Bacchus' Terrain

[JC McMinis]

More great stuff here. I think Porkins has the right advice on the holes. Also some painting advice, I made a building out of a similar container, if you have trouble with the base coat sticking, as I did, rough it up first with a little sandpaper.

[bacchus]

I wasn't really thinking about the 'windows', I was referring to the gaps in the bottom (you can see it in the last picture). I could still do the windows though. I've made it a bit harder now that I've put a base on it, but I'm sure I could get it in there.

Dr. Goomonkey, I was considering putting an Utgar symbol on it to make it a Zettian factory, but if I don't put it on there it can be a bit more multipurpose.

I 'considered' making terrain for a long time, thinking some of the pieces I saw were a bit intimidating. Now that I am getting into it, it isn't hard at all and I don't know why I didn't start sooner. You just might need a few tools and paints to get you started. I'm still in the process of building up some additional bits and pieces.

[Dr.Goomonkey]

I'm kind of in that same "considering" phase right now but I'm pretty sure I'm getting into it soon.

Also maybe it would be possible to get some stickers, that way you could take off the Utgar symbol if you wanted to.

[bacchus]

4-hex volcanic rock time!

I had a big piece of styrofoam, which I cut down with a coping saw, and steak knife to get the general shape. I used a hot wire foam cutter to cut out the grooves. I hacked at a bit with an Xacto knife to give it some ridges, and scored it. I thought about how lava might run on it and emphasised a couple of areas.

As with the other bits, this bit of foam was previously used and had some sticks poked into it, so I intended to use these as sulphur vents. The grooves I'd put in the top were a bit too straight, so I used a flame to shape it just a little. Still not sure about this process.





Gave it a coat of paint in bright red. The previous ones I've painted have had an ochre red (I tested painting this over a black base coat on a small piece, but I was not happy with the result).



I gave it a second coat after that, as I didn't think it gave it enough cover. After the second coat had dried, I mixed up a bit of orange, and painted it into ridges and how I thought it would flow, plus all the steam vents. It doesn't really show in this picture.



The next step was to go over the orange in yellow. I don't have a really fine brush, so I could have done better in this step. Any of the vents got a little dry brush around the edges, but a little less than the orange. I didn't gran any pictures of this step.

After that, I heavy drybrushed black over the whole piece, skipping over the yellow areas for the most part. In a couple of areas i thought the yellow was too wide, so i dragged the brush over those areas to darken them a bit.

And voila! I'm happy with one side, I think it turned out really well. The other side is ok, but the yellow stains could have benefited from a thinner brush.





My original intention was to create a mirror Tundra set in volcanic rock, but I messed up the next one and cut off too much, so the 6 piece is gonna end up a 5 piece, but it isn't going to matter; it will be for custom maps anyway. I might get more ambitious and try and carve out a volcanic crater in the top.

[bacchus]

I've completed my set of volcanic rock; 3x1-hex pieces, a 3-hex piece, 4 hex piece, and a 5 hex volcano. I'll add some things I learned at the end. If anyone wants any more pictures or details, I can add them.











I did something different on the biggest piece. After painting the red base coats, I used a thick yellow wash, and dripped it from the top, or areas where lava might flow. I let gravity do the rest so it would flow into cracks and follow pre-carved paths, so it makes it look more realistic. Because the red was still wet, it helped blend the colors as well, and I think this helps make it pop. I eyeballed it, I guess it was about equal parts paint and water, or maybe a bit more water than paint. I found thin yellow washes don't really show on the darker colours when it dries, but this showed up more like a stain.

The first couple I made used a brownish red as the base; the bright red is much better. I'm not too worried about the difference at this stage. I tried some white drybrushing on the first piece, and messed it up a little, it was too heavy and the contrast was too great, so it took a bit of work to patch it up.

The styrofoam I used also had holes in it to start with. Lesson : whenever you prime something, fill those holes with the prime colour. Trying to fill in those holes later was not fun. It took several thick washes to fill them (which I might have had to do with the base color, but it would have been a heck of a lot easier).

