Salute 2024... DEMO GAME BOARD PART 2- Painting

 

Wotcha everyone. I have been cracking on with my demo game board. Having carefully planned what order I was going to do things in I immediately forgot and painted the water first.

This of course means that when I airbrush the rocks next I will get overspray on my water and have to repaint it... ah well. Most of this won't be seen as the water is being heavily pigmented but something will show through so best to give it a once-over anyway. I have faded to light green around the rocks to indicate other things going on below the surface and fading down through the water. Hopefully this will continue to be visible in places once the water is finished. 

The rocks were a good opportunity to try out the new airbrush setup. I first sprayed everything matt black, paying careful attention to the cave mouth and deepest recesses. I oversprayed this with a patchy raw sienna mix and a general grey, not worrying much about colour but trying to give a good overall coverage and pick out some of the main forms. I was worried this was a bit too purple so when it came to drybrushing highlights over I mixed the light grey with some yellow. This has helped bring the colour more neutral. I did a vigorous drysbrush over the whole thing with a mid grey, then a more targeted, lighter drybrush with pure white and a tad of yellow. Only looking to generate contrast in my tones at this point, not overly bothered about colouration. I drybrushed the rock pillars closest to the shoreline more heavily as on the photo reference I have these are lighter in colour.

To soften the drubrushing and add colour into the rocks I diluted some raw sienna and burnt umber with flow aid and dappled it in patches over the surface. I also did this with the black to knock back any areas which came up too colourful and reiterate cracks and shadows. I haven't used the flow aid (4011 Reducer) before, having just stuck with water in the past. The 4011 did make quite a difference, not running/dripping so much and drying faster so I could control the placement better. I was only using cheapy craft acrylics so thought the pigments might not dilute into a wash well, but was pleasantly surprised.

I did a bit of small brush work on the basalt columns to suggest a more geometric scarring on their surfaces and washed them heavily in black afterwards since the basalt is usually dark grey and should look a little different in colour from the rocks surrounding it. I have brushed some green 'algae' around the tops of the columns along the shoreline and will work into this more when I see what is left exposed by the water effects.

Speaking of which... here are my dams (thick, melamine-faced MDF which I have also covered in sellotape for a definitely easy-peel, shiny surface) in place and the resin (Easy Composites GlassCast 10) poured. So far so good... more on that in the next post.

Salute 2024... DEMO GAME BOARD PART 2- Painting

The road to Salute 2024... DEMO GAME BOARD PART 1

This year I decided to take the plunge with Salute and not just have a stand but also run demo games of The Woods. That opens up a whole can of worms with needing to arrange bigger transport, get more helpers on board, stock up on books in the expectation (hope!) of sales... and the fun part- build a stunning display tale to suck people in!

I have wanted for some time now to build two boards- one based on Fairy Glen on the isle of Skye, the other based around the Giant's Causeway/Fingel's Cave. So, of course, I decided to roll them into one and do it all on a 2' square module. Madness? Well, yes. The real mission is going to be to make sure there's enough space to actually play a game!

I chose a 2' square area (actually 660x660mm square for reasons I will explain later) because I want these demo games to move quickly. Normally there's a couple of turns of 'positioning' before warbands can get into a fight. These are important strategically in the game but not necessary when just learning the mechanics. Hopefully the cluttered nature of the terrain will prevent one side wiping the other out immediately.

My first step was to divide the board not quite in half. The 'spine' up the middle will divide the two types of terrain from each other and provide the vertical height needed for the board to be visible above the sea of heads moving around the Excel Centre. Well, ok, not quite that tall but more visible than a flat board anyhow, hopefully. I used a couple of hexagonal wooden templates and a hot wire cutter to cut up lengths of styrofoam that were then cut to different heights and glued down to form the causeway. Real basalt columns are not this uniform in shape and size nor this big. However I wanted a 30mm round base to be able to stand on each column.

