Age of Sigmar Terrain: Blood geysers for the Brimstone Peninsula time of war

Last year I started planning new terrain projects based on the battles and time of war missions in the Age of Sigmar Realmgate Wars books. As my first project I picked the three opening missions of Mighty Battles... that take place on the Brimstone Peninsula in Aqshy. The realm of fire has been thoroughly corrupted by the influence of the blood god Khorne and battlefield on the Brimstone Peninsula feature geysers that spew boiling blood (queue Raining Blood by Slayer). The rules tell you to use six markers, numbered one through six and place these on the battlefield. At the start of each hero phase the player whose turn it is rolls a die and at the number he rolls blood spews forth and all units within 6" suffer D3 mortal wounds. To put this in the game, I decided I would make bloody geysers on a 6" radius MDF base with a move-able marker. The end result looks like this.

That's D3 mortal wounds for you mister!

The complete set of terrain looks like this:

Dotted one through six. 

To start building this set I grabbed a few panels of MDF from my shed and drew 12" cirkels on them.

Math-hammer is a real thing, although this might not be what people mean by it. 

Next step was to the jig saw, the irregular piece is for another (as yet unfinished) terrain project.

Not mentioned: using a multi-sander to smooth the edges.

Next up I covered the backs of the bases with PVA. MDF is basically a wooden sponge, when stored in a damp area the bases can soak up moisture and warp. Sealing them off with PVA prevents this from happening. You can also use MDF primer to prevent this, but PVA is actually cheaper then primer here.

Did I mention PVA is cheap?

Next step, wait for the PVA to dry.

The next step was making the actual terrain. According to wikipedia a geyser always has a pool and a geyser part. As the pressure builds up the pool recedes and the geyser starts spewing. I decided that using blood pools I could number the bases one through six without actually using numbers. To create the pools I pasted circular pieces of dense polystyrene to the top of the bases. After that I used a hot air gun to shape the pools. and a knife and scouring paper to round the edges. The geyser itself is made from small rocks glued around a plastic tube (big enough to hold a pencil). The base was then covered with PVA and sand (except for the pools).

It may not look like much, but I will get better.

I filled the pools themselves with a rather large dollop of PVA. Into this mix I added different sizes of beeds to get a bit of a bubbly effect going. After the PVA was completely dry I added another large dollop just te fill it all out nicely.

I suddenly realize the pool on the right look vaguely like a smiley from this perspective.

The blood plume sticking out is made from cotton wool glued with PVA to an old pencil and then shaped. After allowing it to dry I covered it with another layer of PVA to make it resistant to wear and tear caused by gaming. This I kept up over a course of several days. Every time the PVA dried I added another layer until it was a solid plastic feeling cone. I got so carried away with this that I forgot to take pictures, but here is the finished and painted result.

I found a use for an old pencil!

I painted the terrain using the Cursed Wastes paint set by Games Workshop. Yeah I could pick a cheaper option, but I like the colors. The geysers where painted orange/yellow and then covered with a layer of Tamiya Clear Red. After this had dried I added the Darker Blood for the Blood God paint to create swirls and lines.

Best be careful not to stagger and fall into the pool there mr. Standard Bearer.

I also added a few skulls around the bases to add some detail.

Now what causes the need to compulsively add skulls to everything?

For the future: finishing that other terrain piece for Aqshy and playing more games.