Woodland / Grassland Hills

 I consider hills to be one of the cornerstones of the tabletop.  Whenever I build a new table, these are one of the first things I count for terrain.  Of course, I'm old school so these hills are 'free-placed' rather than built into any tabletop.  Modular hills - they are ubiquitous, and every table needs some modular hills.

Continuing with the motif of updating the hills from the old club.  Obviously, these were concerned with functionality over aesthetics.  All of these were cut from standard styrofoam, probably cribbed from packaging.  They were then treated like I normally do them - covered in pva to create a hard shell and then spraypainted.  This makes them very sturdy - the big one on the bottom right is almost 25 years old.

The edge-old dilemma of storing these kind of hills is the 'chipping' that will occur as they are tossed around over the decades.  Every time I redo these, this is the #1 thing that must be fixed every single time.  Luckily, I ran across a method I would have never thought of to fix this - or at least heavily mitigate it.

And thus I found - the wet toilet paper method.

The idea apparently is used quite a bit across the terrain-o-sphere, but I got the idea to use it here at the edges of my chipping styro-hills because of the apparent strength granted.  The methodology is simple:  using watered-down PVA glue, you apply a rim of 'wet' toilet paper and let it dry.  This not only hardens the edges of the styrofoam, but also can be spray-painted.

Make sure to get up under there.  Don't worry - it dries flat.  The reason you can see under the rims in some of the pics is because of my tables slight warpage in the center.  

Hey, it's old too.

Once they were dried, I painted them up with some acrylic.

I almost called it done here.  

Yet, I decided to go ahead and apply some flock before I took pics of the table in my dimly lit dungeon.

There's a special mix of flocking material including sand and talus, but it's mostly different colored flocks.

So yeah...I should probably replace my tables or build a new one.  That bend in the middle really grinds my gears, but oh well.  Maybe I should just resurface it.

Wooden Bases for Wood Bases

A lot of terrain needed to be slightly repaired after being removed from the vault.  This set of woods has been with me for more than two decades - and this is not the first time they've been remade with new materials after serving until they aren't so convincing models.  The last time I talked about them at the old club, they looked like this.

Low-altitude VTOL chases are daring ventures, indeed.

These trees are DEFINITELY not the same ones featured in those old pics, so at some point between here and there the trees were replaced with these conifers.

Come to think of it, I think these were once snowtopped - but were repainted.  You can still see some of the light snow coloring.  I guess it's some sort of spruce?  I don't know.  It's an alien Yule-tree.

Lizardmen are known to frequent marshes and bogs.  Always be prepared.

A few of these were early attempts at using water effects.  Scummy ponds and bogs are all over the woodlands.  I've still got most of a bottle of Woodland Scenics Realistic Water.  And a bottle of Water Effects.  

I'm going to need to use those on as many products as I can ... OR dispose of them, properly, if they are no longer able to serve their purpose due to some unseen deterioration.  We'll find out, I suppose.

Brave Republic Clone Troopers advance through the trees to assault the Separatist position.

These bases have been through the Eye of Terror all the way to Northern Russia.  Their bases are an eclectic mix of various sorts of detritus that have been used to repair them over the years...and I love them.  All I really did this time was clean a bit of the old turf off, replace any of the trees that had detached (all of them) and then I got lazy and just added new base material where it was needed.

I used a mix of flocks from different companies, and actually used my static grass applicator for what is basically the first time.  It was neat, but requires space and preparation to use.  These small patches of grass really didn't warrant it, I think.  Maybe I need to GIT GUD and then I'll know how to hold the stick or when in the build order statics are applied.

Maybe I'm thinking about it too hard.  Despite their haphazard and languorous journey, they serve perfectly well.  These bases aren't overwrought with various materials that require super-careful handling - they are meant to serve on the table proudly.  My best guess is, I cut that MDF board 22 years ago.

Warhammer 40,000 3rd Edition Ruins [Desert Edition]

In the far days of yore, there was the Warhammer 40,000 3rd Edition Box Set.  Many of my buddies wound up getting that box, so our club generated lots of these ruins around the year 2000 and 2001.  We didn't really have a club back then, just my living room.  So, all the terrain from all those sets were donated to our budding terrain collection.

These ruins are various ages, but the oldest are 20+ and this is the third or fourth time I've revisited this particular set.  I got my first set in '98 when 3rd Edition dropped, and I continued to acquire new ones from various sources over the next decade.

