The Road to a Gaming Table

[Shandowner]

sweet board

[40kTerrain]

Absolutely amazing -- great job! So many different terrain ideas work, too. Icebergs; shipwrecks; some kind of quick build army post; very, very cool.

[Lew_b81]

I'm back! With an update! A big one at that. I'll do comments first. I know a lot of you replied a loooong time ago, but I don't want to be rude by just ignoring you!

Radical: I agree with the tower looking a little bland. It's the tallest structure we'd done, and as the first one we wanted to save a lot of sprues. Criticism taken though - the ones yet to come have more detail!

Daniel36: Thanks very much!

Dannage: The stairs were indeed originally going to lead to a little middle floor with a small generator linked to the array above it, but we ran out of room on the tower, so cut the idea. There're a couple of problems with the stairs on this one, something which we've filed under inexperience. Stairs in the future will be more thought through!

N810: Thank you!

Fold: The snow recipe has been given a step by step in my Ogre log, but for completeness it's:
Water effect/PVA glue/snow effect (from Woodland Scenics - NOT GW) in a mix of 30/20/50.

Shadow Fall: I gotta say, getting kidnapped and forced to make gaming tables doesn't seem all that bad. You'll feed me, right?

Kormas: I wouldn't start playing 40k again so soon - we only have a few pieces yet!

Solun Decius: Unfortunately, I probably will make you wait a long time for the big buildings! This is a really slow burning project. In a few years we'll have enough terrain for a couple of boards hopefully though!

B4z: Thanks!

Hypaspist: Cheers, I will try to keep up the good work!

Skaven13: This building doesn't really sell the idea of foamcore I don't think, but I do definately recommend it. Use a bunch of other bits too, and you'll have twice as much (great looking) scenery as you'd normally have from the CoD kits.

_toast_: The clumping snow drift bits were mostly done by my friend Steve. He has an uncanny knack for making decent looking snow on models! I make the mix, and let him run wild!

Pluch: You know what, we actually had loads of snow in January when I was finishing off the board. Unfortunately it all melted just before I was done, otherwise I would've put the whole thing outside in the garden and taken some pictures! Maybe even played a turn or two on a snow board in the snow before getting too cold and coming in!

Desert Rain: I've seen a few done with winter themes now (since GW did theirs for the Space Wolves release), but I've never seen a whole ice lake board, so I think I have a first there!

Stempe: Thanks! More coming!

Mrln68: You're quite right, we just ran out of stuff to add to the top of the towers. Live and learn though. I've taken your advice and added butresses and other bits to the tower in a forthcoming building.

Fluffymcfluff: Haha I hope yours isn't a winter theme board, or your pee may freeze!

SotF: That's a good idea. We're planning a big drill and a waterfall - both could use that!

Dreffbuilder: Thanks!

Severian: The snow recipe is just above, the icicles are done using Woodland Scenics Water Effects. It's the thicker stuff. You get some on your brush and carefully apply it to the area you want it, then pull your brush down to create the icicle shape. Takes a fair bit of practice, mind!

Shandowner: Thank you!

40kTerrain: I hadn't thought of shipwrecks, but I'll definately be incorporating that into some WFB scenery. Ohhh the ideas!

__________________________________

Alright, on a complete change of pace, here's a different sort of update.

As you all know, WFB 8th edition came out recently. We'd been really using a lot of proxy terrain for our Fantasy games until then because we were playing much more 40k. The arrival of the new edition gave us a little kick though, so we constructed a few pieces of scenery. They're not the best things I've ever made, but they were rather quick to do, and they make great game ready pieces.

Here's a group shot:



I must apologise now for the pictures. It's been an awful day for weather, so the lighting was rather appalling. Still, some pictures are better than no pictures!
As you can see, there're some woods, a monolith, a stone circle, and some individual waystones. A member of our gaming group plays Wood Elves, and I play Chaos, so we made a bit of a mix. Mainly they're just simple pieces made to game with though.

More below!

