No Cure for the Terrain Bug

Shaping that rock for the Behemoth reminded me just how much fun I have when making terrain. The fact that I can recline while working on it is just aces until I can figure out how to paint while reclined. So after getting Behemoth finished up, I found myself really wanting to do something hobby-related.

I've been wanting to do some custom objectives for my group, especially since we've been using blank bases to stand in for flags. Since we have almost every faction represented, it's my goal to eventually do "flags" and objectives that represent everyone in the game.

One idea I've had for awhile was to carve some stones with Trollblood runes etches in to them. I went through a few bad pieces before I finally figured out how to get them looking decent, but I finally cut three that I was happy with. I was fortunate to find someone on the Privateer Press forums who'd grabbed all the Trollblood runes from the artwork, so I picked 6 at random and etched them in with the end of a pen. I was tempted to leave them in the dark blue that came from the ink, but I instead grabbed some light blue to give them a more magical look. I ended up needing 2-3 coats on many of them because that ink really liked to bleed through the dried paint.

While paint on my "flags" was drying I decided to look up some other fun terrain ideas on my phone. These are all works in progress, but they're definitely opening up some fun terrain themes.

This one is a piece of building that was under assault. The interior has some battle damage on the floor and stairs, while the exterior has several bullet marks from trying to fire in to the windows. I only have a grey basecoat on these so far, and plan on cutting up some old pieces of sprue to use as rubble patches. I will probably mount this to some cork as well to keep it from getting nudges during gameplay.

Next are just some generic walls using .5"x1" pieces of foam for the bricks. I really like how these are turning out, and I can churn the bricks out at a fast enough pace that I could fill an entire table some walls, buildings, rough terrain... heck, I could even try to recreate an entire castle's interior to get a break from all the outdoor setups that everyone does.

This is one I'm not too sure on. I was looking around for ideas on how to use old pieces of sprue, and someone had gallery of different pieces he's made. The original image had this looking like a low-tech wooden toll gate, but I'm seeing a single-rail fence with some overgrowth and high grass that will provide concealment.

My daughter made me promise to let her help on this one. She was asking me what all the different things were, and when she heard the word "crystal," she did that squealing things that seem to be hard-wired in to little girls. These will be my Cryx-themed flags, and we will be painting them up to look like glowing necrotite. Tutorials on these are surprisingly lacking, so we'll likely be figuring this one out as we go along. These and the completed flags will need to have some washers glued to the bottom, because my buddies took them for a test run last night and foam on a plastic base isn't terribly adept at staying still when it's lightly bumped.



So that's just a look at some terrain stuff I've been working on. I would show off some hills I made a few weeks ago, but I'm still not happy with how they look. It seems like they should be such a simple thing, but so far only one of my 5 prototypes has turned out decently. Now I understand why people pay $20 for a hill from Games Workshop.


See you tomorrow!

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