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Hi all, I'm Blockade, long time lurker, first time poster. Back in the day I had a blog on the Independent Characters Forums before that disappeared, and I've decided to make one here so I'm not hunting through thousands of photos on my iPhone. I'm excited to share some terrain boards and scenery that I've been working on, some minis I paint, and anything else that comes to mind!



Automatically Appended Next Post:
These are some of my older builds. Some of which are still mine, others were commissioned by friends for display boards.


This board was for an Adepitcon display. Lots of muddy wash went into this board!

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This was my own display board. I wanted to use an MDF train set I had for a display board in our store's competition. I didn't win (lost to the gentleman next to me who had a display board with a full titan!).

Wanted to share this most recent commission work I did. Request was for an inhabited slum area in a 40k setting, plus a set of modular trenches. I assembled, built and painted a 10x4 board (five 2x4's!) with three larger pieces (1ft x 1ft) and six smaller pieces, plus enough trenches to cover 48 inches (the entire board).

I've grouped the illustrations together. Large projects deserve large posts! First up a finished group shot!









Now onto the smaller pieces. My process to building terrain involves thinking of a story about who lives there and why. This helps me design the structure and gives me impetus to actually, well, making it look lived in. I'll go through them one by one, likely through a few posts so people don't get bored of me

Jurascao Roadway Arch-Style Habitat: Inhabitant Clearance Level Bravo. Typically located along both minor and major thoroughfares throughout the Jurascao district.
Population: 11
Residences: Two - 1 Large, 1 Small
Commercial Activity: Hukol Processing and Distilling [Medicinal Purposes Adjacent]
Proprietor:Atchuq S. Zubgeb (Also owns the 2nd floor dwelling in the same building)




These are the two pillar components with the top portion removed.



This is the top portion, which you can see is removable and could be used as an additional terrain piece!

Some more detail on the posters. I make some of them myself, some I find through Warhammer Community, others I sourced online.


Let me know what you think!

Just finishing posting some of my most recent work. Then on to new things!

Something I most proud of here is the work with the plants. I feel like a lot of the urban terrain I see is completely devoid of life. No plants or algae or anything. I think it actually brings a touch more realism to these pieces.

Just closing out the commission photos, then I'll start posting my works in progress!












So that's it! Highlights of the commission. Now I'm working on a badlands / hill / rocky terrain set up, so into the hills here.

Hi again,

Working on parts of a badlands set, and wanted to try some new things. Finished up two missing trench pieces of the city commission, and tested out some new design techniques instead of ordering MDF terrain for a building under construction. C&C always appreciated. Sorry for the somewhat quirky shots, wasn't able to get the best shots as I rushed.


First layout of the t-section & gun pit.


Some additional detail.


Adding the corrugated cardboard and texturing material (if I did this again, I'd be using sand and glue mix rather than the more pricy Vallejo groun cover, but I'm stuck in that I want it to match.


Adding the 'metal basing' trench lining.

I've painted it but forgot to upload pictures! Grr! Naturally I was too busy building something else.


An under construction home. Trying to use foamboard to build in more detail than I've ever really attempted before.


Front side - the door will be higher up so there's not a 'step down' I also didn't want windows in the front as this wasn't going to be a building minis could go in. In retrospect I could have added them (maybe I still can, realistically).


Using some 3-D printed bits and some balsa wood I worked to create a 'second floor under construction' look.


Zoomed in look at the texturing I put on the second floor to make it look like a concrete pad (Modge pod allowed to dry slightly, then swirled on).


Added some scaffolding in the back. A ladder will be the last addition. One more photo!



Firstborn Grenadier Krenil surveys the ruins. He is not pleased that it's not painted, but also should he be smoking around a construction site?

More to come.

Nice gritty look! Looks very much lived in.

It would be an honor to kill some xenos scum in those humble abodes.

Valete,

JohnS

 cygnnus wrote:
Nice gritty look! Looks very much lived in.

It would be an honor to kill some xenos scum in those humble abodes.

Valete,

JohnS

Thanks!

Unfortunately, now that I've looked at my Elucidian Starstriders more closely (been using them as Scions in my Vostroyan List) I now want 5 more to make a squad of ten. Sigh. Just when you thought you'd managed to avoid buying yet more minis.... (he says with three shopping carts open on multiple websites).

Greetings! Back again with another update since I finally finished my test piece for this next stage in this commission. I also managed to sneak in a game day where my Lydian Lancers got an outing and managed to go 1 and 1.

Without further ado, here's some badlands pictures with in progress photos. As I've said, I'm testing out some ideas, and liked what I did with this piece a lot, but I decided to spend some additional money on Plaster of Paris bandages to really give these hills some added 'umpf'.









Onto Painting! I started with a base coat of black paint mixed with PVA and some Modge Podge.


