Looking Toward 2017

While 2016 may have been a washout for just about everything else in the world, it's actually been pretty good as far as miniatures games go. I've been having a ball, at least.

Display Tables

Fantasy Flight announced its new Runewars miniatures game this year, and I was commissioned to produce some terrain for demo games and photography. I'm really looking forward to see how the game develops.

 

 

Runewars Terrain, Part 4: Painting and the Finished Table

Here we are at the final installment of my project log covering the construction of the table I built for Fantasy Flight's Runewars miniatures game. To see the game, click here.

If you want to view the previous posts in this series, you can use these links:

Runewars Terrain, Part 1: Swamp Boards

Terrain Tutorial: Swamp Grass

Runewars Terrain, Part 2: Castle Ruins

Runewars Terrain, Part 3: Ruins and Arches

Okay– Last time, I had finished up the construction on the large component with the bridge and archways. I undercoated all of the stonework on the ruins with black latex paint, and then I sprayed them with greys to provide a solid base to drybrush over. I used a dark grey spray everywhere, and then used a lighter grey for a "zenith" highlight, basically spraying the piece from above to dust the tops and raised areas with the lighter color. The bottom edges of the stones remained dark, creating natural highlight and shaded areas.

 

 

When the spraying was finished, I painted the ground with a basecoat of dark brown latex paint to help seal the sand and provide the base color.

 

Then, I drybrushed the ground with Formula P3 colors Gun Corpse Brown, Moldy Ochre, and Menoth White Base (same as for the swamp boards).

 

The stonework was painted by drybrushing it with Formula P3 Greatcoat grey and patchy areas of Bastion Brey. A little Menoth White Base was mixed in with the grey for a slightly lighter drybrushing, and finally some white was added to the mix for the brightest highlights.

 

(I'm cheating the timeline a little because, as you can see, the table base was actually painted before I had even finished construction on the large ruin and arches.)

 

Weathering was added to the stonework by washing a bit of P3 Traitor Green around the bottom, and painting rust drips with P3 Bloodstone.

 

 

When the painting was finished, I glued flock and static grass onto the ground and on the tops of the ruined walkways. As with the swamp trees, hanging moss was made by dipping cotton balls in an thinned mix of P3 Traitor Green paint and wood glue. The moss was draped over the edges of the platforms, and under the archways.

 

 

Once the static grass and moss had set, and the excess dumped off, tall swamp grass and Envirotex Lite water effects were added. To see how this was done, check out my swamp grass tutorial here.

 

Here, you can see the finished board with its edges painted black.

 

All that remained was to finish painting the large component, and then attach it and the tower to the board along with their own bits of hanging moss and static grass.

 

Once completed, the centerpiece was ready to go! (These shots are taken from the second table I built, so there are a few subtle differences in the architecture.)

 

The small modular ruins got the same treatment as the larger piece.

 

The entire set can be fit together with the ruins in the middle with a small 3' x 3' demo board on either side...

 

...Or as a large 3' x 6' battlefield with the display ruins on either end.

 

I hope you enjoyed following along with this project. Here are the links again to the other parts:

Runewars Terrain, Part 1: Swamp Boards

Terrain Tutorial: Swamp Grass

Runewars Terrain, Part 2: Castle Ruins

Runewars Terrain, Part 3: Ruins and Arches

'Til next time!

Runewars Terrain, Part 3: Ruins and Arches

Last time, I took you through the construction of the tower. Next, it's on to the back half of the castle and the tall arches. Here's a shot of how everything was shaping up, including two modular pieces of ruin to go on the side boards. (You may notice a slight difference in the proportions or architecture; Fantasy Flight had commissioned me to build two of these, and this is a shot of the second table, which has subtle variations in its construction.)

You can check out the Runewars Miniatures Game here, and here are the links to the other parts of this build:

 

Runewars Terrain, Part 1: Swamp Boards

Terrain Tutorial: Swamp Grass

Runewars Terrain, Part 2: Castle Ruins

Runewars Terrain, Part 3: Ruins and Arches

Runewars Terrain, Part 4: Painting and the Finished Table

 

 

After creating the rocky base...

 

...I attached the tower, again covering the PVC pipe with a layer of foam core board.

 

A stone texture was cut into the foam that makes up the walls of the large platform.

 

The tower was covered with similar foam stonework which blends into the rough rocky texture of the base. While the first tower had a full parapet top, this tower has collapsed, so the top has a concave surface that I textured with sand and stones. Wood filler putty was used to conceal the seams between the layers of stacked foam on the rocky base.

 

A doorway arch similar to the first tower was added, a little more damaged than the doors on the intact tower. Then, I began applying some areas of paving stones on the surface of the bridge and the platform.

 

 

With the major structures finished, I added a "foundation" layer of foam for each of the larger pieces. This would allow me to paint everything separately and have a natural-looking connection between the ground and the buildings. The three small platforms would be easy to paint around, so they were attached directly to the board.

 

Plenty of rocky rubble was added, and the surface was covered with sand.

 

The Arches

The concept art Fantasy Flight had provided showed lots of tall, ruined archways, and they really helped set the environment apart from other fantasy castles.

 

 

The arches needed to be sturdy enough to stand up to travel and the occasional bump, so I constructed them using a wooden core, cut from thin sheets of luan.

 

The wooden core was skinned with a layer of foam. In these photos, the pink parts are insulation foam, and the white parts are cellfoam. Cellfoam is essentially foam core board without the paper "skin" on the outside. I made two large archways, and a little one that's attached to the small platform on the table base.

 

Once these arches were skinned with the foam, and another layer was added to cover the edges, stonework texture was cut into the foam and I added some chips and breaks. The arches plug into slots on the large bridge section of the ruin, but I kept them separate for painting.

 

All of the structures were painted with a layer of thinned wood glue to seal and protect the foam. Then it got a layer of black latex paint for further protection and a solid undercoat. After that, I gave them a spray of dark grey primer and a zenith spray of a lighter grey. This gives the stonework a grey color and minimal highlighting that I can use as a base to work from, which greatly cuts down on the amount of brushwork I'll need to do when I finish up the painting.

 

Runewars Terrain, Part 1: Swamp Boards

Terrain Tutorial: Swamp Grass

Runewars Terrain, Part 2: Castle Ruins

Runewars Terrain, Part 3: Ruins and Arches

Runewars Terrain, Part 4: Painting and the Finished Table

 

'Til next time!