Old Dog Learns New (Terrain) Tricks - Part the Last (At Last)

My modest terrain project has been languishing in obscurity for the last three months while real life does its damndest to upset my personal applecart, but I'm going to draw a line under the blasted thing and blog it.

OK, the last we saw of the piece, it was awaiting paint and groundwork. The plaster rocks had been hot glued into place, the gaps filled with Sculptamold, and the MDF base smoothed over with more of that excellent product.

Painting was next, using the "leopard-spotting" technique I picked up from Mel the Terrain Tutor and Luke at Geek Gaming Scenics (both channels are an absolute must for aspiring scenery builders). No, it doesn't mean taking a pair of binoculars out on the savannah. It's a technique for painting rocky surfaces more realistically than the old "three shades of grey plus a drybrush" that many of us cut our terrain painting teeth on.

I splashed a thin wash of yellow ochre acrylic (the cheap stuff from the $2 shop) over about a third of the rock faces and ruins, following that with burnt sienna and umber in similar quantities. These soak into the plaster and give a realistic mottled effect. Leaving some of the plaster in its natural white will give some nice contrasts for the final wash.

Once dry, a thin wash of black is applied over all. Have plenty of paper towel ready to soak up the excess. The flatter areas were going to be flocked, so I painted them in basic burnt sienna to prevent any white plaster showing through.

I used foam flocks for the ground covers, spraying with diluted PVA glue as I went to build up layers of progressively lighter-coloured flock. I'd never worked with foam flocks prior to this, but I was delighted to find that once they're dry, they harden up a treat, providing a realistically textured surface without sacrificing durability. 

Most of the work was done down in the garage out of consideration for the cleanliness of our kitchen, so I didn't end up documenting the whole process step by step, but I can at least share pics of the finished product.

The slopes of the hill and flat areas are finished with assorted foam flocks, plus Tajima's wild grass tufts and Moorland diorama effects. More tufts were placed in recesses in the rock faces. Small rocks, twigs, and sand were scattered around and hit with liquid super glue to fix them immediately in place.

More offcuts from my mother-in-law's garden were pressed into service to make a dead tree, because this tower has been a ruin for a long time. This was painted with GW Dryad Bark and drybrushed with GW Gorthor Brown and a light dusting of Vallejo Game Colour Cold Grey. Geek Gaming Scenics Forest Floor flock was scattered around the tower's interior.

Add a few tufts growing out from between the stones, and a raven perched in the tree (courtesy of the Warhammer Giant kit, the best source of fantasy set dressing materials for my money) and voila, it's done!

So what lessons have I taken away from this? 

Firstly, Sculptamold doesn't take up the washes used in the leopard-spotting technique as readily as plain plaster, so use it sparingly when building rocky surfaces. It's best as a simple gap filler in this situation. I used a bit too much on this piece and had to go over the affected areas a couple of times to ensure coverage.

Be sure to mop up excess washes quickly - MDF REALLY doesn't like to get wet.

When spraying diluted PVA from a spray bottle, sooner or later you'll get blockages. A squeeze bottle with a fine nozzle can do just as well when wetting down flocked surfaces. It can be messy, but as I said above, keep plenty of paper towels on hand and you should be right.

Working with washes and successive sprays of PVA glue means a fair bit of waiting time between steps, and the completed piece can take a while to dry, so patience is a virtue.

I'm quite pleased with the results, and this little project has definitely given me some more ideas to go on with. Considerations of space probably mean that I won't be building any huge modular gaming tables in the near future, but if ever I get a shed, watch out!

What's next? Maybe some more Frostgrave, or maybe a detour to the Bronze Age?

Stay tuned...

Ev

Old Dog Learns New (Terrain) Tricks - Part the First

It all started innocently enough.

Like so many of us in lockdown, my e-commerce activity has shown a bit of a spike lately. 150 or so MDF rounds from Warbases, some assorted Hellenistic figs from Warlord and Polemarch, and this thingy below;

It's a textured roller from Green Stuff World, and it has opened a veritable tin of terrain worms here at Chez Ev.

Of course, I had to test it out straight away, so it was off to the shops for a pound of Das air-drying clay. Grabbed a cardboard tube from the stash in the garage, rolled out a couple of sheets of the Das with the brickwork roller, stuck it to the tube with PVA glue, and left it to dry. This last step took longer than anticipated. Like a week longer.