Brown house paint (Swiss Chocolate Valspar) is painted over the ground terrain.


And then I promptly took no in between shots. However, I did record the process in my painting journal. After a base of Swiss Chocolate, It was a drybrush of Burnt Umber and then a sponge dabbing of Red Iron Oxide on the ground / textured sections. For the rocks, I did my usual Dark Grey, sponge lighter grey, wash black (3:1) ratio. In retorspect, I will switch around and do the rock components first so I don't get the black wash all on the brown. But I tidied it up and I think it looks serviceable.







I still have to hit it with a matte varnish spray, so that should tone down the shininess a little. But that's for another day, as today I got some games in! You'll see my current Vostroyan minis, plus a recent acquisition I'll have to paint up asap.

Greetings all,

Made some more progress on the terrain board this week. Looking pretty snazzy if I do say so myself. I need to add some withered plants and such, but I figure I'll do that when I'm closer to being done with all of them and do it in one go. As usual, made from MDF bases, with some pink or white insulation foam (White in this case, a new experiment for me), and then covered in caulking and modge podge. Have to say, wouldn't really do it that way again, the caulk was hydrophobic and made painting a real chore (as I had to keep hiding lots of tiny bits of white caulk that poked through the paint.) So I'll test out how it looks when I spray paint it instead of manually brushing it and see if that does better (unless someone knows better). Otherwise I'll have to go back to filler and I'm not certain I like how durable it is. Skeleton is from a michaels halloween sale (and broken apart with pliers).











I think I did a pretty good job hiding the origins of the foam, (although it is obviously a foam mountain).

After a rough week, here's the final view of all the terrain I built for this commission. I'm excited as I actually got to test out plaster of paris bandages as part of some construction techniques, and found it to be both enjoyable and super useful. Here's some WIP shots first.














Now some slightly better finished shots.









Now a few total family shots!




Now (finally) onto miniatures - specifically my Black Templar army!

Hi All,

Been getting my Black Templar army ready for Shorehammer this December, and I think I've finally landed close to my list. For those of you who don't know, Shorehammer is a Highlander Style, 1250 point, one-day, three game tournament in Ocean City, Maryland (Eastern Shore). I really enjoy the highlander format as it forces everyone to think outside some of the meta choices and use things that rarely see the light of day!

My list is roughly as follows

Bladeguard LT w/ Relic (WL)
Emperors Champion
Ten Assault Intercessors
Five Infiltrators
Three Aggressors (Flamers!)
Three Outriders
Three Bladeguard
Judicar w/ Relic
Three Eradicators
Incursor w/ MM & Rocket Launcher

This has the dual benefits of making me paint a lot of things that weren't already painted, and also feilds a pretty nasty double punch list that goes pretty well with their new codex. On to the photos! You'll see I was/am also painting up a bladeguard ancient/veteran that I was originally planning on using instead of the judicar, but some friends convinced me that having fight last was better than giving my bladeguard +1 to hit in CC. Onto the photos. As always, C&C is appreciated, especially for the list.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American Friends. It's a quiet day here, so I figured I'd upload some photos of my latest project. I'm gradually working on a continuation of my Jurascao terrain commission, and the theme of this smaller section is 'under construction'. Lots of Warhammer 40k boards are full of destroyed and damaged terrain (naturally!) but I wanted this board to represent a living, breathing settlement that was under attack. Building is made completely from foamboard, scored with a pen and a ruler, on an MDF base with a few 3-D printed cinderblocks to add some realism. It's super lightweight but is pretty strong!



Painting in Progress

Mostly finished.






A tissue dipped in modge podge, caledor blue paint & drakehoff nightshade wash.


Given one final coat of glass modge podge to make it look like a plastic-ish tarp.

Thoughts? Comments? Feedback? I'll post again soon with my Black Templar updates!

Great looking terrain, especially that tarp, your technique worked really well!

 Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll wrote:
Great looking terrain, especially that tarp, your technique worked really well!

Thanks! It's literally just tissue, modge podge and blue paint, but it's so simply I'm kicking myself for not using it earlier on other things! Took forever to dry, ended up sticking it in front of a fan to help it dry out faster!

Here's some more Black Templar photos of a bladeguard captain (he gets to be a bladeguard sergeant in the tournament this week, but he's also painted!)






Also painted up a Judicar. He likes to team up with the Bladeguard and or the Assault Intercessors and make some people fight last. That, plus the lovely Crusader's Helm relic lets me push a unit into the assault doctrine early for more attacks and nastier chainsword moments.


Tried using some glossy modge podge to make the sword black and glossy, but I'm not super pumped about it. Can't deal with it now but may end up changing it in the future.


Finally, while I'm done with the Emperor's champion and the impulsor, I haven't uploaded those photos yet. Here's what I've got!



C&C always appreciated!

