Charnel pit / rough terrain WIP

I have seen this idea used before for a terrain feature and thought it looked pretty good. When the new WFB rulebook / doorstop came out I noticed the Charnel pit as a terrain feature and decided that it might prove pretty useful to have such a feature, so I set out on a Sunday afternoon to see just how cheaply I could assemble a charnel pit.

The Charnel pit is a area where bodies have not received a proper burial and so their spirits linger on. I thought what is going to be more potent than the lingering spirits of dragons / cold ones.

After a short period of time I had the basic components;

Brought;
Small toy pack containing 3 dinosaur skeletons £1.00 GBP
1 pack of four self adhesive plastic floor tiles £1.00 GBP
From the hobby cupboard;
Glue, modeling sand & grass, paint & stones

Step one was to get out my saw and cut the bodies length wise to double the number of bodies I have. I then got out the snipers and cut up the bodies to try and generate a look of a collapsed skeleton. The bones were then arranged on the self adhesive tiles, which were cut to interesting shapes;

The bases were then covered in PVA glue and stones and sand were added in the conventional way.

The last step is then just to paint and flock...

Very simple and very quick, but I like the look of the pieces. Hope you do too. Six terrain features for £2.00 GBP and enough tiles left over for loads more fun yet.

I am now off on holiday / vacation for two weeks. So no posts until I come back. I am off to North Africa so I may be brimming over with ideas for tomb kings, or maybe not. Until then, have fun...

Secrets of the third reich: Soviet survivor platoon

I have no completed my first platoon for Secrets of the third reich (SOTR). The platoon is a Soviet survivor platoon which contains;

A Sergeant

Corporal

PTRD Anti-Mech rifle

...and 5 privates armed with PPSH-Ks

I believe that they look a lot better painted. Helmets are taken from the Berlin or bust range of figures and the grass is a mixture of Silfur and GW.

I have attempted to use an ameba pattern on the capes, but I'm not convinced that I've got it quite right.

Time to move on to the next unit.

Jungle (ish) terrain

In August of last year my local club hosted a small local friendly tournament, which we invited clubs from across the county to attend. It attracted a fair number of players and good fun was had by all. The only slight fly in the ointment was that our clubs quality and variety of terrain received some negative feedback.

Players who were not familiar with our club suggested that with the exception of a few show pieces, the scenery was quite scruffy and did not appear to have a consistent look. It didn't hang together well. It was also suggested that the boards were a bit bashed and damaged.

As a club this came as a bit of a body blow. We had got quite used to the look of the scenery and hadn't recognised the problems with it. After a brief period of indignation, we stepped back and looked at what we had got. Isn't it funny how it takes a stranger coming in to point out the obvious to you..

We have since moved to rectify the problem. We went through our stock of scenery and threw out some of the older and shabbier items. We have since run a terrain building competition, which although did not have many entries did produce a number of high quality items.

We then set about creating a standard colour scheme and presentation style for all scenery. For example we have decided that all ground is to be painted scorched earth which is then to be dry-brushed up to bleach bone and flocked using a consistent flock. If nothing else it helps make all items of scenery look as if they are meant to be used together.

We have also tried to make our scenery more robust by adding board to the bottom of hills etc.

We have now set about replacing items that need it and adding to fill gaps that  exist. A couple of weeks ago I knocked to gether a whole load of bases for woods.

As part of this process, I have been busy bashing together scatter terrain for (alien) jungles. There is nothing new or unusual about the terrain or the process used. It is just bits and pieces salvaged off plastic flowers and cheap fish tank plants.

I tried fixing to a thin plastic taken from washing powder boxes, but that just warped, so in the end I have reverted to figure bases, and huge variety of bases as-well. Essentially anything that is left over from my various projects. I finally landed on the simplest system which was to sand, paint and flock the base before adding the plants. the plant holes need to be drilled in and then glued using plastic glue. No other glue appears to provide the level of robustness that I am after.

I have prepared and painted enough to cover an A3 sheet with no gaps between. Spread out that should be enough. regardless, I am bored of the whole thing now, so that will have to do for a while.