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Sounds great, Tonio! Bummer that the accessories don't work, but you can always use other accessories / etc... not really crucial to the project, imo.

June is done, and so is the board! Right in time for July and next project. We're in the last days of home repair and sell preparation, so hobby time was low, explaining the lack of photos of the accessories, but I went with the OFF option. I'll use the base in game, but the other tools will find use elsewhere.

First, I have the three last WIP pics. One of the accessories, both the base and the separate tools. The two others are to cover the holes and difference in size of the foam once assembly is complete. It is also good for durability, as wood filler dry pretty hard. One pic with wood filler, the other after sanding and painting.

Wip54 - Wood filler


Wip55 - Side filled and painted


Wip56 - Painted accessories




And after 3 months of part time work on it and other projects, here is board in all its foamy glory. The only things missing are the models for the game, which I hope are in the mail already, or will be soon. Comments, criticisms (and orders ) are welcome as always. Voting is open on those by the way, if you want to get your voting ratio higher.

Final - Front view


Final - Left view


Final - Right view


Final - Platform close-up


Final - Crystals close-up


Final - Bridge close-up

That looks fantastic!

Really cool!

Great work Tonio!

Feth me I'd love that board...

The final pics are as fantastic as expected and the accessories look just fine! You have outdone yourself, I think... amazing project to see from start to finish!

That board is top notch.

That is a real triumph, Tonio! I've really enjoyed following this project. I wish you many a happy game upon it!

Thanks everyone. I'm overly pleased with the final results. Now, it's only missing some Gels to fight on it.

Sketches and layout of the next board are on the way, as well as a scale drawing, to be sure everything fits well with the minis. It's gonna be a demo board for Brushfire, but more about that when the images are ready.

My Endless board is done, home repairs will be done tomorrow: it's time for my next project!

Chatting with Cyp, I had mentioned a couple of times that I would be happy to help OTLG in any way I was able to. The work I did on the Endless board must had pleased them, as some time ago, I got asked if I would be willing to do a demo board for Brushfire, for them to use during conventions, starting at GenCon. I jumped on the offer. Here is the start of it.


Setting
We went back and forth with ideas on the setting to use, but we finally settled on the "Assault on St. Cyrien". Summarily, it's an attack by Mare-Civitas on an Aquitaran military academy that's near the ocean. It's straight from the book, featuring two good factions to pit against each other in a demo, and the theme could provide a nice terrain to fight on. We had a winner.

St. Cyrien is in the south of Aquitar, but instead of going with the warm colours we would get in the real southern France, it was decided to pick a colder palette, found in northern regions like Brittany or Normandy. Grey/white stone walls, blue tiles roof, you get the idea.

The board would be a 2'x2' demo board, but might be extended to a 4'x4' eventually, so I needed to keep that in mind.


References
I then started my research for reference pictures. I needed to look for a northern look, an harbour town, and a possible military or academic building.

Here are some links to pictures I kept as inspiration. Some don't allow hot linking, so if you get an error message, just get to your address bar and press Enter, you should be able to see them that way.

For the harbour:
http://www.ulmeis.com/JeremyAndImogen/pix/2002/2002-08-Summer-Perugia-Belves-Carcassonne/04Dinan/66-12-PortOfDinanFromBridge.png.reduced.jpg
http://www.tourismebretagne.com/var/crtbre/storage/images/media/images/decouvrir/emblematiques/dinan/dinan-port-1/493227-1-fre-FR/dinan-port-1_diapo_crt_page_1_colonne.jpg

For the military academy:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2297/2749756842_9a0cdccd19.jpg?v=0
https://medias.immovision.com/photos/p0/14874/110vm01.jpg

Houses and streets:
http://villagesdefrance.fr/dept/dept_images/ph29_daoulas.jpg
http://www.linchanvrebretagne.org/docs/images/actions/maison_des_toiles.jpg
http://image1.masterfile.com/em_w/05/80/37/700-05803749w.jpg


Sketches
Once the setting and references were found, it was time for some sketches. I first did some pencil ones, and once the overall shape was fine, I imported it in Illustrator and started to do a scale version of it, to make sure models would be able to pass where they needed to, and that nothing was too big or getting in the way. You'll see that some stuff moved a bit or extended between the first sketch and the final draft. The pencil sketches are for the whole table (4'x4'), in case we get to them, but the vector part (2'x2', lower left) is just for the demo board. My Illustrator skills are pretty lacking, nothing will be as straight as they are on the vector map, especially the roads.

