Tuesday 23 March 2010

Dangerous Encounters

Late post again mainly due to busy weekend. This weeks main subject was some of the more dangerous markers for my next adventure. These will serve 2 purposes, firstly to be an obsticle to avoid when first uncovered and then a number of encounters will become blocking terrain and placed on the board.

Hopefully these will give the adventures some colour and excitement in an Indy Jones style.

First up are some Spike traps, very simple to make, just some BBQ sqewers cut down to size and roughtly sharpened. These were bedded into some mulliput on top of 2p pieces to give them strength and a little weight. Quick paint job then static grass, leaf scatter and some gore.


Next up are some Carved native statues, again ment for multiple uses as traps (in this case poisoned dart spitting traps) and also for markers to be clues in a later advanture.

These were made from Fimo, roughly shaped into tree trunk shapes with a little texture, baked and then the faces were carefully carved with a sharp knife. This appeared to give a better more defined look than just sculpting the faces. After carving the 1st face (back left) I decided to move towards a much simpler look for the rest. Simple paintjob along with grass and scatter once again.

I'm half tempted to add some warpaint to the faces to make them a little more fierce but am not sure yet.



The final Traps this week are some rock fall markers, to be used for collapsing temple roofs and dangerously unstable mountain sides they'll be a dangerous encounter for the heroes.

Made from left over slate and rubble that I chucked in a box after another project, they're based on 25mm round bases (mainly as I had some in a box and no 2p coins spare, I may also change these to be based on coins for confirmity)

Grey heavy drybrush paintjob along with black and brown washed and some drybrished highlights keep these fairly quick to paint.


The only other project completed this week was some wooden causeways for my swamp. These were made from matchsticks and no more nails, and nothing else. Sprayed black and drybruched with various browns.


A quick set up so you can see how I' using them, this board is around 2 foot square (actually 60cmx60cm) to give you an idea of size.


I've also had a chance to pen down some of my scenarios, for the moment I'll reveal only the titles:

  • Scenario 1: Shipwrecked!

  • Scenario 2: Escape through the Swamps

  • Scenario 3: Into the Mountains..

  • Scenario 4: An Abandoned Tomb!
Thats my lot for this week, I'm putting together some of my villains so I'll not have any more terrain ready for next week but I may have some pics of them.

p.s. Apologies for any spelling mistakes in this one, rushed writing it to get it out tonight.

Monday 15 March 2010

Interesting New Product

Whilst browsing the wares at my usual train/model shop I came across a rather large display of newish products from Noch.

Titled Laser Cut Minis they appear to be pre coloured, precut plants. Here's some pics from the Noch site:




Priced at almost £6 a pack and according to the box they contain 8 plants so they seem a little steep. However it sparked my interest and I bought some just to find out what they were like.

I'll report shortly on what I've done with them.

Sunday 7 March 2010

Late again

Darn, Its started so well and went to pot so quickly. 2 weeks and no updates. not only that but I haven't done that much either.

Its all mainly being blamed on a weekend away and busy life..

I have managed to get a coupld of smaller projects completed and several more started so here goes:

Another set of test pieces, I was going for something a little like:


But of course since my new tables all going to be in 3x3 cm squares doing something hexagonal wouldn't work. Instead I aimed for somthing a little more like this board from Redskullz on the Lead Adventure forums


So what did I manage to come up with then? Well this:


5 Sections so far to fit in with the general multi-use theme of the rest of my terrain. Spread out this covers around 30cm x 60cm (2'x1') so about enough for half a .45 adventure board. I've another set marked up, I just got to find the time to cut out the hardboard bases.

So added to some of the previous sets what does it look like?


Well rather like this, the heroic Butch Sullivan is modelling in the picture for scale.

The extra bits are farily simple grassy areas:


Just hardboard, a bit of sand and static grass, grid is drawn on with a green sharpie pen afterwards. I've really just made these to give a bit more of an overgrown impression to the other terrain, part of the trouble with making generic squared terrain is that it can be difficult to make it feel right.

So I already mentioned working on a few little projects so I'll give you a couple of WIP shots of my somewhat busy desk:


The main 2 projects for this week are:


A set of 8 (only 4 carved so far) jungle totems, keeping them fairly simple for now, when painted I'll prolly add some warpaint effects to make them a little fiercer. This are to represent various encounters the heroes come across.

The other project is also a set of encounter markers:


This time its 10 spike traps, though I think I'll make some more later. All my encounter markers are going to be based on 2 pence coins to make it clear what are encounters and what are not during the game.

What else have I got lined up?

  • Props kit for sewer system (lengths of piping, pipe corners, girders etc)

  • Wooden Causeway (5-6 straight lenght plus coners, T-Junctions and cross roads)

  • Some more weeping trees (see the set up picture above for some test examples I made a while back)

  • Some rocky/uneaven hill sides to butt up against the formers, this time with slopes and steps to climb.
So I've enough to keep me busy for a while yet, I'm aiming to run some test games of my re-worked rules sometime at the end of march allowing me April to play around with them and finish up projects ready for my gaming weekend with my brother at the beginning of May.

Well thats it for this week, catch you all next week (update may be on Monday as I have family round over the weekend.)

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