The Tale of Terrain Builders 2012 – Month 6: June show off and July finish

[Little Joe]

Well it is that time again, we go into the last month to finish this tale. Some will make it, some not, but most importantly some great terrain was made and experience shared.

During the first week you can post pictures of your finished terrain from last month. Then this thread becomes open for pictures of this month’s work and comments. If you like you can also post ideas for improvement or change (open to anybody).
But it is also the time of group pictures of all the stuff you created during this tale.

Q : How do I join the Tale of Terrain Builders 2012?
A : Build a piece of terrain and post pictures from it, you can still join as a Noob. You can be the first.

Q : What do I have to do?
A : Build a 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 reference:



Q : Will there be a next tale?
A : I sure hope there will be enough people to participate in a next tale. But like the end of the last tale, I think we will have a month of contemplation again. Anybody can post constructive ideas on how to improve this tale during this month. All the options proposed will be on a sign up thread next month to be voted over by the crowd.

I hope you enjoyed it, I did.

[Little Joe]

The participants who made it 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.

This is the last month and updates will be made weekly as needed.

[Rikk]

Hi all,

Well I've been up to a lot of scenery making this month, even beginning to make my own, well sort of...

Bought GW Arcane ruins and have begun to build the main ruin section, however with plenty of left over pillars, etc, I've made a small set of ruins on their own, making individual bases from plasti-card.


Also finished the second set of woods (Two pieces in a month, and main ruins if half done too )


I think I'll just finish off the main ruins this month, as I've also been painting my Black Orcs and would like to get them complete.
This will have given me 4 terrain pieces for the tale which I'm really happy with, next up, I'll be getting a hill and a gaming matt, and then considering some 40k terrain, of which I'd like to kit-bash/make some of my own, unsure how this will go however....

[DarkLordBelial]

I've also been playing with arcane ruins this month.

Started off with the GW kit. Have to admit I'm not happy with the results - the wash at the foot of the pillars has not turned out quite as I liked - may end up playing around with them a bit more:



However, my other project was a little more special. A while back I purchased a large set of ruins from ebay and when it turned up it was a bit of a disappointment. The base board was very warped and losing its 'grass' the buildings were also in bad shape too.

Before:



I decided this month to take one of the buildings, remove it from the board and recreate it in its own grounds. Was a lovely little project that has turned out really well - unfortunately the pictures don't do it justice I wish I was better at taking pics.


After:

[Xazil]

For this final I have totally changed as I am getting into flames of war north africa. I would like to thank Little Joe for his efforts running the tale and congratulations to all participants in creating a lot of great terrain.

First is a custom desert mat, a grey 6x4 mat built up with patches of brown before being mostly covered with sand colour.


Then three large plates for soft sand.

[Little Joe]

You will have to wait for my entry for this month, in a week I have a week off and will get clobbering.

Comments:
@Rikk: Those arcane ruins are a nice set to work with, looks good so far with the double woods and the pillars with some nice custom build bases. Looking really good and enough to fill a table with terrain, I had to do some creative bookkeeping to make three in the table but a tale finished is a tale finished. Congratulations and I hope to see the main ruin done as well.

@DarklordBelial: I prefer to do the dust step second after base colour, Then I can brush it back. It looks good, but a few quick light brushes of two greys and you will be done in 5 minutes. You do have a nice stone colour and like I said before the terrain set looks really nice to work with.
Some second hand terrain shopping has been done by me as well recently, no complete board though. The reworked piece looks very nice, always better to use a base you know you can trust, great scenic hill. Could you tell me what you used for the big dark green bushes?

@Xazil:All terrain is welcome here. The seal of kitten approval is there and that sure looks interesting, is it a sanded piece of cloth? Can you fold it? So many questions... Congratulations on your manly task fulfilled!

Well it is not over yet, at least for me, but it is a delight to run this tale. And like last tale it proves to be quite hard to pull off, just as it should be. But this tale strives to improve and as such anybody can make suggestions that I will turn into a poll for the sign up thread next month. I do hope to see people return.

So here are my suggestions:
1) Rename Noob, make it something that sounds a bit more positive, like "upstart" or "juvenile delinquent" or ... "Basher". OK those are bad examples, give me a name.
2) How about a month of challenge, like build a piece of terrain from anything that you are currently throwing away. One per tale so to say to get a fresh take on things you want to make. We could do it during the last month and have a poll to decide a theme. It would allow for more interaction and keeps people interested even when done. Might also work to attract some "juvenile delinquents" as well. In that case first month would be better to get a good start? Other suggestions: build something SCI-FI, not much of that in this tale.
3) Reviews on scenery kits, tell us what you liked and hated about the ones you used.

And a few questions and ramblings on my part:
a) Is the 6 month length better as the 12 month? Looking at this tale yes, I think it is there to stay.
b) At most you will receive one reminder PM from me because it is your responsibility to partake in my opinion. Last time the reminder vote just did not make it, do you think it would help?

[Xazil]

The table top is a ziterdes gravel grey flocked mat painted up as mentioned so yes it is both textured and rolls up for packing (I try to avoid folding).

Hopefully with the change in 40k rules we might get an influx of people doing the 40k kits and their own versions of those kits for different races.

Maybe instead of the boys/mens etc just let people nominate ahead of time for what they are planning on doing and working at their own pace up to the current mens pace of one good size piece per month. Maybe make the commitment down into 'pieces' and people just commit to a number from 1-5 over the 6 months. It's kind of hard to say because I know I make more terrain with this tale here to push me along to get something made each month.

