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 Post subject: Re: Celevue's LotR campaign -behind the scenes (4/3 model sh
PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 11:51 am 
Craftsman
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Thanks for your praise, once again!

@Sticky Fingersss, No battle reports, sorry - no games were actually played during the model show; the terrains were for static display only. But you'll most likely get to see these boards in action over on the LotR campaign thread - Arwen will face off with the Nazgûl in the scenario "Flight to the ford" (unless the Ring is lost to Sauron before that), and the Fellowship, if it is formed, will meet the Watcher at the Moria West gate. Weathertop should see some wraith banishing action, at least with Aragorn & the hobbits, but perhaps not with the complement of figures shown in this thread, as the inclusion of the scenario "Grey Pilgrim versus black riders" is dependent on whether good wins the "Wizards' duel" or not. For now, we will not play scenarios outside our campaign scope, so a battle with Ori, Oin and other dwarves against the Watcher has to wait...
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 Post subject: Re: Celevue's LotR campaign -behind the scenes (4/3 model sh
PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 7:38 pm 
Kinsman
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Fantastic! Those horses are just incredible. Everything is brilliant.

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 Post subject: Re: Celevue's LotR campaign -behind the scenes (4/3 model sh
PostPosted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 8:04 pm 
Elven Warrior
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Fantastic! This whole project is stunning! So much dedication, I love it! :yay:
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 Post subject: Re: Celevue's LotR campaign -behind the scenes - board plans
PostPosted: Sun Mar 10, 2013 10:20 pm 
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Hi folks!

Now that we have revealed the campaign structure and the intended scenarios over on the campaign / battle report thread, it seems prudent to also show the planned game board configurations for these. I will now present some schematics - the drawings are quite rough and coarse, apologies for that. The first picture shows much that you are already familiar with, i.e. the two-part green board (120x120cm) used in a number of SBG scenarios, including the three we have already played. The river tile you have also seen in this thread; it, together with a similar-sized (80x90cm) plain yellow grass board will form the scenery for both the Bucklebury Ferry and the Ford of Bruinen. The Moria west gate board I've covered in much detail in this thread, too, and you have also seen some glimpses of the other Moria terrains. Zirak-zigil is not done yet - I will construct it if needed by the campaign. As will be evident, many of the 80x90cm boards will be reused throughout the campaign, and to clarify this, the boards have a letter designation (e.g. the river tile is "C", the plain yellow grass tile is "E").

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The next image shows the terrain for the first War of the Ring scenario, the battle of the Fords of Isen. Here you can see the "C" and "E" tiles from the first pic, accompanied by another plain tile ("G"), another river tile ("D"), and several tiles with roads (a pic of "B" was in the first post of this thread, as was the second river, still missing the Realistic Water). Four of these tiles are used in "Ugluk's last stand" WotR game. Isengard gets four tiles of its own. Separate hills and forests are used as appropriate.

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The third pic shows the plan for Helm's Deep (two new board tiles and two reused ones), six tiles (reused) to represent Lothlórien, and a new one done specifically for Dead Marshes, if needed.

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Tile "A" is used for various scenarios requiring a grey ground covering. But wait a minute - a moment ago "A" had yellow grass and a road section, what's going on? Well, most of the tiles are grey on the flipside, and they can be used for e.g. the Black Gate scenario, or, after the campaign, for the Last Alliance or Durin's Moria battles with WotR rules. Here, one of these is equipped with suitable rocky outcrops and such for smaller SBG scenarios. Here's a pic of the flipside of one of the road tiles:

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The surface is bare - any talus, rocks etc will be separate. You'll note that there are two wooden support planks visible on this side at board edges - I'll hide them under low ridges made specifically for that purpose during gaming.

The fourth board plan pic shows 20+ smaller "city tiles" of about 60x55 cm in size. These include harbor / dockside tiles as well as flooding Anduin bits for Osgiliath.

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I ended up with a stack of these as leftovers from a renovation project. They have a chipboard backing and a 3cm layer of foam on top, perfect for carving some paved roads and city blocks. Here's a pic of an unpainted / uncarved city tile:

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The fifth plan pic shows the largest of the boards, representing the Pelennor Fields. In addition to the 80x90cm tiles, this board utilizes four of the city tiles (Harlond harbor) plus two additional ones with yellow grass. The city of Minas Tirith itself is on a separate piece (or two of them, more likely). A small, separate board is used for the SBG scenario with Denethor.

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The sixth and final board plan pic shows the Erebor and Black Gate boards, along with a separate Crack of Doom. As I explained on the campaign thread, we may not need the Black Gate or the Crack of Doom; these will be constructed later, if necessary. Black Gate would be using flipsides of existing tiles with separate Gate and adjacent mountains (plus the aforementioned low ridge to hide the board support planks in the center). Erebor also reuses yellow grass tiles, with a separate Erebor gate bit. Like the city of Minas Tirith, the Gate of Erebor is (will be) serving double duty as part of the model railway.

