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David S.
United States
Grand Forks
North Dakota
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Just another quick update.
The weather has been very good lately which for me means more work and less MR. Anyway, I finished the valley tiles now, all except for the bridges and extra finishing touches. I have six tiles remaining and then I have finishing touches to do (adding trees, bushes, etc...)
Yes, they are setup differently, which is why I took this next picture.
I bought linen paper at an overstock store for cheap (almost as thick as cardstock too) to do the reprinting on. More to come on that later though as I finish the map tiles and start on the next part.
Thanks for reading!
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David S.
United States
Grand Forks
North Dakota
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Finishing all the valley tiles is up next.
Again, I took plaster paper as well as some wood pieces and newspaper to make the overall terrain structure. From there I decided that one of the valleys should have a 'land bridge' while the others have man made ones. The first picture is of all the other valleys (I previously completed one minus the bridge) and then some close ups. After those are the pictures of the painted one with the land bridge.
I also decided to try my hand at Pyrography. I want to use that to create the character counters along with their chits.
Finally, I've decided to do the rest in wood, slowly, as I build everything again from the ground up. Making a 'collector's edition' of sorts I guess.
Thanks!
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David S.
United States
Grand Forks
North Dakota
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Hey all,
A fast update for today’s post is all I have the time for. I decided to also slowly re-do most of the other components as a part of this build. My goal will be to eventually have all wood components and hopefully be still transportable. If not, well then people will just have to come over to play 
Anyway, here is the updated picture of the 'completed' first 10 tiles. I say 'completed' because there are still things that I'd like to add for atmosphere (trees, bushes, weeds and HPs/SPs) but for the most part there won't be any major changes to them.
Next up, here is my idea for the character counters. I will carve the symbols in individually and would like to char the carved area when finished. As for the hidden side, I'm not sure yet if I'll re-carve the symbol on both sides, or figure out another way to represent it.
That's it for now. Again, any comments or suggestions are appreciated.
Thanks!
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David S.
United States
Grand Forks
North Dakota
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Been a while since the update, but I've become busy. If I can fly for work, I do, so good weather means lots of time spent flying.
Anyway here is the update.
My first attempt to add these features didn't work well as the watered down glue was a bit too watered down.
The next attempt I bought another scene-o-rama thing to get help with the terrain as well as some extra grass type features. This worked out better. They provided a spray bottle with instructions of how much to add. This helps to spread the glue better as well as seal the features after added. So, they are beginning to look better.
I'm going to experiment on some of the woods tiles to see what kind of combinations off grasses and flocks work well. Also, I want to figure out how to make the path better so that grass doesn't get on them.
Again, anyone with suggestions is welcome!
Update:
Here they are next to the originals as well as some other angles.
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David S.
United States
Grand Forks
North Dakota
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I didn't quite have the time with a busy weekend to finish the high pass through the painting stage.
I was finally able to finish it. I darkened the top part to match the rest as well as adding some rocks. I also got the base plastered and painted.
Next I painted the inside for the caves using black and grey, this may have to change later. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to do the interior terrain yet for the caves, but I think I want some sort of walls or stalagmites. If anyone has any other ideas let me know.
Anyway, here are the pics of it now completed through the painting stage.
Finally, I am receiving the static grass at some point on Monday as long as UPS is on time. I may or may not have any updates until after that time. IT will be interesting to find out if the 2mm grass is too long for this project or not. Either way I still need to find something suitable for the paths.
Thanks!
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David S.
United States
Grand Forks
North Dakota
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Hey all,
I decided today to try a cave tile and went for the High Pass tile. It seemed like something that would be difficult, yet I had an idea of how I wanted to tackle it.
I started out by piling up 1inch hexes that would be used to show the locations of the clearings as well as give the terrain some natural feel to them. I stacked three piles. Two piles had two hexes and one had three.
From there I went on to plastering and adding some of those rocks from the molds I had left over. This time I left the rocks unpainted to avoid getting white plaster spots on them like I have previously on other tiles.
Overall I'm fairly happy with how it turned out. Although, its going to be really tight to get the paths up in a fashion thats not climbing the side of a mountain.
Here is the other side after I detatched it from the base hex so that I can make the caves underneath.
I scratched a 'hole' into one of the premade rocks and then kept a small seperation on the others to mark the cave entrances. I will have to wait for this to completely harden before attempting anything else as I don't want the two pieces to get stuck together and make it impossible to get to the caves.
Next is what it looks like after painting. The first one has some white as the holes and 'paper' look of the plaster paper didn't look good so I took some extra plaster from the rock molds and again went against the directions and molded it to how I wanted.
Thanks for reading!
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David S.
United States
Grand Forks
North Dakota
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Hey all,
These tiles seemed to be the easiest and therefore could be completed to the painting stage all at the same time. For the most part the Woods tiles are flat. I did add a couple hills and mounds on the tiles to add flavor. I did leave one tile completely flat and that tile may end up being the deep woods. I’m unable to get the pictures up right now, but will update this post with them sometime tomorrow.
I ordered the static grass that I wanted today. For the most part, unless I get bored of it, all the tiles will use the same grass. It’s the 'late summer' blend of 2mm static grass by scenic express. I read very good things about them and it seemed cheap to get a half gallon of the stuff for 15$.
I still need to figure out the paths and the material to use for it. Also, I need to figure out how I want to label the clearings. Using the numbers on the clearing with maybe a similar but different color material as the rest of the paths may work, but I'd really like to figure out something more subtle that doesn't stand out and destroy the 'mini terrain' feel. However, I also don't want to make it difficult to figure out which clearing is which.
