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Hey all,

Its been a while since I've spent time on Warhammer hobby (became a father etc. etc. haha) but now I've picked things up again.
Together with my good friend Jelle we decided what better way to get into the spirit of Warhammer again than to make an epic gaming table?
We already built one before that was quite good but we wanted to make something fresh and even more awesome. So here's what we are doing (to be continued) ....

Enjoy!


JUNGLE TABLE IDEA
so yeah Jelle basically said lets do Jungle. I always loved that from the old days in the WhiteDwarf photos and wanted to go with something really green, like overgrown "green hell".
From our first gaming table which we built on a lot of layered hills and big scenic pieces, we learned that it is not good for gameplay. The terrain was much too crowded with cool looking stuff, but stuff you actually rather "avoided" then becoming part of the gameplay. For example you deployed on the hills in the corners, but then as the game started you never used the cool hills anymore.

So for this table we wanted to go "epic" but try and keep things so that they still allow for good 40K gameplay. For this we kept the main boards really flat, with almost no objects on it.
Instead we make 10 to 15 cool pieces of scenery that can be combined to create different setup everytime. If you want an open board: check. If you want a crowded board: check.
Also we wanted to do stuff with dramatic heights, to get an epic sense of scale. If not for gameplay then just for awesomness

What we have so far:




PANELS



We created two 100x100 cm panels, framed at the edges to avoid twisting.
As said we wanted to keep things on the main boards really "level" and not too crazy. Made some ruins from pieces of wood and fantasy traycard as stones. Cut the edges up a bit, make some dents. Super easy. Glued everything in place with a hot glue gun. Glued some rocks/sand around the edges and its done.

Don't muck around and buy a hot glue gun. Its ultra fast and strong, glues anything, dries in seconds. Its really a must have when making terrain, speeds up your workflow so much.


ROCKS

We use blue foam (not white bubbly gak foam) to cut rocks. An easy technique is to chip of parts with a knife, which instantly makes a cool rock effect. Glue on the table and go.

HILLS

We made some really flat 'hills' if you can call it that from carboard. This was just to break the flat surface up a bit, but low enough to not become a real interference for infantry and tanks. It turned out the cardboard is really gak looking so next time we will do it differently. Oh well keep moving !



PRIMER

We primed the rocks and ruins black with cheap spray paint. Spray paint eats away the foam but I like that for rocks so we didn't mind. Gives some extra texture look.




TEXTURE BASE PAINT

We mixed green wall paint (cheapest we could get at the store) and mixed with fine sand and a acrylic paint hardener for extra sturdiness. Painted everything green (overbrush technique) to leave some black shadows where needed.



We did this twice to get as much texture and solid undercoat.
Afterwards we used a black spraycan on far distance to create some "paths" or whatever to break up the green flat color. When everything was dry I used a large brush to drybrush with a lighter green over the texture base. Lastly we used a gray spraypaint to lightly touch the ruins and rocks. Then brushed over some green highlights again to suggest that everything is seen through a filter of green light.





PLANTS
We wanted to put as many plants onto our terrain objects as possible to create a jungle feel. Most poeple use cheap aquarium plastic plants for this, which you can buy cheap at garden stores. Its indeed the best solution If you are on a budget. The problem with these plants is that they are usually very brightly colored and don't hold paint. So we deliberately chose a very bright green color for our terrain surface and scenery so that the plastic plants would not "stand out" too much. It kinda works and they blend in nicely.

For extra sturdiness we pinned and glued most plants. Stick em into the rocks with some hot glue. Never comes loose again.
We kept things super simple for now. Lateron we will further finish the plant bases with flock and grit.





SCENERY OBJECTS

We are now making a variety of scenic pieces that can be put on top of the terrain. Everything is painted in the same 3 basic colors to ensure it blends in properly. Lateron we will go back and give some things a better detailed paintjob, but for now this is good enough starting point. All the terrain pieces are dressed up with the plants. When stacked on top of eachother or put together in formation suddenly the flat table comes alive, and a jungle is born




In the meantime you can see we covered tha basic paint job of the terrain boards with a variety of flocks and mosses. We used some regular quick drying (4 minutes) wood glue and drizzled it directly on the board, then with a large brush and touch of water we smeared it out a bit. Drizzle the flock on top of it and leave to dry. As a last step we sealed the flock with matte spray varnish for some extra sturdiness. Flock always comes loose a bit over time but at least this helps a little bit.






So thats what we've got so far. We will now continue to make more scenic objects to fill up the terrain more, because right now it is still kinda empty.
But the awesomeness is there, the dramatic high rocks, bridges, Jelle is building a destroyed industrial overhanging/mossed up wall, there will be more water and poison bubble pools, more plants, and possible some crazy alien plants with weird colors to break up the green a bit. Who knows where this will end?

....AWESOME! I have always wanted to do a jungle board and from what I can see, your doing it right!

Beautiful! Doesnt look like a forest "yet" but its definitely getting that feel across already. Even with what little is there it feels very lively looking, just like a forest.