Howdy,

Just got back from Shorehammer the other day, a highlander tournament in Ocean City, MD. Had a blast, went 3-3 in all games over the weekend. Definitely had a better finish than start to the weekend, as my teammates and I got trounced in a (difficult and rules-wise slightly frustrating) narrative mission. Lost a practice game, then my first game of the highlander. I managed to rally with my 2nd and 3rd games and win a friendly match with essentially the same army that night. Did I take many photos? Not at all - I was way too busy having fun.

Shorehammer List - 1250 Point Highlander List - no repeats of units, minimum 2 troop units.

+ HQ +
Primaris Lieutenant - Warlord
Master of Arms, At the start of the fight phase, it can fight first. Add one to the Warlord’s Attack characteristic
Tannhauser's Bones (Relic) - All Wounds done to the bearer are done at D1.

Emperor’s Champion
Armor of Faith (4+In)

+ Troops +
Assault Intercessor Squad
9x Assault Intercessors: Astartes Chainsword, Frag & Krak grenades, Heavy Bolt Pistol
Assault Intercessor Sgt: Astartes Chainsword, Heavy Bolt Pistol

Crusader Squad
4x Initiate: 4x Bolt pistol, 4x Astartes Chainswords, 4x Frag & Krak grenades
Sword Brother: Astartes Chainsword, Bolt Pistol

+ Elites +
Aggressor Squad
Aggressor Sgt. & 2x Aggressor: 6x Flamestorm Gauntlets (2 per person)

Bladeguard Veteran Squad
3x Bladeguard Veteran: 3x Frag & Krak grenades, 3x Heavy Bolt Pistol, 3x Master-crafted power sword, 3x Storm Shield
Bladeguard Sgt: Neo-Volkite Pistol, Master-crafted power sword, storm shield

Judicar w/ The Crusader’s Helm (Extra Relic, -1 CP) - Add 3 in. to the bearer’s aura abilities, in the command phase, you may select one friendly BT core unit within 9 inches and place them into the Assault Doctrine until the next command phase.

+ Fast Attack +
Outrider Squad
Outrider Sgt. & 2x Outrider: 3x Astartes Chainsword, 3x Frag & Krak grenades, 3x Heavy Bolt Pistol, 3x Twin Bolt rifle

+ Heavy Support +
Eradicator Squad
Eradicator Sgt & 2x Eradicators: 3x Melta rifle, 3x Bolt pistol

+ Dedicated Transport +
Impulsor
Assault Vehicle - May disembark after normal move - Capacity: 6 Primaris Models
1 x Belilicastus Missile Array, 2 x Fragstorm Grenade Launcher, 1 x Multi-Melta

++ Total: [ 1,250pts] ++


Overall, lost to super fast armies - Ork Buggy & Vehicle army, and a highly mobile Space Wolf army that got off a turn one charge. Managed to beat a salamander army nearly the same as my own, then beat a mostly infantry ork list. That last game was full of several brutally painful moments for my opponent, as I blocked one of his 'da jumps' and then he perils on the next one. He lost an entire squad of the rocket boys on overwatch to flamer aggressors (ten men!) Finally, he managed to charge my bladeguard in a last ditch attempt to claim Engage on All fronts in the last turn, only for the Judicar to force him to fight last, then the bladeguard cutting him to shreds.

Had fun, can't recommend it enough. While there are definitely some things the entire tournament could do to improve next year (mainly around delegating jobs, having more TOs and perhaps improving the terrain, I know that there have been some recent challenges in that regard. Throw in COVID and you get a perfect storm type situation. Here's hoping next year will be better. As my goal is always to win at least one game in the tournament, I'm happy I've now managed to get to two! I think next year I'll aim for winning two games in the tournament and being at a net positive for the weekend!

Lessons Learned: Combat squading the assault intercessors proved to be the winning formula as I could do Retrieve Octarius Data on one side while moving up on the other side, and them switching. It also forced my opponent to split fire and made them a bit more versatile. Considering I didn't do this in the first game and lost a ten man squad to a thunderwolf cavalry cross board charge, it seems like the best switch to make.

Thoughts? Comments? Questions?

Finished up a commission the week before Christmas and finally got around to putting up the photos here.

Idea was a smaller building footprint, but providing for another element of 'life' to the community of 'Jurascao' as I've created earlier. The neighborhood was missing a local late night (or perhaps, early morning) watering hole, thus Victoria's Speakeasy was built. I followed much of Black Magic Craft's paint process for the base undercoat (Modgepodge + black paint, then a brown paint and drybrush with some silver/metallic colors), but in keeping with the town's color theme I went to town on colors and even tried to make a neon sign.








I'll post another building in this commission tomorrow, then post a lovely heretical construction I've been building!

Nice work on that building, the splashes of colour work nicely

A bit slow on the update here, but that's life during this crazy time of year. Always seems like something else needs to get done before hobby time.