But here's the result;

That worked well, thinks I, but what am I going to do with it? Why, make a piece of SAGA or fantasy skirmish terrain, of course! I drag out a Warbases terrain base and get to work with some extruded polystyrene foam and the hot glue gun. Oh, did I not mention the new glue gun...?

"This is the DeWalt Ceramic Glue Gun, the most powerful hot glue gun in the world..."

So yeah, things were escalating quickly...

Adding to the mayhem, I started looking for hints and tips on building realistic rocky terrain, and stumbled upon some YouTube channels which were to prove my downfall; Boulder Creek Railroad, The Terrain Tutor and Luke's APS. I admit it. I was hooked. What these guys can't do with foam, plaster and glue isn't worth doing.

Several days and a few dozen hours of viewing later, I'd grabbed some Woodland Scenics Rock Moulds, some Sculptamold Modelling Compound, and went a little bit crazy.

The rocks were cast in plaster of Paris and hot-glued on and around the edges of the foam, and blended into the piece with Sculptamold. Sculptamold is a mix of shredded tissue paper and plaster of Paris. It dries as hard as plaster, but weighs less and can be sculpted as it dries. In retrospect, I'd probably use less of it in future and leave more of the plaster rocks exposed. You'll see why later.

So where is this going? Somewhere potentially quite expensive and with a very steep learning curve!

Stay tuned...

Ev

Ev's Challenge - The Story So Far

It's Day 24 of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge IX (well, day 24 or thereabouts, depending where you are in relation to the International Date Line), and I thought it's about time for an update on my own output so far.

First up was a Viking take on Santa Claus, the Jarl of Yule.

A Wargames Foundry figure, he looks superbly unimpressed at the next selection, an Ice Troll from Reaper Miniatures. He's one of their Bones range, and repays the effort taken to pick out the details.

The next submission was for the Bonus Theme Round 'Reconnaissance'. I picked a couple of H.P. Lovecraft's Mi-Go, the alien fungi from Yuggoth (aka Pluto). They are spying on the humans in preparation for a mission of conquest, and one has purchased a telescope to help in the task. Unfortunately, he's completely failed to take into account his species' complete lack of eyes.

The latest submission is this little fellow;

A toy scorpion re-purposed as a tabletop gaming piece and given a shiny new coat of paint, Mr Stabby is just the thing to keep any party of desert adventurers on their toes!

That's all for now - stay tuned!

Ev

AHPC VIII - Ev's Challenge, Day 22

The story so far;

I've gone into this year's Challenge with a target of 500 points, and have proceeded at my usual sedate (some might say 'sedated') pace.

First up was this chap, a strapping Orc Chieftain from Scibor's Monstrous Miniatures. Certainly in keeping with the 'monstrous' theme of the Challenge!

It's a terrifically dynamic figure, and as usual, Scibor's bases are little masterpieces in their own right. I loved painting that fallen statue head!

Next up was a terrain entry. This is the first year for terrain entries outside of a bonus theme round, so I thought I'd paint up a couple of Pictish Standing Stones by Scotia Grendel. I'd had these in the to-do pile for a while, so they were overdue for an outing.

These two lovely resin sculpts were not quite enough to get the entry across the line quantity-wise, so I rustled up a quick Celtic Oratory Chapel, scratch-built from a block of polystyrene coated in filler and carved to resemble rough stone. The door was made from some bamboo skewers with a loop of fuse wire for the handle.

Returning to the Challenge theme, I went with a monster for my next entry; the Reaper Bones Giant Worm, painted up as that old D&D favourite, the Purple Worm.

Very pleased with the final result on this one, suitably repulsive!

Last but far from least is the Goblin Doom Diver, 'Da Rite Stuf', my entry for the Themed Bonus Round, 'Flight'. I really like the goofiness of this model, and I hope I've done it justice.

So, 22 days in and I'm just under 25% of the way to my target; let's see if we can't get a few more points on the board before too long!

What's next? Stay tuned...


Ev

Normans and Submarines and Man Flu... oh my!

