Tag: wargame terrain

Terrain, Workbench

Scratch-Build Fantasy Village Peoject

We’re self-quarantining through the apocalypse, but I also work in social services. So, I really can’t stay home and completely avoid human contact. So, I’m building a little escape.

My spare time is wide open, so I’ll be building a village to play games in when the End Times are over. And I want to test myself in the process.

I have built a lot of terrain in my life. This time around, I’m going with peeled foam coat as a base, and using hot glue to bind everything. I already love this as an alternative to glue!

I used a pencil to carve in the details, and an emery board to smooth things out. I decided to use wood glue to seal the foam, which I mixed with black paint so I could see if I missed anything.

After getting the test piece done, I decided to paint up the front to see how it looked… and I’m really, really happy!

I airbrushed a light coat of white from an angle, then washed the whole front with a simple glaze made from cheap paint, airbrush thinner, and acrylic floor polish. I went over certain areas with a similar glaze made from green ink to age things up a bit!

Next up I’ll go ahead and finish up the base since the experiment has made me happy!

Miniatures, Terrain, Workbench

The Great Yu-Jing Project, Part Three

I finished up a few pieces for the big Yu-Jing table we’re building for the Salt Lake City Showdown in May 10th!

The big gate will be the entrance to a walled temple district, which will be on a separate platform made from insulation foam:

I also finished up a few pieces of scatter terrain, which can be placed on different parts of the table depending on the scenario:

Workbench

Alien Terrain Project, part One.

My FLGS has a big Infinity event coming up in May, and I have been part of a team putting together a Yu-Jing based board for the tournament. It’s been a fun project, but I want to put a table together featuring alien terrain.

I picked up a big sheet of blue insulation foam, and started carving it up with a knife. Lots of shaping later I ended up with this:

That’s a pretty cool chunk of rock, and I sealed it in a couple of coats of Mod Podga and black paint.

Next up, I started layering in bright, alien colors, aiming for a classic Star Trek look. I also ordered a big bag of plastic aquarium plants, which really added to the overall cool factor:

Now I need to work up enough of this stuff to cover a 4′ by 4′ table by May 10th!

Miniatures, Terrain, Workbench

The Great Yu-Jing Table, Part Two

This next piece took about four hours to put together, I think it might have taken a little less time but the PDF instructions were on the other end of a dead link…

This is the Xiguan Office Building from Warsenal, and it’s a beast of a model. I taped the insides together to hold everything in place, and then let the adventure build itself.

Office1

First off, it’s BIG. It’s also two models, since it comes with a set of stairs that you can put pretty much anywhere you want. There are some really neat details, too, from the window shutters down to the food kiosk out front.

Office 2

Oh, lordy. These stairs go right through the building, which means there is a lot of cover for models, and some cool strategic elements come into play, too. The molding above the roof is a really nice touch!

Office 3

Here you can see the top of the previous staircase, coming out on the back of the building. The narrow set of stairs goes to the top floor…

Office 4

… which is completely accessible by removing the roof. I think I see a nice spot for my Sin Eater to hang out when this is finished!

The Xiguan Office Building is one of the pricier kits Warsenal has, clocking in at $65 US. It’s a serious bit of kit, though, and I really think you’ll get plenty of return on your investment.

More pics to come as the model progresses!

Miniatures, Terrain, Workbench

The Great Yu-Jing Board, Part One

My friend Matt asked if I would take on a pretty big terrain project for a tournament at our favorite shop, Shiv Games. The project includes a whole bunch of MDF buildings from Warsenal, a company out of Florida that makes some of the nicest laser-cut projects I have ever set my eyes on.

I have finished two of the pieces so far, but there are some challenges to MDF terrain that put me on a pretty steep learning curve: first, you really shouldn’t paint the model after it’s been glued together, and you really can’t hold it together for painting without glue.

Today I put together this little shop, and realized that I could tape the insides of the building together to hold the whole thing together, which will help me not only prime the model, but take parts of it together when I don’t want to spend a lot of extra time masking off all the nooks and crannies. It’s a pretty sweet little building, and I’ll post progress shots of it as I work on it.

Shop 1