Here's some more photos from the second batch of buildings for Jurascao. I've also already finished the third batch, will post those soon.

This is a mechanic's shop.






Now with posters!




C&C always appreciated. Next big project is supposed to be some forests & hills, so I'll see how those come out!

Great terrain and where did you get all the small posters?

Dirk Reinecke wrote:
Great terrain and where did you get all the small posters?

I actually made many of them. Some I located online (especially those from the Cyberpunk video game), others were captured from GW's websites, but I made most of the more recent ones using Canva, which is a great little tool that lets you make posters, fliers, etc. I've collated a variety into a giant google shared drive. Send me a PM if you're interested so I can share that with you.

- Blockade

How do you print out the posters? Is it just printed on paper, cut up, and then stuck on with PVA glue, possibly with another coating of PVA or a varnish over top?

 Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll wrote:
How do you print out the posters? Is it just printed on paper, cut up, and then stuck on with PVA glue, possibly with another coating of PVA or a varnish over top?

Actually yes, I just print them out with a standard inkjet printer. I think people often get better results with laser printers, but I don't own one so it's not an issue. I actually use modge podge, put a little bit behind it, then carefully put it on. It works better when you can then matte varnish it at the end (which makes sense, in order to seal whatever it is you want). You can use PVA, but I find modge podge is a bit thicker and less watery, and thus doesn't blur the ink as much.

Some WIP and finished shots of the D&D tavern I recently finished building. Still need to put the door together with a hinge so it can open. I use this for both middle school gaming and at home gaming.







You can see the first work on my windows here. It took a while to figure out which way of assembling them would be the best.





Here is the view of the back side. The chimney is in two pieces, connected with a bamboo rod. This allows me to build the (planned) smaller roof to turn this large building into a much smaller tavern or small farmhouse as needed.



First layers of paint on the roof!



Drybrushing the roof.

Darker photo, sorry!



Close up of the interior of the second floor. It is removable and contains spaces for characters to hide, interact in, etc.





Close up of the interior of the main floor tavern and the basement door - doesn't lead anywhere, but it ***could!***



Better view of the overall design of the main floor and the finished windows.

Fantastic looking building!

Realized I hadn't posted these in a while, so I figured I should share...
First up, Corag the Barbarian - Love the Hasslefree mini here.





Then it's our witch (Which, no pun intended) is actually playing the witch class for our D&D campaign (Available on DM's Guild somewhere) whose name I am blanking on. I actually got an eyeball painted in there. That was nervewracking.

I love how her cloak/wrap turned out. Thank you for sharing

 makeitorky wrote:
I love how her cloak/wrap turned out. Thank you for sharing

While I'm by no means a beginner painter, I can't claim much credit - the two contrast black paints show their worth here - the darker black is the new Black Legion one, while the more grey exterior is the older Black Templars black. The red is more my traditional recipe - Khorne Red, Mephiston Red layering, Carronburg crimson in the recesses.

Built up another series of modular buildings. Of course, I realized now I didn't take many pictures of the buildings (eek). So enjoy the last of them, this police station. The roof parts of both sections, and the upper floor, are removable and slot into each other. Made with minimal interior decoration (other than posters) to allow the most movement and model placement.







Finally, enjoy this solo shot of the massive church I built. The base is 2ft x roughly 18 inches. I didn't aim to make it this massive when I started building it, but then I think things may have gotten a bit away from me.

Hi all,

Here's another cleared WIP from the 'random inspiration' Pile. A nice sized hill for wargamming or TTRPGs. I've now used it for both. Base is a piece of found plywood, followed by cheap white crumbly sytrofoam. I used rock profiles from Woodland Scenics (and plaster of paris, not the strongest but I'm on a not spending money and using what I have kick. I used pre-mixed grout to help connect and hold all the pieces together, as well as putting it in the places most likely to be touched by people and damaged (tops of the rocks, corners, etc). Mod Podge and black paint formed the basecoat, then just painting and flocking. Hope you like the results. Its' roughly 12x12.

While these weren't on the forefront of my to paint list, I built and painted these in the last few days as some large monsters for my D&D campaign. I don't have a chaos list for AoS (or Warhammer old world, for that matter) but painting up a few of these Ogroids has been a nice change of pace. I went for a more muted and mixed pallet, so that the focus is more on the heroes more brightly painted minis.

First up is the big one with a massive Axe. I loved this mini, and the PCs were absolutely terrified of him after he dropped their paladin on one hit (Nat 20, plus max damage roll)







Next up is the Musician. Once the PCs discovered he could heal, they targeted him real quickly.







Finally, the leader. He soaked up so much punishment, especially with the shield upping his AC and his 'Chaotic Recovery' ability.









Now some not amazing shots of all three together. I pulled out one of the NPC heroes for them to face down against.







Happy Painting!