Getting on with it

Most of my time over the short holiday break was taken up with terrain building, many hours spent in the hardware store and model train shop. So I have gotten a decent start going on my modular terrain. 3 sections down at least - namely the easiest of the lot as I rather chickened out on the hills and river sections. Still I have 3 very nice road sections done and 4 excellent wall sections to go with it (thanks to some Hirst mould pieces).

Its a good enough start and I have one more road section to complete before I tackle the hills next. Then I will have a playable table of  the bare minimum 6 boards. I have a few more trees to make then I should have enough for three or 4 decent  sized forests. Next up after that is to construct a few loose hills before tackling the river sections and a couple more hill sections. I intend to have one long river section (basically a double length modular terrain board) and 2 curves.

So here is my very first attempt at a major terrain building project. Dreamfish was the major inspiration behind this project, as was Quindia Studios

After a bit of trial and error I settled on 20mm x 20mm wooden frames for each terrain piece. They were stuck down over MDF board and a piece of expanded polystyrene cut to and glued fit into the frame.

Next up was texturing the board. For this I watered down some wood glue about 75% glue and 25% water which I then squirted onto and brushed over the surface of the boards. I did this in roughly 10 to 15cm squares, then scattered my small stones (aquarium sand) over the board before painting on another square of glue and repeating the process. I left the area where the road was going to go clear of the sand. Once all the sand was glued down I textured the road surface with polyfilla, covering the entire surface of the road and scraping the road texture into the putty, leaving ruts and grooves where carts may have travelled. Nothing too exact but just enough to give it a nice surface. I left all of this to dry overnight and then sprayed a heavily watered down wood glue and water mix over the entire board to help seal the sand in place. 

Once all of this was dry I painter the entire board in a "burnt umber" (big pot of acrylic craft paint), then liberally dry brushed "sienna" over this followed by a lighter dry brush of "flesh". This gave the board a nice earthy feel over which I could then add the grass.

Yet more wood glue (I am using a hell of a lot of this stuff!) was painted onto the board surface, leaving patches of bare earth. I then sprinkled my cheap static grass over the glue, occasionally adding a more yellow static grass to break up the colour of the board. It tended to come out in a fairly clumpy finish which I like, giving the appearance of an actual field and not a smooth billiard table. 

Give this another few hours to dry then I turned the board upside down and tapped the back of the board to remove all the loose grass (all of which went back into the big tub of static grass to be sprinkled over the next board). Next up I worked on sticking together random pieces of  bricks from a Hirst cast to make some walls. Nothing much to these but I may describe how they are painted another time. 

I did go back to the boards once they were basically finished and glued a few more clumps of grass onto them to further break up the surface and add some more colour variation (yellow grass and the brighter green citadel grass)

And thats all I have for now. When I get a chance (and the 4th board is made)  I will take some better photos (all of these are with the cellphone) with some units on the boards.

Making birch trees

I have been looking through several sites, researching the best ways to make scenery - or at least effective and relatively simple ways of making good looking scenery. Through one of my searches I came across a nice method for making birch trees (the tutorial was for trees in winter that were leafless but it would be easy enough to convert them to summer trees). I liked the idea of having trees that had nice white trunks and would contrast nicely with the green tabletop. Plus they would be something different to the regular trees you always see. So I set about making my very first trees. Ever. Crazy to think that I have been involved with the Warhammer hobby for over 20 years and have never made a tree. Turns out these were dead simple to make.

The materials needed were as follows. A bundle of florists wire, some florist tape (white), white spray paint, black paint, modelling clay, large metal washers, reindeer moss and your regular basing materials.

Step one is the build the trunks of the trees out of the florists wire, wrapping it with the florists tape. Take 2 or 3 lengths of wire and wrap the tape tightly around the wire, then add another length of shorter wire once you have wrapped the tape about a quarter of the way down the original length of wire.Wrap the tape around this new piece of wire and around the rest of the trunk. Keep adding new wire to form the branches of the tree till you are satisfied.

Once you have the trunks of your trees made (I made mine to several different lengths for variety) spray the whole lot white. Let the trees dry then paint on the distinctive bark patterns that birch trees have. Some simple black paint is all that is needed to make these makings.

Now you need to build up your bases. Using the large metal washers to from the bottom of the base you then build up the roots and ground the tree stands on with the modelling clay. Put the clay aside to harden and pluck out chunks of the reindeer moss.  This stuff is great and makes for fantastic foliage.

Add the reindeer moss to the tops of your branches, gluing them in place as best you can (although they do seem to stay fast just by feeding the wire through the moss).

Now all that is left is to base your trees to match your gaming table. I based a few of the large trees with a smaller tree on the same base for added variety. Then add them to your gaming table and enjoy! :)

It is probably a good idea to spray the trees with a matt varnish as well to protect them as much as possible. I haven't done this yet. I have to say I am very impressed with my first foray into scenery making, now for some more bits and pieces, hedges and walls I think. More trees will need to be made, but for these I think I will go with a more traditional brown barked tree.

