Hi All!

My order of XPS foam has come in, and I've started busily hacking at it, like an angry Uruk with a sharp thing.

I mentioned I wanted to do a coastal village terrain table, and it has begun!

The 30mm thick XPS foam is good. So good. To make the rock texture, I hacked at the edge with a retractable blade, cutting vertically, then at angles. Slice it up, hack and burn... okay no, don't burn. After that, I brutalised it by running the edge of a ruler along it. Bits of foam fall away, revealing a hacked up rock face in the making. So easy!

Check out Viv's channel on youtube for cool terrain ideas...
( https://www.youtube.com/user/RubbishInRubbishOut )
I've been scouring the shire... no... scouring the internet for inspiration. Another cool blog is Terrain for Hippos.
( http://terrainforhippos.blogspot.com.au/ )
These guys are full of good ideas, and I found them both really helpful.

The rocky coast will have a sandy slope which meets the rockface. I'm using my imagination brush.



The sandy shore will slope upwards, meeting the cliff about a third of the way up.



My first house, with thatched furry roof, is a bit of a fail. I used too much glue to seal the fur, and it got all... yuk... and I smooshed it down too much. If the next thatched roof works better, this roof will be turned into a burned out ruin.
Uruks burn things. I will make a burned out thing.



Fun times!
Cheers!

Greetings!
I hope you had a nice holiday season!

I just got back to doing some more terrain work. Making mess is fun.



I stuck a strip of foam down to the base of the cliff, so the slope would look nice and steep. When I paint the ocean, it needs to look like it gets deep quite quickly. In this way it will look plausible that a ship can dock near the shoreline, without being beached.

I hope this coast terrain will be useful for a variety of games systems, including flames of war, so the piers or jetties will be placeable.

The sand and rocks are still drying, but it looks like a second coat will be required. The gap between the beach and the cliff will be filled in with pebbles. That should all look rather spiffy when finished!

My 4’x2′ coast board is coming together very well now!

Cheers!

PS: Oh, I have started trying my hand a blogging this stuff too. I'm new to the whole idea, and everything there so far, is here too. Take a look if you like. https://dicehexminatures.wordpress.com/
Thanks.

Still chugging along... A blat of colour added to start from.



Cheers.

Very nice indeed!

Terrain is something that me and my boys are trying to work on instead of playing with coasters and christmas trees. This is proving to be quite inspirational.

_________________
- Wild
Battle Companies Developer

(CE) Battle Companies 2016 Edition

Thanks very much Commissariat!

Happy new year!

This morning I assaulted my board with some gap-filler putty stuff. Risky, but it looks like it worked okay so far...



Cheers.

Oh yeah! Gap filler is amazing; I once did an entire board with it, however that is overkill. I am glad others are aware of the beauty that is Gap-Filler. Gap-Filler being sold as a product used to fill wall cracks and that sort of thing.

_________________
- Wild
Battle Companies Developer

(CE) Battle Companies 2016 Edition

This is a very effective wave

What exactly did you use? It looks like a vinyl spackle

_________________
"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"

Hi again,

The filler is in the shot below, including the white card applicator I used to smear it on.

I have done very little terrain work in the last few days, apart from hitting the waves with some blue paint. Lots of work to go. It isn't going to be as easy as I'd hoped. I'll have to stipple on some more putty on the front face of the waves, to make them look foamy. I'll do that after painting though.

I did get a game in against Moria, but my elves got trounced. On the bright side, now I know what spiders, bats, and the fat king do. Oh, I base coated the houses with a quick brown as well, so I could use them in the game.



Happy gaming, cheers!

Edit: Ha, I got stage one flock on the surface too! I was a little more productive than I thought!

caulking also makes fantastic waves. You just lay down a line of it for your wavebreak and smear it with a gloved thumb into natural looking ridges. Oh model railroaders, where would I be if I couldn't rip off all your good ideas?

_________________
"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggie' until you can find a rock." -Will Rogers

That's some nice looking terrain! I wish I had the skill (and space) to make some myself. I love the ship on the first page of your WIP. I would like to see that painted

_________________
Fear the Duck!
My WIP: Baardeend's Big Book

Yeah, I've heard about that. The stuff in a tube applied using a gun contraption thing? I just went with what was on hand.



I will get to it soon! There are still a few parts to build and decisions to make which I have been procrastinating over. I'm starting to think a finished project is better than a perfect project, so I'll work on it soon.

Cheers.

Just a progress shot before attacking the surf with blues and greens. I made a couple of half-hills, which fit together, to go on the edges of the coastline... sort of like building up bluffs on either side of the port.

Here you see one on the right.


Multi purpose pieces are always a good idea. Two halves shown here. They fit to the edges of the coastline, and conveniently fit a ruin on top.


The slope on the hill is about 3 across to 1 up, a 3:1 ratio. Whenever I make a slope for anything for miniature gaming, I like it to be gentler than that... More like 6:1, so models don't fall over. I might have to carve away quite a bit more foam before I'm happy with it.

Looking at the pic above, the slope needs to meet the spot where the ruin is placed, to be practical in the long term, or I need to make it terraced...

Cheers.

Hi guys,

It is good to see this coming together, and nearing completion. I think one more coat of blue to smooth out the water, and then I can apply the gloss!

The white foam is some putty and white paint stirred up, and stippled on with an old brush.

One lesson: do not just add white PVA glue to the putty, as it becomes a stringy, globby mess in seconds. That totally does not work. It begins to resemble rubber very quickly.

I've run out of my stage one flock, so will have to restock that to get the hills surfaced and matching. That'll be later this week.



Cheers! Happy gaming!