Scratchbuilding Frostgrave Terrain (including icicle tutorial)

With winter around the corner I thought it would be fun to finally properly sink my teeth into Frostgrave. To start of I played a test game of the v2 ruleset (and got my own copy of the new booklet). At that point I decided I needed properly frozen terrain in my collection and a gaming mat to play it on. Here's the result of the first batch of terrain I built. 

Frostgrave: adventure awaits in the heart of the frozen city.

Classic Warhammer Dwarf Mine ready to be fought over (SITCBH - part 3)

My Dwarf Mine, inspired by the classic one in White Dwarf 132, is finished. That makes me a rather early finisher in the SITCBH I entered with The Periodic Painting Table and The War Crow blogs. With still about five weeks on the clock #humblebrag ;). Perhaps I should make something else as well, I must say its quite a treat to build non-human stuff. Well before I get into that, let's start out with a picture of the finished piece accompanied by a bunch of gloriously happy Dwarves.

Why would we build a mine soundly lad, no member of the engineer's guild will show up in these parts...

Steady progress on the Dwarven Mine (SITCBH - part 2)

This weekend I made a steady bit of progress on my dwarven mine set. I added sand, a small railway and detailed the accompanying sheds. Without a lot of further ado. Here's a group shot that doesn't quite cover all the work that's been done. The pictures with the buildings as they are now can be found lower in this post.

My Dwarven mine is slowly coming together. 

Dwarven Mine blast off the Second International Townscape Challenge - Beyond Human (SITCBH)

Back in August Chris from the Periodic Painting Table and Stuart from The War Crow contacted me to join in the First International Townscape Challenge. It was a lot of fun and we all earned a few self-applied pats on the back at the end of it. Reason enough for a second edition. After a bit of a break we launched the Second International Townscape Challenge - Beyond Human (STICBH) this month. The 'Beyond Human' part of the challenge refers to the fact that we're going to be building a non-human piece of scenery in the style of the Townscape. For my part, I'm going to be building a Dwarven mine.

I think we have the beginning of an interesting new building here...

Making some Warhammer/AoS scenery: High Elf waystones/Lumineth spires

As Warhammer scenery goes High Elf waystones are a staple, and I think they fit on any AoS tabletop as well. I've always wanted a few in my collection but all my previous attempts turned out badly. With the Lumineth closely mirroring the High Elves (thank you GW) I thought it about high time to make a couple. And here they are.

Get off my lawn! 

Prince Imrik rides forth again

A while back I found yet another mystery bag in my box of old miniatures. I upended the contents and out rolled an original Prince Imrik. That was a stroke of fortune (well to be honest I was looking for old High Elves to add to my Lumineth, but lets ignore that bit and focus on the sheer surprise ;) ). Long story short (yes I cut and pasted a too long intro that was originally here): Prince Imrik rides forth again. 

"I walk through the Dreaming Halls and I feel change in the wind. In the rhythm of their slumber, I see omens. Minaithnir tells me that he, too, feels his brethren swimming towards consciousness." <- hint hint GW, please make more dragon riding High Elves Lumineth

A few simple Warhammer/AoS terrain pieces: crumbling earthworks and a rickety tower

Testing the Linden Way scenario, the third skirmish that leads up to Bloodbath at Orruk's Drift, is in my foreseeable future. As I had to speedily rearrange my table the last two test games I decided to actually check if I could feature the Linden Way hamlet on a modern table. It took a bit of shuffling with buildings, but it worked. One thing was missing: some crumbling earthworks to cap off the entrance. No worries, I took some coffee stirrers and polystyrene and went to work. Here's the result.

Karl-Franz junior (no relation) was about to empty the 'morning ablutions' bucket when the silent Skaven killer struck...

Jungle ruins and realm gate (aka messing around with polystyrene)

The recent completion of the Mighty Fortress got me rather enthusiastic about messing around with polystyrene. So between other projects I made a few random bits of terrain. With the Skaven sneaking in, Eldar shenanigans and recently Gaslands/Dark Future, this project has kind of fallen through the cracks. As I did not bring a lot of things to completion this weekend, I thought 'lets throw them into the spotlight right now'. So without further ado: here's some random ruins made from polystyrene, Ikea plants, flock and bits.

Meanwhile in the valley of mist...

The Mighty Fortress is ready for battle

After the epoxy resin disaster last week I decided to redouble my efforts to complete the Mighty Fortress. It paid off as the old polystyrene model now stands ready for battle. Lets start off with a few pictures of the completed set.

The Mighty Fortress is an epic piece of scenery to put on a gaming table.

Disaster strikes the Mighty Fortress

Let's start this post with a quote from the latest AoS rulebook: "One of the greatest joys of collecting Citadel Miniatures can be found in the modelling and painting of your collection as you assemble and recreate all of the great heroes, terrifying monsters and amazing landscapes of the Age of Sigmar." I'll be keeping that in mind as I continue posting on the Mighty Fortress project. It took a slight turn this week and ended up in 'horror show county'.

I still think it's a fine looking moat.

Building and painting my Mighty Fortress (and about time too)

Way back in 1988 (when people still yelled at me to get off their lawn instead of vice versa) the Warhammer Siege expansion appeared for Warhammer Fantasy Battle. This 140 page book has rules for everything you'd ever want to do to take or hold fortifications. Alongside the book GW released a new terrain kit called Mighty Fortress. This is a polystyrene set of towers and walls to use in games of siege (and general battles of course). I got my hands on one almost thirty years ago. As it (often) goes with miniature (related) purchases it did not get painted as quick as I imagined when I got it. Long story short: just before Christmas last year (2018) I got this box out of the to-do pile and started planning.

