4x4 Warmachine Trench Table Complete!

Ok its finally finished. Eventually ill cover the sides with black duct tape but for now its essentially done. Ofcourse I finished it just as my group is taking a break from Warmachine, generally how stuff like this works. I think were going to get our Warhammer Quest on this month. Im also really keen to get into Infinity and depending on what kind of hobby money I get for Xmas expect to see some terrain for that in the next month. I figure I can do a quick and dirty (as quick and dirty as my OCD will let me) table for $50. We shall see. Enough blither blather. On to pictures!

 

Im really not sure why these pictures turned out so crappy :( Usually my droid takes decent photos. I guess ill have to start borrowing my wifes fancy new camera.  As always comments, critiques are welcome. Also id be interested to know how much would you pay for this board? Keep an eye on the blog for some Infinity updates but probably not for a few weeks itleast.

Warmachine 4X4 Trench Table

Its been a long time since my last post but here we go again. Ive been wanting to do a Trench Table for a LONG time. On a whim a couple weeks ago I just started doing it. I didnt lay out a plan or anything. So far things have gone pretty smoothly. I think its cuz I had done it in my head so many times. Usually with a project this size and by this stage (painting) ive made multiple mistakes that I wish I could go back in time and fix. Surprisingly theres only 1 or 2 little things I would do differently. Anywho on to some pictures.

So some WIP shots and then the first coat of paint (the unpainted wood areas seen above are because the trench sides are going to be base coated a darker brown then the ground). The base is a 2 inch thick piece of pink foam. Then I took a 1 inch piece and cut out the shape I wanted for the trenches and glued it on top of the base piece. I find when gluing foam to foam Liquid Nails is the best product by far. The craters were made by using a heat gun (one of the things I would have done differently is made them a bit larger/deeper because once you get the PVA and sand in them they're pretty shallow). My ultimate plan is to use some water effects and make muddy puddles in all of the craters and a few parts of the trench bottoms.  So with that done I then textured the inside of the trenches with PVA Glue and sandbox sand. When that was dry I started the fun/tedious job of all the trench wall detail. Using various bits of balsa wood, tacky glue (better for vertical services then PVA because its *gasp* tackier). corrugated cardboard and sewing pins I spent a few evenings doing all of the detail work. Once the trench walls were done I textured the top. And finally a few shots of the board ready for dry brushing. I hope to be mostly done by Monday (gaming night) and completely done by next week. As always I'm open to comments and critiques.

Warhammer Fortress Board COMPLETED! (99%)

Well, aside from the armory door, and the front gate (which I need to figure out a way of attaching, maybe magnets?). This mother is done! I couldnt help setting it up last night to snap some photos. Here they are. The trees are scratch made with woodland scenics products. The mat is GW's battlemat, one of the best purchases ive ever made. All of the other accessories like the ruins, the barrels, ladders, and crates are all from Pegasus Hobbies. I highly recommend them, they come prepainted and are very affordable. Enough chit chat. Here are the pictures.

 Just a reminder that this is what the board looked like a week ago!

 If that doesnt make you want to play with little toy soldiers, the child inside of you is dead.

 This thing is so sexy there should be suggestive music playing in the background.

 Best

 Birthday

 Present

 EVER!

 Big shout out to Mike from TerranScapes on YouTube. I learned more than a couple techniques from his videos and without him I never would have known about foam coat.His work belongs in a museum and he's a great guy. 
My gaming group played a 4 way battle of Warmachine last night. Khador and Retribution VS Cygnar and Legion (unlikely allies but we came up with a story about a arcane artifact) Andrew and I won with Cygnar and Legion so next week Cygnar will be in the Fortress and Legion will serve as his reinforcements (rolling to come in after turn 1 40K style). This is going to be a massive 100pt per side game and I CANT WAIT!
In July Ian comes to pick up his Fortress and take it back to its new home in his totally bitching game room (im more then a little jealous). Thats it for now guys, next project is going to be painting my legion and some smaller terrain projects like hills, maybe a modular river, smoke markers etc. I still want to make a 4X4 board for Warmachine with trenches and a river etc but thats on the back burner for a while. 
As always comments are very welcome!

Board Progress WITH PICTURES!

Hey, lots of pictures for you guys. Board is 99% finished. Castle is 90% finished, just some details to complete. Ok here are the pictures.

                                           The board after being coated with FoamCoat.

 The board after being textured and half sealed with watered down PVA. Ive gotta say between the FoamCoat, coat of PVA, and seal of watered down PVA this thing is SOLID.

         Board with rocks drybrushed (dark gray, light gray) and basecoated ground (burnt umber)

           Above and Below. Board with finished ground work (2 more drybrushes) and flock.

 

                 Test scheme for Castle. Dark Gray, Blueish Gray, Light Gray, bone/tan color.
                                                                                                            And a little sneak peak of what the board will look like with the castle on it =)

More pictures to come soon. Hope to finish this tomorrow night. Ive got 2 sick kids (hella lame) so might have to put it off a few more days but I'm soooo close!

