I recently finished some new Wild West Exodus-themed terrain. Here's a look at the pieces in progress. You can see more detail shots of the finished terrain in my Wild West Exodus terrain gallery.
Old West Church
The construction uses a foam core frame, with basswood siding and framework.
The doors are my own resin-cast assets, and the windows are Grandt Line plastic accessories.
All the wiring is made from heavy gauge floral wire, with resin cast tech accessories.
The roof is covered with plastic card "sheet metal" and lifts off for access to the interior.
Water Tower
This water tower is constructed from basswood planks.
The water spout is made from plastic tubing, with more resin tech parts. One of the best things to happen as a result of the Steam Punk craze is all the costume accessories now available at craft stores. Things like these little gears and clock faces are great for terrain.
I made the roof of the water tower with plastic strips for the support structure and wood chits, scored with a wood grain for the shingles.
With the Empire and Dark Elves eliminated from the campaign, that left four players. Unfortunately, Due to his commitments to work and family and the distance needed to travel to meet up for games, Josh had to bow out.
There are rumors of a great evil returning to the Old World. Through their haruspex, the Slaughtermasters recognize a power not seen for an age stirring back to life. Content to let the lesser beings squabble over their insignificant lands, the Ogres retreat to the mountains to prepare for what is to come.
I had put a rule in place that if anyone dropped out, rather than simply clearing their territory, the positions of their banners would be marked and a Difficult Terrain test would be required to enter a territory with a Maw symbol. This represents fighting through the remaining elements of the Ogre occupation, pushing through left over garrisons, breaking fortifications, and such. Once the roll is passed, the remnant militias are scattered and the test is no longer required to enter the terrain.
Our Players
Justin Cunnane: Chixl's Warhost (Lizardmen)
Jason Pierson: Waaagh Blackfang (Orcs & Goblins)
Rob Hawkins: Skryre Lord Skreekits' Lightning Engineer Cult (Skaven)
Chixl's Warhost, having driven off the Dark Elves, took advantage of the Ogres' withdraw and push forward.
As Waaagh Blackfang worked to recover the razed lands and scour the filth of traitorous vermin from their realm, the Skaven secured the Gesteinmund Hills and Tor Anrock, and moved to snatch the city of Malko from under the Orcs' noses (or snouts?), but the Orcs were ready to stop their attack, and the two armies came to grips outside the city.
Jay and I met at the local shop to throw down. His army had a 200 point advantage from the fortified city, so it was 2200 points of Skaven vs. 2400 points of Orcs.
The majority of Jay's army was invested in a 70-man unit of Orc Boyz, flanked by large units of Black Orcs and Savage Ork Big 'Uns, and backed up by a battery of war machines and a giant. I held back and fired with 30 Jezzails and two Warpfire Cannons. I managed to kill the giant, but not before he drove off one unit of Jezzails. The large Orc unit was too much, however, and although I was able to whittle it down below 10 men, I could not fully destroy it.
The Doom Wheel charged the Savage Orcs, but was destroyed by his Boss's giant axe.
While the rest of my army chipped away at the Green Tide at range, the Stormvermin stayed as far away as they could from the Savage Orcs. Eventually, the Greenskins closed the gap and destroyed them.
The Foot of Gork stomped unit after unit, and was probably inflicted the most damage in the entire game. Jay threw six dice at it every time, and even though he never cast the spell with Irresistible Force, I was never quite able to dispel it when I needed to (and I was just commenting on how I never bother to take dispel scrolls).
At the end of of the day, the forces of the Lightning Engineer Cult were massacred, the Engineers run off, their machines shattered.
The city of Malko was now securely in Orc hands, and the Skaven would have to lay siege to the city's fortress. On the western front, the Lizardmen and Skaven were about to meet...
As our campaign moves into its second half, my Skaven forces need to focus on the city in the center of the map. The fortress city of Malko is worth an additional 10 victory points, and attacking it while occupied requires a siege battle. Since the General's Compendium was a 6th Edition supplement (and 8th Edition doesn't really have adequate siege rules) we'll be using the siege rules from the 6th Edition rulebook.
That brings me to the equipment necessary to attack and defend a castle. I've had the old metal siege defenders kit collecting dust pretty much since I began playing Warhammer, and finally got around to assembling and painting them. (Proof that the phrase "I'll build them someday" is not an empty promise!) I took the time to convert them with an appropriately "Skaven-themed" aesthetic.
Some of the items are scratch built, like the ladders and rock buckets. All the defender's rocks are painted to look like warp stone. This makes them useful as scenic elements in a Skaven mine, or as Mordheim objectives. And having warpstone dropped on your head from the battlements not only hurts, but it will probably give you some kind of crazy space-cancer.
These buckets were made from wooden cups I got from the craft store, filled with talus rocks.
The log ram and ladders are all made from basswood strips and dowels. A few of the ladders incorporate bones from the plastic zombie kit as rungs.
This boiling oil cauldron has been modified with extra gears and painted with a sickly glow from the hunk of warpstone infusing the oil.
The rock droppers have been decorated with bells. The large bell on the first one is a metal bell from the Warmaster Screaming Bell. I used it and the bucket as a counterweight to balance the model because it was so front-heavy from the metal rock.
My Plague Claw Catapult is also finished. There are a few modifications like the slop bucket and ladder rungs running up the back. I still need to paint the crew, and I figure I'll tackle them when I finish my Plague Monks. In the meantime, I'll crew it with spare Skaven Slaves or Clanrats.
My crowning achievements are these mantlets and the Skaven siege tower. They were made during my time at GW, and were featured in White Dwarf and Troll Magazine. The mantlet is designed for a unit of Jezzails, and has a row of Slaves pushing it underneath.
The siege tower appeared in White Dwarf 292, which had a brief assembly guide and special rules that incorporated the poison gas generators, self-propulsion, and the Jezzail snipers inside.
The construction is mostly basswood, with metal and plastic parts from all across GW's model ranges. The wheels are from the classic Doom Wheel, and the engineer with the telescope is the operator from the classic Warp Lightning Cannon.
It's definitely a monstrosity you don't want to see rolling toward your fortress!