I'll try to add a statue somewhere in the harbour part, instead of having only pile of crates and barrels. The real board will be slopped a bit, the top part being higher than the bottom one, near the water. It's not clear, but the area with a darker gradient will be recessed a bit from the main harbour, slopping up. You can see in the reference pictures an example of that.

Wip1 - First sketch


Wip2 - Sketch divided by board, with annotations


Wip3 - Initial vector rendition


Wip4 - Vector over pencil sketch


Wip5 - Final vector rendition



Right now, I'm working on the wooden base the board will go on. The board will travel, so I need a more solid frame than just the foam I used for the Endless one. Basic foam work will start after that, hoping for the basic shape to be ready by the end of the week.

That's all for today.

Sounds awesome, Tonio . The amount of planning you put in is incredible!

I'm going to be following this, since I was planing a similar project for my own uses.

RiTides wrote:Sounds awesome, Tonio . The amount of planning you put in is incredible!

I have a long commute with access to wifi. That does help a lot.

Lockark wrote:I'm going to be following this, since I was planing a similar project for my own uses.

Cool! If you have any suggestions or ideas to share, I'll be happy to see them and brainstorm a bit.


Free time was low this week, so I only was able to cut the foam needed for the basic shapes of the board. However, I have my afternoon off, and an hobby evening planned with fellow Dakkanaut Fragjuice , so there should be good progress and pictures later during the weekend.

That sounds brilliant, Tonio. I'm looking forward to it.

 Tonio wrote:

Free time was low this week, so I only was able to cut the foam needed for the basic shapes of the board. However, I have my afternoon off, and an hobby evening planned with fellow Dakkanaut Fragjuice , so there should be good progress and pictures later during the weekend.

I know we can't wait to see more!

I had a bunch of pictures taken, but my card got corrupted. I still managed to save some, enough to give an idea of the progress.

Basic shape of the board has been cut in the foam. After that, I cut and sanded the slope going up the back of the board.

I then made the stones for the whole front of the dock. It's a three steps process, following a tutorial by terrain guru Rob Hawkins.
1 - cut your stone pattern with an hobby knife.
2 - Pass through the lines with a pencil
3 - Using your fingers and an eraser, press on the stones to vary their height and put texture in them.

I do not have a completed picture ( memory card...), but I'll take another one after I get a new card. The whole front of the dock is done. I now have to glue the separate parts together and adjust the stone pattern where it went through a cut. After that, I'll trace the layout of the design on the board with a sharpie to use as a guide, then do the stone work for the roads and the market.

Wip6 - Basic foam shape


Wip7 - Back slope sanded


Wip8 - Stones traced


Wip9 - Stones textured

Looking great!

Tonio already has more dedication to this project than I ever could >_< I would buy some stone walls just to avoid what he's done.

The wall does look cool though, and very realistic

Wow, that stone cut is incredible. How long did the little piece take you?

 miskatonicalum wrote:
Wow, that stone cut is incredible. How long did the little piece take you?

The long piece in the last picture is about 13" long by 2" high. I have not timed myself, but it probably took me around 30-40 minutes for the three steps.

That's really lovely work, dude.

The stones are awesome, very convincing even unpainted!

Quick update: I made a new shot of the dock front with the texture all done. More to come at the end of the week.

Wip10 - Dock front textured

Dock looks great! Will you do the water similarly to how it is done on your Endless / SDE board?

 RiTides wrote:
Dock looks great! Will you do the water similarly to how it is done on your Endless / SDE board?

Something similar, but using another product, as what I used for the EFT board cannot go higher than 1/2 of an inch. For the Brushfire board, I'll try to have it go just a bit lower than the two stone ramps, so about 3/4 to an inch high. I chatted about that with Mr Hawkins, mentioned previously, and he suggested a product that would do the trick, and is available locally. I'm picking it up next week.

We've tried doing large patches of scenic water, and it has never come out right, especially at the edge of a board.

I cannot wait to see you're work on that part!

Your board is looking great!

Let this be an inspiration to you, Tonio... scroll down for amazing pics! My favorite diorama, ever:

http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.com/2011/05/frutti-di-mare-finished.html

I think it could be helpful because you can see how he did the edge, too. I've been looking for some WIPs on how he did the water in case it might apply to your method, too, but no luck so far.

Yes, that's an incredible piece.

I won't do the water as agitated as that. I don't think I can, really, not with my skill level. Someday, maybe.

For the water, I'll probably follow Mathieu Fontaine's tutorial. It has a simpler look, but should work well for what I intend to do. I'll only add some effect on top of the water, if I'm able to.