The Tale of Terrain Builders 2012 – Month 5: May show off and June WIP

[Little Joe]

The Tale of Terrain Builders 2012 – Month 5: May show off and June WIP

What is it all about?
The aim of The Tale of Terrain Builders is to help motivate those involved to finish scenery for their gaming boards. We accept anything related to scenery building.

How does it work?
During the first week of a month you post your finished terrain in the appropriate thread. The remainder of the month is for posting WIP pictures of what you are building and to comment on the work of other participants. You shall receive feedback on your terrain in return and can ask questions, see many different interesting ideas and help/be helped by others with tutorials and advice.

What do I have to do?
Because not everyone can spare the same amount of time for various reasons, there are different levels of commitment. The standard level of commitment (Mens) is to create a single, reasonably sized piece of terrain per month. The lesser level of commitment (Boys) requires the completion of a piece of terrain every other month, but with the commitment to show progress each month! As a Noob you just need to show one piece of terrain you just finished.
A single piece of scenery at least the size of a hill or building will be considered one piece. A barricade, tree, rock spire or similar terrain can be entered in threes to count as one piece of scenery. I made a picture for a quick overview:



If in doubt, terrain that covers a diameter of roughly 6” is what we are going for, but this is a loose definition. Since the aim is to fill your board with terrain the rules are somewhat lenient.
A note on building whole Tables and Dioramas: simply break it down in monthly amounts of work for the level of commitment you entered in and we are happy to tell you what we think of it.
Just build and have fun and everything should be OK!

Can I have a break?
Because people have real lives: “yes you can!” You get one 'Joker', to use for a month you want to skip. During the Tale you can ‘play a joker’ by posting an appropriate picture and an explanation if you like. You should still comment if you have the time.
So for five months you have to come up with a piece of completed scenery or WIP pictures. That sounds easy but the first tale proves it is not.

In six months we will all end up with some nice terrain for gaming, and hopefully have learned a few tricks on the way, which is awesome!

Frequently Asked Questions

Q : How do I join the Tale of Terrain Builders 2012?
A : You should join us right now! Just post in this thread and you are in, please state if you want to be a Noob, a Boy or a Man.

Q : Can I build more than one piece per month?
A : Yes, you can build as much as you like. The maximum you can enter is two pieces a month and they will be awarded as such. We aim to have fun as a group and to help each other as much as get things done ourselves.

Q : What happens if I build a GIGANTIC piece of scenery?
A : If you create a truly epic piece of scenery, we want to see it. We also want to see how it is done so you use months of WIP up to the finishing post and it will be accounted for the epic piece it is that way.

Q : Can I include a short narrative with each months post.
A : Yes, we love background stuff! Write as much as you like, we will read it and rejoice. It might also help to put the piece of scenery in perspective.

[Little Joe]

The participants in this tale:



WIP is for work in progress.
bigWip is for work in progress that counts as a full months work (Mens) or two for Boys
done is for finished pieces. This counts for two months work for Boys
done (+1) counts for two full months for Mens (4! for Boys)
Joker is a joker and J's are for default (not requested) jokers.

My aim is to update this post once a month after a week. Anything will be recorded of course, but to get the change shown that month, you must enter the pictures in the first week.

[Little Joe]

Little Joe: Mens

THIS MONTH:
A big rock to add to my Vaettir/Relics terrain set



Here I added a little waterfall again because it just looked like water had been eating away at the rock for ages. It should help a bit with the old and deserted look.




Symbol of ownership


Close up of the water, I used cheap clear glue with a topping of clear window colour. During a test run I found out the glue dries with many bubbles and greenish. This is four thick layers of that to get some angry water going. Then some thinned blue wash. With the window colour circles were drawn twice to make it swirl with the whirlwind. After drying it has a slight concave shape, which is even better, because it gives the look of the water being sucked up. I am quite happy with the result.




I made it like a ruin, because this way it can have many purposes. The space within is large enough for a huge marker.
And here is a group shot with my other floating rocks:



Looking at these you could easily use them as substitute trees/forest as well.

HIGHS AND LOWS:
Highs: Well just check the pictures, I like it.
Lows: None really, it went smooth this time, maybe having the tutorial not finished in time, but I aim to still add that when I will do the comments for this month.

