River Terrain

Finally made a river. I've wanted one for years, but never really gotten around to it, as I kind of knew what I wanted to make, but also what I didn't want to make - that pouring resin to set looks like too much work for my household, with dogs and kids running everywhere.

Plus, when the gaming does happen, my stuffs all gotta be transportable as we play in the pub.

So, needed to be quick, easy, flexible and durable.

First revelation was having to do some bathroom repair work, out buying the silicone gel for the mastic gun and looking at the clear setting silicon.

"hmmmm.........I could use that for a water effect, I reckon? Smear it about to look like water flow and job done"

Now, the base? Well, I was getting some teddy bear fur from the fabric shop - as all gamers find themselves doing from time to time, when I noticed a roll of thick canvas.

"hmmmmmm.........if I cut that into strips and painted it, then put that gel on it, then put sand along the edges for sandbanks and painted that, then that'll probably do it. It'd not be stiff like those roads I made were and the weight of the canvas would hold the terrain down"

(never use foamboard for making roads. It kind of works and is easy, but is so light that a stern glare makes the road shift about)

So, plan hatched - get the materials. Spend one night painting the rivers on the canvas, then leave it drying overnight and claim it in the morning before the house rises. Then, second night, do the gel business, scatter sand and leave to dry. Third night, paint the banks. Fourth night, tart it up a bit.

By "night", I mean "under an hours work", so I'm not busting balls here.

Heres the finished product. Came out alright:

Each strip is about 24 inches long, maybe 5-6 inches wide - small enough to contain a bridge, but wide enough to form a barrier. This'll allow me to cover a full 8 foot river along the table.

(One of the perils of living with a white haired Norfolk Terrier - bloody dog hair gets in everything and I SEE IT)

Not bad, even if I do say so myself. I reckon I'll do this again, but with the plain white silicon and just put sand all over it to make some new roads, then paint it. Doddle now the method is down.

TOP TIP: when yr in the DIY shop getting the gel, make sure to buy some cheapo disposable gloves. Makes messy work like the water effect really easy and non sticky. I had a load from when I do bicycle repairs, so used them. And glad I was.

I reckon this probably cost about £9 for the tube of silicon and about £3.50 for the canvas. Already had the paints, sand and shrubs kicking about, so its def a cheap bastard cost effective way of doing it.

Undead March ov Doom

"I made a pact of blood with you.............the baptism of the walking dead!"

First wave of redone undead complete. Quite happy with how grubby and rotten they look. I wanted the grave dirt to still be clinging to them, rather than the clean polished bone effect. Not done the standards yet, but they'll come in time.

Barrow Wights

Skeletons.

More skeletons.

And some shots of them all lined up

Theres a mix of models in there, spreading across about 28 years of owning them. They've been stripped, rebuilt, broken and reformed many many times. This'll be the third paint job they've had on some of them. Hopefully the final one!

Brambles

Made some nice clumpy bramble terrain, as this months Azazelx painting challenge - https://azazelx.com/2018/12/24/january-2019-paint-challenge-terrain-centrepiece-models/ - is one based around making terrain, so I thought I'd follow through on an idea I've had for a while.

Brambles - nice easy, multi purpose terrain, fits almost anything and is a nice bit of table dressing. Noones gonna argue about them being an utter pain to try and move through!

Theres also the whole matter of brambles being protection from vampires, an utter annoyance to Lucifer, warding off evil spirits and being full of healing power.

Here they are, tastefully modelled by the Duke of Wellington..........

HOW I MADE THEM.

Had a couple of spare bits of MDF I've had laying around for.............7 years. Formed those into a suitable shape, coated with sand and PVA glue. Once that had dried, I painted them first in a lighter sand colour, then washed a dark brown over the top. 

Once that had dried, I drybrushed back up with the sandy colour for some definition. Then washed again with a brown all over, then washed particular areas with a greeny colour to add some variety.

Next stage - I've a load of spare rubberised horse hair I bought a year or two ago and done nothing with really. Vile stuff, to be honest, but it looks good. Sprayed these dark brown and then got busy with the glue gun and glued big patches of that onto the bases.

After that - greenery. Now, most of my trees (the good looking ones, anyway) are made with flock and rubberised horse hair, which is what made me purchase some for myself, even though this is the first project I've used it for.

As my trees are all stored in plastic boxes and over the years of use, lots of the flock had come loose and gathered into a large dusty, sweeping, pile at the bottom. Emptied that out, dabbed the vines with PVA and scattered the flock liberally on top.

Finally, added some tufts and random growths that I've got kicking around and "Ole, we're in Rio" -  one set of brambles for next to nothing.