Xenos Jungle Terrain WIP

This is a continuation of the Fungus Among Us project I started in 2013, and is part of my Modular Terrain System™. Yeah, I know, I'm not very good at finishing projects. Four years later I'm still not done... but I have added more to the project. You can trust me when I say that I have made progress. Really.

The base component of these alien 'trees' are Lotus Pods Stems that I purchased at a local craft store. The seeds and stems have been removed. The pod glued to a Citadel Wood base. Then that is glued to a CD. I bought my first Airbrush with X-mas money earlier this year. This is the first project I airbrushed.

I'm also working on some aquarium plant scatter terrain. Not exclusively 'jungle' but still part of this project.

Fantasy RPG Dungeon Dressing 2

A gallery of my Fantasy Dungeon Dressing collection.

Part 1 of this series was posted a few years ago, and can be found here. These pieces have been acquired over the years. Some are purpose bought, while others were lifted from boardgames. A few of the items date back to the mid 80's, but a large portion of them were collected on the 00's.

RPG's originally ware a game that played out exclusively in players minds. But my group is comprised of mostly wargamers, hobbyists, and creative-types. We have turned our combats into detailed 3D tactical exercises. A direct result, I have collected various pieces to help visually describe/dictate the tabletop.

Spell Effects

These represent a number of spell effects such as Mage Hand, Invisibility, Living Fireball, Turn to Stone, to name a few.

Doors

Dungeon Doors from Advanced Heroquest and Dungeon Bowl.

Columns

Resin and plastic columns. The marble was painted with a sponge stippling technique.

Traps

Various traps from Mage Knight.

Outdoor Scenery

A small collection of resin outdoor scenery.

Fantasy RPG Dungeon Dressing 1

A gallery of my Fantasy Dungeon Dressing collection.

These pieces have been acquired over the years. Some are purpose bought, while others were lifted from boardgames. A few of the items date back to the mid 80's, but a large portion of them were collected on the 00's.

RPG's originally ware a game that played out exclusively in players minds. But my group is comprised of mostly wargamers, hobbyists, and creative-types. We have turned our combats into detailed 3D tactical exercises. A direct result, I have collected various pieces to help visually describe/dictate the tabletop.

Statures, monuments and obelisks

The three grey pieces and the one front-and-center are pre-painted from Mage Knight. I painted the remaining items. The two light colored obelisks in the back row are from Reaper (?). The three dwarf statues in the middle were made from plastic bottle screw-on caps and GW multi-part plastic figures.

My favorite of the bunch are the two brass lions on marble plinths. They are resin models. I am especially proud of the marble technique (see inset, top).

Loot

Most of these are pre-painted sets from Mage Knight and Master Maze. The large groupings (cloth, crates, bags, etc) in the middle and the barrels in the back were painted by me.

Furniture

Only the two sets of tables with solid back chars are pre-painted sets from Mage Knight. Everything else are a combination of resin and metal models that I painted. The mirror on the tiered stand is one my oldest dungeon decor pieces. The rug under the desk is a piece of plasticard with the ends scored (to make the tassels).

Miscellaneous

A menagerie of pieces that didn't fit anywhere else. I painted everything here.

The pot is also one of my oldest figures. It originally had billowing smoke that culminated into the shape of a wizards face. It broke off, so I decided to re-purpose it. I made the campfire out of small gravel and toothpicks.

Thrones and Magic Items

The left throne is a game piece and the right throne is from Mage Knight. The stone work both thrones are on are GW square bases. I used a small file to carve out the stones. The throne on the left sits atop a 60mm, 40mm, and 20mm base.

All of the magic items (except for the two flying swords) are from Master Maze.

Well, that is it for part 1. The next installment will focus on larger pieces and out door items.

Large Gothic Church Ruin WIP

Pics of the behemoth ruined church that has been in progress for years!

I think I started this project about 4 years ago. It is comprised of parts from Pegasus Hobbies Gothic City Large Set and Gothic City Ruins 1.

This will be a multi purpose building--Able to be used in WH40K, WHFB, D&D, and Dark Heresy.

At the time, my OCD was strong and I felt the need to make the building fit on a 12" x 24" MDF board. I was also working on various other buildings and ruined buildings that would all fit on a 12" x 12" city grid. 

However, I no longer feel that it is important--Especially if a building will look better mounted on a 10" x 22" board.

