Fantasy Chaos Wasteland Realm of Battle Board

[Evil Hypnotist]

Greetings one and all,

Since the possibility of moving to bigger premises cropped up I decided to get myself my first proper gaming table. With my main army being Warriors of Chaos, who are based in slate and scorched grass, I decided to theme the board around the Chaos wastes. There were a number of things I wanted to achieve, firstly to get it finished(!), have an array of terrain to use on it and make sure it matched up with my army as best as possible. So I have taken 2 weeks off for Easter and set myself to task.

So far the plan is to use GW's modular board sections and terrain (being my first board I wanted to start out simple) but with a piece or two of my own creation. The look I want to achieve is a mottled grey wasteland with patches of scorched grass about. I decided immediately that little to no slate would be used on the board sections themselves as it would be knocked off far too easily. Instead, my plan is to use slate on the terrain pieces, hopefully tying the board together, and the miniatures too. Looking around for ideas I have also been inspired by Tarrym's board (http://www.warseer.com/forums/showth...ight=wasteland) and plan to use the GW craters to make larva fissures.

I am really pushing the limits of my pretty weak terrain skills with this project but I decided to jump in the deep end anyway. I will be painting/drybrushing/highlighting on a much bigger scale than usual, attempting to make my own ruined buildings the first time, using water effects for the first time and airbrushing for only the third time. Any advice is warmly welcomed

So....

Day 1



What the nice postman brought me! I was surprised the extension parts of the board were the same as what you get as part of the main set, for some reason I thought they were a different sculpt. I'm not too bothered, now I don't always have to have games with hills on both sides!



The trees will be petrified, or at least dead, the kit is full of detail and really easy to put together, I need to use some liquid green stuff on the cracks before I undercoat them though.



Dreadstone Blight was the obvious choice as a terrain piece, I have decided to lose the stair section and put it together a bit differently to the instructions. I haven't glued it yet because I want to paint the sections individually, it's not sitting too well in the way I have assembled it but plenty of glue and green stuff as necessary will sort that out!



I also have etched off the Winds of Magic symbols (and any twin-tailed comets on the building), this isn't going to be a building of The Empire so I plan to put chaos symbols in instead. The central instrumentation will be submerged in water effects larva, which should tie the building in to the board more too!

I managed to get 4 out of the 8 board sections undercoated before the sun went down, so I'm a bit behind on my schedule already.



This is tomorrow's job. My Dad is helping me construct a stand to put the board on. I hope you can tell what's going on, apologies my technical drawing isn't the best! The legs will be attached with wing nuts and the two frames will be hinged together so it can fold up and fit in my car. I have no idea if the stand will end up being like this so it might change for practical reasons. Looking forward to dusting off my carpentry skills!

Til tomorrow...

[Nesbet]

Wanting to see how this project ends ;D

[juicytomatoes]

this looks like a massive effort! It will be worth it in the end, I believe. Terrain always is.

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

[Evil Hypnotist]

Well tomorrow came and went, as did today with not a lot to show for it. There were some problems involving high winds, a tanker, and fuel spilt but I didn't expect this to keep me in a four hour traffic jam yesterday as I failed to get wood for the stand, which took me 2 hours to get today instead. So 3 days in and I'm already a day and a half behind schedule lol! But I have got a bit done.

Days 2&3



Here's the start of the frame, it still needs spars to strengthen it and hinges but the legs are cut and ready to be drilled and attached.



More importantly, the table is ready for painting! The stand has been measured to hold 6 board sections as a majority of games I play are this size. But, if they are clipped it should support 8. If it ends up being a bit short I can always add flip out extensions I suppose.

I now have 2 full days of uninterrupted work (I hope!) So I would like to have the stand pretty much finished and the board's first base coat on by the end of tomorrow, I might even find time to knock up my own ruins!

[Terrain Dave]

Looking Good. I may be painting a 8 panel table very soon, look foward to seeing yours complete. The support frame looks like a good solid idea, the project I'm painting will sit on a ping pong table!
Cheers Terrain Dave

[mrtn]

Looking forward to your chaos board.

