# The making of a gaming board (WHFB and 40k)



## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Hey folks,

I haven't exactly been in a painting frenzy lately because there is a bit of a big project going on right now. Since I moved out, I went to the trouble of creating my own 4' x 6' gaming board for both m 40k and fantasy battle.

So before I decided on what the surface looks like, I went to the hardware store and got 3 multiplex sheets. I opted for multiplex (despite it's higher cost) because it's less likely to warp compared to the cheaper MDF boards. I ordered 3 1.8 cm thick boards of 60 cm by 120 cm. 

Those three board were then reinforced with 4cm x 4cm beams running down the side. This makes for a rather heavy, but very solid construction:










For the surface, I decided on using a lot of cork. Mainly because virtually all my bases have cork on them, and it's a relatively cheap way to cover your table. I'm going to go for a more urban grey for 40k, but add some patches of static grass. The theme for WHFB is not yet decided... It could be chaos waste, skaven infested empire town or ruined dwarf stronghold. Feel free to comment on what you think is best. 

The cork was bought as a giant roll and I decided to tear large chuncks of it off and glue it to the board. This was a bit of a lenghty proces, because the cork had a tendency to roll back up again. It had to be firmly pressed down with books to stay in position.




























So after that was all finished, the holes were filled up with some polyfilla and lightly sanded. Some patches of fine sand were glued randomly to create some different textures.










Next, the whole board was covered in cheapo white wall primer. Because the cork soaks up so much of the paint, two coats had to be applied. Next, the white primer was given a thin coat of grey that was airbrushed on with a 0.4mm needle:





































As you can see, it's not the most even coat by miles... but it doesn't have to be imo... I kinda like the variation and I don't think I'll be applying a second coat to even it out. 

I will be adding a coat or two of black wash on the surface (again, my airbrush will assist me in this). After that has dried, a light drybrush will finish the paintwork and some random, small patched of static grass will be applied into the cracks. 

Hope you like it!


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

The cork roll is a very interesting idea. I will have to remember that if I ever have space to build my own board.


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## Chaosftw (Oct 20, 2008)

Love it! The Cork is a great tool for basing, terrain pieces, and now apparently whole tables!

I totally agree that the coat should not be even! I think it looks more realistic! looking forward to seeing the next phase!

Chaosftw


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

I'm already on the next phase. I just finished applying a coat of black wash to the surface, adding a bit of depth and creating even more variation in the grey tones to keep it somewhat visually appealing:





































Next up will be a drybrush with some lighter grey to pick up a bit of the finer texture. I first have to wait untill all the wash has had a few hours to fully cure.


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## Chaosftw (Oct 20, 2008)

Interesting, and the Cork did not absorb the wash at all? have you not found any bubbling?


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

And the drybrush has been applied as well. I'll be finishing this off tomorow. I'm contemplating doing a final, even lighter drybrush as well focused around the cracks, what do you guys think? Should I, or should I leave it like this?


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Chaosftw said:


> Interesting, and the Cork did not absorb the wash at all? have you not found any bubbling?


There has been no bubbling so far. The cork did absorb the first two primer layers like a friggin' sponge. That wasn't really a problem though, as I had some leftover white wall primer, cheap stuff... so it didn't really matter.

It was then sprayed with a mix of vallejo white and black airbrush primer. So the cork was so saturated with paint that it didn't really get too absorbed.


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## TheReverend (Dec 2, 2007)

Man, this looks like a really good idea. did you not think of layering the cork in a couple of places to create a bit of height? 

great work though

Rev


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

I'm trying to keep this one as flat as I possibly can. Mainly because small hight differences tend to be a royal pain in the butt for fantasy battle.

I will be adding scenery for 40k that will be mounted on wooden, squared bases. They will have some sort of curb modelled on them, so it'll look like a cracked, ruined street for a more urban setting. 

And I'm contemplating going for an overrun dwarven hall for the fantasy terrain. A couple of nice mozaïcs or rune-inscribed zones with different hight should make it more interesting and would still allow me to swap between game systems...