I do think the current six month works better, but I am not sure if people are scared off by extras being asked like doing a review or making a tutorial.

[Rikk]

Hi all,

Comments time for me, will get something up tomorrow regarding future tale etc

me: yay almost there, will try to finish ruins this weekend, then all wfb terrain is completed and I am a happy chappy, 40k terrain for next tale me thinks

DarkLordBelial: Great looking ruins, whereas I went for simples highlighting, I can see you went for more light towards edge and darker in other areas which I really like, the dark muddy look on bottom of pillars does look good and links towards the browny-green flock on board. Looks like alot of work went into the re-making this building section, looking very good, however the treekin should be burned....

Xazil: Very good start to desert warfare terrain there, never played Flames of War, but heard good things about it.

Little Joe: Awaiting to see what your working on in your week off, if weathers been anything like UK, then you've had plenty of time indoors for building/painting. Also a big thanks for running and keeping us motivated for this tale, I know there's not many of us doing it compared to other tales running out there, but it has been fun and kept me going for what most likely would never have happened without this tale. I'm looking forward with continuing with the next tale, if your up for running it, with some 40k terrain and hopefully more custom/scratch built work from myself as I'd like to make an ork-i-fied ruined city-ish type setting.

Highs for me for this tale: Getting a fair bit of scenery bought, made up and painted, so when I start having games round my house, we won't be playing round coke cans and dvd cases anymore
Lows for me for this tale: If I see one more set of woods in my house to be made up, I will cry, also my phototaking is poor

[Rikk]

Okies, now have spare time to type a bit more, I think def have another tale, 6 months is a good limit as I've always struggled to finish any of the 12 month one's, however scenery for me is easier, as mainly one big colour with lots of over and dry brushing
A challenge per tale would be fun, I'm rubbish at ideas though, so will go with the flow...

[Little Joe]

@Xazil: Variable input noted. The tutorial is currently optional, it didn't quite make it last time with the democratic vote. But I will put it up again as take it out or not as well.

@Rikk: I sure hope there will be a next one, I am already ordering terrain pieces (yes not all home made next time). Yep, it sure rains.

This week many updates as I am off duty and want to get things back on track. So I started by cleaning my workspace of dust and getting some more space on the wall to put my painted miniatures in.



Nothing done on the shaman tower but here is where I start:



So until tomorrow then.

[Inquisitor Kallus]

Awesome stuff guys well done.

@Little Joe: Where did you get those cabinets from? Theyre awesome

[Little Joe]

Those used to be sold by IKEA (Bertby), but you can get them on eBay regularly. They are still very popular. The broad front keeps the airflow and dust away very effectively.

[Little Joe]

So I started on the tower by making some holes in the eyes, and adding a second layer. Currently it does not scream shaman to me but rather watch tower, let's see where this goes.

[Little Joe]

So when ideas do not come a deadline helps to get things done. The tower is now fully painted, the base has a severe lack of spikes but that will remain so. Let it be a tower under construction with some Vampire counts parts.



This is the last time to get a proper look at the inside, I will glue the parts into place after flocking is done. So I will make it by the end of this month, tomorrow is my personal deadline. And a group shot will be added as well.

[Little Joe]

While I wait for the glue to dry, so I can apply the last bushes of static grass, I made a mock up of my table plans:



Maybe this explains it better as the PDF last month, basically it is a box with two lids. The lids are the gaming tables, both measure 90x90cm or ~3'x3'. Add some wheels and a few handles and you have a good transport and storage system, completely dust free. It will also allow me to make the tables 3D with a lot of detail. The aim is one per half year, so that would be one per tale. but since I plan to do them side by side at least until sanded it might get done a bit faster.
This is mainly because I will buy the wood necessary in one go, precut at once gives a better fit. There are still many points unknown that I will tackle along the way.

Last update in about 90 minutes.

[N810]

[Little Joe]

@N810: Well you are officially the first Noob in this Tale. Congratulations!

@ASSASSINAWOKEN: One day to go. If nothing comes along you will be a Noob as well, the piece is not finished but big enough.

And without further ado:













Busy enough base but otherwise nice and clean, easy to update if needed. It only spend about five years to get some work done on it last time. I think it needs a blue face when I have painted my blue skull goblins.

And here is my group shot of this Tale of Terrain Builders:



When on Wednesday the sign up thread goes up once more, this thread will be closed. The Tale is hopefully down for just one month and then we can all get bashing again. I will still do updates to the first post for anyone to put some pictures up, no worries there. The successful finishers will also be named in the sign-up-thread.

[N810]

Sorry guys Lizardmen need paint too.

[Little Joe]

I fully understand. The tale is not to force you to do things (it nudges), always nice to see your terrain though. That is why I hope the Noob level might help, to casually put some work up and just enjoy. The name could be better, but not all is perfect.
I will take it a bit easier next tale, in the beginning the basics should get done fast enough, but detailing will take a lot of time. And painting in my experience takes even longer. So to keep it within limits I have put out some terrain orders (GW woods, Renadra cemetery, Tabletop World cottage and more to come). I have some small side projects if I need a change, and some pieces could do with a little adding. I do plan to sign up as a man but 90x90cm is 36 entries and I want it to choke with detail so it might also take for ever. One step at a time...

[Rikk]

My ruins finished...yay





Now to order me some 40k terrain