Any open terrain projects?

[ffclubhero]

Just wondering if anyone can post some pics of any open (ongoing) terrain in the works? My current abode is too small, but we're up for a move in June, and then it's on!!!:eek:

[Skunkape]

I've posted pictures of some terrain I've done recently on my website, you can view them here (http://www.johnprime.com/models/).

Currently all I have pictures posted are of cardstock models, but I've taken some of my plaster models, just haven't posted them yet.

[Mulsiphix]

This is some quality stuff you've got on your website. If you don't have the time would you mind if I posted your work here in the forum? Of course I would include a link back to the original website as well as make sure everybody understood this was your work and I was just posting it here for easy browsing.

[Lexdragon]

Wow! That is really amazing! I just bought the Wotc dungeon tiles......which seem pretty lame now:D

[Mulsiphix]

SkeletonKey Games puts out some pretty amazing tilesets. As far as professional terrain goes, I don't think anybody can beat Dwarven Forge (http://dwarvenforge.com/store/home.php) terrain though :eek:

[Skunkape]

This is some quality stuff you've got on your website. If you don't have the time would you mind if I posted your work here in the forum? Of course I would include a link back to the original website as well as make sure everybody understood this was your work and I was just posting it here for easy browsing.

Sure go ahead and post the images you want here.

[Mulsiphix]

It would be the full thing (text + images) in the articles/blogs section. Would that be alright? I know you said images but I just want to make sure text is alright too :D

[ffclubhero]

Now that's what I'm talkin' about!!!! Mini games are always better with quality bits of terrain and buildings. My buddy Joe used to make these massive ruined buildings for 40K (like 18" high). The games were much better because of them.

[Mulsiphix]

I have several terrain books from Games Workshop that I purchased from eBay. Some of the stuff in here is insane. I'll see what I can find on the web. Games Workshop as definitely encouraged custom terrain and mini's more than any other game company I know.

[Skunkape]

Yes you can post the images and text here, and as far as the text is concerned, I'm fine with comments other than my own as well.

[tesral]

SkeletonKey Games puts out some pretty amazing tilesets. As far as professional terrain goes, I don't think anybody can beat Dwarven Forge (http://dwarvenforge.com/store/home.php) terrain though :eek:

No doubt, but you have to hock your first born to afford them. The resin is heavy as all hell and fragile.

Card models, especially the PDF sets have the wonderful advantages of light weight and replaciblity. No they do not look as nice. But 17 bucks will buy an entire village of card models you can print till the cows come home or 5 resin floor tiles. Medieval Building Set, 100 bucks and ten pounds.

I understand the expense, I do resin casting myself. They are putting a great deal of work into those pieces. But I also have to do the math.

[Mulsiphix]

Many thanks SkunkApe :D.

Unfortunately if you don't have money to burn Dwarven Forge is definitely way to expensive. The same could be said for legos though lol. Alright not as bad but still I can't believe how expensive they've gotten over the years. There was a custom terrain place I saw the other day, custom built pieces and not terribly expensive. More of a professional diorama place than a terrain business.

[Lexdragon]

Have any of you ever tried the Grey primer on Styrofoam technique? Buddy of mine showed me some ruins he created with that and it looked real cool, gives it that crumbling wall look when the edges are broken or roughed up.

[Mulsiphix]

Have any of you ever tried the Grey primer on Styrofoam technique? Buddy of mine showed me some ruins he created with that and it looked real cool, gives it that crumbling wall look when the edges are broken or roughed up.Never tried it myself. Any chance you could describe it or even better link to somewhere that has pictures?

[Skunkape]

The Hirst Arts molds are priced a whole lot more reasonably than Dwarven Forge pieces. I'm not knocking Dwarven Forge, I'd love to have enough to build to my hearts desire, but I can get twice the amount of terrain using Bruce Hirst's molds for a fraction of the cost. The biggest turn off of Bruce's stuff is the time you need to spend to build it. Course, cardstock terrain also has similar problems, well and it tends to be somewhat less resistant to destruction and it doesn't weigh a lot so can get knocked over much easier!:D

[Mulsiphix]

The molds require you provide the casting material though right? That alone can get quite pricey, especially if you don't want to mix it yourself :(. Why does terrain have to be so awesome?!

[tesral]

I won a bridge made with Hirst Arts molds. Nice piece, plenty of work. Not finished yet (need to paint it).

Hirst still fall into heavy and fraigle. If you have a permanent place to game and time on your hands, I would jump on them.

[tesral]

The molds require you provide the casting material though right? That alone can get quite pricey, especially if you don't want to mix it yourself :(. Why does terrain have to be so awesome?!

You can use plaster of Paris or hydrocal, both are dirt cheap. I wouldn't use resin, too pricy and it eats rubber molds for lunch.

[ffclubhero]

GW does hold it down with terrain projects. They have TONS of articles for beginners and advanced. I'd highly recommend their site, even for just the average browser. Blue Table Terrain (pretty vids on youtube, by the way) does some nice work, but mostly for GW aficionados.

[Mulsiphix]

I read an article recently about a Chainmail game that was held in 2005 or 2006. Gygax was there along with some of the other fathers of the PnP industry. They had the terrain created especially for that match. I can't seem to find it anywhere though :(. Any chance anybody else knows what I'm talking about and has a link?

[Skunkape]

Well my resin of choice would come from this company, Alumilite (http://www.alumilite.com/). You can get it in quite a few hobby shops or model train stores if there are any in your area. Or you can buy directly from the manufacturer. What I would do, until you get used to using the stuff is buy a sampler kit to give you enough of it to experiment with, but not so much that if you don't go with that method, you haven't spent a lot of money.