I've got a virus. It *could* be man flu. I feel like hammered sh1t. As a consequence the photos attached to this post are serious contenders for some of my worst ever miniature photography. Please just bear with me, the items shown do look better that this in real life, honest....

One more project "complete" this week with a final point of hearthguard added to my SAGA Normans, bringing me up to a solid 6 points plus options. Unlike almost everything else around here these only arrived last Sunday so there's an element of the unreal in seeing them completed. I was spurred on by the copy of Age of the Wolf that arrived with them though so perhaps not such a surprise?

These were started during Paint and Chat with some lads from the AHPC and the genial atmosphere saw them more than half done in one session. Nice!

The Kingdom of Britannia fleet continues to swell with completion of all the submersibles as well. All that is left to do now to close this off (OK, for the time being) is a couple of fliers. I'm not 100% sold on the colour of the ocean but I needed something that would contrast with the blue of the hulls so I deliberately overstated the green a bit.

That's it for now. [cough][sniffle]

Cheers,
Millsy

Design commission project:Blood Eagle - Skirmish Warfare in the legendary Dark Ages

I've wanted to blog about being commissioned to do the layout and design Blood Eagle for some some time. Leading up to and during the design work obviously I couldn't say anything and then my new job came along and Real Life took over. Now I'm catching up on my blogging so I can do a little shameless self-promotion... Blood Eagle is my second major commission and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

Blood Eagle - Skirmish gaming in the legendary Dark Ages is yet another wonderful offering from the talented lads Craig and Charles from The Ministry of Gentlemanly Warfare (of both Daishō and In Her Majesty's Name fame).

Blood Eagle is the second self-published venture by the lads and I was lucky enough to be the chap commissioned to help them bring their material into the real world, thanks largely to Simon Miller whom I worked with on To The Strongest! and who apparently gave me a rather decent reference. Thanks Simon!

I have to say working with Charles and Craig was both a privilege and a pleasure. They are clearly both heavily invested in their games and possess a serious wealth of knowledge on game design. Coupled with a love of the Dark Ages period and particularly the legendary aspect of it and the end product was always going to be something special.

The rules themselves run to 100 full colour pages and there's loads of glorious eye candy from a number of gamers. One of my pics even found it's way in there - see if you can work out which one if you pick up a copy.

There's an extensive table of contents and the rules are heavily cross-referenced throughout as well. Detailed examples of play make learning the game easy to do and the numerous quotes add real flavour and get you in the right mind set.

Finally, there's a huge section on on warbands which includes both fictional and historical personalities and hanger's on.
All in all it's a corker of a publication!

Since the rules have become available I've been curious too see what the gaming community in general thought of the design aspect. You want to know all the thought and effort you put in has achieved what you set out to do and made people happy right?

Design is especially important in games because it supports your learning of the rules and then should fade into the background and not detract from enjoyment of the book.

Thankfully from what I've seen the reviews are very positive. Here's just a few quotes I've snaffled from about the interwebs...

"Nice production values" More...

"Superb production values as expected" More...

"superb layout and publication" More...

"High class product" More...

"The book is a lovely composition with great examples and pictures to inspire" More...

Phew! Seems I can sleep at night once again...

You can pick up your own copy from North Star Military Figures for a measly GBP14.95.

If you'd like help with your project small or large have a look at what I can offer.

Cheers,

Millsy

The Challenge; A Quick Round Up (and then it's back to Frostgrave!)

The 6th Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, where bloggers and painters from the four corners of the circular globe line up to show off their figlimning and modelling skills, has at last come to an end for another year.

While my blolleague Millsy is an old hand at this event, it was my first entry into the lists (thanks to the encouragement of painting blog luminaries such as Anne, Michael, Paul, and Dave, as well as Millsy), so I set myself a modest target of 200 points.

Well, I wasn't going to set the world on fire on my first outing, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that I ended up with 241 points. The key here seems to be the bonus rounds, and my word, didn't the Challengers pull out all the stops for those!

C&G's own Millsy was one of the leaders in this field, with a podium finish in each of the bonus rounds, and a well-deserved win in the 'Defensive Terrain' category for his insanely detailed motte-and-bailey castle.

Trust me, anyone bloody-minded enough to sharpen nearly two hundred individual twigs gathered from the backyard to make a palisade is not a person to be trifled with.

