Fortress Falls: constructing the display board

OK!  You can't have a tournament army without a display board, so we have some WIP images of the construction.  If you recall the story line, the Knights of the Blood Rose have been pushed back to their last redoubt, the Fortress Falls.  I will be using techniques very similar to those used on the terrain board that we made for the Wandering Dragon Shoppe.

I started out with a 2 x 2 piece of masonite.  The rocks would be built up with layers of pink foam.

To make each level have more complexity and smaller levels, I first cut out the basic shape of  what I wanted.  Note the extendable exacto blade.  Those knives are perfect for this!  I have a hot foam wire, but it was way too cold and way too late to be using that outside.  Plus, I don't have the attachments that I really need. so, you go with what you know!

By cutting horizontally with the extended blade, you can cut out parts of each level to create various hieghts for your outcroppings.

This can be easier and quicker than piling up many layers of foam!

If you save those pieces you cut out, as you saw in the previous terrain post, you can make some very nice slate style outcrops!

You can see that I kept building up, layer by layer, making sure to vary which way my cuts went to make more interesting textures

These images give you a real sense of where the water will be flowing...

Layering continues.  I had a different idea for the tops of the cliffs, but time is not on my side, and I have to scale way back on those plans.  Bummer!  

One thing I wanted to keep from the original plans is the island watchtower.  I started to lay that out at this stage, as well as the outlying flatter terrain, on which the Khand and Easterling miniatures will be placed.  Remember, the chariots are the key weapon that turned the tide in the long war between the forces of Rhuin and the Knights of the Blood Rose.  They were able to defeat the cavalry, thus pushing the elves out of their ancient cities...

Once I had rough cut everything, it was time to glue it all together, using standard wood glue.  It is very strong, and dries relatively fast.  Blue painter's tape was used on each level to keep them from shifting or warping, and giving it lots of extra strength!

Now I start to build up that central island.  This guards the entry into the final undamaged elven cities.

The island built up to its highest point.  Our next exciting episode will show the texturing of all the different areas of the board!  Stay tuned...

Still racing to the finish line... warp speed!

Well, the slog continues to get things ready for Bilbo's Bash!  As I waited for glue on the display board to dry, I did flock and grass on the miniatures.  Normally I don't do any of that until they are 100% completed, but circumstances dictate drastic measures!

Here we have some of the Easterling foot troops.  Some are Black Dragons, some are standard issue.  This is where making the upgraded troops blue/gold will be very helpful during the heat of a tournament game!

While I would have preferred to have a lot more miniatures on the board, it does occur to me that good armies tend to have smaller numbers.

The infantry captain is on the raised base in the middle.

In a very ironic twist, my Elf army (even with Great Eagle Gwaihir) has 8 more guys!  Of course, this army does not have 4 chariots in it.

You can see I have a bunch of shields stationed about waiting to be painted.  Those guys will look really different with those attached.  I have gotten used to playing without them :-)

Time to get back to the grind!  It's gonna be another late night...

Salvaging a few F-Cast minis for Bilbo's Bash

Well, here are those freakin' finecast figures I mentioned in last night's post.  The production value on the casts was brutal.  They were almost unpaintable, especially the figure on the left.  I could have painted 4 miniatures in the time I struggled with that one!

There was not a single element that was not miscast or badly sculpted.  It also had very heavy pitting texture on the cloak, which was ridiculous.  Even with pins, the back legs kept bending and collapsing.

The war priest was not as bad, but still had a ton of errors.  It was a bummer, since these guys were supposed to be an important part of the army, with lots of freehand.  These were so bad, I had to abandon almost all the freehand that I wanted to do.

The helmets were so nasty, I had to use an exacto knife to shave down parts of them so that they had an actual shape.

Sorry to be so crabby here!  It was very frustrating to lose so much precious painting time to stuff that should not even be an issue in the first place!

From now on, I will either be converting plastic or metal figs I find on ebay, or subbing appropriate Reaper  or Foundry figures.  It was way more fun to do my banner bearer and war drum that way!

Down to the wire: Trying to get stuff painted for Bilbo's Bash

Well, you loyal Wappellians are well aware of the battle royale taking place as I try to get everything painted for Bilbo's Bash this weekend.  It is a very nice tournament, and I want to do it justice by having some decently painted figures. :-)

We were at the Wandering Dragon Shoppe in order to avoid the interruption of ringing doorbells, etc.  Right away, I decided to set aside the elves for another day, and get down to the Easterlings.  That was going to be the toughest task, as the sculpts and casts of those are far more rough and inconsistent.

I started off by attempting to salvage some F-Cast heroes (post coming on those tomorrow), and then the rest of the Kataphracts.  From there, I saw that I had to get a lot of work done on the infantry.  In particular, the non Black Dragon upgrade guys needed the most work.  Images of those guys tomorrow as well!

As I was furiously doing that, Cathy joined some lads playing Zombiecide.  That is a pretty neat game, I must say.  They had some hilarious moments, and lots of zombies showed up!  Kevin was a great host, as always, having werewolf movies and candy on hand...

I wished that I could have looked at the game more closely, since it was pretty elaborate!  Lots of miniatures!

Can't play Zombiecide without a Psycho Clown!

Cathy killed her first zombie with a frying pan.

I did get to see a few minis up close.  I was most impressed.  Those would be really cool to paint!  Maybe someday...

Memory lane and Wrath of Kings

Today we have some more Wrath of Kings figures.  Don't these guys remind you of the glory days of Rackham?  I always like the wolfen guys the best.  It really takes me back to 2003-04.

Nice to think that the wolfen are not completely lot to time and history!

Look... he has a girlfriend!

Making and painting an Apoxy sculpt base

Here are a few quick shots of an apoxy sculpt base.  First, the sculpted bits...

And now for the painting.  It was fairly basic.  I had a grey, a brown, a yellow, and a seafoam green.  Using a larger brush and working rapidly, I started out with a yellow/grey mix .  The grey/brown mix was used on the rocks themselves...

You can see the seafoam green mixed in with the grey on the upper surfaces of the rocks.  Eventually, I mixed in a yellowish white to begin highlighting them.

The highlighting continues.  I also mixed this light color in with the yellow/grey mix to highlight the 'ground'.

At this point, it was ready to be shaded and glazed darker.  I used a black, a sepia and a bit of green.  I focused on the lowest areas making sure to vary how much green or sepia was used.

Here's the finished results!