What will help save your molds using resins is to coat the molds first with a mold release compound. While the molds will wear out faster with resin than say plaster, the mold release will help keep them in good shape longer.

Now, for my Hirst molds and even for the one I made myself, I use a dental type plaster. Yes it is somewhat more expensive than hydrocal, which by the way, I've used as well, dental plaster dries a lot harder, about 3 to 5 times harder plus, it dries a lot faster, I can demold in about 30 minutes, while hydrocal would take hours to set enough. Yeah, the dental plaster is more expensive, but since I have yet to break a piece cast in dental plaster, my hydrocal pieces actually start crumbling after a few uses and I don't play rough with my pieces!

The place I purchase the plaster from is Clint Sales (http://www.clintsales.com/). The one I've decided to use is called Merlin's Magic and comes in a few different colors. There are two other plasters which are stronger, but I haven't tried them, they are Excalibur and Die-Keen.

One last thing you can try, search on the net for dental plaster and you will probably find places that will send you samples. The samples are usually just enough to cast from half to a full casting of Bruce's molds.

That's about all I can think of now.

Oh yeah, I haven't seen the Chainmail terrain you're talking about, but I'll see if I can find it on the net.

[Mulsiphix]

Thank you very much Skunkape. This kind of feedback is exactly what I'm looking for. I'd like to put a few instructional guides together, including links (lets save that for another thread (http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=21044#post21044)), for those interested in trying their hand at creating custom terrain, molds, mini's, etc... Thank you very much for going into detail. Much appreciated :D

[ffclubhero]

Anyone got anymore terrain projects?

[tesral]

Well my resin of choice would come from this company, Alumilite (http://www.alumilite.com/).

Might I suggest you look into smooth-on (http://www.smooth-on.com/). I have found it surperior to alumilite. The finished product is not as brittle. Prices are comparable and you can get longer pot times.

[Skunkape]

Thanks for the product link tersal, I'll have to check it out!

[ffclubhero]

Sssoooo, I'd like to see pics of open terrain projects.... come one, people! Surely someone of the pen and paper bloodline has pics of a current project!!

[tesral]

Sssoooo, I'd like to see pics of open terrain projects.... come one, people! Surely someone of the pen and paper bloodline has pics of a current project!!

Have, look at the Ship Yard (http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5206) thread.

[ffclubhero]

That's a great tip about the styrofoam and grey primer. Is he watering it down or anything?

[mrken]

Ok, you guys are looking for projects we are working on; I just started a new project for my game. The characters will one day end up in the court of the Duke, when they do I would like for this thing to be finished, if not, then at least the great room.

My inspiration came from the A Harn Kingdom Module called Kaldor . This one is Kaban . It is a three level castle with an inner harbor. I will be building mine without the harbor as this is an inland area. http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c365/mrkenis/Plans.jpg

The idea to build this out of Styrofoam rather than my customary cardboard and spackling came from watching a UTube made by a guy in Canada who goes by the name Kamloopian http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c365/mrkenis/Plans.jpg

He uses foam in some of his pieces. I find it to be fairly easy to work with, with the potential for a high degree of detail, but extremely time consuming. <a href="http://s31.photobucket.com/albums/c365/mrkenis/?action=view&current=Dungeonroughcut.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c365/mrkenis/Dungeonroughcut.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

As you can see, the detail is beginning to become apparent.
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c365/mrkenis/Dungeontexture.jpg

[Skunkape]

Looking good so far, I can already see the detail in the walls, even without paint on them!

[tesral]

How does the thin layer of spackle hold up?

[mrken]

Generally, when I use the spackling I don't put it on very thin. I tend to pack it inside the corrugation and in the spaces between the pieces. Then after it sets, I am able to sand smooth if necessary prior to priming and then painting and texturing. The spackling tends to get fairly thick and the primer soaks in pretty well. This process tends to produce a pretty durable piece.

Some of my pieces are ten years old. Now I do tend to take care of my stuff and my terrain is no exception. UV has aged the color of the green turf stuff I use, and there are dents in some of the pieces where they have been abused, but I can always touch them up if I feel the urge, but so far I have never done so.

I do have a large dungeon in seven pieces that is beginning to show age with dents, dings, corners separating and bits of plaster that has chipped off. That is going to be repaired if I find a buyer but it was my first piece and has been through about eight conventions. Lots of abuse moving it about and players banging on it. Still it is looking pretty good.

[tesral]

OK, I am not getting the method here. Do you stack the cardboard so that it is edge on to the plaster, giving more keying for the spackle?

FYI there are several light weight spackles out there I have actually used to fix walls with. They could find use in terrain.

[mrken]

Where I can, I stack and glue the cardboard diagonally so one layer will stiffen the other. This will reduce warping due to the moisture on thick pieces like mounds and tree bases where the base is flat and has no upright or other supporting pieces. The corrugation has all those holes for it's own rigidity, I tend to press the spackling into those holes prior to forming the surface. Sort of the way plasters used to work with lathe. Like the old mud and wattle method. It is pretty strong and quite light. It is the thin edges that are prone to damage if cut too thin. Priming and painting really helps strengthen this up if you allow the primer and paint to soak in.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c365/mrkenis/Hillwithconiforsa1.jpg
This piece is about ten years old. The flocking is a bit faded but no chips or nicks. Notice there is a bit of warping. This is because there is nothing to enforce it to plumb. A piece of cardboard glued edge to the flat edge will rectify this, like a wall or a building. This is why I go with hardboard now on pieces like this. I am building a round tower in this next series and am using cardboard and spackling on a hardboard base.