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

To better illustrate what I mean for the urban terrain, here's a few shots of my mate's gaming table:














































Now his board is smaller because his table isn't that big. He also opted to go full snow (obviously still WIP, he ran out of snowflock) for his urban terrain to create the contrast. I'll be using the same sort of base for my stuff, only with a curb or maybe a hazard stripe pattern so the actualy board will function as a road.

BTW, I didn't make any of these buildings. These are all made from scratch with handcut wooden panels. He's a carpenter by profession and stunningly good at working with wood. It really is rock solid scenery... I'm hoping to convince him to do a few pieces for me as well, should I be so lucky. :biggrin:

It's a joy to play on his terrain, but sadly, points are a bit limited due to it's size.


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## Moriouce (Oct 20, 2009)

This looks great! Love the cork and will pick that up for future projects.


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## JI7 (Mar 10, 2011)

This is a really nice table and its good to see such inventive use of the cork. It kinda reminded me of a lava flow that has begun to cool and crack. Good work.


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## Chaosftw (Oct 20, 2008)

I like the simplicity of the table. Sometimes to many sloping pieces just make models fall and have less of an appeal. keep the board simple! It looks great! I do think that the terrain can make or break a table so make em count!


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

elmir said:


> I'm contemplating doing a final, even lighter drybrush as well focused around the cracks, what do you guys think? Should I, or should I leave it like this?


The cracks are already quite high contrast so I feel highlighting the edges would risk making them into gaping chasms.

Genrally as it will be covered by scenery and miniatures I have always found a plainer base table works well. If you are looking to add some variation possibly a patchy dry-brush of another period neutral colour such as rust brown would work without making it too busy.


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## jaysen (Jul 7, 2011)

The board looks great. My only concern is the weight. How heavy is it? Will you need to transport it back and forth?


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## Gothic (May 12, 2008)

The board is brilliant, only concern like Jaysen said is the weight and my opinion for the WHFB board is do the skaven one as i have never seen a skaven board so it would make a change plus im a skaven player.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

jaysen said:


> The board looks great. My only concern is the weight. How heavy is it? Will you need to transport it back and forth?


Hefty... I'm not exactly sure what the precise weight would be, but I reckon it's easily over 10 kg. This really isn't made to carry it around to somebody else's place. Not unless you have something like a pickup truck.

But then again, this is a project to enjoy the basics of wargaming really: the beer and pretzel game. Just a good, solid board... coupled with some modular terrain to enjoy a game with a case of beer in case one of my mates comes over. The size of the table alone would make transportation difficult. Maybe even setup a campaign game. 

If you want light and easily transportable, I'd look at the realm of battle board, or similar products from zitterdes. It's good stuff, although expensive. Not that building your own board is supercheap either. The wood alone cost me almost €50, but I opted for quality over cheapness.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Dave T Hobbit said:


> The cracks are already quite high contrast so I feel highlighting the edges would risk making them into gaping chasms.
> 
> Genrally as it will be covered by scenery and miniatures I have always found a plainer base table works well. If you are looking to add some variation possibly a patchy dry-brush of another period neutral colour such as rust brown would work without making it too busy.


You know, part of me was thinking this as well. Personally I do love me some high contrast, but for terrain, it might be a bit too much... So I followed what you said and just left it as it is.

I did add a bit of variation in another way today though. I used some of my "dry grass" static flock in the cracks on the ground, to represent weeds and other things growing in the now visible undergrowth. Here's a pic:










With some closeups because the overvieuw doesn't show off the changes that much:



















And now a little preview! I revieved this a loooong time ago from that mate of mine who made the scenery earlier in this thread. He had made some wall out of foamcore board but decided not to use them. He thought they were a little too "flimsy" compared to the solid wooden constructions he made, so he donated wall sections:










Obviously these are WIP, but I will be giving them a new lick of paint to bring them up to date with the rest of my aegis defence line terrain. So the idea is to refurbish these walls and perhaps add one or two bastions and a landing pad to create a decent looking board. All it need then, are some bombblasts in the ground and I reckon job's a good'un!

