Sunday, November 28, 2010

Warhammer Race specific terrain features

So, again, I've been on assignment from the local hobby shop to make warhammer terrain, and the rulebook has specific terrain features that can play a part of warhammer games, proximity to said features have different effects on units, and the game.

Lizardman spawning pool, the poor eggs in the area on the left didn't stand a chance.
Orc totems...if you know anything about me, you know I love orcs for some reason. heheh
Sacrificial altar of the witch elves...
Dwarf Brewhouse with a spill outside, apparently.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Warhammer Shrine/Chapel

Again more terrain features from the new warhammer book. This one is a shrine/chapel of some sort. In the game, being in proximity of these terrain features gives some sort of special condition (good or bad). This is WIP as because its sort of a ruined chapel I'll do some more stuff to it, like vines growing up the side, etc.
Also the statue inside is covered in bird poo. but its hard to see from the pic.

Lizardman Spawning Pool

So, this is a work in progress shot of my lizardman spawning pool. Again the liquidtex found ways out of the containment area, hehe seriously, I guess Im pretty bad sealing up my stuff. Still it does look cool and I plan on putting quite a few plants, grass, etc. around the pool before I call it complete so I left it. the pool on the left obviously became non-viable with the collapse of the wall and the water draining out. Poor little skinks...

Hey, post a comment if you think you know what's inside the spawning pool.

Warhammer Terrain

Here is a Wizard's Tower. My dread is there for scale. heheh Its' big. I looked through the Warhammer rulebook and there are several terrain features that can be represented with the terrain piece. Besides, it looks cool. 'How do you get in?' I hear you say...
Here is the door, in the base of the rocky crag the tower is built upon. If you know my reference material for the door design, you have known me a very long time. It is my college apartment door, it was hideous, and everyone knew which one was our apartment. heh.

BTW, I utilized the Warhammer Manorhouse terrain box and split up the various parts and added elements to make a bunch of terrain, rather than assemble it ad hoc exactly as pictured on the box top.

side view of same piece.

Warhammer terrain

I made the witchelf sacrificial shrine out of Hirst blocks, the large metal spikes are foamcore and card, with platicard rivets. I then filled the center with liquitex colored to resemble blood. i like the liquitex, but you gotta make sure you seal wherever you are putting it, because otherwise it'll leak out, hence the blood on the stairs...of course I like it and left it. (see brewhouse below)

This is another urban renewal project, this poor chaos church was in disrepair and I have based it and repainted it. It looks like you could really get your demon-worship on in there!
Here it is from the front.

Okay so my brewhouse starts off with the 2 Vats along its back wall, then I got it in my head that for some reason they might be sucking up some nasty sludge from a walled pen outside to make their deliciously refreshing elixir. Again, the liquitex found its way outside the containment area, and again I kinda liked it so I went with it. ha ha someone's gonna have a mess to clean up.

40K stuff - bunkers and ruins

I grabbed some beat up terrain from my friend's hobby shop and decided I would breath new life into it. She had a ton of the plastic wall bits from one of the big box sets a couple additions ago. I hacked them up and based them on a cratered base.

Two more cratered ruins for good measure. L-shapes can define an entire ruined building.

I dont know if these are towers or bunkers but they are made from foamcore and cardstock.

I made 3 of them. btw, there isn't a door on the other side so obviously I am not taking the pic from the business side of these fortifications, but the door detail is more interesting than the blank wall side, and I didn't do any battle damage, maybe next set.

Friday, October 8, 2010

woods revisited

So I took some busted up trees from the hobby shop, I pinned them back onto their bases and I re-"Flocked" them with hot glue and lichen. They look much better. I added lots of aquarium plant pieces around the base as well as my favorite, pine bark nugget rocks! The green felt is used to designate the "area" of the woods. Warhammer players told me I had to allow their huge blocks of troops to move the trees out of the way in order to navigate the woods.


pretty sweet

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Terrain KITS

I've been working with a friend of mine, Vivian at All Fun & Games in Apex, NC and she's trying to update her gaming terrain so I've been taking beat up terrain home and trying to breath new life into it for her.

