By Jonas My clubmates continue their Frostgrave adventures. This time they decided on the scenario where a big step pyramid takes centre field, with a golden statue that randomly affects the two closest models each turn - smiting one and healing the other, decided by chance. For that we needed a step pyramid. The scenario describes a plain pyramid with three levels, but I wanted something with a less rigid shape, something more interesting. I found my inspiration in the ancient structures to the east of Egypt instead, in the mighty ziggurats of Ur: This structure was too big to just copy, but a simplified version led me to make this: Before I go into how I made it, I also finished some more monsters for scenarios or random encounters. More Reaper Bones, this time a scary big centipede monster as well as some spider swarms and a ghoulish giant tick. The Cerberus is from Mantic Dungeon Saga, while the white gorilla (with wings?!) and the genie are from Reaper Bones. The genie is of course just a mage with blue skin, but don't tell anyone. Finally some more undead. Two more ghouls from Reaper means we have enough to cover for the scenario with four ghouls, and the skeleton and undead troll from Mantic will be useful for random events. Making the Temple/PyramidI started by liberating some scrap XPS from the club's remaining XPS hoard. These bits were not at all even, and again I curse the fact that it's almost impossible to buy sheets of XPS in Sweden that are not super thin or three inches thick. I divided the 75mm XPS sheets with a knife to keep it from being ridiculously thick, but that left me with a lot of uneven and wonky bits. I also thought that the design needed something more, it looked a bit boring. Aha! Two big menhirs at the entrance made a huge difference. I ended up making them of clay instead, but I think they saved the design. This was an important lesson for me, don't be afraid to play around with the design before you're locked in. Moving around some parts or adding something extra can really change the overall look of a piece of terrain. The bits had so huge gaps that there was no way I could just etch stonework into them and make it work. Instead I decided to try something new, and got some air drying clay. A lot of it. Tip: you can use rolled up balls of aluminium foil to etch stone patterns into clay, just like in XPS foam. Two evenings later, and I realized a big weakness of clay. Thin layers of clay on top of a solid material cracks easily. Thick layers of clay on top of a solid material cracks a lot easily. Etching stonework patterns into the clay helped, as the clay can expand into the carved patterns, but I ended up using a lot of PVA glue later on to keep the clay in play where it was starting to break off. I added a lot of platforms on the side for pure gameplay reasons. They messed up the design a bit, but wargaming terrain is often a compromise as you want it to be usable. A good tip is to always keep a few minis at hand to test if they fit and can balance on the terrain. Half a kilo of clay later, I started to add some sand and cork for debris. Spackle paste was added on the base to cover up the gaps and give some texture. After basecoating the temple brown I almost broke down as it looked like the most delicious temple of the dark chocolate gods I've ever seen. I was literally trying to keep myself from drooling at this point. I was working on a deadline, so I had about two evenings to paint it. First day I spent putting on various beige and grey shades, picking out some stones and doing some very very rough lighlights. Second day I took out my box of flock, static grass and tufts and went to town. I started with tufts, then added flock in the corners around the temple, and finally a lot of static grass on the hill that the temple was sitting on. Finally I made some bushes using foliage glued to floral wire and doused in liberal amounts of wood glue, medium and varnish to stay in place. Finally I gave the entire thing a heavy coat of matte varnish using a spray can, to keep all these flimsy materials from rubbing off too easily. Click below for larger pics of the final results. And that's it! Less than a weeks work, and our fantasy town now has a spooky derelict temple. Rumour has it that there's a lot of other buildings on the way, so who knows that will be next on our Frostgrave adventures.
Cheers!
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Distant WorldsThis is a blog for our travels to other worlds, either fantastical or futuristic ones. Archives
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