Admittedly, these ruin sections are not the finest examples of the terrain-maker's art, but they have certainly acquired character over the decades.  To that end, I find I can forgive their cosmetic shortcomings - many of these were done long before we ever even knew how to use much of the material we were trying to use.

"Enemy interceptor inbound!"

Many of us tend to neglect the terrain portion of the hobby for years, and these ruins are quite nostalgic for me.  They make up the mainstay of two of my tables, and much of it could honestly use a little more TLC.

"Go for the eyes!"

While my craft has certainly advanced over all this time, I probably won't ever have to 'start' over with these - but I can't say that for my other set of ruins.  Those are going to require some actual work to make presentable again - but again, like these...I probably won't start completely over.

Desert Hills

Well, I've been 'restoring' terrain.  You know.  Terrain that's ten to twenty years old.  It's nice to find objects in those bins that doesn't need to be fixed.

Truth is I'm not very good at terrain making.  I never have been.  That's why I ended up with things like the following when I was younger...

...and I just kinda keep 'em.

Go to great lengths to get the perfect shot.

These hills were at one point green, having been made that way by a manufacturer.  I didn't like how the flocking was falling out of the glue on them, so I pulled all the flock off (very easy, btw) and gave 'em the Iron Seer hill treatment.

Wait for the white silhouettes, then hose 'em.

Meaning I covered them in watered down PVA, spray painted them and gave them a basic flocking.  They've held up good for the last however many years...I'm going to say about a decade.  Looking at this small collection, I decided it didn't need anything but a better container.

Remember:  Hills may be bigger depending on the scale you set them at.

Battlefield in a Box: Badlands

Here we've got two selections from Gale Force 9's Battlefield in a Box line.  We've had these for a long time now, and they were featured on the old club blog - but it's time to start fixing up the gallery section here.  Also I really like these - I forgot how much I liked this line.  

Best thing about Battlefield in a Box is that you don't really have to do anything to them and they are battle ready.  The pieces are heavy and solid, and in the several years I've had them they don't really seem prone to chipping.  In particular we have two sets here, the Badlands Plateau and the Badlands Bluff.  There are two other sets in this series and now I intend to finally complete the entire set with Badlands Tors and Badlands Pillars.

Obviously there's a lot of cool stuff in the line, especially for 15mm games - Flames of War in particular.  Of course these pieces aren't scale specifics, so they can be placed on a variety of tables and still fit right in.  In these pics I've got them set up on my Tablewar Cave Floor, and it's probably the best match for them - but they look good on any table you want to set them up on.  To fit with a greener theme, just add some flock and static grass.

HeroQuest Tombs, Sorcery and Alchemy

Shadow-Demon Binding 101 - Lesson 1:  Always Shadow-Bind in a well-lit area, especially with demons you don't know personally.

There's a few more gubbins left in the ol' HeroQuest casket.  Miss Anthropy painted up pretty much the whole set in a quick minute, and really did a good job on the weathering of the ancient stone and wood.  These look especially great on dungeon tiles, if you're not using them on the old HeroQuest board.

Which I do NOT have...buuuuut now there's a Kickstarter for a new set and I'm all in.

"Yo, I'm check my pocket-watch - and it says it's time for you layabouts to get your sorry loafs to baking!  So, GET UP!  You're on the clock!"

Of course, the astute will be able to tell that this isn't just one set.  As I've said, I acquired these pieces later on down the line, my own copies (plural) of HeroQuest disappearing in trades over twenty or so years.  Thirty?  Ye gads - more like thirty.

Lesson 6 - Make sure your charms of binding are in the correct order for the type of plane your demon is being summoned from.  Incorrect seating of the "M" rune above certain other sets of runes can be interpreted as dire insults, for which any summoned demon might feel provoked.

Eh, that's what you get I suppose.  Nothing lasts forever, especially the tips on your HeroQuest Sorcerer's Table's candlesticks and Alchemist's Bench Scales.  Those snap right off at some point and they never even bother to tell you about it.  Rude.

Pillars of Good and Evil

Pillars of Good and Evil!

These are Bones models from one of the Kickstarters - honestly I'm not sure which, but you can grab them on the Reaper site.  I had only one of each, but we came across a Frostgrave scenario that requires six such statues.  So a quick order on the webcrawler got me the extra pieces I needed.