I had made some sketches of how I wanted to make a partial roof (over the front third of the building, but couldn't find them.

The building is siting on a pink foam foundation so that I can have a raised altar/platform.

Deathbot is anxious to battle somewhere else besides the hilly grasslands. The wastelands of our last was a nice change of pace, but he is dying to play in city and/or Necromunda terrain.

Shipping Containers WIP

Just a quick post showing off a side project that has been creeping along. There was no specific purpose for this project, but they will definitely get use in Dark Heresy and Necromunda.

Here is a set of shipping containers. The started out as large blocks of balsa wood from a variety pack I bought from a craft store over a decade ago. They tumbled around my balsa bin before I finally saw what they could become!

The big container was used as is, but the two smaller ones are actually two pieced sandwiched together. It took a couple rounds of laying down wall spackle and sanding to obliterate the grain of the wood. I cut out cardboard to cover the ends with open grain.

On the two smaller containers, I used Rhino top hatches as doors, and on the larger container I used doors from the Cities of Death building sets.

I began to cut strips of bass wood to frame the larger container, and then added smaller strips as "support ribs". The next step is to do the same on the smaller containers. You can see the lines I drew indicating where the ribs will go.

Not sure when I will work on these again. They have been sitting at this stage for likely about a year. Too many projects going  on at once is always my downfall! I expect there will be more projects started before this one is finished!!

Fungus Among Us (part 2)

I got a little more work done on these fungus/alien plants. Still just blocking out color. My goal is to have colors tie these three pieces together, while introducing individualistic colors to each piece.

The bases have had my basic ground texture and larger rocks added, as well as a small bush. Towards the end of the project, I will ass at least two different types of flock, and additional foliage.

Fungus Among Us

Here is a quick post of a WIP project I am working on at behest of my GM, Adeptus-B. Our Dark Heresy Acolytes will apparently be facing such Plantae terror.

The pieces are from Armorcasts Alien Plant line. I have had them laying around for a number of years (6?), and intended to include them in some jungle terrain I started about 2 years ago. I based the pieces on CDs so they will fit in my modular area terrain.

These were primed black and dry brushed in Dark Angels Green in the off chance we encounter these thing before they are painted.

Crate 'n Barrel

We use a lot of small terrain pieces in Necromunda and Dark Heresy. These are my Sci-Fi/Modern containers.

These are made from various plastic, resin, and wooden pieces from Games Workshop, Forge World, Armor Cast, a craft store, and various other sources--For example, there is a piece cut off a Star Wars Miniatures Hailfire Droid.

Most of the "bundles" or piles of containers are individual pieces glued together and then glued to a plasticard base. The plasticard was then carefully trimmed to the shape of the footprint or the pieces. However, I originally had the plasticard base cut to rectangles, but I found that to unwieldy in play.

The two large cylinders in the back are wooden rings with 40mm bases glued to the top and bottom.

These tanks are made of pieces from a Pegasus Chem-Plant kit. I wanted some additional stand alone larger container pieces. The one on the left tank is on top of a 25mm GW round base, the middle one is on a medicine bottle cap, and the right one is on a small washer.

They are unique enough to be objective markers, but I intended them for general terrain.

Speaking of objective markers! The bottom row are my Necromunda objective markers. The are assorted resin and plastic bitz from Games Workshop, Forge World, and Armor Cast. They are on 20mm square bases that were simply painted my "Necromunda Terrain Blue".

The top two rows were made by Adeptus-B and we typically use them for "blip" markers, but they can be used for objective markers too! They are numbered 1-8 on the bottom. I flipped one over as an example, but the numbers are yellow, so I'm not sure you can see it.

Buildings WIP (pic heavy)

Here is a rundown of some buildings that I have in progress and nearing completion. 

First up is a medium sized (3x3) church. All of the walls (and some of the exterior elements) are from the Pegasus Gothic City Building sets. I have one of each set and made this building another building below, and a large (3x5) ruin that I will discuss in another post.

Here is a rundown of the primary components used in the build:

1. The roof "cap" is made from cedar doll house roof shingles.
2. A Cornice Piece from Litko Game Accessories.
3. The column toppers are pen needle caps.
4. The roof framing is made from balsa wood and styrene strips.
5. The roof is sheet styrene with ridges.
6. The top adornment are fencing from the Chaos Vehicle Upgrade sprue.

I built a framework for the roof panels to allow them to be easily removed. The roof panels have a lip at the bottom and straddle the lower ridge and then fit snugly into the framing.