Here's a few detail shots of the WIP terrain:
































































BTW, my mate made the walls high enough to be a TLoS blocker for a Rhino chasis even before TLoS existed in the rules. Bless him! Should make for interesting games. I believe even a landraider is safe behind one of these walls. 

Hope you like it! Feel free to add any ideas that might pop into your head for this board. Input is always apreciated!


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## Chaosftw (Oct 20, 2008)

Elmir, 

As much as I LOVE the board I am going to be straight with you and say that I don't think the terrain does your board justice. The walls are nice and easy to work with (painting wise AND model friendly) but I just think your board needs dead trees and look more like a barren waste.

Ether way the board looks great and the terrain is well made so good on ya!

Chaosftw


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Oh yeah, these walls still don't look the part. They'll be getting a good revamp. I was thinking of maybe adding some overgrowth to them here and there, just to make it look slightly more abandoned and slightly more "wasteland" like. 

I'm also contemplating on makeing a few gothic ruins with chaos icons in it or glowing demonic crystals or something, too make it look rather twisted, as if chaos itself damaged the world. It would also fit my GK army a TON! I was thinking of using the pegasus hobby gothic ruins for the buildings. 

The GW dead trees are definatly going to be purchased at some point, most likely when I start on the fantasy setup. I'm currently leaning towards a skaven infested empire village (one that has been nearly stripped clean of any life and plants), I think the board should be able to match that as well. Ofcourse dwarf is also still an option I'm considering. In the end... this should be usable for a couple of things.


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## Saulot (May 25, 2011)

Great job elmir! It looks great! And fairly quick too, based on your posts. Will have to remember this when I attempt to make my own board (in the far future).


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## notsoevil (Nov 30, 2010)

Damn, I love that cork idea. I actually fully regret buying my urban gaming mat from Zuzzy now. :\


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

The board was fairly quick, yes. The most lengthy proces was glueing on the bits of corkroll really. Mainly because I had to weigh it down with books as I went along. And then the PVA had to cure for roughly half an hour before it set enough to prevent the cork rolling back up again. 

Painting was done in 2 days as well. Cheapo white wall primer dries slowly and 2 coats were applied 



> Damn, I love that cork idea. I actually fully regret buying my urban gaming mat from Zuzzy now. :


I don't think you should be dispappointed with that choice. It was the one I was considering, but it was a bit of a pain to get it delivered to the EU. So I decided to experiment with the cork instead. I think you should get a very similar result if you glue the zuzzy mat down on a wooden panel, although that would make it nearly impossible to transport it around.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Small update: This little project has been waiting for a next cashinjection and that happened this weekend.

After some shopping at our local hobby store and GW, I came home with these things:










So the decision has been made to opt for the gothic style buildings from the pegasus range. I'm going to combine a few sets into a larger building (or two) and make 2 different "bases"for them. 

One with electrical wires, aquilas, barrels of oil, ammo crates, the GW statue etc for use in a 40k game obviously. The other base for the same building will feature more wooden structures, some lightning generators, warpstone altars, breeding nests,... To make it into a Skaven overrun Empire town. I might also make a few custom roof sections for the pegasus kits, one more fitting for 40k, the other more fitting to WHFB. 

The whole idea is to kill two birds with one stone here. I don't want to cheap out on the actual terrain itself, but I do want to make things that will be usable for both systems. Now I'm off to clean the moldlines off the kits and see what I can come up with to assemble. Sadly, there were no more pegasus ruins available, so it might all just be brainstorming untill they arrive.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

And some quick scraping, cleaning and sticking things together yielded this...


















































































... and a few bloody fingers.

I do love these pegasus gothic kits though. It didn't take long at all to make this building and I still have plenty of stuff over to make a smaller one too. I'm going to pass on that though and wait for some more ruin boxes to continue. 

Finishing this thingand making a nice scenic base for it will take long enough I reckon.