[Lew_b81]

Here are a few close ups.

First up, the stone circle:



We decided to make some Wood Elf style waystones, and combined a few to make a circle. I can't remember the same of the thing in the rulebook offhand, but it's the one that gives units Magic Resistance 2.
It (and the Waystones below) is made with real stones from the garden. We cut some small bases out of hardboard (the kind you get on the back of photo frames), stuck the rocks on with a hot glue gun, then used wall filler around the base to give them a natural appearance. The smaller rocks around them were added by pressing broken up chunks of plasterboard (the kind walls are made from!) straight into the filler while it was wet. After it was all dry, it was all given a coat of pva glue to fix everything on.

The individual Waystones:




We use these as (unsurprisingly) Waystones! The symbols were made by putting a thin covering of greenstuff over a flat surface on the rocks, then using another rock, pressed down to mimic the surface texture. I then took a sculpting tool and carved in some symbols taken from the Wood Elf armybook. Easy peasy.
The moss was a last minute addition to add some much needed colour. It is green flock applied with pva glue and then drybrushed with Bleached Bone.



The trees look rather complicated, but actually weren't too bad. They're pine trees obviously!
I read several guides before starting and picked out my favourite bits of them. The trunks are made from some thin dowel rod that's cut into a point at the top (and bottom, but more on that in a minute) and then painted brown.
The brances and pine needles were a little more complex. I got some scouring pads for the kitchen. The sort that're thin and green. I got them from ASDA on the cheap, but any good supermarket will have them. What you need to do is tear them in half down the middle. Like, so you have two sheets of the same size but half as thick. It destroys your hands, so bring a friend. I then tore them into approximate circles. Don't try to be perfect - trees rarely are. You want big and small circles. You then stab them over the trunks layer after layer, making the shape tree you want. I apologise for not taking step by step pictures - I'll maybe do another one in the future to show you. The layers were then stuck in with a little hot glue on each one.
They then got sprayed black. After that they got sprayed with spray glue, and then I sprinkled green flock on them. It's important to spray the glue down from the top and sprinkle the flock in the same direction. Gives a nice layered effect. They then received a very light dusting of white spray as a quick highlight.
They were then sprayed with glue again and snow sprinkled on, and then they had some of the snow mix I gave above applied all over the tops of the biggest layers with a brush (the snow mix is 30/20/50 water effect/pva glue/Woodland Scenics snow flock).
And that's the trees! But what's that? You say that all looks fine, but how would you play on them? What happens if you need to move models through? WELL I'M ONE STEP AHEAD OF YOU THERE




OH SNAP! The trees come out!
We again cut some bases with hardboard, but this time we added some small hills made from high density foam. I have a load of it spare, I think it came in a box to protect a new computer. The higher density the better for this. It's sort of rubbery and will eat knife blades, so I chopped it up with a razorsaw. This was before the trees were made of course. The foam was stuck to the bases with hot glue and then given the same wall filler and plasterboard treatment as the stones. Then the tree trunks were pressed in (remember how I said they were whittled down on both ends? This is why!) to the foam. Be careful to press them in straight down, you don't want them all wobbly.
The base (and all the bases) were entirely painted brown, then light grey, light blue, and finally white were all sponged onto them in turn. They were then given a very watery brown wash, then moss and snow were applied in patches.
In this way, the trees stay nice and sturdy, but you can take them out for troops to move through. Most importantly when the trees are in, they actually look like forests, rather than looking like trees on bases that're then put on cut out cardboard, like most trees tend to look like! The little hill of ground helps to block line of sight too, and in the current rules, that's pretty important, considering troops are free to walk through woods without penalty, it's good for them to actually do something!

[Lew_b81]

Next up, the monolith!