WFB 3rd Edition Rules Questions and Answers

While reading through my back issues of White Dwarf I came across a couple of pages that may prove useful to anyone relearing the rules for 3rd edition Warhammer. Rick Priestly answers a few FAQ's about the Warhammer rules. I am sure this has been seen by many before but for those who have not seen it here are the pages:

From the deep jungles came the Slaan

I have added some Slaan to the lead pile which is now growing to proportions where I begin to wonder when I will paint them all. Much like the pile of lead and plastic armies for modern Warhammer and various Blood Bowl teams that are also sitting around. Still, you can't turn down the opportunity to get your hands on some of the frog-men when they become available. I picked these up locally again. Not sure quite what I will do with them as they are seemingly an eclectic mix of Slaan.  There are several riders (or these could be regular Slaan with the slotta base removed) but only one coldone, there is a single warhound but no handler, 3 Alligator warriors and 3 blow pipe warriors. The rest I think are regular Slaan. I will need to compare them to the Armies book some more and Solegends to really work out what's what.

And I grabbed a Zoat as well. I am quite happy with him as I have never seen one in the flesh before. I am trying to hold off on buying any more Orcs and Goblins as I hope to buy an army off an old friend...or is that and old army off a friend? Potentially lots of 3rd edition goodies to be had there so I must be patient... GAH!!! O.o

Oh and I also picked up a whole bunch of 3rd edition era White Dwarfs for some bedtime reading. I will share any interesting tidbits I come across while reading them. There is a pre 3rd edition (by 4 months) Warhammer scenario that could be worth posting.

Table designs

Continuing on my plans to build a modular terrain table/ dining table. So these are my musings over what the table may look like. There probably won't be any drawers. But that's the basic idea of what I am looking at, trying to keep it simple and hopefully keep the costs down at the same time. I can then slot the modular terrain boards inside the table where they will be held in place nice and snug, with enough of a lip left over to keep dice on the table. When not in use two sturdy wooden boards slot into the top of the recessed area to convert the table back into a regular dining table. The flat modular terrain boards can be left in place under this surface, while hill sections will have to be stored elsewhere. I am wondering if the modular terrain boards need to be reinforced with a wooden frame - not really for strength but to protect the edge of the polystyrene from dents and nicks when trying to slot them into place and being kept in storage.

I need to get this thing costed before going much further.

Geek Chic

Now I am sure that several of you are aware of these tables, probably the ultimate in gaming tables purpose built for gamers by gamers. Unfortunately they are only available in the USA. Lucky you if you do live there.
Something like one of these tables is what I am envisaging as the basis for my modular terrain table. I need a regular table that can be used as a dining table but be easily converted to a gaming table. Something like the one below.

But this is really overkill for my needs. As great as it is, especially all that storage under the table. I am going to look at something simpler. A basic dining table with a removable surface that reveals a recessed playing surface beneath. I can then slot my modular terrain pieces into this area for games of Warhammer in luxury. 

Of course all of this is going to have to be hand made locally. I can't ship something like this from the USA (even if I could the cost would be astronomical). So the mission now is to sketch up what I am looking for and find a carpenter capable of delivering what I want - within a budget I can afford. No small task I guess but we all need something to aim for :)

Oh, and all this is excluding the modular terrain pieces I need to build. These will be much simpler than Dreamfish's masterpiece but still a lot of work. I am actually excited by the prospect! :)

Random additions to the lead pile

So I picked up some random miniatures nice and cheap from a local seller that are being added to the collection of lead. So in the interests of keeping a record (for myself as much as anything else) I am putting what I receive up here where I can catalogue them.

Not too sure how many of these are classic (if any). Going to have to go through the catalogues on solegends to work them out. The scales vary significantly between the models. Is this normal with Snotlings?  http://www.solegends.com/citcat912/c20183snotlings-h.htm

I don't think this is a 3rd edition troll. Most probably a Stone Troll from 4th edition at least thats the earliest reference I can find to him. http://www.solegends.com/citcat1995-6/cat19956p242-02.htm

Correction, he does actually appear in the Green Catalogue of 1993 so was made in 1992 so he could just scrape in as a very late 3ed edition model?

http://www.solegends.com/citcat9x3/index.htm

Hobgoblin rocket team that is definitely 3rd edition. http://www.chaos-dwarfs.com/wiki/index.php?title=Image:Hobgoblin-rocket-team.jpg

Minotaur Lord. Body 4, Legs 2, Head 1. http://www.solegends.com/citcat912/c20296minotaurlords-h.htm

2 Chaos Warriors. "Axe and face of Slaaneshi mount" and "Sword and Chaos Tome" (I now have 2 of the Sword and Tome warrior. May need to swap him for another warrior) 

http://www.solegends.com/citcat912/c20265rcchslaanesh-h.htm

Not a bad haul I think. Most of this lot will be able to see action in the Orc and Goblin horde and also go towards a growing band of Chaos.