I'd put the hinges the other side up, the way you have them the table will fold at the slightest provocation, if you put them so that the middle of the table fold upwards that should add some stability.

[Daniel36]

Good luck with this. You are off to a good start. The Battle Boards are beautiful and will offer you a great board real quick. The temple seems the perfect fit for a Chaos Waste board, and together with the craters I wouldn't really add too much else. Perhaps some unconventional forest may be good. I always fancied the plastic Jungle Trees set, painted in a strange colour like red or purple or something, as Chaos Trees. You could even match them up with the regular plastic trees, as the leaves really aren't all that jungly, they are just... strange.

[Evil Hypnotist]

Cheers for the replies everyone, it definitely motivates me to know people are interested.

I'd put the hinges the other side up, the way you have them the table will fold at the slightest provocation, if you put them so that the middle of the table fold upwards that should add some stability.

Good advice, I moved them underneath in the end and put some plastic stoppers in to keep the frames from bending too much the other way. The additional legs in the middle keep it from sagging, as can be seen here.. (EDIT: The middle legs will be attached to the spars I still have to add)

Day 4



It lives! It lives! Well, almost. Legs done and bolted on and some spars attached but we, umm, ran out of wood. This will be fixed tomorrow morning when the wood yard opens. It's pretty stable but there is a slight wobble sideways so I am trying to decide whether to add more bolt-on support to the legs or not. It definitely needs spars through the middle of the frames though as the board sections need something to shore them up - the clips that come with it aren't that strong and I don't trust my 15 chosen sitting right in the middle of either side at the moment lol.



I also got the basecoat on the board sections so I finally feel things are moving along. I doubt I will be able to do more after finishing the stand tomorrow due to Easter-related family stuff, will see what happens though.

Til tomorrow!

[Evil Hypnotist]

Days 5-7

Easter and a surprise visit from my brother has meant progress has slowed somewhat, however...



..the stand is DONE! It feels solid and keeps the board on fine (although it does need clipping underneath). I'm really pleased with how it's turned out from my ramblings and sketches and, thanks to my Dad, it's a lot stronger than anything I could have managed on my own.



I have also given the board sections a heavy drybrush highlight, which has come out a bit patchy but I think when I airbrush the final highlight it will (hopefully) tie together and look better.



And I have finished my first tree, the base isn't done but when that's finished there should be a good contrast between the tree and the base, which will have slate added to make it match up with my Chaos movement trays.

I'm driving back home tomorrow so the earliest I will have another update will be Wednesday, cheers for looking!

[Evil Hypnotist]

Hello everyone, sorry it's been such a long time since the last update, after getting back home after Easter a flurry of housework and workwork has got in the way. I have managed to get a couple of bits done over the last couple of days though.

Days 19-20



I have finished my first set of trees, I'm quite pleased how they turned out. I was looking for a petrified/blackened look and the slate/scorched grass will look good with my miniatures moving through it





I have also had my first go at putting some ruins together. I used balsa wood and foamcore and will blacken up the wood before using textured paint to cover it. I have no idea how it will turn out but looking forward to finding out.



My rock formations have arrived from eBay, I think they will look awesome on the board. I will probably make a scenic base for them. My friend also donated me another modular hill so I will get them both finished up at the same time. I was expecting them to be able to fit together but they don't interlock like that. I will make a few adjustments to sort that out

[totgeboren]

looks good so far, but I think you should consider some terrain that you can add a bit more colour to. It makes the battlefield more pleasing to the eye in my opinion.

[Evil Hypnotist]

Wait until you see my lava craters

[Evil Hypnotist]

Days 22-27

A bit more done this weekend, I made the most of a wet and sober couple of days to get moving on a few things:



The final highlight of the main board is now done, I used the citadel spray gun and am satisfied with the finish. You can't tell much from the photo but at least you can see the table at home in my hobby room I also managed to paint the hills (just need some scorched grass patches) and start highlighting the skulls on the board. There is loads of details on the Realm of Battle board, I realised that I am no way near finished on these yet!



