My Home Terrain Project

It's been crazy here lately, I'm preparing for a garage sale for Friday, I've started selling stuff on eBay, and there's all the back to school preparations to do for family and friends. Still, I managed to sneak a little time in with my work bench. I'm definitely wanting to put together my own set of terrain and a table in the near future, so I decided to put together some ruins. This I hope will make a suitably useful piece of terrain while also being a good prop to photograph individual minis in the future. There's still quite a bit of filling and other work to do, but this I wanted to get a pic of the progress so far.







I'm still deciding on an actual backdrop to use, I'm thinking of something like the background art from World of Warcraft's Wrath of the Lich King expansion, but we'll see. Let me know what you think guys.

Here's a bit of progress on the Ruins, I had to find some more suitable pieces of bark for the base of the thing and make a few modifications...







For my terrain I'm turning to an old friend for support, Lightweight Spackle. I've long been a big fan of this stuff, you might recall I used liberal amounts of it on my display boards in the past. This time, I'm using it in a couple of different ways.

First, I'm using it to fill cracks and seems in the model pieces. The Arcane Ruins bits I have arrived from overseas and appear to have been warped a bit by head, so they don't quite join correctly (I got close using a hobby vice, but not quite). So, a bit of the spackle at the joints followed by fine grit sanding and a layer of liquid green stuff should have them up to snuff.

Additionally, I'm using the Spackle along with several other ingredients to create a pretty useful textured filler. There are a lot of ways to do this, altering the recipe will give different results but here is what I've used here. Here's how it's all looking so far, recipe and notes follow...









Rubble Filler:
Light Weight Spackle
Vallejo Black Primer
Vallejo Retarder Medium
Elmer's Glue (PVA Glue)
Woodland Scenics Fine Ballast (Gray)

When mixed, it has a somewhat spongy texture will be easier to apply. It won't stick to your fingers in the same way that straight Spackle will, so it's much easier to handle. A damp cloth was used at the end dabbing gently to even out the surface, it should dry in about 6-8 hours. Dry time of course can be reduced by applying heat (a nice sunny day is helpful) or a room with a space heater.

For thicker areas of the mixture, it will take longer. This method can be used on bases and terrain alike to create mud, snow banks, etc. I generally prefer using sand, specifically I buy 50 lb bags of it for about $3 from the hardware store (normally used for playgrounds). But, I wanted something a little more irregular and higher grit for this since this is largely representing loose stone slides rather than just dirt.

Tomorrow will be day 1 of the yard sale, so I probably won't be doing much on this until later in the weekend. But, that means everything should be solid/dry by the time I'm ready to sand and start painting.

So, I lied... I got more time. So, I knocked out some finishing work before moving on to primer.







Primed with black, then dusted with white. You can see the textured effect from the Spackle mixture, I'm anxious to get it painted honestly. I think it's going to end up being a nice centerpiece on my new table.











I think I've decided to focus on terrain in terms of my eBay store. This will act as a proof of concept for the type of stuff I will be offering through my store, let me know what you think.

It looks very well done. We all need terrain in our games and when it looks good; it adds to the fun. Nice work and thanks for sharing.

Thanks BigAl,

I'm coming to the end of the Ruins project. You might recall that I used an obelisk with glowing runes on my display board last year. I decided to carry that over and expand it slightly for this. Using the Lost and the Damned book I found several that I thought would be appropriate and have penned some rules for these Ruins to be used in a special scenario I'm working on for me and a friend. The runes are representative of the rules.

Runes, from top to bottom:
1. Face of Nurgle
2. 7 (The Sacred Number of the Plague Father)
3. Immensity
4. Magician
5. Chaos Reward
6. Massive Intellect
7. Mindless
8. Rotting Flesh
9. Nurglings

The Rotten Ruins
Long ago missionaries built a Temple of Morr, it is believed that they wanted to sanctify recently discovered barrows in the area. No one can be certain, for those followers of Morr have long been devoured by the waste. What is certain is that the once proud temple and it's noble cause have been utterly tainted by the touch of Chaos. Followers of Nurgle have torn the walls asunder and reconsecrated the ground to their foul lord, indeed what little remains to be seen of the structure is half buried in the detritus and filth, a stench clings to the area and always there is the churning sound of unseen things in the unwholesome ground.

The grounds are largely unrecognizable, however there is a small remnant of the once much larger structure that is visible. In the long years since the followers of Nurgle reconsecrated the ground it has become a potent focus of Magical powers. So potent in fact that some fear (or hope) that the veil separating this world from the Realm of Chaos has become dangerously thin here.

GAME RULES
Units within 6 inches of the Rotten Ruins must roll a D6 and consult the appropriate chart for results.

FORCES OF ORDER
1. Mindless! - The Unit gains Stupidity, roll another D6 on a roll of 1 this effect is permanent. Otherwise, the unit will lose Stupidity once it is more than 6 inches away from the ruins.
2 - 5. Rotting Flesh! - The unit has the Flammable special rule, roll another D6 on a roll of 1 this effect is permanent. Otherwise the unit will lose Flammable once it is more than 6 inches away from the ruins.
6. Attack! - d3 bases of Nurglings appear in base contact with the unit. If already in combat, the Nurglings will choose a flank (decided by opponent) to strike. These are not worth victory points and will not move more than 6 inches away from the Ruins. If there is not a viable target to attack, the Nurglings will return to the Realm of Chaos.

FORCES OF CHAOS
1. Hymn of the Plague Father - The unit now has the ability to cast a single, randomly generated Lore of Nurgle spell. Treat the unit as a spell caster with levels equal to the number of ranks in the unit. The unit can not however dispel or channel however. Spell casters entering the area of influence are treated as Lore Masters of Nurgle, if the caster was able to cast other spells (Death for example) they can choose to cast those spells already chosen or the Nurgle spells in a given round.
2 - 5. Blessed by Nurgle - The unit now has Regeneration and Poisoned Attacks, if the unit already has these abilities they grow in potency by 1. If there is a Lord or Hero in the unit roll a D6. On a six the unit gains this bonus permanently, otherwise they lose these abilities when the unit moves 6 inches away from the ruins.
6. Rise Children! - d3 bases of Nurglings appear within 6 inches of the unit under your control. These are not worth victory points and will disappear should they move further than six inches away from the unit, or if the unit dies.

FORCES OF NEUTRALITY
No Effect...



I wanted a sickly glow look for the runes, so I used GW Death World Forest and Nurgling Green. For the snow I'm using watered down PVA glue and Woodland Scenics Snow. Now, I'm just waiting on it to dry so I can finish it up. Let me know what you think.











As of this writing I've added some grit and grime with weathering powders, I wanted the snow closest to the ruins to look dirty. I've got the pigment binder on now, once that dries I'll be adding a second layer of snow covering more of the dirt around the edges. This will be more "pure snow" further away from the actual ruins. Should have it all finished tomorrow, if not today.

Now that the yard sale is over I can get to work on the table in the garage.

Some family drama dropped in my lap over the weekend, the short story is I'll probably be in court later this week. But, I wanted to get some pics up since the ruins are finished. I promise once things calm down I'll get some better pics with the light box (I'm anxious to finally get to try out my new camera). I've included some detail shots below with my phone, again sorry for the poor quality.