Dwarf themed terrain or are these Goblin infested ruins?

Most of the fantasy themed battles I fought over the past few years used my Townscape buildings and the two version of woodland terrain in my collection. That's all nice and well, but I've always wanted to expand into different styles of 'table dressing'. Recently I decided to turn to 3D-printing once more to turn that dream into reality. Starting out with a very pretty set of Dwarf themed terrain by Cast n Play Miniatures.

This former Dwarven hold contains a bridge, lots of cover and some difficult terrain. 

Stargrave Slum Stacks, vending machines, robot dogs, scatter terrain and a Bob Naismith Overrunner vehicle

I've spent the past few weeks painting more scenery to use with Stargrave (and perhaps eventually 40K  (if I get around to playing that again)). Aside from painting I've also had the chance to get more actual games of Stargrave in. I had a blast each time (sometimes while actually using a blast template). About time for an update, so let's go.

The collection of rust terrain to play Stargrave scenario's in, is slowly expanding.

Stargrave terrain: the Oversight Office and data terminals

You'd think this finished Oversight Office follows rather fast on the heels of the Snack Stacks I wrote about two days ago. This is a carefully crafted illusion*. In all honestly this tower has been standing on a shelf (and on the tabletop) for quite a bit longer than the Snack Stacks. I just hadn't gotten around to writing about it yet. Let's remedy that. 

* Why publish in chronological order when you can let chaos rule? 

The message above the main gate reminds me of the computers I owned in the nineties. 

Stargrave terrain: the Snack Stacks

Stargrave is awesome. And it gets even better if you go overboard on scenery and scatter terrain. As a rather fanatical terrain builder (also know as a 'storage challenged wargamer' ;) this game ticks all my boxes. So much so, that I went ahead and filled my shopping cart at TTCombat after playing the battle for the overgrown factory last year. I figured I needed it to play games in frontier world style sci-fi cities, also it gave me an excuse to play around a bit more with MDF terrain. Long story short, here are my Snack Stacks.

The original setting for 40K (Rogue Trader) was more a frontier settlement sci-fi exploration game. I'm glad Stargrave is here to scratch that particular itch.

Stargrave: Battle for the overgrown factory

Recently I played a game of Stargrave, the sci-fi skirmishing game by Osprey Publishing. This time I played a proper crew vs. crew game in a scenario from the main rulebook called 'Overgrown Factory'. Two rival crews attempt to pillage an old overgrown factory in the midst of the jungle, risking both the local wildlife, still active and dangerous bits of machinery and a fully armed and operational warbot that'll enter the game shooting at some point. Sure sounds like a recipe for disaster fun. here's our game setup.

I've always dreamed of having a cool table to play miniatures games on. This one manages to fulfil that dream quite nicely. 

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...

My Warhammer Townscape is complete

After a rather dismal failure involving a Killa Kan project last year I decided to cheer myself up by building the old Warhammer Townscape from foamboard and coffee stirrers. To be honest I did not think I would see this project through to the finish. But as of this weekend, I can proudly say I did. There I said it: I finished the Warhammer Townscape. Its also a bit more terrain than I'll ever need for a single game :)

"This is madness!"
"Madness? This is Frugelhofen!"

Townscape page 3 all buildings completed

Yesterday I finished the final two 'buildings' for the Townscape: the outhouse and the two tents. Let's just start with these and kick this quick post off.

Finally a chance to go camping in the Old World (or on the Mortal Realms).

Warhammer Townscape page three progress

Buoyed by the completion of page two I've gone to work on page three of the Townscape. Only thirteen buildings left to build (and paint). Perhaps only twelve, as I'm still on the fence about building number 35 (The Tower). It just looks so wonky compared with the rest of the buildings. With that said, lets go for some work in progress pictures of the last batch.

Now to illustrate social differences in the Warhammer world: the huge Manor House next to the cottage. 

Warhammer Townscape second page finished

Warhammer Townscape is an iconic eighties Games Workshop book. Its hardcover holds cardboard cutout buildings to be used in fantasy wargames. October last year I decided to fulfill a long held ambition: rebuilding the entire set using foamboard, balsa and other materials. To add a challenge (and to make sure I'd build all of them) I decided to use the numbers in te original instructions as the order in which to build the entire set. Yesterday evening, after putting the project on the back burner for a bit, I finished page two (of three). Here's half of this lot.