NEXT MONTH:
Not much left to chose from, so the goblin shaman tower it is. And some technical drawings for a double skirmish table.

[Xazil]

This month is my tutorial month. A basic how to make some trees and walls from cheaper components for less cost while keeping it easy by purchasing components cheaply and adding your own touches.

For Walls
Fieldstone Hirst Arts Blocks - For those not wanting to go through all the work of casting your own plaster have a look at http://www.hirstarts.com/links/links.html which contains sellers of blocks as well as the moulds. I personally have dealt with http://www.griffingrove.com.au/ and they are great. For the series of walls I made I would judge only slightly over $10 for 4x8" walls and 12x4" walls.

PVA Glue/White Glue - A general hobby purchase useable for many things.

Cardboard - Off cuts, cereal boxes etc.

Grey Spray Paint - Buy a cheap automotive spray paint, it will last for several projects this size $10.

Brown Paint - Doesn’t need to be high quality, you are going to water it down into a wash anyway.

Flock - From your basing supplies if you want to add some variety.

For Trees
Railway scale trees - You can buy cheap railway trees from railway hobby stores (look for other terrain stuff while you are there too!) or over the internet (EBay). The nice thing about trees is that trees work at pretty much any scale as a small tree is a small tree (or a bush). The price can vary, but the ones I dug out for this went from about 30 cents to $1.20 for the largest with the 11 trees probably being about the $10 mark. You can get trees based too, but this is more for the cheaper unbased versions.

PVA Glue - As above.

MDF/Hardboard - Basically any cheap fibreboard to use as a base. You can buy it cheap or collect off cuts at a hardware store. I happened to have some round off cuts from a movement tray project.

Green paint - Again a cheaper paint than you use on models, I use a beginning artists paint pots that I never empty.

Flock / static grass - From your models basing if you have a grass table or else to suit as you would do your army.

Extra tools
Paint brushes for applying washes / glue.
Small drills (I often just hand drill with the bits for these projects).

Here are my starting components




Since I decided that 4" lengths were about right for what I wanted I made them up at semi random to what I thought looked good gluing them to lengths of cardboard and then cutting it down to exact size after it all dried.


Next going outside to do spray painting (paint fumes are not your friend) I had a series of walls that looked a lot more the part.


Lastly I watered down some greyish/brownish paint until it was a rough wash. As we are dealing with much larger details than a miniature it doesn't need to be near the same level as a miniatures wash.



Next for trees I based them several different ways. Some had bases that I simply glued to the larger wooden base. For the smaller trees a used a drill that was the same size as the tree trunks and then pressed the trunk into the hole with glue around it.

Continued in next post.

[Xazil]

Continued from 1st Post - More Tree bases.


For the 2nd largest type I pried apart the end of the trunk after going through the hole and spread it around and glued. Then I built up the base with a little more cardboard I had left over from the walls.


For the Largest of the trees I pried apart the lower part of the trunks (which are long to allow them to be pressed into a foam board for a train terrain board) and spread it over the larger of the wood bases with a lot of glue.


One of the trees had a plastic glossy look so I gave them a dry brush with my basing green paint.

From there it is a simple matter of painting the bases green. After waiting for them to dry, painting them with glue then applying the flock. The end results.



And here are some sample layouts, a crossroads in a forest and a walled forest preserve.

[Rikk]

Hi,

Pics to come in tonight/tomorrow.
I'm still WIP this month for my second woods, which base is almost done, however after seeing some really good woods at lgs I'm unsure how much grass to be putting on my base, so it's done apart from static grass for now.
Trees are sprayed black and leaves are almost complete.

[Little Joe]

Hi I am working on a decent basing tutorial, but here is a first draft on how to apply grasses:

EDIT: I also use a Nr.5 brush for terrain besides the Nr.7 or a Nr.0 for bases

[Rikk]

Hi,

Bit late (sorry bout that), here's my pics from where I was up to few days into June

A bit more orange to the leaves than before, but I like it






Since then, I've almost finished the tress, most of the leaves are finished and on most of the trees, now onto the details, rope, skeletons, SKULLS, etc, I think I'll be finished by tonight, which will make me happy as I can then go buy something else to get started on and have a fair bit accomplished in June

I was thinking arcane ruins, as I can separate into several smaller terrain pieces, after having a long look at watch tower, chapel and deathwatch knell the other day in lgs, I'm not massively convinced by any of them atm, think ruins is way to go and then a hill or two, which tbh will probably complete my table (Oh and ofc a gaming matt ftw )

[DarkLordBelial]

Been quite a busy month and I've finished three projects.