Steps of my build (so far) that I have and will be doing:
1. Create the landscape with plaster paper, chicken wire, paper and wood tiles.
2. Paint tiles a base color to get rid of the white for when I lay the grass and paths
3. Figure out a way to represent HPs and SPs
4. Figure out a good 'recipe' for the glue to glue the grass and paths
5. Find and 'plant' trees as well as other minor details like boulders and 'loose rock'
6. Build the bridges and place them down
7. Seal the work somehow to keep from getting damaged
8. Play!
I'm thinking these steps in all total will take me the summer to complete as my job picks up and free time goes down. After all, I need to factor in game time as well 
Till next time, thanks for reading!
UPDATE: Here are the pictures for this log
Plastered:
Partial painting:
Side by side to the redesign:
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David S.
United States
Grand Forks
North Dakota
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I had a 6 hour flight yesterday that wore me out so all I decided to do last night was to figure out valley tiles.
Producing a couple of hills on either side with enough room to keep the clearings seemed easy enough. I also want to try to make this my own by making the clearings in slightly different locations as well as the paths to them without changing anything that will mess up the gameplay or overall structure of the clearings and tiles. However, for some of them I need to move them around from their original position to make it fit as well as looks good.
Anyway, I want to try to keep the valley landscape as simple as possible so that I can add finer details without worry.
The paper is where the plaster paper will be propped up and the wood discs where the clearings will probably go. The last one will go on the circular shape on the top right of the hex. The idea is two small hills with a slight dip down to the path below. I really don't want it to look like a cliff so I want to try to keep the hills low and then bring them down at a smaller decline than my previous tiles.
This morning I did some of the plastering as well as painting. I propped up with glue those pieces of paper and put wire in them to help them hold shape. I gently laid the plaster over it to try to get a smaller decline. Its steeper than I wanted so hopefully it will work better on the next valley tile.
Here is the plaster job:
And after painting:
Now for my questions:
To anyone who has done this type of thing before...
Should make the dirt paths first and then use the grass after when putting on the details? Does the order of application matter?
What kind of product and/or material should I use for the dirt paths? I need it to be extremely fine as the scale of this terrain is small.
Lastly, any idea as to what the scale would relate to? I've heard of the 15mm for miniature wargames, but that still seems too big.
Thanks for reading!
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David S.
United States
Grand Forks
North Dakota
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Hey all,
Ledges turned out better than I thought it would. I do have a concern, however, about how to fill some of those spots where the rocks I made lifted up. I may throw some wadded plaster paper in there to fill it up and paint it green. I also accidentally splashed brown paint on the back of one of the rocks. I quickly wiped it up with a wet paper towel, while it didn't get it all, luckily it was brown and actually blends in with the rock.
Anyway, here is the Ledges tile, painted and awaiting finishing touches:
I painted a base color so that if any spots were missed when 'flocking' then they won't be as visible. The brown will be a dirt path as it looks in MR. The bridge is missing and will probably be put up last. Finally, I haven't done the HPs yet as I'm not sure how I want to represent them.
Cliff was also started. I took one of my rocks that has a curve like it looks on Karim's redesign. Attached some wire to help with the desired shape on the sides as the hill comes down and will add paper later to make the natural look. I need to figure out how to make a flat area on top for the three clearings. I already have an idea for the secret passage, but we'll see how that goes when I get there.
Here is the cliff with the wire:
And here is after I put some more strips of plaster paper to make the terrain. I used wadded up paper again underneath to hopefully give it a natural type look.
And after painting:
I used green where the grass will go and brown where some more rock type features will go. I again am waiting on the HP and SPs till I come up with an idea of how to represent them.
Here are the two together with some other tiles:
I used an x-acto knife to cut the excess away. I used watered down glue along the edge to secure the plaster to the tile as well as make sure the loose stuff on the edge stays stuck. I touched up some of the edge work with green and tan to get rid of some of the white again. I think so far they're turning out pretty good.
What I don't like is the size of the clearings. I have less room than desirable and it may affect its playability. I have placed player and monster counters on them and they seem to place fine, but we'll see. Also, I may have to sand the edges down or something to make sure they align correctly. The plaster paper right now sticks out in spots which make the edges not quite push together flush.
Coming up next will be a valley tile.
Thanks for reading!
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David S.
United States
Grand Forks
North Dakota
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Tile to start with: Ledges.
When I do something new, I tend to dive right in and try it to its fullest. Case and point, I didn't start with something easy, like ya know, a valley tile... Nope, I start with the tile Ledges. Got to make two cliffs as well as a bridge and some hills to go with.
Oh well, learn quick or go home I guess. Anyway, enough babble huh? How did it go? Well, better than expected, worse than imagined. Here's what I did.
I started by using those fancy 9$ rock molds and plaster.
I ran out on the first batch to get that last one filled... Here is how they turned out:
A few bubbles here and there but overall they look pretty good. One broke in half which actually turned out good for me.
On to painting! >.<
The left one is the finished product. The top is the unpainted one. The one on the right is how the instructions told me to paint it... I improvised and am happy with the result.
Next I took some of the unpainted doubles and lined them up how I thought would be cool for the Ledges tile.
Which turned to this:
I took some plaster paper and put it on the MDF as a base. I then glued the rocks to the plaster paper as it was drying. After some time I took some more plaster paper and some of an old sectional chart (read: sky map) to help prop it up in a 'hill like' shape. I made sure to make a small incline on one side of each ledge as a way to make a path up.
Here are a couple more shots:
Painting, flocking and finishing coming up!
Thanks for reading!
(For those other aviators out there. I stuffed the terrain with part of a sectional. I realize that the map I'm using to keep from making a mess is a low-enroute )
Sun May 15, 2011 10:19 pm
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