Shiny!

Remember two days ago when I said there was something off about the Tomb of the Tiny Pharoah?  I figure out what it was.  I wanted more contrast between the nice tile work and the dirty side halls, but couldn't quite figure out how to achieve that.  My wife was working on one of her crafts when it hit me.  The nice rooms should have bright polished floors.  Like this:

See how that back room reflects the bright summer sky?  That's the effect that this terrain needed.  Here's a shot of the full dungeon that really shows off the contrast.

 

That effect was done using a craft adhesive called Diamond glaze.  This stuff right here:

It worked so well on the floors that I couldn't pass up using it on the water portions of my outdoor tiles, too.

Now that's shiny in both the literal and Firefly senses of the word.

First Figures!

Copplestone Castings wins the big race.  I ordered figures from them, Irregular, and Pendraken all on the same day, and Copplestone got them to me first.  Being so remote, that's probably more a function of the post than the manufacturers, though.

I'm a pretty manly macho man, so I'm hardly the sort to squeal in excitement, but if I was, I totally would. Just look at these adorable little orcs.  

Don't you just want to squeeze their teeny tiny little cheeks?

These bad boys are cast in strips, but separating them is trivial if you have a sharp blade and steady hand.  This first batch of five based and primed orcs is an experiment.  I've got a bottle of liquid talent in the form of GW's Devlan Mud ink wash, but don't know how well it will treat these little guys.  I'm going to paint five with the wash and five with the standard three progressively lighter shades of drybrushing and see which looks best before diving head first into the bulk of the lot.  That way if one doesn't work well, I still have 25 orcs left over to get it right.

Tomb of the Tiny Pharoah

With those new 10mm figures arriving from over Pond, the continent, and then halfway across another pond, I've had plenty of time to get a jump start on the dungeons.  Here's the second (or third if you count the wilderness area), in all it's complete glory.  This time around, we're going fully 3D.

As always, the tiles can be rearranged to make a lot of different floor plans.

The red tiles are elevated by a full 10mm, and the only access to them is the steps flanking the altar at the far side of the room.  The baddies can plug up the steps and rain arrows down on the heroes.  Those two movable columns can serve as cover.  There's something a bit off about this dungeon - one detail needs to be added, but I can't quite put my finger on it.

The !Egytian temple room.

The four columns are made of small wooden spools bought for 15 cents at the local craft store.  Card stock squares cut to the size of the tiles hides the spool holes.  Click on the images for a closer look at the hieroglyphics along the top of the columns.  They run the length of the interior walls of the back room as well.  Those were printed up, cut to size, and glued in place before the protective dull coat.  Nothing too fancy.

Four columns should do it - every column shrinks the dungeon
by one square, so you don't want too many.

I haven't even ordered the figures for this dungeon yet, but it made for a good project to tide me over until the first figures arrive.  Which they did.  I show you what they look like tomorrow.

Irish Megaliths

Happy Saint Patrick's Day, peeps.  How about some nice Irish standing stones to celebrate.

These are actual stones, based on 12mm steel washers and painted up in colors to match the river stones.  The steel washers secure the stones to magnets that line the transport box.  The bases were sanded and painted using the same techniques and colors as the boards, so that they'd blend right into the tile.

The sacred ring of standing stones.

It felt a bit silly painting black rocks black, but real rocks just don't have enough color and contrast for use on the table as is.  The extra effort to use similar colors and techniques in the painting helps the boards look like a unified whole.

Adventures in the Great (and Tiny) Outdoors

As promised, the outdoor tiles are complete.  The rivers don't line up nearly as well as hoped, but they do provide tactical, interest to each board.  Here you can see a 1-tile offset, hardly the end of the world.

No flocking on these boards - it would look HUGE!

If you need a wide open space, you can arrange the tiles like so:

Give me land, lots of land...

That would be a really boring battle, though, so the next stage of the project is to build trees, rocks, logs, fences(?), and other things to block movement and line of site.

Close up of the shallow ford.

This shot also shows what you get when you drybrush over shallow impressions in the boards.  In the first two photos, the grid lines disappear in the random ground cover pattern.  You need to look close to spot the grid, but when you look for the straight lines, they jump right out at you.

Kid's Stuff Threedux

A good friend bailed me out of some personal drama (loaned me a spare car when my transmission went ker-chunk). Our kids are both into 40K, and after a recent battle, a couple of his terrain pieces wound up in our box.  As a partial thanks for the loaner, I spent an evening sprucing up his son's Imperial Bunker.  It started as a flimsy cut-out glued together scrap of printed cardstock. It wouldn't sit straight and tended to blow over in the slightest breeze.

First step was reinforcing the building with foamcore, followed by mounting on a decent base.  Hopefully, this is a pleasant surprise:

Front?

Back?

The individual steps for this mini-project took a few minutes each, so I was able to work on this while finishing off the outdoor terrain for 10mm skirmishes.  Pictures of the base tiles will be up tomorrow.

Lair of the Rat King

Construction ended on the sewers beneath Cornerstone Keep.  The last step is a thick spray of dull coat to protect the work.  Otherwise, these tiles are ready for the minions of the Rat King and the adventurers to slay them.  As promised, I'll spare you the details on the sewage and dirt; suffice it to say, I started dark and brushed my way lighter until it hit the desired shade.

The maze in one of its many permutations.

Close-up of some of the detail.

Movable bridges.

Those little bridges are made out of bamboo kabob skewers.  Cut to 15mm lengths and superglued together, they look just like rough logs at this scale.  They even work well with the outdoor tiles that are in progress, too.

I'm really looking forward to getting  those figures in the mail.  I feel like Ralphie waiting for his Little Orphan Annie decoder ring, only better - I know my figures aren't just an advertisement.