August terrain

I bought and scratchbuilt a bunch of terrain items this month.

First, I finished working on a 3x3 game mat that I started months ago. I noticed that one side of this anti-slip pad had a "cobblestoney" texture to it, which first gave me the idea.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002935IV2/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So I painted one side in gray tones to use for Mordheim city battles or non-snowy Frostgrave games.



It's not great but it at least looks "somewhat" like cobblestones, and hopefully will look much better with a bunch of city terrain on it. Here's a closer view with a model on it.



I originally planned on doing the other side (which is smoother) as a snowy mat for Frostgrave, but since my Mordheim campaign is coming up and I might had as many as 4 games going on at once at my house, I did it with a traditional flocked finish to use it for Lustria games.



Two mats in one! I wish the high-end neoprene mats from companies like Frontline and Deep Cut Studios came with designs printed on both sides!



I love those mats but this was a much cheaper option, and useful to have as an extra.

I also worked on some adobe style buildings for the campaign. I was going to work on more temple buildings, but after reading the old Lizardmen army books it dawned on me that my Temple City was missing a Skink Ghetto! I had worked on temple buildings last year but never did any houses. So here they are:



The roofs are removable:















Lastly, made a couple of small stepped pyramids with only two levels. They were quick and easy.




I also bought a bunch of stuff this month. I ordered some more game mats, and tried out a different company this time: Deep Cut Studios. They have a series of mats that are supposed to link up to create a long coastal scene, so we'll see how they look.

Also went crazy with Aquarium terrain!

I was always envious of the trees I'd seen on other blogs such as this one, by fellow blogger Gordon Richards:

http://ihavewroughtmysimpleplan.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/a-white-mens-expedition-for-congo.html

Check out the trees... pretty cool!

So I set about trying to hunt some down. One of the things I've found out about aquarium terrain is that it's pretty region-specific; in other words, some designs are only available and in Europe and you will NOT find them in the US, and vice versa! Even if you were willing to find them at a European retailer and pay for international shipping, it seems like shipping restrictions keep them from being sold to the USA.

I learned this the hard way when trying to buy some cool ruins for Frostgrave earlier this year, but I had a workaround - a work trip took me to England so I bought a bunch of stuff on Amazon.co.uk and had it shipped to my hotel! Victory!

But unfortunately I have no European trips planned any time soon, so could not get the trees pictured. I found some cool substitutes though.

Here are a few of the designs I snagged from Petsmart, Amazon, and eBay:











The smallest of the bunch:




















And the biggest!





I bought a few of some of them, so there are enough total to fill a 3x3 board:



What I love about these is that they are sturdy enough that you can put models on top of them, if they "climb" the trees!



I already have a ton of jungle terrain that I built for the last Lustria campaign, from plastic hobby store plants like this:



I've actually got enough to cover an 8x4 table! The only problem with it is that there is no height element to the board layout since models can't climb on them.

I think it will be pretty cool with the new trees I added this year, to see the one level of the map at ground level, and another level at the canopy above!