This building turned out great--especially the roof. I still have some detail bits to add to the exterior and I have a rough plan to detail the interior, but want it to be modular.

Next up is another building made primarily of Pegasus Gothic City Building sets. This small (2x2) building can be used as a church or almost any gothic building.

The roof railings on both levels are from one of the GW building kits as are the small buttresses surrounding the building. I only needed to do some minor filing for the buttresses to fit, but there was a fair amount of sawing and filing to get the railings to perfectly span the distance without any posts.

I designed the building to be modular. The large buttresses are easily removed from the top level, and the two floors can be used separately.

The roofs are also removable allowing interior action to commence!

This building was a complete afterthought! I originally made the top floor to be used as a mausoleum in my huge graveyard project and needed a last minute larger building for a Dark Heresy encounter. 

Now this piece is a little strange, and it falls into found objects category! It isn't really a building either--It's a base to put a building on. I found this at a local thrift store. It is one half of the case for the movie version of the game Battleship (a game based on a movie based on a game... hrm!)

Taken from interwebs without permission

I removed a large panel that was cardboard and replaced it with a floor made from Pegasus Hobbies Syberclicks Set. There were some areas that had to be covered with plasticard where the handle was removed.

This was a really quick and simple piece that has a variety of uses. Up first, this will be used as an island in our Dark Heresy campaign. We are in a Imperial City that has more canals than roads!

Here is another building/mausoleum for use in my graveyard project. I used GW Imperial Building components as the core of this model. On two sides I skimped and only used one wall tile, filling the remaining wall with plasticard. The roof railing is from Pegasus Hobbies Hexagon Construction Set

That's about all I have to show for now, hope you like these!

WIP: Imperial Dwelling

(click on image to enlarge)

Here are some closeups of one of the buildings from my Imperial City Project. It is intended to be a dwelling for a VIP/government official, or it could be a middle class apartment complex. The back side is fashioned to be the "back ally" entrance, or it could stand in as a minor Adeptus Mechanicus building.

(click on image to enlarge)

As you can see, the roof and the second floor are removable to allow for interior movement. I'm not sure yet if and to what extent I will detail the interior.

(click on image to enlarge)

(click on image to enlarge)

The large pink blocks flanking the stairway is my attempt at bridging esthetics and functionality. The balsa wood stairway is visually appealing, while the pink foam board blocks allow for 6 figures to be placed on the stairs.

I hope you like it.

[Edit] Oops... I forgot to say that the building is also removable from its base...

(click on image to enlarge)

Building an Imperial City

Over the past few weeks, I have had a small set back with my meds, accomplished some heavy spring cleaning around the house, and went out of state for a family reunion. However, I still managed to get some hobby time in. About a month ago, Adeptus-B requested I provide some Imperial buildings for an upcoming encounter in Dark Heresy. So I set myself to task. Following is an in-progress set of photos of the first 6 buildings.

(click on image to enlarge)

(click on image to enlarge)

I plan to make more buildings both intact and destroyed. Ultimately, I would like to densly cover an entire 4'x8' table with the "blocks" set on a 45°. This will require some triangle shaped "half-blocks" and I have an idea how to accomplish this.

In future posts, I will show staged WIP pics of the individual buildings. Some of the buildings will come appart at each floor and will have interior detail.

Terrain Showcase

I wanted to maximize my terrain, both in versatility and storage. After some brain storming and sketches, I came up with the following.

A grouping of area terrain bases plus a few individual
dead tree terrain pieces. Rocky terrain in the background,
Swampland in the foreground.
(click on image to enlarge)

I started by making 4 large oblong shapes slightly larger than a group of CDs out of 1/8" MDF. Next I rounded all the outside edges along the smooth side. Then I glued small strips of balsa wood around a tracing of a CD to create a small CD sized divot. Next I used wall spackle to fill in all the areas between thee balsa wood and the edge of the MDF. Finally, I added a few pebbles, some sand, painted and flocked them.

Multiple dead tree terrain bases. In the foreground, an area
terrain base with the terrain pieces removed.
(click on image to enlarge)

For the next stage, I based specific terrain types on old CD's. For example, dead trees, swamp, rocky outcroppings, jungle trees, etc. I made 5-7 CD of each terrain type. The CD sized terrain is easier to store, plus they can be used individually or inserted into one of the large MDF terrain bases to represent area terrain. 