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For battle report photography purposes, each board has at least one backdrop image suitable for the intended Middle-Earth location. These backdrops are probably worthy of a separate posting later. I'll finish with a pic of the storage rack housing 16 board tiles (i.e. nearly all of the 80x90cm ones). Helm's Deep will be too tall to fit in, so I'll have to find another place for it. The pictured storage racks are underneath the model railway benchwork (more specifically, underneath the city and the yard of Minas Tirith).

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 Post subject: Re: Celevue's LotR campaign -behind the scenes(11/3 board pl
PostPosted: Sun Mar 10, 2013 10:29 pm 
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This project is more precise and thought out than a bloody military operation! I'm seriously impressed!!!

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 Post subject: Re: Celevue's LotR campaign -behind the scenes (4/3 model sh
PostPosted: Sun Mar 10, 2013 10:30 pm 
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Wow again.
Very well planned out
I look forward to seeing more
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 Post subject: Re: Celevue's LotR campaign -behind the scenes(11/3 board pl
PostPosted: Sun Mar 10, 2013 10:37 pm 
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Thanks, much appreciated! For the record, I am not military, but I am an engineer, so perhaps that explains something!

I am currently doing tiles "F" and "H", and will do a post about them soon. Once I have "A", "E" and "G" grassed over, too, I'll take a pic of the entire "Fords of Isen" (board "D" will still lack the water medium, though, and since I'm out of Realistic Water again, that'll have to wait - but it won't stop me putting the board together for the first time).
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 Post subject: Re: Celevue's LotR campaign -behind the scenes(11/3 board pl
PostPosted: Sun Mar 10, 2013 10:48 pm 
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I actually hate you. This stuff is in a league of it's own.

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 Post subject: Re: Celevue's LotR campaign -behind the scenes(11/3 board pl
PostPosted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 8:44 am 
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Holy moley! That is some precision planning of an awesome project.

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 Post subject: Re: Celevue's LotR campaign -behind the scenes(11/3 board pl
PostPosted: Thu Mar 14, 2013 10:56 am 
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Despite the discomfort and negative feelings I may inflict, I present here a series of photos showing the flocking of two road tiles ("F" and "H" in the plans above). What is not shown is the base painting (earth color) and the making of the roads; these were first carved onto the foam, then some sand was glued, and eventually painted with sand and light sand colors (the latter with an airbrush).

The flocking starts with slightly thinned white glue applied on the tile, followed by yellow fine turf.

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More glue and turf:

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The roadsides get first a few pinchfuls of earth blend fine turf, and some is sprinkled also to the centerline of the road:

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Next. the yellow turf is added up to the road edge, leaving some earth color turf still visible.

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Here, the tile is now completely flocked over apart from the road. Looks far too uniform, but this is easily remedied with a salt-and-pepper shaking of additional colors (burnt grass and green blend, in this case). I added more yellow turf to better blend in the burnt grass and green grass turf.

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In this pic, the second road tile has received basic coverage - note the difference a little addition of alternate colors make.

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Here's the second tile with added variation. Note the shaker in the background - the amount missing from the full canister is the amount of yellow turf used for a single 80x90cm tile.

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Next stage is securing the turf; I sprayed wet water (water + few drops of dishwasher) on the tiles, and applied scenic glue with an eyedropper. Relaxing chore, really - good time to listen to podcasts, for example. I've tried to use a sprayer for scenic glue, but am unable to get a sustained, even spray. Sooner rather than later, the glue accumulates in the nozzle and the spray becomes uneven and starts to throw turf around far too much for my liking.

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A couple of days for the glue to set, and the tiles are done. Since I use most of the tiles I have in the Pelennor Fields scenario, I have chosen a yellow grass color as the predominant one. Pelennor Fields are also a good excuse for having almost totally flat tiles - there wasn't much undulation close to Minas Tirith. And, of course, flat tiles allow me to use the grey-painted underside in Moria / Mordor games, too. Here's a pic of three yellow grass tiles finished so far. All roads lead to Minas Tirith, it seems...

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 Post subject: Re: Celevue's LotR campaign -behind the scenes (14/3 road ti
PostPosted: Thu Mar 14, 2013 11:16 am 
Elven Warrior
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Your projects are on a scale most of us can only dream of my friend!!!!
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 Post subject: Re: Celevue's LotR campaign -behind the scenes (14/3 road ti
PostPosted: Fri Mar 15, 2013 8:05 am 
Loremaster
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That's a really good idea to get natural looking roads.
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 Post subject: Re: Celevue's LotR campaign -behind the scenes (14/3 road ti
PostPosted: Fri Mar 15, 2013 6:54 pm 
Elven Warrior
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I've just flicked through this WIP.
What lovely work! A pleasure to see.
I'd love to play on such boards.
Great! :)

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 Post subject: Re: Celevue's LotR campaign -behind the scenes (14/3 road ti
PostPosted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 8:27 am 
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Well there goes all my ideas lol. Absolutely fantastic work. I've just scapped all my ideas and am going to be doing some much better terrain. Thanks for the inspiration !