Any feedback on things I should change or any suggestions on how to continue from here on out are more then welcome.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Not that much interest in this one it seems 

I'm having a blast making this terrain though. It's my first serieus attempt at scenery in general, so it's a refreshing difference in pace compared to small miniatures. 

Anyway, there were a couple of "easier" pieces in the bits that I bought... like the WHFB woods. I had decided to go for a skaven themed board. The idea is to depict an empire town that got overrun by skaven. 

Now ofcourse, the skaven would need a damn good reason to occupy this territory for long, so I decided to mimic the Mordheim storyline somewhat, and to make this empire town (needs a name yet, I'm running low on creative juices aka wiskey) the site of a recent meteor from Morrslieb crash. 

This would mean the entire area is scattered with chunks of raw warpstone and this attracts all sorts of unwanted attention and would set the scene for many battles and even storms of magic.

So I painted to forest like this:




























The idea is that a few chunks of the warpstone forced the trees into a supergrowth and twisted them in the proces. So I did some OSL around the base and made it match my own skaven army (I'll post some pics at a later date with my skaven in there, the batteries of my DSLR are just recharging). 

Hope you like it!

Feedback and CC is apreciated as always


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

elmir said:


> Not that much interest in this one it seems


I have been having some issues with accessing the internet so I had not maanged to look at the pictures.

I do not like the finials; they look like a mining drill bit, so I would have left/cut them off.

If you are feeling swanky, you could use transparent sheet to glaze the windows; if you are really swanky the panels look small enough that you could use transparent paint to stain glaze.



elmir said:


> The idea is that a few chunks of the warpstone forced the trees into a supergrowth and twisted them in the proces.


Excellent idea and well executed.

I received a pack of GW obstacles in September which I wanted to personalise when I had time; so :ireful2: to you for making me want to do it now.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Dual update to go along with my skavenblog found here: http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?t=93266



















And a bit of copy paste to show you how this was made:

So the warpstone infested terrain is starting to grow in size! These were completely scratchbuild however. The craters were bases around some polystereen core, covered in brick morter and some pebbles were added for more randomness. The warpstone chunks are cut from compressed polystereen and covered in 2 coats of PVA mixed with dark angels green... to get that cleaner, glossy finish (as opposed to the grainy surface of cut polystereen). 

Hope you like it! It's always fun to kill two birds with one stone when making terrain...  At a pinch, I reckon these could go on a chaos demonworld too, although for some reason, I associate demons more with purple glow.


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## bunkertube (Sep 19, 2011)

Im really a big fan of what you've done with the cork board there mate, looks great.

Top stuff, its gotten me inspired to get out and replace my crappy old table.

I really wish cork sheeting like that was more readily available where i live, I swear i've searched high and low for that stuff for a good year (intended to use for basing models)


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## notsoevil (Nov 30, 2010)

That gothic building from Pegasus is damn nice, but also huge! Going to take up a big chunk of your board, no?

Would it not be better off broken up in to multiple sets of ruins?


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## Disciple_of_Ezekiel (May 23, 2010)

Hmmmm, great idea with the cathedral. I have the same one, but never thought of adding another kit to it to enhance it further...might steal your idea Elmir....MUHAHAHAHAHAHA!


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

Shiny rocks.

Also, a good description of the technique you used.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

notsoevil said:


> That gothic building from Pegasus is damn nice, but also huge! Going to take up a big chunk of your board, no?
> 
> Would it not be better off broken up in to multiple sets of ruins?


That gothic building is indeed going to be a massive thing. The base I intend to make for it, will be 60 cm x 60 cm (basicaly 2' x 2' if my none metric isn't failing here). But the great thing about these things, is that they are really easily accessible. Hell, even my skaven clanrat horde fits inside this terrain and still has plenty of room left for other regiments. So it'll be still be "gamefriendly" I reckon.

I find that those "in between sizes" for terrain don't work. Their small size actually makes them more of a hassle during gameplay because you cannot place miniatures inside them. As long as the base of the building will have removable items, you can garrison them with whatever you want. 