Back in the summer we got a large new CNC machine at work. We often get 3d topographies to machine for students which come from the DigiMaps archive, so I decided to experiment myself pulling files from OS data, manipulating them and milling in foam. Quite a few problems to troubleshoot along the way, but I ended up with something I could at least use. Not sure how much time it saved but it's a nice slope anyway. I have then gone around and sprayed expanding foam to build up cliffs. The path up to the top point was sprayed in three layers, with a foam core path laid after the first to provide a solid platform for models to stand on. The No Nonsense foam is softer than I was hoping it would be!

I have allowed the foam to overflow onto the styrofoam columns to build up the cave and replicate the cliffs of Staffa. It overhangs a bit too much and has slumped lower than I would have ideally liked, but you can't do much with expanding foam when it's foaming! Actually that's a lie. You can cut it back quite successfully mid-foam and give surfaces that look more like rock faces than expanding foam. I got the timing right on the 'land-side' cliffs but left the sea-side ones to it. The rock on top of the headland (supposed to represent Castle Ewan) was carved from styrofoam and placed once the expanding foam was set. I then sprayed a bit around it to fix it in position and blend the textures together.

I've chipped and slashed away at the columns in places to give a less-regular look, trying to ensure there are still level surfaces for models to stand. I wafted a heat gun across them to distort them and harden up the outer surfaces.

What do you do with a gaming board that's already short on space for models? Why, you pack it full of more features, that's what! After seeing the picture I am sure you have all seen of a set of mysterious spiral stairs winding down into a hillside I thought I should definitely have that on the table. I figure they probably lead to the back of the cave on the other half of the board. The picture (although it appears to be set into the top of a hillside) is actually of the top of De La Poer Tower.

I also wanted a little stream running across the open area and diving under the hill to join the sea. It's only a narrow ditch and definitely able to be stepped over, right? Unless it's actually a weird boundary between worlds...

All the parts of the board got a coating of PVA to ready them for painting. Those which would have models moving across them had a couple of coats of readymix filler and PVA to give them a more hard-wearing surface. The big expanse of expanding foam was coated with a mixture of PVA, readymix filler and Fillite (a filler powder for resins) to give it an extra-heavy-duty coating and slight texture which will help it look like rock once painted and protect the soft foam underneath. 

Dental plaster rocks from Woodland Scenics rock moulds were scattered around to provide a bit of extra interest and added texture to the landscape.

I also decided to include a cast from my roundhouse mould (a test for possible future mass production but honestly unlikely to get that far) and make the landscape look inhabited.

A windswept tree was made in my usual twisted wire fashion. Taking care to make sure the branches only spread onto the board and don't hang over the edges. I don't want to break the vignette by having things stick out beyond the confines of the board edges, nor do I want it being damaged by knocks in transport.

I added milled cotton flock fibres to the PVA/filler/water mix to give really gnarled old bark. Undecided how much foliage I am going to put on it, that's a decision for later.

I've put a stone (styrofoam supported by a couple of washers for durability) over the ditch clapper-bridge-style. Is this the only safe way across? There'll be a path winding up through the scene and over it.

Since I also want to use this board with my existing terrain modules I have used the same templates for the raised side and back of the board as for my Old Man of Storr and Puzzlewood modules. The land comes out far enough that two modules can be placed narrow-ways running down from it and continue the playing area. This just leaves me with an unsatisfying straight edge to the water area so I decided to also make a transition board with a stony beach sloping down into the waves. This will square up the edge and provide a bit of extra playing space if laid narrow-wise (below) or will round off the corner to merge into a module laid along the sloping side of the board (above). 

The plan is for the raised areas of filler to become dunes, fading into green grass by the edge of the board. It's a narrow area to fade satisfyingly so I'll have to see how that goes. I'll pour the resin on both boards at the same time to get the same colouration and depth.

Ok, that's most of the construction. On with the painting!

