Cat pieces as opposed to none in the Ainsty ones but none of them were serious. None of the pieces required any cleaning up prior to painting.
I like the variety offered by the Black Cat pack, I will be buying several to amass a number of dustbins for my city. I'm sure I'll be able to order them separately too, Ben is very good at things like that. Each of the different items is a decent size and could be based individually without becoming fiddly if you prefer such things. The price is very good too.
The Ainsty set is just beautifully sculpted as is normal for their range. The integral resin bases allows the two components to be left unbased if you'd prefer and gives a more natural look to the scenery. Personally I always base things to protect the underside so this isn't a concern. My recommendation is that you buy both sets.
Ainsty Pack: 5932 Overflowing Dumpster and Rubbish (2 models in pack) £4.25
Black Cat Bases: Three bins and a stack of bin bags (5 models in pack) £2.00
