Recently I built a Watchtower as a part of my Dark Elf army project and got bitten by the terrain bug. As a result I decided to try my hand in building some scenery.
Watchtower:
The goal is(was) to build enough terrain for 1-2 tables. Rulebook’s terrain section and playing experience dictated the types of terrain I was interested in – I paid attention to probabilities of the random scenery table and the effects of terrain in actual gameplay.
Keeping the gameplay in my mind I also decided to make the terrain relatively simple and practical. I often play with “simple line of sight” and the size of the terrain is not that important; simplicity also helps in real life as detailed terrain pieces often have a tendency to break.
So… I first mad a list of stuff I am going to make. The list was influenced with the above-mentioned things as well as the building materials I had available. I tried to use pre-bought things before buying something; Hills, for example, are styrox covered with spackle I had bought for house repairs half a year ago. I ended up burning some money anyway… anyway, here’s the list:
3 Hills (large, medium and small – the small one has a steep slope)
3 Obstacles/fences (hard, soft and mixed)
3 Woods
2 Marshes/Swamps
A Pond
Stone House
Stone Barn/Cattle Shed
Tomb Hill (usable as an ordinary hill or “Temple of Skulls”/”Magic Circle” etc.)
As I noticed that I had materials available, I decided to expand the original plan:
Stream or another Pond
3 Rocky impassable pieces (one can be used as “Arcane Ruins” and another as “Acropolis of Heroes” etc.)
A Well
Pedestal for Statue(s) (“Sinister Statue”/”Altar of Khaine” – basically I make a 25
mm round hole, suitable for various attachments on a round base, at the top, and put some steel there to allow magnetization)
Counting the Watchtower, this makes a total of 22 Terrain pieces. The Watchtower set the appearance/theme for buildings and I also decided to go with the same colour scheme for the ground as the army bases: gray sand and stones with some yellow-green grass and green turf.
Almost complete terrain pieces:
The small hill’s and Tomb hill’s size is almost the same – It could have been better to make the small hill or medium hill very small, but this is an afterthought.
Woods (missing grass/turf and some highlights to the trees):
The tree trunks were made of cardboard covered with acrylic pumice (Vallejo heavy). The leaves are some old plastic scenery chaff. Tree bases are doll joints (50
mm round bases…) and forest base is plasticard covered with pumice, sand and rocks.
Tomb Hill (missing grass/turf):
This is styrox and rocks covered with spackle and sand… and some skulls!
Going steady:
Close-up of the houses (I made the thatched roof after taking the first picture):
“Thatch” is made of brush hair. Looks nice to me, although perhaps neither “realistic” nor “miniaturesque”, but it’s going to be difficult to paint.
At the early stages:
River sections can be combined to make a 48” long river.
So… if someone’s interested I can tell more about the materials and the building process of the various terrain pieces. All comments and tips are also welcome!
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