March Terrain

Also got a bunch done on a terrain piece I've been working on for the past couple of months. It's a scratch build; not that complicated but pretty big for an individual terrain piece. In fact, I'm not really sure whether to classify it as a terrain piece or a game board! I plan on using it more as the latter.

In January I bought a cool tool that I had read about on other blogs called a Proxxon Thermocut wire cutter. It is like a standard hot wire cutter for foam, but in the form of a "table saw" rather than a hand held tool.

http://www.amazon.com/Proxxon-37080-Wire-Cutter-THERMOCUT/dp/B0017NS8H6

Of course I had to test it when I got it... it's funny what will inspire you to work on something. Although I've got a few dozen ideas in my head at any one time of projects I'd "like" to do, this one came about from buying the Proxxon Thermocut and having tons of foam and a piece of 30" square mdf laying around!

I bought some 1x6 wood for the walls, used the mdf as the floor, and started slicing up foam to come up with this:

My Possessed warband for Mordheim served as models to show the scale. The raised terrace, stairs, and columns are all cut from foam and covered in Foam Coat (exterior) from Hot Wire Foam Factory.

The flooring is textured wallpaper. This was quite an adventure in and of itself... I couldn't decide on a pattern for the flooring but I knew I didn't just want to leave it plain. I ended up buying several different rolls of textured wallpaper before settling on this one. Now I have lots for future projects!

It's looking OK so far but I wish I would have figured out a way to add some more detail to the build. I got lazy with the columns and only did one level of relief on them, I could have added more. Not sure what else though. I'm happy I added the molding to the tops of the walls. Didn't want to add piles of bones and debris because I want it to be a more generic piece that can be used for multiple settings.

I have to build an entrance way for the front hall, but I wanted it to be removable so I'll do it separately.

The idea of this board is that it's loosely based on this one, which is itself loosely based on the Balin's Tomb scene from the Fellowship of the Ring.

http://thomarillion.de/index.php?seite=katalog&sprache=gb_&modell=dunklesreich&pos=2

Mine is bigger though! And instead of spending all that money on the Thomarillion one I got the Proxxon instead, which I can use on other projects. I did order from Thomarillion anyway and used the money I "saved" to buy other stuff hehe.

My plan is to use this for at least a few different things. I want to use the tomb and well from the Games Workshop Mines of Moria boxed set to fill it out as Balin's Tomb. I'm going to build a bunch of book shelves and use them for this to represent the Library scenario in the main Frostgrave rulebook, and thought it could also be used for the Ghoul King's lair/throne room in the Thaw of the Lich Lord book. I've also been thinking of making up some modular 3D Dungeon boards for dungeon crawls... if I do, I can add this as a large room to add on to those.

I took a bunch of work in progress shots, which is something I normally forget to do!

March painting

Phew! Been a long time. I had a great start to February and was on track to really get ahead for the year... but unfortunately the second half of the month got to be insanely busy so nothing else got painted after the first 2 weeks.

First half of March was more of the same, but for the past week I've been back in the saddle getting some painting and terrain done.

First off the painting desk was a new unit for my FIW collection, Canadian Militia by Old Glory.

 

The sculpting was a bit crude compared to most of the other models I've been painting up so far. As opposed to the Warlord/Conquest models where I really think it was just the casting that was the problem, I get the sense these were mediocre sculpts to begin with. Not terrible, but definitely less than the Crusader and Conquest models I've been using.

I like the fact that they have the long "tuques" that makes them instantly recognizable as Canadians, though, so they were worth getting. They also fit in well size-wise with my other FIW stuff, as opposed to Redoubt or Galloping Major which seem to be a bit bigger. I think I'm going to have to go with Old Glory for my British Light Infantry for the same reasons that I went with these guys.


I also painted up a few fantasy models over the past month.

This is a Reaper vampire model that I've had for quite a while, since before Bones existed as a line... he's a metal model in a wide stance, so wouldn't fit on a standard base.

I only plan on using him in Frostgrave / Song of Blades & Heroes anyway though, so fortunately both of those games are "low stress" when it comes to basing.

Next up is a Barbarian, also for FG/SoBH. He's a Rackham model that was produced for the game Confrontation, which I bought but never played. The model line is awesome though. I have a good number of their minis but have avoided painting them because they intimidate me!

The sculpting is so fine and the studio paint jobs were so incredible that I never felt I could come close to the image I have in my head of these models. This guy sat on my painting desk for over a year. I base coated his skin and weapon and originally planned to do a non-metallic metal on him. That didn't go to well though, so back to the drawing board. He sat there untouched for many months and finally I finished him off this weekend, figuring since he wasn't going to live up to my expectations I might as well get him done and add him to the display case.

Even though he didn't come out as I hoped, he looks pretty cool and I'm happy with him. Definitely spent a lot more time on him than most of my Bones models!


Finally, I got a "bonus" model done as my buddy James sent me a whole bunch of Warhammer Fantasy models that he apparently no longer wants. I will store them in my basement until he changes his mind... but in the mean time, there was a High Elf Mage in the lot that I had painted for him over a year ago and left the base undone so he could base it to match his army.

Well... the army will now never be completed, so I threw some flock on him, varnished him, and "bam!" instant extra model completed this month!

I took some additional shots of these guys in a new terrain piece I was working on too, using a much more "serious" camera. Most of my pics are done with my cell phone so I wanted to see if there was a noticeable difference. Unfortunately I haven't downloaded them yet so I'll have to do that in another post.