She gave me some kits that I've based and painted...here are some...

LOTR RUIN Terrain kit
Some Sweet Pinebark Nugget rocky outcroppings.
Here are some walls from the Warhammer Manor house kit. I have put them on hardboard bases and textured them so they are heavy and look good, imo.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Buildings, lots of them.


Front and back pics of 2 buildings, they aren't completely finished yet but they are close to it. I plan on putting in some "broken glass" on the windows, and some motivational posters on the outside walls as if the Administratum PR people had been by to motivate the citizens. I might wash the piece too but Im not sure. Painting is not my strongest suite.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

woods & walls


So occasionally you stumble on an idea and you actually see it through to the end and it actually works out. It happens, but not often. I think these woods may be one such example as I really like them.

Here's another shot, more areial view. I'm doubtful these can take the pounding from a hobby shop crowd, but then again I haven't found any terrain that can yet. Do you think I should make the lichen more green? I could probably dry brush it, or spray paint it before installation.


The walls I made previously are made from casting blocks from Hirst Arts which are really well done. I then seal them and then wash them with water-based stain. But as I looked at them I got to wondering about stones made from different kinds/colors of rock and wondering if I could represent that in miniature. so before washing this batch I picked out random stones with 3 different colors of grey paint. Reminds me somewhat of the stone walls in civil war battlefields.

Some times my camera is almost too good because upclose pictures shows flaws you can't even see with the naked eye, let alone from distances more associated with gaming, so here's a pic from a bit further away.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

A few pieces from Hirst molds.

A scientific looking eco-pool. Who knows, it just popped into my head.


Tank traps, or Necron-type things, I think of sleestaks if you are old enough to know what those are, heheh.


2 power generators and a control nodule or something.
So I'm a huge slacker, I've been busy and have s-l-o-w-l-y been working on some new pieces. I fully expect to take these down to the local hobby shop eventually but its a 30 minute drive and my days are packed with errands and kids and work, etc. heheh enough of all that, here's some terrain...

Rocky outcroppings are mostly made of styrofoam hills, covered in cement, the "rocks" are pine tree nuggets and look great!


Rocky Outcropping

Rocky Outcropping

The walls interestingly overhang each end of the base by about 1/4 inch so that they can be arranged in multiple configurations. each is about 6 inches long.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Small Rocky Hill
I am a subscriber to Beasts of War, they are a UK-based miniature game review company. They unbox new figs, do you tube vids of assemling new kits, and even clarify rules that cause confusion. I emailed them asking for a tutorial on how they make their great hill terrain. I have yet to get a response but here I had a go anyway! Let me know what you think.
Large Rocky Hill
I put in a Space Marine Dread to give some scale to this piece. Its a honking big hill.
different angle on the same hill as above. The Small rocky hill is a bit taller than the larger hill, just to make things interesting, I suppose.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

So as I said in my last post I've been working on some alternative Woods. Woods seem to be very scarce in 40K yet look at pictures from every war since the beginning of time, and there is a tree somewhere in the background, go figure.

Anyway, I picture this sort of wood to be found on tables with dwarves, Space Wolves, Chaos Hoards, etc. Tell me what you think!

[You can click on the images for larger pics.]
Two small stands of trees growing out of some rocky ground gives the feel of cover from incoming small arms fire.

Slightly different angle to show the bases for the trees, I used MDF board cut to irregular shape, the rocky out-croppings are pinebark nuggets, I then textured the base with sand and glue. They were painted with basecoated black/brown then drybrushed tan. I used PVA mixed with cornstarch for the snow, I'll need to work out the consistency for that, as it was a little difficult to work with.

My Scouts scouting out a pine forest, it's cold as evidenced by the spotty snow covering the ground in places.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Alternative Terrain

Here's something I'm currently toying around with...



I plan to make a few small stands that can then be placed on felt to stand for a wood, but allow the terrain to be moved around to accomodate models, AND still maintain a clearly defined space via the felt (or cloth or whatever).

I have an idea for icicles too. stay tuned.