Plus, the pegasus hobby kit has soo many windows, that fighting to take hold of a building shouldn't be that much of a hassle. I still have to find a good way to remove the butresses on the sides though... maybe magnetize them.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

I finished a bit of extra terrain for my board. This time around, it's for 40k though. I decided to make a bit of a city square with the GW space marine statue on it. It was really easy to make:



















Should be a good place to fight over objectives and with the extra hight of the polysteren , it can block TLoS to footsloggers, but not enough to hide tanks (although they will be obscured).

*edit* oh, and this piece is 30cm x 30 cm (that's 12" x 12" for those not used to the metric system). I'm going to keep all bases for 40k project at this size, so I can get a checkerboard setup going during games (to make it look a bit more urban).


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## Moriouce (Oct 20, 2009)

Just love the Imperial square centerpiace. So simple, so fantastic, concider it copied


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## troybuckle (Nov 24, 2010)

Center piece look ace, can wait to see this board all set up with all that sweet terrain you have! Keep up the good work.


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## Digg40k (Sep 7, 2008)

Let us be honest. It is every gamers true wish to have a place of their own in which they can have a fantastic gaming board. You're living then dream as far as I'm concerned, a very nice board with increasingly awesome terrain options. I wish I was either your friend or you. Jealous.  Good job mate.


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## omgitsduane (May 14, 2008)

Wrecking up cork board and simply gluing it to a table? HOW DID NO ONE EVER THINK OF THIS?! This looks really cool so far, waiting to see more terrain!


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Oh, and there is an update for this blog as well! I'm currenlty making a second square, this time using the aquilla from the GW terrain:




























Same basic principle, but only one staircase now, because the aquilla is substantially larger then the statue. Add some aegis defence line barricades and it should be ready after a lick of paint.

Unfortunatly, some of my projects are forced into a screeching halt, including some terrain work... Mainly because I found out what happens to quickshade if you don't close the lid of the pot good enough:










So the focus will be on my greyknights again untill I can get my hands on this strongtone quickshade again... At a reasonable price, because some of local plastic crack dealers are charging double the price of wayland games/maelstrom. :shok:


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## troybuckle (Nov 24, 2010)

I would like to see some pics of your table all set up!! I recently had to put mine in storage because we had no room for it anymore, but i do have the realm of battle board now and i have to say i like it a lot!


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Oh, but I'm not anywhere close to finishing this thing... Some pieces are finished, but not nearly enough to my taste.

And to put a little update on this plog as well, I took a few snapshots of the gigantic cathedral I recently made. I managed to drill away some of the extra pins with my dremel and undercoated the whole thing black:



















The white dwarf in that second picture should give a good estimate of the size of this huuuughe thing...

And I then proceded to put a bit of a grey coat on it, followed with some pure white airbrushed on. To create a bit more colourvariation, I added some brown pastel chalk mix into the recesses, just so it wouldn't all be grey and dull. It's not done yet, but I had to take a break, so I took some pictures:




























So after the the pastel chalks are done, I'll be doing a few minor OSL sprays with yellow around the torches and cover the whole thing in ebony black woodstain that I picked up at the hardware store... To shade and to protect the paintwork from the rigours of the battlefield.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

So... That woodstain I bought was blacker then anticipated! And not in this way:






More in this kind of way:




























But some drybrushing with grey and white brought that back in line with what I hoped it would look like.



















The doors still need to be done in that brass colour, but that'll be done soon as well. After that's done, it'll be time to start on the base for this badboy to make it blend in with the board a bit more.


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## Hellados (Sep 16, 2009)

oh mate i love it, + rep and what scale is the church?


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

The church is for 28mm wargaming. It's a combination of different boxes from pegasus hobbies and the building is roughly 18" wide, 20" long, 12" high. I'll be taking some pictures soon with a few models to show the scale of the thing


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## troybuckle (Nov 24, 2010)

Very nice work on the church man, the end resiult after the drybrushing is very nice!