Here's the first set of page two in the Townscape instructions.

Adeptus Titanicus scenery tutorial

After building my Legio Ignatum titans I had to make some scenery for them. You can't have your poor titans stomping around an empty field after all. GW offers some pretty nifty kits to build scenery with. But (in my very humble opinion) you don't quite get enough scenery with just one kit. Also simply building ready-to-go plastic terrain doesn't quite scratch my hobby itch. So I went a bit wild with the Manufactorum Imperialis kit and made this.

Now we have something to fight over.

More Townscape buildings finished

My blog may have been a bit silent, but that didn't mean I didn't get things done. Without finding time to type about it, I've been continuing my Townscape project. With some pride I can now state that I've finished the first of the three pages from the 'assembling a building' instructions. Here's three of my latest additions in a row.

It almost looks like a street if I put them like this.

Tutorial: flock basing around buildings and painting rivers for Warhammer and Age of Sigmar

Building the Townscape gives me ample opportunity to make some pictures for tutorials. Let's start off with a double feature: Flock basing around buildings and painting rivers for Warhammer and Age of Sigmar (and any other wargame as well for that matter). Followed up with some bonus content about adding signs to buildings. To follow along you'll need some appropriate bases (I prefer MDF), a few colors of flock, grass tufts, instant filler and (optionally) plaster and molds. Let's get started.

We start with the end result, this is what I'm aiming for here.

Warhammer Townscape watermill painted

The Warhammer Townscape watermill is one of the larger, more impressive buildings in the set. As it has a small river running past it, I had to take some extra care of the base of the building. It took a few extra days to apply epoxy water effects properly (no Mighty Fortress disaster repeats for me). I think that was worth it. Here's a shot of the completed building.

Now here's a building to fight over. Also I found my misty valley backdrop. 

First four Warhammer Townscape buildings finished

I had an overtly productive weekend this weekend. It was actually too productive to fit in a single post. I'll just keep te WIP pictures with semi-helpful tips on reserve for later. Having built the first six buildings of the Warhammer Townscape (follow the link if you're wondering what that is) I decided it was time to apply some paint. After all I used some new techniques and I wanted to find out if they actually held up when paint was applied. Short version: I'm happy. Here's a group shot of my first four buildings.

Welcome to Frugelhöfen, we're still working on the rest of the village...

Building the dreaded Warhammer Townscape watermill

Hobby-wise this was a very productive weekend. I continued my Warhammer Townscape project and managed to complete numbers 3, 4, 5 and 6. To wit: the large house, watermill, wooden bridge and shack. Usually I select a few pictures and start rambling. This time my pre-selection stands at 48. Lets just treat this post as a sort of 'scratch building wargaming buildings tutorial and tips' style article. To start off here's my completed work so far.

This project is getting out of hand...

No hammer like Oldhammer: Warhammer Townscape

After the slightly dismal end of my Kan project I decided it was very important to immediately get on the hobby horse and start afresh. For me building scenery/terrain is a perfect counterpoint to miniature painting and in this case therapeutic. Scratch building is a bit more forgiving and a hell of a lot cheaper than miniature painting. So scratch building it is. As I also like to go for overtly ambitious goals I decided to get started on a long held wish to build the classic Warhammer Townscape buildings in foamboard. To make it interesting (and avoid cherry picking) I decided to use the numbers in te original instructions as the order in which to build the entire set. Here is where I'm at right now.

The first 2 out  of 39, it's a a start.

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...

A Farseer, a Skaven and a lot of Eldar

After finishing the Mighty Fortress I looked at the other projects on my paint station and decided it was time to add a few. I've been mulling over my instantly crossed out New Year's resolution (don't buy new stuff until the old stuff is finished). Obviously as a plastic and lead addict I can never keep that resolution, but after the fun I had with the bingo card last year I wanted to give my hobby life some guiding direction. So for this year my focus with (almost) every project will be to reduce my pile of overtly ambitious purchases.  I think finally building and painting a the thirty year old Mighty Fortress was a good start tot that.

Did I break that generator? Woopsie...

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.