Like a lot of projects right now, we didn't have a lot of time to spend on this.  Miss Anthropy made short work of these when she found them on the paint bench.  A layer over the Bones material on each statue, followed by an inking and a highlighting with a lighter color.  Honestly I'm not even sure which paints she used, except that the "good" statues got a Turquoise Glaze that was twenty-plus years old.  I have a whole bottle still...and it worked great!  Naturally.

Good Job, 1990's Games Workshop!

HeroQuest Dungeon Elements

As everyone probably knows by now, I love chests.  I mean, face it - everyone loves chests.  Nice pretty chests, full of ... treasure.  I'm totally talking about HeroQuest pieces.

I like a nice rack.  Just about any size rack is great, as long as it's sturdy and reliable.  I tell you what, I just looking at racks when they are all gussied up.  Nothing quite like admiring a good looking rack.  

You can never have too many racks.  You know, for weapons.  Or otherwise.

HeroQuest Furniture!

So, Heroquest was a board game published by Milton-Bradley way back in 1989, and was one of my first forays into fantasy gaming.  It was a collaboration with Games Workshop, and is still one of the best adventure games out there regarding dungeons and monsters.

"Lady, I already told you not to do that kind of stuff in here 

Alas, so many years later and I do not actually have a copy of Heroquest (I had at least two growing up).  However, somehow - I've managed to grab every piece from the game I could when I ran across them.  As a result, I have lots of the miniatures and furniture - but not the board or any of the cards from the game.

A quiet place amidst the dark of the dungeon.  Noice.

The furniture that I have has been used in countless dungeons and wargame setups.  However, they aren't fully painted.  Some might argue they don't really need painting and for thirty years I've put it off.  However, I wanted to get this done so I could say I have painted Heroquest kit.

"Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyy!"

All of these are fairly simple, but the card portions are intact!  So, naturally those are part of the display...even though there's a clear crease on the fireplace it still resonates with me.  That might be because it's been with me so long...

Warzone Studios' Double-Sided Mat

I've got a lot of miniatures.  If you get a LOT of miniatures, you'll want lots of terrain for them to chillax and party on.  Just kidding, they are going to die horrifically, but you still want it to look nice.  Cue the wave of neoprene mats we've seen in the last few years!

The wonders never cease.  Warzone Studio has double-sided neoprene mats available, so I was eager to see what they had going on.  I had two different terrain sets I was looking to secure new mats for.    Lucky me, I could put a 'green' and a 'brown' mat down for the price of just one.  It was exactly what I was looking for, since at present I only have space for one table at a time. 

The mats, 'Deserted Heart' and 'Homeland', replace two of our old club mats which have gone on to fight fights at another member's home.  I hadn't had a mat for the old terrain sets in a while, and now I'll be able to show them off here...and maybe the restoration of a few pieces.

Side A - Deserted Heart

Sand.  It gets everywhere.  You hate it.

Side B - Homeland

Every time I get one of these, I'm stunned at the detail.  Each one seems more detailed and higher resolution than the last.  Glorious.

"I came all the way out here and you STILL won't let me be?" sayeth the lich.

Having a look at some of the other mats available these days makes me a little more confident to try some seriously weird bases on miniatures.  I'm looking at making purple a viable and good-looking terrain set...and I think it's going to work.  Standing on a mat that compliments those bases makes even cheap miniatures look great.

Technically these miniatures have bases.

Foreboding Skeletons

So, in the bin there have been some painted items that I'm not entirely sure where they came from.  Miss Anthropy painted them, but I only recognize a few pieces from Mordheim.  Depicted above are these foreboding skeletons and the lamps they like to hang out under.  I decided to get these finished and ready for any sort of game involving the undead, since they were mostly finished.

The lamps are from Mordheim, or the Free Company box set from Games Workshop.  It looks like they were stuck on a base to act as lamp-posts for some little village in the Old World.  However, I'm not sure at all where this polite and informative lady came from.

Yep, I have no clear idea where any of this came from.  I would really like some help in identifying these pieces, especially these metal ones.  The lady is very creepy, and I stuck it on a base with a vulture (also metal) to create a sort of objective for ... something. 

Even though I don't really know exactly what these models are or where they came from, they are still cool painted up.   I have lots of models that I have little idea where they came from, and though I try to ID them all sometimes they slip through the dragnet.  If anyone out there recognizes any of these pieces, leave me a comment and let me know what they are so I can properly catalog them!