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## Midge913 (Oct 21, 2010)

Very cool project from beginning to present my man! Very inspirational, I just wish I had the room to store a couple of different table tops for my table.


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

Overall, it is looking excellent.

I am undecided about the light spill from the lamps; it seems to cut off rather sharply rather than diffusing onto the adjacent faces.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Yeah... sadly the OSL got a bit ruined by the combination of the superblack woodstain and the heavy drybrush afterwards to recover it....


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Ok, took a quicky of this building now the drybrushing is complete. I also added a few of my GKs for size comparison and I also used my stormraven as a model to show how many unit could possibly be deployed within this structure:










Hope that answers any questions related to size! :biggrin:

So next up is the base (wich is still quite a bit of work), and then some custom made balconies on the second floor that should allow models to also deploy on multiple stories. That'll be the last stage of this thing though. I was thinking about adding a roof at a much later date (removable ofcourse), but I think I'd better focus on other things to get a game ready table ASAP.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Hey folks.

I got the table out today. Mainly because I decided to cover this one in woodstain as well. After only 2 battles, parts of it already started to chip off every now and then. The table wasn't varnsished yet, but the woodstain will provide the first "hardcoat" and it'll be followed up by a matt spray. 

I did take a couple shots of how the table currently looks. I decided to opt for the 40k loadout, because the fantasy battle terrain isn't as fleshed out yet. So a few WIP shots:































































































































The biggest additions to it this far is the second square with the aquilla from the "honoured imperium" battlefield set and the moonscape pieces to add a bit of area terrain on the board.

I'll be picking up 2 bastions to flesh it out even more later on today. I'm thinking of putting them up on these 30cm x 30cm bases too, just to stay in the theme of the board.


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

It looks excellent laid out.

I am looking forward to seeing the whole Fantasy layout.


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## apidude (Nov 10, 2010)

Great looking board. I'm getting the urge to do some terrain/scenery pieces but don't have anywhere to store anything as big as a table top so I have to live vicariously through others who don't share that affliction.

Keep up the good work. I'm subscribing to this one and heres some rep.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Thanks for the feedback guys. 

So I went to my buddy and the DIY store to pick up more supplies and goodies for the terrain. Mainly some more polysterene board and the old "imperial strongpoint box" (basically 2 bastions and 3 more aegis defence lines). The bastions will be put on a raised part as well, making the board look more like this:










Oh... and the board also got 2 coats of matt polyurethane varnish. It's not the mattest ever, but it'll do... and it definatly reduced the shiny of the woodstain quite a bit. For now, it'll have to do. 

I also took a few WIPs for the polysterene base made for the church part, along with a possible loadout of aegis defence line barricades:



















A bit of drawing, cutting and one messy room later:





































Suggestions for the colour of the tiles inside the church? Where I live, a red tile seems pretty common... although I'm not sure what others make of it. I could try green marble with the airbrush...


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## Uveron (Jun 11, 2011)

> Suggestions for the colour of the tiles inside the church? Where I live, a red tile seems pretty common... although I'm not sure what others make of it. I could try green marble with the airbrush...


Personally, 

a) I would start with a base colour that looks about the same as your board, then I would drybrush/paint/airbrush in a second lighter (white or yellow) hilight, I would also paint the center of each square with a "patch" of sligly gloss varnish, to give the effect of a polished floor.. 

Or B) Paint the base the same colour as your board, then add a fine level of varnish, then try and paint some art on the floor.. red with yellow lined edges (http://www.thatpainterlady.com/wp-content/uploads/painted-persian-floor-rug.jpg) and a imperial aquiglia, then use some sand paper to scrach off this lighty to expose some of the based "natural" stone colour.. sould give the addect of somewhere that has been illcared for recently.


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## Hellados (Sep 16, 2009)

I like the idea of green or a dark blue, red i believe would be limiting


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## troybuckle (Nov 24, 2010)

I think a marble of blue, white and gray would look ace!


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

Given the size of the squares they look more like flagstones than tiles to me, so I would go for the same colour as the walls.