My own showing in the bonus rounds was modest, as befits a debutant. I did score an honourable mention in the 'Nautical' category, which was more than I had dared expect - old Thadrak Krakenbane is possibly the silliest figure I've ever painted, but he generated a backstory which went from silly to sad in a most unexpected manner.

Towards the end of the Challenge, it was as though Millsy and I remembered that we had a bunch of unpainted figs for something called Frostgrave (as did a good many other Challengers - it was almost uncanny!), and there was a bit of a (snow) flurry as we all swung into action. I rustled up a couple of beasties and two soldiers, while Millsy went for some superbly-rendered Wights and Constructs.

I'm glad we're getting some traction on Frostgrave again (after all, we did buy the ruleset for a reason), and I've been inspired to carry on in the wake of the Challenge. Better late than never for the painting mojo to kick in - though three months ago would have been nice!

So here's the latest from the Drummoyne workbench; two golems (or constructs, in Frostgrave parlance), one Stone, one Flesh. They're impulse buys from my FLGS, Reaper Bones figs, and I'm surprised at how easily they painted up (though I'll leave it to you to make your own judgement on the final effect).

Here's the Stone Golem, based on a Renedra 40mm round with some rocks, some resin basing bits from an old GW basing set, and lots of white pumice to build up the area around the moulded base of the fig. It was finished with the 50/50 bicarb/PVA glue snow mix, given a wash in the recesses with the OOP GW Ice Blue.

I decided to go with something other than the bog standard GWSWGG colour scheme, working up instead from a base of the now-discontinued GW Foundation colour Orkhide Shade, a very dark green at the blue end of the spectrum. Successive layers of drybrushing went up from the old Dark Angels Green to the lighter grey-greens of the final edge highlights.

I was going for a greenstone/dark jade effect, and I think staying away from the warmer, yellower greens was the way to go. The fine cracks evident in the sculpt called for a lighter touch, and I think that lining in the lower edges of the flaws with the paler tones has helped me here. 

The next one is almost a diametric opposite; the sharp edges of the first sculpt have no counterpart in the Reaper Bones Flesh Golem. I started with a purple basecoat, thinking to work it up to a pale mauve-grey, for a dead and sallow look. As I added paler layers, striping in the direction of the muscle, I found myself moving back towards the red end of the purple spectrum. As you can see, one thing led to another, with a pretty disturbing end result.

He's made of flesh, alright, but it's as though some careless magician neglected to give him skin. He looks like he's just stepped off the set of one of the Hellraiser films. I'm not entirely sure what happened there...

The bulging muscles of his back and shoulders really lent themselves to the 'anatomical model' style of painting, with the striation of the tissue picked out in purple, red and bone with a dark red wash. His base is the usual snow mix, with a rusty helmet from the Frostgrave Soldiers sprue thrown in for good measure. 

His bloody chest and hands have been given a splash of GW's 'Blood for the Blood God', from their technical paint range, with a few drops and bloody footprints in the snow as well. Ordinarily, I avoid such overly gory effects, but something about this sculpt brought out my inner B-movie horror impresario. All a bit Grand Guignol, really - I'd better not make too much of a habit of it...

That's all for now - stay tuned!

Ev

Painting Challenge Bonus Round - Dark Age Fort!

This week saw me submit my third bonus round entry into Curt's wonderful Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. The theme for this round was Defensive Terrain so I took the opportunity to scratch-build a "small" Norman motte and bailey fort for use in dark age gaming.

You can view more images and the background here. While you're there please take the time to look at the other super entries and cast you vote for your favourites.

Thanks for popping by!

Cheers,
Millsy

Painting Challenge entries so far...

Time has been limited by various real life occurrences of late so blogging has been lagging behind the painting a bit I'm afraid despite being on hols. Anyway, I've found a few minutes while the paint dries (better than watching it!) so he's a brief recap of what's been painted Challenge-wise thus far...

 

This is my entry to the Bonus Round Number One, Ethel the Fire Engine and crew. Loads of other great entries to see and one day of voting left so pop on over...

And finally a small unit of crossbows for my SAGA Normans...

Two more submissions are ready today so hopefully some more eye candy for you in the not-to-distant future...

Cheers,
Millsy