To add more versatility, I also made one "dangerous" version for each terrain type. This allows me to signify mundane area terrain as having an additional effect either before the game, or randomly during the game. Here is a list of the "dangerous" terrain:

Dead Trees - A Haunted tree (seen in the second pic above)
Rocky Outcroppings - An abandoned sacrificial well
Swamp - A lurking submerged monster
Jungle Trees - A large Venus Human Trap plant

A spaceport in the outer rim...

At our next session. my Dark Heresy group will be landing an a somewhat desolate spaceport on a desert-like planet.

I mentioned in this post that Adeptus-B is planning to make enough buildings by our next session to densely cover my entire gaming table. All his buildings will be made with packing material, so I decided to keep with that theme when I decided to add my own "little" entry to the project.

The above pic is the building's current state. I have (and will be) taking pics throughout the building process These will be included in a later post. The elevated rectangular "roof" is not the landing pad, but a area for smaller buildings to be stacked. Adeptus-B said the spaceport has a "Mos Eisley" feel to it... so think of a small Docking Bay 94 (where the Millennium Falcon was docked in Mos Eisley)

I am also making a second building with the Mos Eisley style in mind (although not with packing material per se)...

Walls & Barricades Complete

I actually finished this project about a week and a half ago, but took some pictures I didn't really like. The delay in re-shooting and posting was brought on by my vast health improvements and taking on a number of home renovations projects.

This was a really fun project and I look forward to using them in a game. Adeptus-B will probably find a use for them in our Dark Heresy campaign too!!

I made six 6" sections in total, with two "heavily" damaged. Originally the two damaged sections were going to be gates, but I later decided against that.

 I also added the static grass to the electric posts...

My next project will be to add to Adeptus-B's Space Port project.

You can find out how I built the cyclone fences in the first part of this article over at Walls & Barricades.

Walls & Barricades

I Just (nearly) completed the above electric fence terminals. They are pretty simple... only need to add some flock to finish. All I did was take the models off the sprue and glue them to a 40mm base, added some rocks and basing sand, then painted them. I worked on these while I was finishing up a cyclone fence project I started a few years ago...

Items Needed (for each section of fence):

• 2x Large Craft Sticks (tongue depressor size)
• 3x Small Cylindrical Beads (approx 1/4" dia.)
• 2x Wooden Skewers
• 1x Barricade from the Battlefield Accessories Set
• 1x Section of Household Screen
• 4x Penny Sized Washers (or pennies)

Because craft sticks warp easily (heck, some of 'em come warped), I always sandwich 2 together with the grains/warp running opposite. I do this with all my wall barricades (as appropriate) as the craft sticks are 6" long and make a nice uniform base. When doing a bunch of them at the same time, I'll stack them all up and use 3 "C" clamps to hold them together while they dry.

After they have dried, I take them apart and clean the edges - sometimes glue will run out the sides. Then I glue the washers (2 between each post) on to give the final piece a nice weight, and keep the center of balance low.

Next, take the Barricade from the Battlefield Accessories Set and strip the 4 main prongs from the model. This will be used as the posts for the fence. I use hot glue to attach them to the craft stick base. Then I used some pre-mix spackle (any basing putty will do) to hide the washers and glob of hot glue. After drying, I glued on some mixed basing sand.

At this stage, I cut the skewers to length, cut the beads in half (down the length of the cylinder), and cut a rectangular shape out of the screen.  I eyeballed all the dimensions for each fence section. NOTE: Make sure the section of screen is cut at 45° so they create a cyclone fence diamond pattern -- not squares!

Lay the model on its side. Position the screen on the flat side of the posts. Then place one crossbar (skewer) in position and glue. I used super glue for the quick set time. Repeat for the second crossbar. Lastly, take the "C" shaped half beads and place them over the crossbar at each post... so it looks like a bracket holding the crossbar to the post. I have already primed them black, so its paint and flock left to finish.

I will probably add some bullet holes before I paint them. You also might be able to make out that two of the fence sections include some damaged (like someone has cut there way through). I'm not sure I like how they turned out (hence no pics) and I'm waiting to see them completed.

It's good to start getting some stuff off the project shelf again. I hope to keep it up!

PREVIEW: I started this project a few years ago too -- this is the stage I left them at. These pieces are "Dragon's Teeth" or anti-tank fortifications. I have 6 in total and will make a how to post about them when they are finished.