If you are feeling really detailed, churches without crypts (such as yours) often have graves beneath the floor, so you could paint/sculpt some of the flags as grave-markers


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Hmmm, that last one is true... But unfortunatly, it's a bit late... because I just finished doing the blue/grey/white marble floor. I took a few WIPs while doing that (wouldn't be much of a plog without plenty pictures right?!) 

So to start off, I glues sand and some stones to the rest of the base, and painted that thing up, using primer and woodstain. This takes 24 hours to fully cure, but it leaves a very strong finish, because the polysterene does absorb the woodstain. 

So it went from this:










To this: 










Using nothing but white and black primer, coupled with brown and black woodstain afterwards.

Next up, the excisting paintwork was taped off to do the marble effect. It started by just giving a bit of a blue hue by lightly airbrushing on some Prusian blue from vallejo model colour:










Then, using some grey, white, some very diluted blue and some plastic wrap, I made the marble effect:










I tried to emulate this marble type. It didn't turn out 100% identical however... 










Next up, the sand on top of the base got drybrushed in a vallejo ocre yellow + white mix. I would have used regular bleached bone, but I'm running a bit low on that atm...



















The church isn't glue to the base yet. It will be once some more detailing will be done, and the edges around the church will be tidied up a bit to make a more fluent transition, and some dust weathering on the stonework. 

To finish off, I used the same colour to drybrush the other 2 pieces from the honoured imperium set, to get a more cohesive look: 



















The sides will also need some extra drybrushing to bring them out again. 

Oh, and to finish off, a few sneakpeaks of what's to come for the bastions and those wall sections my buddy made ages ago. By an extreme stroke of dumb luck, they are compatible as hell! Should be fun to make some planetfall terrain this way:










Stay tuned for more updates


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## Midge913 (Oct 21, 2010)

Brilliant work once again elmir! Loving the church and the board.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Thanks man. It's small updates at a time for now... I'm trying to do a little each day and hopefully have a good playsurface soon enough.


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## Siskin (Mar 23, 2010)

Great inspirational work! 
I will be keeping a close eye on this plog, I will have to at some point finish my board.

keep it up

Siskin


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## Moonschwine (Jun 13, 2011)

Loving it. Your Marble effect on the church is simply genius. The cork-idea; possible the best one I've seen on Heresy since I joined! 

Overall I'll be watching this Plog with great interest and will be only rep'ing you when I can give out the amount you truly deserve !


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Thanks for the encouraging words guys. 

I've been doing lots of airbrush work today to finish the first of the two bastions. It's not 100% done, because the door and the bolters still have to be put in, but that won't be nearly as much work as the actual bastion itself. 

Here's a few shots of the thing before I start adding weathering to make it look like it took a beating or 2 during it's service.



















I'm also refurbishing some of the big walls that my buddy made out of foamcore board to go with the bastions. That'll take a litte longer to cure though, because I used woodstain on those things. :grin:


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## Midge913 (Oct 21, 2010)

Nice looking pieces once again buddy. I love the grey-green tone you went for. Look forward to seeing the weathering.


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## troybuckle (Nov 24, 2010)

Quick work man, its looking good!


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## Kelann08 (Nov 22, 2011)

Read this whole thing and not only is your work absolutely amazing/inspiring but you're working so QUICKLY! I cannot wait to see it all laid out and ready for play. Maybe you'll do a battle report...eh? :wink:


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Speed really is the thing I'm aiming for here. In my previous experience: long projects = dead projects. I always admire others who manage to painstakingly finish very long ardeous projects (like blackadder's scratch build thunderhawk for instance).

I'm the kind of guy who would have given up on it just because I need to see progression fast. Ofcourse, having an airbrush does speed things up nicely for me! 

Speaking of another fast job, the refurbishment of the walls went nice and fast as well. It still needs a final drybrush for the extreme highlights, but the airbrushing work on the walls is done. I tied them in with the new bastions (second one got finished too while I was doing the walls). 