The volcano could be a focal point for custom rules. A couple of quick passes;

Volcanic Eruption
For all choices and dice rolling for Volcanic Eruption, players go in order of initiative. At the end of each round each player chooses a space. Each player rolls a 20-sided dice. For each roll of 16 or higher, a volcanic eruption hits that space and affects all spaces next to it that are up to 2 spaces higher or lower. Roll 3 attack dice. Defending figures roll defense dice separately.

Volcanic Eruption
At the end of each round, roll 4 Valkyrie dice. Figures within X spaces of the volcano receive one wound, where X is the number of Valkyrie symbols rolled.

The second one could work well on a map where the volcano is high in the centre, and surrounded by glyphs or other areas of importance, making it more likely that players will want to enter the 'death zone'.

[Porkins]

Looks great!

You could do a lava placement rule:

LAVA FLOW
At the end of each round, each player may place one molten lava tile adjacent to an existing molten lava tile. Begin with the player who won inititative and proceed to that player's left. When a molten lava tile is placed on a location that is occupied by a figure, that figure must immediately roll for molten lava damage, if applicable.

[JC McMinis]

Very nice looking volcanic rocks bacchus.

[MrHscape]

This is amazing! Nice job!

[bacchus]

Porkins, that ruleset could work. The only thing I'd be worried about is that it favours ranged, but I suppose you would take that into account when choosing your armies so probably isn't that big a deal.

And thanks all for the feedback. I didn't base them prior to finishing, so they could be easily knocked over... if I game on the outdoor table this could be an issue if there is wind! Otherwise I'm pretty happy with them.

[Tornado]

Cool stuff. I really dig the bridges. Nice work!

[bacchus]

So I previously started turning a strawberry container into a little building. So we left off here;



I cut up a bunch of pieces of styrofoam with the hopes that they would like rocks to fill in the side where I had cut it awkwardly. It didn't work out amazing, but it will do. I think part of that has to do with the fact that I made the building gray/silver, which is probably a better colour for rocks.

First thing was to put on a couple of coats of grey.



I tried a few things with the paint, because I wasn't satisfied with the initial results. then tried a few ochre red highlights and dry brushing to indicate rust. Because I wasn't that happy, I experimented with a wet section of the grey paint, and tried to blend the ochre into it. It turned out ok, but the rest of the grey was dry so it was no good.

I pulled out some silver and dry brushed it, and I think that really made it stand out.

To add a little something, I had one of those pull ring things that come out of oil bottles. I thought it could represent a little radar or antenna or something. Couple of coats of black, then a coat of silver. Then I glued it to the top.



I applied a black wash to it, and the area surrounding it. It was probably a bit too heavy and could have been blended better, but I'm learning through experimentation. The rocks were a bit random, just multiple layers of gray, black and ochre red and attempted to blend them in.

So voila, here is the finished product.



On the inside, the hexes near the walls are a bit tight for figures, but you could wedge them in the sides or have them overhanging the other hexes unless you are anal about that sort of thing. The middle of the roof is directly over a hex, but I'm not planning to allow flyers up there.

My original intention was to have it as a Zettian Factory. If one player controls it (has a figure in or adjacent to the factory that is not engaged), at the beginning of each round a Zettian Gaurd spawns in the factory under the control of that player.

What I learned from this project
Be careful when cutting thin plastic. I botched it a bit.
Smooth plastic does not like to take paint. Sand it first.
It's ok to experiment; if I don't like the paint scheme I can always go over it.
Drybrush in different directions; I'm happy with how the roof turned out because of this.
Be careful with washes; if it's too light, you can always apply more, but if it's too dark, it's harder to cover up. (I did get frustrated with the number of washes I tried on the volcano with almost no effect so I overcompensated here).

[Dr.Goomonkey]

That's pretty cool, I find the little recycling symbol funny. It would be cool to have it be a robot factory like you were saying on the first post about it.