Alright, I lied. I actually made this one about ten years ago originally, but went back to it and sorted it out. It had never been painted even!
We use this as that one that gives wizards four dice to channel but makes them miscast if they get too many 6s. Cool!
It's the same foam used for the tree bases, just cut into a rough monolithic stone shape. It was then coated in wall filler (I can't recommend this stuff highly enough for giving a cool rough texture to things really easily). The filler was then cut away to make certain areas and to carve the Chaos star into it. I then added all the little bits. It was orignally a herdstone for a Beastman Mordheim warband I had, so it has a load of equipment they've stolen. I also added some skulls and a little banner.
As for painting, it was addressed the same as the waystones. The equipment was all painted with black, silver and red to provide some contrast to the pale natural look. Speaking of which, the moss on here was all washed with Devlan Mud to give it a more corrupted look compared to the other pieces. The banner was given a quick freehand star (just in case you didn't know who the monolith belonged to). The star was painted with blood made from Tamiya Clear Red mixed with a tiny amount of Chaos Black. I don't think the monolith actually bleeds, it's just been adorned with the blood of fallen enemies!
I'm going to note here about adding snow to scenery. Everyone always wants to add a lot of snow. Everyone always thinks it'll look cool just here and here and here and before long the whole thing is covered. In general, you should always stick to patches of snow, leaving plenty of ground beneath showing. The other thing to be wary of is different surfaces. The monolith is a good example of how to do it (at least, I think so). When presented with a surface like this, only add snow to the flat areas. It looks a lot cooler if it's only on them and the vertical (or almost vertical) surfaces are left clean. Trust me, I've been playing about with snow effects for like six years!

Alright, that's all the new scenery. But what's scenery without models? Nothing, that's what! So here are a few glamour shots!

Some Nurgle followers give their praise to the Chaos gods, presenting offerings of equipment and the blood of the fallen.


An Ogre raiding part stalks through the forest, hoping to happen upon some lost travellers needing some help finding their way out (ha! We all know they're just going to eat them).


A giant stumbles through the frozen woodland, knocking trees down in his path. However, he's easily distracted from his quarry by a plucky little bird who's nest he accidentally knocked down!


Hope you've enjoyed this epic scenery update! Sorry it's such a change from the last update, but I hope you've all enjoyed it! In all, this scenery probably took around five afternoons from start to finish, with at most two people working on it at once. Not bad at all for that amount of time, I'm pretty happy with the results! I think you could easily achieve the same in a weekend, and then you've got a lot more scenery to use in your games! As always, comments and criticism are welcomed. I'm by no means perfect, and this scenery thing is rather new to me as well, so don't hold back!

[Wolf Scout Ewan]

Excellent work!

[Dayspringer]

Fantastic! I love winter themed stuff, and this is some of the best I've seen

[mrln68]

These look pretty good too overall. I like the use of other items - shows what can be done without spending too much (figure what, $30 or so?). I agree with your snow placement in this situation...other times - more is better, but in wooded environments, snow tends to get caught up in the trees or blown in drifts behind other objects.

One thing that seems a bit off though is the way the snow looks - it seems a little clumpy. Normally I make my snow a bit thinner if I am mixing a paste that way it settles down a bit smoother. Otherwise I will go ahead and apply adhesive where I want the snow...sprinkle it on fairly heavy...let it dry...shake off any loose stuff...and finally apply a clear varnish to fully lock it in place.

You're quite right, we just ran out of stuff to add to the top of the towers. Live and learn though. I've taken your advice and added butresses and other bits to the tower in a forthcoming building.

Yah - I know how it goes. Just remember - you don't have to limit yourself to CoD and other detail sprues. Buttresses work great for just adding a little something extra. So do lintels, ledges and other structural features. They are cheap, and you can generally use bits of scrap left over from making the primary parts of the superstructure.

Also, a brick of sculpey can be made into really quick and cheap details like Aquillas, AdMech symbols, Fleurs and other stuff.

[mrtn]

That's great looking terrain, good work!
A point of criticism, I think the tops of the trees looks a little bare, it's a bit too easy to recognise the dowel. How about another layer of flock and snow? Real spruce tops have small branches on them, they're not bare. There's no twinkly stars in them either.

[N810]

Oh sweet...
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