So, I’m planning a warhammer sixth edition war bands campaign for when I will be able to meet people again, and have been thinking about how I will solve the issue of terrain.
Now, I’ve been watching Littlewars tv on youtube since they started posting videos, and they seem to have a rather intelligent solution to the issue of terrain – fabric over foam blocks for elevation, which allows them to pin terrain through it onto the foam below.
So, I’ve taken stock of what I need for the campaign, assuming I’d be able to have two games running parallel to each other (I’ll be using a card-system also stolen from little wars tv). The maximum amount of terrain I would need is:
Two forests;
Two hills with cliff;
Two areas of rough thorny thistles;
Two areas of boulders;
Two ruins;
Two fallen pillars/monoliths/statues;
Two sets of three drystone walls;
Two rocky crags/ridges.
I think that should be doable, which of course is famous last words.
So, I recently finished a unit of 30 night goblins I’ve been working on and off on for the last two years. Originally I planned on multi basing them for KoW, but I decided that it was better to base them individually so I could use them for more game systems.
Led by Buddy and his assistant Buddy
Some of my friends, as well as a couple of people on different fora, have asked me how I do my basing, so I decided to make a little tutorial of sorts.
Step 1
First I paint the bases with zhandri dust. The coat does not need to be fully opaque or even.
step 2
Then I glue on larger rocks or debris. If I have painted any other kinds of detail to have on the base, this is when I add it. This allows me to pile on the dirt to make it look like it sits in the ground rather then awkwardly on top of it.
Step3
Next I add my dirt. This is dirt from a small wood where people often motocross. This means the muddy areas become a fine sandy dirt when dry, and it absorbs liquid amazingly well. I sift it, and keep the larger rocks to decorate bases… like here. This is just a first layer, I put down a thickish (only slightly watered down) layer of pva and dip the base in the dirt, shaking of excess. The coverage here does not need to be perfect – we will add more. On every stage with he dirt I clean off the dirt from places I don’t want it with a damp brush.
step 4
Now is one of the more fun steps – I have a little container with very watered down pva glue, another with the sifted dirt, and I sprinkle more on to places where I want more dirt. I try to make details such as rocks look like they sit in the ground, and I try to make interesting small variations in the elevation rather than a flat layer. I see now that in this example I buried one of the goblins right foot. Oh well, you can clean excess dirt off with a damp brush but since these are lovely back-rank night goblins I don’t really care. It won’t be visible when gaming anyway. Leave this to dry overnight.
step 5
now I add some of my homemade flock here and there. This is simply sifted sawdust painted with cheap craft acrylics. I try to vary where I put it, and make it look random and natural. I catch myself flocking the front left and back right of bases too often, it takes a little bit of effort to not make it look to planned.
Step 6
Finally I add static grass, tufts and clump foliage. I try to make sure all bases always have some point of interest – be that a large rock or interesting tuft – but I also try (and fail) to not make it too systematic and regular.
Finish the base off by painting the rim matte black.