Small Update

Ok ive started work on this project again. I was waiting on an order from HotWireFoamFactory which I got about a week ago. I also got a boost of inspiration after playing Warmachine with my group last night and adding a 4th player to the mix (Big Dave FTW) we decided to play a massive siege game when I finish the castle. 
Today I finished the cliff face and coated everything with foam coat. Next I need to texture the top with sand and then I can start painting. I also started filling some gaps and doing some repair work to the castle. Exciting stuff I know. Unfortunately no pictures today because I left my USB cable at work. This was just a quick update to let you guys know I'm still alive and I plan on finishing this castle ASAP. If I put in a little work each evening hopefully within 2 weeks this baby will be done. 

Above are the highlights of my order. Finally a decent wire cutter!

Fortress Update

Hey All. Heres a small update. Ive finished texturing the rock face. I'm happy with how it looks. I also finished the cliff face on the left side but I'm not thrilled with it. I think I'm going to wait until I get a better hot wire cutter to do another one. I also need to tidy up the ramp. I plan on placing an order with HotwireFoamFactory for a hot wire cutter and some of their foam coat. But my hobby fund is exactly $0.00 at the moment so ill have to wait till I sell something. I'll do a review when I do purchase though. If your interested in their products TerranScapes on YouTube has some great videos. Anyway here are some pictures:

I'm really not sure what to do with the big open space pictured above. A forest doesnt make sense cuz they would trim them down surrounding a castle to make their arches more effective. I'm thinking either some sort of water feature like a pond/swampy marsh thing or just leaving it open. Any ideas?

 Ive got some Warmachine minis on their for scale. But it looks like until I can raise some funds this project is on hold. As always comments/suggestions/critiques always welcome!

New Project: Warhammer Fortress on a hill

My best mate just brought me a truck load of pink foam from Utah. This stuff is impossible to get in Southern California. My previous stash came from Adventurers Guild LGS in Riverside and cost an arm and a leg. To say thanks and as a birthday present I'm finishing his Warhammer Fortress for him and making a base for it. Ill try and keep this updated as best as possible. I desperately need more PVA glue before I can continue on with this project though and Home Depot doesnt stock the large tubs anymore (apparently). So until I make it to Michaels ill keep working on the rock texture. Heres some pics to give you an idea of the layout.

 You can see ive started the texture on the right side. I have a very crappy hot wire cutter so doing the "ramp" up to the gate was a nightmare. Ill have plenty of holes to putty over. In the left corner the wall will actually be running straight into a cliff face. Im just waiting for the blocks to dry before I start shaping them. Im pretty excited for this project and I shouldnt have any problems finishing it by July when he's coming down for another visit.

Scale Shots

Hey here are a few shots with a Prussian battleship and Britannia battleship to show scale. You can also see the texture on my board a bit better. I'm not 100% pleased with the coverage so when it warms up again ill sponge on another coat of water effects. 

Island In The Sun

Here are some detailed shots of a few islands. Ive left some room on a few of the bigger ones for when Spartan releases some of those awesome terrain pieces. 

 Rear of one of the bigger ones (apparently I forgot to take a front shot).

Front and back of another large island. 

 

 And a small island. Cheers guys, hope these inspire you to create your own! C&C always welcome!
*did anyone get the Weezer reference?

Dystopian Wars Island Tutorial

Hey guys. Heres a little step by step of how I do my islands.

Ok so using a drywall saw I got from DollarTree (I love that store!) I a piece of 1in thick blue insulation foam into my island shape and bevelled the edges a bit. The drywall saw works great because it leaves fantastic texture and is cheap. Ive used hot wire cutters before but they break easily and you still have to texture the piece when your done. So next I trace an outline of my island on a piece of foamboard and cut that out leaving room for the "beach" with a sharp exacto knife. Then I bevel the edges of that. The two pieces get glued together. Liquid nails is the best for this, PVA will work but not nearly as well. I also stick toothpicks in at an angle to get an extra level of strength. Finally a light coat of PVA is painted on the "beach" and some fine modeling sand is sprinkled over leaving us with the above pictured product. *note when everything is dry I seal the sand with a very watered down coat of PVA (think the consistency of milk) or else the sand will eventually come up.

Next the "rock" as ill call it, gets covered in flat black acrylic craft paint.

The "rock" gets drybrushed with a dark gray acrylic craft paint.

Next comes another drybrush, this time of a light gray acrylic craft paint. The rock is done for now.

Now a take a light cream/sand colored acrylic craft paint and carefully fill in the beach.

In this picture you see the sandy beach has been given a wash of Devlan Mud from GW. (Love their washes!)

Almost done! Next the sand gets another drybrush of the original sand/cream color to give it some contrast and the top of the rock gets painted with a flat brown acrylic paint.

Final product! Ok to get here I painted a coat of PVA glue over the previously brown coated areas of the rock. I left a little of the brown showing through on the edges. Then I sprinkled woodland scenics flock over the top leaving that to dry overnight. Once it was dry I removed the excess flock and was ready to add some shrubbery. I used two different colored woodland scenics clump foilage stuck on with superglue gel (again from the dollartree).