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Hi guys, just thought id share this with you all. I recently finished this terrain piece as part of a campaign at my local club, i have written fluff explaining its existence and link to my campaign army (Dark Eldar). It is quite a large bit and matches my own board well, i am considering extending it on another section but not sure how to stage it.
I am quite pleased with it, but im always looking to improve so please shout out idea's or ways to improve.

That looks great man! What did you make the bones from?

Looks very realistic! How'd ya make da Bonez?

my guess is that they're chicken wishbones. or at least modelled on them

Judging by the texture, I'd guess that a lot of poultry was consumed in (before) the making of this piece. The segments in between look like they might be beads, although they could just as easily be elongated balls of clay or putty.

As for comments and criticism: First off, great work! Creative use of "found" materials and I love the texture of the groundwork. I feel like it might have benefited from a touch more color variation (nothing mood- or theme-destroying, just a subtle hint here or there), but I can understand wanting to match an existing board.

The creature's bone layout appears a little contrived to me, though. The wishbones seem to represent ribs, but the curvature doesn't match that function. There are also small, sharp misalignments in the lay of the spine and varying rib angles that I find a little jarring (both a result of different wishbone lengths, I imagine). Not a deal-breaker, of course - the initial impact is still there, but I think disguising the source bones a little and really thinking through the plausibility of their new anatomical role and arrangement would take a piece like this from being cool to outright amazing. I think my favorite bone section is actually the scatter pile of broken shards, for that reason - they're generic bones, removed from either possible context (their original, identifiable form or their perceived new role), meaning there is nothing to raise any doubt as to their plausibility.

Good job. It'll look more plausible though if some parts were submerged in the soil itself. It also conveniently hides the fact that they're all wishbones.

Agreed, would look better if they were half-buried, representing the long dead remains of some ancient giant beasty. That doesn't mean half-bury the wishbones - just their bottom edges, to suggest more buried bone underneath.

Cheers for the comments guys!
Yes they are indeed wishbones, i unfortunately didn't have the opportunity to eat the chicken before building this haha, (they where found i a box of junk, for some strange reason) .

I will definitely take your advise when building the next section.
So, i will try to align the bones better so the flow in a more "natural" spine like pattern and part bury the ends of bones.

@oadie when you say colour variation do you mean of the bones or of the ground? My board has small patches of a dark green flock should i maybe add some onto this to help that? I didn't want to over power the bones with a bold colour hence why i didn't add any.

Any other idea's of how i may improve or lay out the next part would also be great.

Sorry - I wasn't perfectly clear, there. I was talking about the ground (bones are perfect as they are, i my opinion). I was thinking even just a touch of dusty tan/brown, red-brown (i.e. iron oxide) or a muted, mossy green in the drybrushing, here and there, to add some very subtle shifts in the colors for the sake of visual interest. The appropriate color(s) would depend largely on the rest of your board and terrain, which is why I didn't go into specifics - I think it's more important to match your board than to try and squeeze every ounce of realism you can out of a new terrain piece. Some subtle flocking might work out nicely, though. Perhaps sprinkle some on without gluing it down, just to see how you like it. Wouldn't want to push you into adding something that could potentially end up detracting from the piece, but it's likely worth a test, at least.

Also, "burying" the bones (i.e. clipping off the ends and mounting them flush to the ground) is exactly what I had in mind when talking about masking the form. They still wouldn't scream "ribs" to me (I'm a bit of a stickler for plausibility), but they wouldn't scream "wishbone" either, which would be an improvement. It will also let you control the length, which makes aligning the spine easier.

Ok, a may try out some small patches of the flock and try dry brushing very lightly of brown. I have done it around the edge of one of my craters, i will put a picture below to show what i mean.



Would that effect help? I would only put a couple of patchs on and no bigger than a 25mm base.

If your board/other terrain pieces have the flock, I might say just go ahead and add it, for the sake of continuity. I'd definitely keep the applications small and sparse, though, like you're thinking. You just want to break things up a bit and tie the board together, not overpower the bones or hide the ground.

The small touches of brown, I think, would work nicely. Again, keeping it subtle and restricting it to the less rocky flats would be best.