First was the large rock face I posted WIP pictures for:




Second was a citadel wood - I've got another one to do, but only half way through that at the moment



And finally, when the rumours of the GW prices rises started flying I treated myself to a Realm of Battle board before the cost sky rocketed. This was surprisingly quick to complete, only taking a single weekend.



Highs : The new hot foam cutter worked a treat - well worth the effort of building it.
Lows : I've used up a ton of paint of the boards!

Next month I'm refurbing a piece of terrain I purchased on Ebay.

[Little Joe]

Comments:

@Xazil: A very useful resource and two tutorials in one actually. I wish my railway store sold trees like that, here it is DIY or very expensive. I tried wire myself and it is quite a lot of work, but rewarding. A great way for a wood, skirmish style. And the walls work great stacked and lined up. You sure showed how versatile these Histarts blocks are quite a few times.

@Rikk: This forest looks very nice, be sure to give us a comparison shot of the leaves of both forests. After checking your first I can say you need no help basing your woods. The first one looked very good, and I look forward to see your choice on this one.

@DarkLordBelial: It is kind of hard not to reward the sheer amount of things done and the work involved with just a done(+1). So I will congratulate you being the first to finish this tale. That does not mean you are of the hook , because we all enjoy to see more work.
The rocky wall is proof enough the foam cutter works as it should. Will it be used to block parts of the table. I made a mountain once to decrease deployment zones or to break them apart. It works well on a small table to force two armies to go at each other from an angle when deploying the two parts in opposing corners. It also prevents nasty surprises from below, so has many uses.
The forest fits with the new table very well. And a large one at that, must have been a lot of work flocking that surface. Have fun gaming on your new table.

[Rikk]

Ok comments time:


Little Joe: Very cool floating rock! I especially like the waterfall and hanging moss as it really adds to the theme well.
All ties in together nicely with the other floatin rocks.
Looking forward to seeing the goblin shaman tower, any WIP shots of it so far?

Xazil: Good tutorial, I really like hot you get the roots at the base done, that's very impressive.

DarkLordBelial: Wow, that's a lot of scenery finished, good job!
Large rock face is really good, I can see the custom cutter came in handy for that.
Wood looks great, really nice how the base ties in so well with the gaming board and nice mix of green for the leaves.
Speaking of the board, it's great! I really want one myself, but funds prohibit me, grass matt ftw

[Xazil]

Comment time.

Little Joe - Love the big floating rock and cave. Very much fantasy style terrain as per your usual norm of lots of attention to details.

Rikk - Very nice forest. Good colour use and picking out the details. Solid work.

DarkLordBelial - Nice escarpment, I keep meaning to make some myself good to see to mine for ideas. Then a nicely painted and flocked woods and the realm of battle. Great to see such a huge amount of work done. (I also need to copy your hotwire cutter too!)

[Little Joe]

@Rikk: No sadly no progress so far this month, I think I will want to joker this one because the next two weeks are fully planned. Then I have a week off and will get things done.

I did however finish a first sketch for a gaming table I want to build. There are still a few unanswered questions though:
1) Legs? It will fit any table so no real need, if it gets taken outside on a sunny day you can always play on the ground.
2) Rims? Making them larger at at least one side will allow for putting miniatures there. Again no real need and less tidy to store.
3) The dice tower? How to incarnate that, it would be nice. Kinda like beer holders on your football table. Hmm a fridge and beer holders...pink foam insulates right?
4) The hight of the separating square, how thick can you make it to still have easy storage?
5) Is a flowing textured board really the best, it would certainly look awesome, but is it good for gaming purposes?

Add some clamps and a handle and you are good to go.

What do you guys think?

EDIT: Needs wheels!