The Mighty Fortress came in a big pretty box that has been sitting around looking big and pretty for long enough now.

Veerhuis completed (Starting a fresh fantasy terrain set part six)

Yesterday I managed to complete the paintwork on my veerhuis (ferry house). As per usual with an overtly documented project like this, I forgot to take in-between pictures as I got carried away painting. Maybe during the next project I'll remember to snap photos as I paint. I have more MDF bases lined up, so I might continue with this village. To start with this house, here's the end result. (For people interested in the construction see post 1, post 2 and post 3).

Now there is a lived in house ready to be fought over. 

Starting a fresh fantasy terrain set part five - Building one (veerhuis) detailing

Yesterday I picked up a bushel of balsa wood (yes, I've decided that's the correct turn of phrase for it). So last night I could go in and finish the last two doors on my ferry house (veerhuis). Lets start with a 'final product' shot first. Yes there it is, ready to be primed.

Next step on this building will involve painting and flocking the whole thing. I can't wait to get started.

Starting a fresh fantasy terrain set part four - Building one (veerhuis) making doors and windows

I left off work on my veerhuis (ferry house) building with gaping holes where windows and doors should be. After a bit of head scratching and designing I rejected the idea of putting in windows made from balsa wood. With all the lattices it would take too much time to do it. Luckily I found a bag of HO scale industrial windows in my bits box. I think I added it to an online order to hit the free shipping limit. Lets see what I can do with these...

The things I find in my bits box often manage to surprise me.

Starting a fresh fantasy terrain set part three - Building one (veerhuis)

I had a bit of full social weekend so not much time to work on the fantasy terrain set. Having said that, I did get to spend a lovely Friday night and a bit of my Saturday morning working on the main part of the terrain set: buildings. To start with the ending (as usual). This is how far along I am right now.

Step one: start at the finish. 

Starting a fresh fantasy terrain set part two - Trees

I got a bit carried away building scatter terrain for my new fantasy village this weekend. Part of this building fugue consisted of assembling bases to hold a bunch of model railroad trees in an interesting way. Yesterday I painted and flocked the bases. So without further ado, here's the end result.

It's not the glow of the runestone that gets you, its the chanting cultist hiding in the wood with guns that does that...

Starting a fresh fantasy terrain set part one - scatter terrain

Recently I played in the Dutch Bloodstorm AoS event and won the Sportsmanship Award. Besides making me smile it came with a certificate and a brand new gaming mat. This last bit has to be celebrated! So this weekend I started building a brand new terrain set to go with it. The 'I have to start scratch building some fantasy stuff'-itch that has been flaring up lately helped a lot. So to start with the ending I went ahead and made a bunch of scatter terrain. Here are some completed project pictures. WIP and a lot of 'how I did it' rambling will follow lower in this post.

The good, the bad and the orky...

Tutorial: building a ruined bridge base

Yesterday I completed my Orruk Warboss on Wyvern that included the fancy base you can see below. It is supposed to look like a ruined bridge or highway (or something similar). As it was rather easy and fun to build I thought people might like a tutorial on this. Luckily I actually remembered to take some pictures while scratch-building.

Never mind true line of sight and hiding behind terrain: a big model needs a big base, it just looks right.

Continuing with the Shadow Wars: Armageddon terrain

My hobby time slowed down a bit last week as regular life (and a quick digital visit to The Commonwealth wasteland) caught up with me. Also a bit of project fatigue is setting in, worsened by Games Workshop's botched launch of Shadow Wars: Armageddon. I was not aware it was going to be a limited edition game and its anemic supply sold out before I got a chance to order a copy. Luckily I managed to secure one through a friend. Apparently there is a rulebook in the works now that makes me wonder if I should've bought the box. That is not how I usually spend my hobby money. I will try to be more careful about getting hyped up on announced products before they show up (GW seems to be slightly off form this year, with the rather disappointing Shadows over Hammerhal (compared to Silver Tower) first and now this and to be honest what I've seen of Shadespire is not fueling my enthusiasm). I'm considering trying Test of Honour by Warlord Games because the rules look interesting and the game looks awesome (but it is also sold out, what's up with wargames manufacturing?).

But enough whining and on to hobby time. The second set of buildings has been built, including my first attempt at a polystyrene building with the new tools.

Another three rusty buildings are waiting a drybrush of metallic, a dab of grey and color (and a lot of Ryza rust) to be ready for use in Shadow Wars.

New tools to cut polystyrene with a hot-wire cutter

Although half the hobby from a terrain building perspective is keeping an eye out for discarded toys, boxes and other shapes to build with, the other half is translating an idea into something tangible. The material that would be most useful for this is polystyrene, not the shitty expanded kind (with the little balls that keeping break off even years after sealing painting and pouring holy machine oil on it) but the solid extruded sort. It is reasonable solid, lightweight and with a few easy measures quite durable. One thing it is not, is easy to cut. As with its cousin foam board I keep spare blades at the ready and an average build tends to eat up a full set of spare blades because polystyrene is dull (pro-tip: when given a last request at the guillotine, ask for polystyrene, quickly dull the blade and walk away with a sore neck ;) ).

Add to this problem that it is hard to keep cut edges straight a tool is needed. So a few years back I decided to invest in a hot wire polystyrene cutter. At first I attempted a few 'home-build' projects that all failed and finally I just forked over the cash for a 'real' machine. This is the one.

My hot-wire cutter, als known as my rather expensive mistake...