I also made a start to the base for my rock stacks and started drybrushing them. My plan is to paint thick algae near the bottom and phase it out before halfway up, I used a couple of bits from the warhammer basing set to give the base a bit more detail.



I also managed to finish a piece, this was originally a kid's dinosaur skeleton sculpture which I picked up cheap and a few chicken bones (an idea I have shamelessly nicked from an old White Dwarf article I think). I'm quite pleased how it's turned out.



Here is my ruin I made, it's been textured and had some details added (like the bricks from Fenris Games), plus I put a couple of windows in the back wall. It really needs a shade or something before I finish the base off, and some colour. I'm thinking of adding some chaos specific graffiti to liven it up, what do you think? I'm sure Slaanesh disciples can think of a mural to paint on it...



Last but not least here are my lava craters, I have spent all week experimenting with trying to get a decent filler to make the lava with. I found that my water effects don't layer well so I have settled on decorator's caulk, one is ready for me to have a go with painting lava this week. I'm using wooden beads to make bubbles about to pop and will put a thin layer of water effects over the top when I'm done. I also will give directional/source lighting a go on the edges of the crater.

Most things I'm working on have been primed and prepped for painting so I hope to make some real progress in the next couple of weeks. That said, for every item ticked off I seem to add another, with a temple of skulls ready to be tackled. I'm going to end up with loads of terrain but it means I will have a good selection for games.

Cheers for looking!

[Evil Hypnotist]

Days 29-34

Just a quick update, I have finished my first lava crater!



This was a bit of a test but I'm reasonably happy with how it turned out, especially the source lighting!



I used a thin layer of water effects to cover it and give it the appearance of liquid but it seems to have taken some of the vibrancy of the yellow out. I'm thinking maybe using the new citadel glazes would be better, has anyone used these yet and think this would work?

Cheers for looking!

[Hideous Loon]

The monochrome is a bit boring, but the lava-craters and the geological layer of (red?) skulls fixes that somewhat.

A couple of things, though:
- The lava thing looks awesome, but I recommend trimming the flat bits off the sides of the crater, as it looks a bit too much like a wargaming terrain piece (rather than actual scenery).
- Could you paint the trees brownish-grey instead of flat grey? As they are, they will blend into the board and become indistinctive.
- A large volcano (filled with lava) would look pretty cool in the middle of the board. It would fit thematically, and give the board some height, as the realm of battle board is a bit flat.

Other than that, keep up the good work!

[Evil Hypnotist]

Some good advice cheers, I have to accept these trees need something more. I was thinking of perhaps trying out the new citadel red glaze on them to make them stand out a bit more, I could also try and make stringy gore dripping from them but I have no idea how to do that, any ideas?

[Hideous Loon]

A hot glue gun (plus red ink) can be used to make strings of gore. You could also repaint the trees in flesh tones, to make them look like tentacles. It is Chaos, after all.

[Evil Hypnotist]

Sorry for the delay in updates, my laptop had a powerpack issue but is now up and running!

Days 35-40



The lava craters are finished! I'm quite happy how they turned out in the end, using the same techniques as for the first one they look the part and add some much needed colour to the board.



The hills didn't need much to finish them off, some Devlan Mud and some tufts of Scorched Grass.



The ruins are now finished as well, I got rid of the collapsed floor because it looked....well crap really. I'm much happier with it like this, I added more resin brickwork and threw some graffiti on there to add a bit of colour.

Since I took these photos I have been hard at work and managed to complete the board sections and the standing stone terrain (will post pics soon!). I had an absolute disaster with adding water effects to the skull areas of the board. I was hoping for a slightly submerged look but they came out looking like they have been plasti-wrapped. Worse was when I managed to pry it off I pulled all the paint off with it so I had to re-paint it all Still, I'm happy with how they are now. The board is waiting for it's first game now and I can't wait to use it. Just need to finish off the Dreadstone Blight, Temple of Skulls and my trees and I'm pretty much done!

[Evil Hypnotist]

First battle on the board last night - here's a battle report for those interested!

http://www.warseer.com/forums/showth...86#post6239086

[meowser]

Board is looking great Any buildings planned for the board?