Throwback Thursday: Terrain Retrospective

In this post, I take a look back at some of my favorite (and most memorable) terrain projects from the past, and what I got out of them.

 

Dark Age Crystal Caverns

Along with the Wrath of Kings board, the guys at CMON also commissioned me to build a board for the Dark Age miniatures game. They wanted a 4' x 4' cavern filled with glowing crystals, bottomless pits, and acid pools.

 

I drew a lot of inspiration from the natural caverns I'd visited in the past for the shape and color of the stalagmites and columns. The table came together over the course of a few months. Here's a little peek behind the scenes...

Dark Age Demo Tables: LAVA!

For the final installment of this terrain showcase, I'll cover the lava effects on the Dark Age demo tables I made for Cool Mini Or Not. As is normally the case when it comes to crunch time, I start taking fewer pictures as I work. So I don't have any work-in-progress photos of the lava or lighting rig.

The ground was textured with sand and gravel, and painted black. I drybrushed the color up with a mix of P3 Thamar Black and P3 Bloodstone, up through straight Bloodstone, and then added some final highlights with P3 Gun Corps Brown. 

 

 

Cool Mini Or Not provided some translucent resin crystals to use on the bases. They were imbedded in the ground near the lava. The lava cutouts have a layer of textured plexiglass under them. The plexiglass was protected with tape during the painting, and once the drybrushing was finished, I sprayed some red directly into the center of each lava pool to create a glow on the banks.

Within the base of each table is a series of strip LEDs, positioned to shine up through the crystals and lava. 

 

 

To create the lava, I tinted some Envirotex Lite (a two-part epoxy) with yellow acrylic paint and poured it into each of the lava pools. Then, before the Envirotex cured, I added the darker swirls around the edges with a cotton swab dipped in orange paint. The paint comes off into the Envirotex without really dissolving, and by swirling it around, I could create some unique effects. For the finishing touch, I dropped a few glass beads into the lava to represent bubbles.

 

 

I'm really pleased with the lava; it turned out better than I imagined!

 

 

The four tables are designed to function as stand-alone 2' x 2' demo boards... 

 

 

And also line up to form either a 4' x 4' square, or a 2' x 8' line.

 

 

Check out the full range of detail shots in my terrain gallery!

'Til next time!

Dark Age Demo Tables: Painting

Cool Mini Or Not held their Expo last weekend. The Dark Age demo tables I built for them made their debut at the show, which means I can show off some painted pictures. To see the table in action, check out the CMON Expo Facebook Page.

To see the construction of the table, check out my post from a few months back: Dark Age Demo Tables: Construction

Painting the Mining Rig

All of the platforms were kept separate for painting. Over a coat of black primer, each one received a spray of successively lighter shades of grey using a mix of Testors and Tamiya sprays. From there, I drybrushed some highlights and added a little silver for wear on the metal deck plates.

The rust was achieved with a mix of P3 Bloodstone and Khador Red Highlight (orange). This was washed into the recesses around the plates, and dappled in places for specific spots of rust.

 

 

I added some spots of rust to break up the large flat sides of the platforms and around the edges of the framework. These spots were highlighted with a light grey to create the illusion of a layer of chipped paint in the abandoned facility.

The shattered windows of the control room were created with clear plastic card, cut and scored with a hobby knife.

 

 

To paint the glow in the vents, I painted layers of red, orange, and yellow to build up the glow. Then, the metal grill and frame were drybrushed with P3 Pig Iron. A wash of P3 Red Ink was added to shade around the grille and tone down the yellow hue.

 

 

The rocks were painted black, and then drybrushed with a mix of black and Bloodstone. A little P3 Gun Corps Brown was added to the mix for the final highlights.

 

 

The tiles on the heat dampeners were painted with a mix of black and P3 Skorne Red, blended from dark (at the top) to light (at the bottom). Then the metal components were picked out with Pig Iron and given the rust treatment. Finally, to enhance the glow of the lava, each platform was sprayed from below with red.

 

 

Here are all four boards together with only the ground texture and lava left to be added. 

 

 

The large chasm, with it's center column, and a few other detail shots can be seen below.

 

 

Up next, LAVA!!!

 

 

'Til next time!

Dark Age Demo Tables: Construction

Cool Mini Or Not has called upon my services once again, this time for the game Dark Age. The tables feature an abandoned mining rig set in a underground lava chamber. This is a set of four 2'x2' tables that can be set up as four separate demo tables, one large 4'x4' square gaming table or a single, linear table eight feet long. Here's a peek at the construction process:

I began by framing out each table base and building the platform structures out of foam core. The floor of the cave is made from pink insulation foam with areas for lava pools burned through using a heat gun. The lava would be lit from below with LEDs, so I added a layer of clear textured acrylic beneath the foam.

 

 

Here, you can see all four tables and the major platforms. It took a little planning to get the walkways to meet up between platforms and allow them to be arranged in two different configurations. I made a small mock-up to figure out the level each platform and walkway needed to be to sync up with its neighbor.

 

To detail the platforms, I built and resin cast some heat dampeners and deck plates. To see more of my resin casting process, check out part four of my Wrath of Kings diorama assembly journal.

 

 

The deck plates were used to create a uniform pattern on the surface.

 

The heat dampeners attach to the sides.

 

Once the deck plates were in place, I began the arduous task of building the railings, stairs and gantries. Check out my tutorial on building stairs to see how they were made.

 

The railings around the decks were made from heavy gauge wire, bent 90 degrees and pinned into the side of the platform. A styrene strip was attached on top of this. At each connection, a small cuff was made by cutting styrene tube into little rings. (That's over 500 holes drilled and rings cut!) The walkways were thinner, meaning the railings couldn't bend and attach at the sides, so I used Plastruct ladders. Much easier on my hands and my sanity!

 

At one corner of the setup is a lab, smashed by falling rocks. By de-molding the deck plates before the resin was fully cured, I was able to bend and press them to appear deformed and crushed by the boulders. The control panel keyboards were sculpted with Brown Stuff modeling putty.

 

Plastic mesh, available at most craft stores, was used for the metal grille of the walkways. The plastic doesn't take super glue at all, so I had to sandwich the edges between two pieces of styrene and fill the gap with super glue to securely lock the mesh in place.

 

On the corner opposite the lab is a collapsed portal. A cave in has crushed part of the platform and shattered the surrounding structure. The styrene railings were bent using a heat gun and then glued atop the wire supports which were similarly bent with pliers. 

 

 

I used different sizes of styrene rod and tubes to create the pipes running up the sides of the shaft. Guitar string (technically bass string; it's a little thicker) was used for the cables.

 

Since I was working on this throughout January and February I was struggling with the snow and freezing temperature just to find time to prime the components. Any day when the temperature was above freezing, I'd run outside and quickly spray whatever I could!

 

Here's the finished construction. That's about all I can show until Cool Mini debuts the table at a convention. Once they've had a chance to formally unveil it, I'll post pictures of the painting and lava effects. Keep your eyes peeled for these tables in the Dark Age section of the Cool Mini Or Not booth!

 

 

'Til next time!