The road to Salute 2024... DEMO GAME BOARD PART 1

Happy New Fimir!

Hi everyone, happy 2024! It seems mad but this year marks 10 years since Oakbound started out! Way back in the summer of 2013 I was building a Fimir army to join in the Oldhammer fun. Somebody on the forum (which still exists and is active by the way) asked if I would make the sculpts available for purchase and so my foray into the world of miniatures casting began. The Oakbound  website launched in February 2014 with the Myeri Marsh Demons as the first occupants. Above you can see a couple of the first iteration of sculpts, now in the possession of Scotia Grendel. Throughout Oakbound's history I have revisited the Myeri and last summer, 10 years after the first, I was working on the 4th iteration which will be coming out later this year.
 

The Coral Knights have been promised since 2016! Finally here are the 'on foot' versions, the mounted ones are in moulds and the mounts are being worked on at the moment. 

The Myeri magic-users, being based on the Mystics from Dark Crystal, have four arms. Which is cool. But it is, of course, also a bit niche (within a niche within a niche within a niche!). The fluff tells us that the Tiarna of the marsh demons come in two flavours- warrior Tiarna from the Losbastun and domestic Tiarna from the Oibrithe. We've had a warrior Tiarna for some time and that makes sense from a warband perspective but now this chap can double as the diplomatic Tiarna and a 2-armed magic user.

Here are seven new Losbastun in a more classic Fimir vein. Can you spot the inspiration behind each of these?

That's not a Goodwin... this is a Goodwin! :D The ltd ed 28mm chap is the best ever in my opinion, even given how great Nick Bibby's sculpting is.

Eight of the more heavily armoured sculpts to add to my Fianna Fimm.

Eight less-armoured models to add to the regular Fimm.

And here's all of them together with the original.

Happy New Fimir!

Cult of the Leering Lune month 5(a)

Owing to not having a pay rise in a decade and consequently going on strike I have finished this month's batch of greenies early. With about a week off after Christmas I expect to get some 'bonus' goblins painted this month but if not then this is plenty for my #T4G (Tale of Fourth Gamers) submission. Back to actual Night Goblins, this time with 2-handed weapons.

The back ranks of the unit are one kind of Harlequin/Black Tree Nightlings. One kind of Nightling is sculpted by Kev Adams and lovely (if a little big as standard), this is the other kind. There are maybe two or three nice sculpts among these, the rest have the look of conversions by a less competent hand. Not my favourite models but they pad out the unit and are at least almost the right size.

This clubber goblin, on the other end of the spectrum, is another of my favourite Night Gobbos. He's super-easy to swap the weapon on, hence my three simple conversions to provide variation. The original club was a bit small for a 2-handed weapon so I tried to give them some beefier options.

These guys definitely have 2-handed clubs, look at them carrying them with two hands! I wanted to keep these guys really muted, no yellows and reds on the robes, to try and make the green skin pop. These are good general-purpose goblins so I want to be able to use them as additional troops for any of the other units I want to make bigger for particular games.

A bit of a different champion and musician but I think they blend in ok. This is actually the second time I have painted this musician as I did him for my Goblinoids Combat Cards set, but he's so great I wanted a 'playable' version too. The banner is taken from a design in Warhammer Armies (3rd) and just required the silly short banner pole to be swapped out for a length of brass rod.

I felt like one Nightling fanatic was insufficient so double-based them. Of course I then didn't have enough for the full complement of three fanatics so I drafted in a regular Night Goblin. 
 

So, to the numbers game. This is 29 Night Goblins with 2-handed weapons, including a standard and musician, lead by a regular goblin big boss with shield and light armour and containing three fanatics. 232.5pts (36 Heroes, 196.5 Mobs). 24.45 Gold Coins leaving me with 6.7 Gold Coins leftover in total. This brings the army so far to 2019.5pts (1266.5 Mobs, 667 Heroes, 86 War Machines).

Cult of the Leering Lune month 5(a)