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 Post subject: Re: Celevue's LotR campaign -behind the scenes (14/3 road ti
PostPosted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 10:13 am 
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:shocked:

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 Post subject: Re: Celevue's LotR campaign -behind the scenes (14/3 road ti
PostPosted: Thu Mar 28, 2013 11:46 am 
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Some stunning work here, particually love the backdrops and was something I had considered doing (and still may), where did you get them?

Also thanks for the heads up on the Watchtown Nalog ruin, I have placed an order with ziterdes this morning.

All in all, awesomesauce!

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 Post subject: Re: Celevue's LotR campaign -behind the scenes (14/3 road ti
PostPosted: Fri Mar 29, 2013 8:32 am 
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Thanks for the great feedback, folks!
@Mithaearon, the backdrops are usually screencaps from the films, with some photoshopping to remove foreground stuff and add resolution. Then I've divided the pics into several parts, which are printed on a number of A3s, and taped together. If memory serves, the large Minas Tirith image has over 20 A3s. It's a shot of the city from RotK just prior to Aragorn's coronation scene. It serves as a size / color reference for the model to be built, and will not be used as such. However, I do like to Mt Mindolluin slopes on the sides of the pic, so I will most likely separate them from the screenshot image, and have them printed on two large canvases by a printing shop to serve as a backdrop for the model of Minas Tirith (once I'm that far in my constructions).
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 Post subject: Re: Celevue's LotR campaign -behind the scenes (14/3 road ti
PostPosted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 5:07 pm 
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My jaw dropped and the expletives filled the air as I browsed the pictures, and details of this project.

To add yet another affirmation and expression of delight to all the others above... Wonderful!

Nai i lissë Valaron tyë varyuva.

Makes me wish I was revisiting Tampere, I was there a year or two back, visiting the Moomin Museum under the library!

More constructively. I love the detail in the terrain and the water effects look fantastic. The detail and runes in Moria are very evocative. And the Foaming Horses? Wonderfully conceived and created, and the way the foam looks.

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 Post subject: Re: Celevue's LotR campaign -behind the scenes (14/3 road ti
PostPosted: Tue Apr 02, 2013 5:10 pm 
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Thanks for the kind comments, daersalon. You are most welcome to revisit Tampere! Alas, the Moomin Museum is no longer under the library - it is now in the cellar of the art museum, with only a third of its former floorspace... quite sad. Many of those wonderful dioramas are no longer on display, I'm afraid.
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 Post subject: Making of the Bucklebury Ferry - part 1
PostPosted: Tue Apr 02, 2013 8:18 pm 
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Now that the battle report of the Bucklebury Ferry scenario has been published over on my campaign thread, I'll also post some behind the scenes photos of the building of the ferry, jetty & the small cottage. The former two are fairly simple balsa constructions, but the cottage required some detailed planning. It is not seen very well in the movie (the scene takes place at night, after all), so I used the Weta Workshop Bucklebury Ferry environment as a guide to draw this rough template. The longer side of the cottage is 8 cm.

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I initially built a paper model straight out of the template to serve as a size test. Happy with the result, I proceeded to cut the walls out of 3mm foam board. Thin balsa card was used as doors and frames, and balsa strips for the rest of the cottage timbers. A cutting compass helped to punch out the door opening. The windows are from my scrap box of model railway building parts.

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I embossed thin cardboard with a specific embossing tool (plus a small screwdriver and a letter opener) to represent the bare tiles around one corner of the cottage, as well as the tiled chimney.

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The next photo shows a jetty and the ferry, fashioned out of balsa. Pins were pushed into the poles as appropriate, and small bearings were used as the decorative heads of the balusters on the ferry. At this stage, the cottage wall panels between timbers have received a layer of plaster (with a bit of white glue mixed in for strength).

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I considered several methods for the thatched roof, but opted to use embossed plastic thatched roof card from Kibri. I will most likely use the cottage as a test bed for the other methods in the future – these include teddy bear fur, towel cloth and plumbers’ hemp.

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After cutting the card to an appropriate size and shape, I heated it over a candle flame and bent it to shape. Some green stuff was necessary to fill the cracks and gaps. The cottage roof was fairly simple in shape – I doubt the roof of the Green Dragon Inn would be possible using the plastic card stock; for that building, I am betting on plumbers’ hemp, but in any case, this needs some practice (of which I will post later to this thread). In the photo below you can see the roof in its final shape. Some of the chimney tiles have also been painted at this stage. I used GW scab red, red gore, mixed scab red / red gore, and Tamiya hull red for the tiles. The mortar and the wall panels between the timbers were painted with Vallejo off-white.

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The timbers have received a coat of GW bestial brown, followed by a black wash and a drybrushing of bugman’s glow. The photo below shows also the three lamp posts, made of rectangular plastic tube and small yellow bulbs to begin with.

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Since I wanted to shoot the battle report photos in simulated night lighting, I wanted to have the lamps operational. Lamp wires were fed through the rectangular, hollow posts, and a lantern was scratch-built around the bulb.

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