A little WIP shot of how the shading and highlighting is done so quickly:









A before and after. I use my primer to act as a subcoat for the highlights. This makes it looks like this once more lights hit it:










I'm now able to make a "fortress wall" for meatgrinder style missions or planetfall stuff. So a few more shots of that setup, combined with what I have thus far:




























I'm thinking of adding a bit more in the centre of it all, 2 more bastions on a raised bit, with a central bridge segment connecting the 2 inner bastions and it should look ok. I'll also be ordering some more ruined buildings from pegasus hobbies to create one or 2 more buildings to get a more urban feel going. And maybe a landing pad somewhere on there for good measure...

MOAR!!


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## Hellados (Sep 16, 2009)

I really like the project, I couldn't use my guard on your board, wouldn't fit 

Also as a little comment i can't help but think the stands that the church etc are on are either a little plain or too big but i think they look a little wrong for some reason


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## texcuda (Aug 17, 2010)

Looks great! I particularly like the Bastions and fortress walls. The raised platforms for the church, etc look out of place to me. IDK but I like the business of the board, lots of things to hide behind, difficult terrain, etc. Where did you get your cork? I have been looking here locally and it is darn expensive. Roughly $150 US for a 4' x 100' roll. Obviously I do not need 100' but that was the only way I could find a 4' wide piece.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

The bases do look a little off now, with the recent drybrush of ocre yellow and white mix. I'm thinking about darkening that up a bit again with either a wash or the dark brown quickshade again... It turned out a bit too light. It'll need to be darkened to blend in a bit more with the cork lining of the board. 


The raised parts for the bases was done intentionally to provide more LoS blocking across the board. 

The cork is something that's readily available here in Europe. I think I paid €35 (that's like 45$-50$ I reckon) for a roll of 50 cm wide (20") and like 10m (35ish feet I think...) long. I just picked it up at a local DIY. I would look into a smaller roll personally. Mine was made in multiple strips and the gaps were filled with a pot of polyfilla.


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## Hellados (Sep 16, 2009)

hey elmir it just took me 2-3 weeks to spot something wrong and you knew anyway (<- gutted  )


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## texcuda (Aug 17, 2010)

elmir said:


> The bases do look a little off now, with the recent drybrush of ocre yellow and white mix. I'm thinking about darkening that up a bit again with either a wash or the dark brown quickshade again... It turned out a bit too light. It'll need to be darkened to blend in a bit more with the cork lining of the board.
> 
> 
> The raised parts for the bases was done intentionally to provide more LoS blocking across the board.
> ...


I'll have to some more looking around here for cork. Thx for the info!


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## Prometheus41k (Oct 6, 2011)

Im thinking of starting up a gaming club. Picked up some good ideas on here. Thanks.


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## Bogg (Mar 2, 2008)

cork ftw!!!


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## Disciple_of_Ezekiel (May 23, 2010)

Elmir, this board is looking fantastic dude! I want to come over and get a game in...JUST FANTASTIC MAN! I really like what you have done with the Pegasus kits, I have some laying around just need to paint them up. Again, great job man!

+Rep

Regards,
DoE


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## Pride365 (Apr 17, 2012)

This is a really cool table and I wish I could make one my self!


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## jlaughter001 (Mar 15, 2011)

Very nice and inspiring work! I absolutely love the space marine statue square...I may have to do something like that, just orkinated (read: completely destroyed).


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Bit of a necro, but with 6th edition immenent, I finally got around to adding some weathering to this thing.

After some spongy love and a bit of powder it looks like this: (unfortunatly, my spray varnish went wonky on me again, wich is why there are some white dots all over the model...  )














































I might try to cover the white dots with some black/brown paint later on... Varnish woes are the bane of my excistence!!


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## Josh101 (Dec 16, 2011)

Personally I would leave the smaller white dots on it, not sure why it just looks, actually not sure but they look cool on it.:biggrin:


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Finished all these (except for 1 of the bastions) in a single (very productive) day with the airbrush, weathering powder and lots of washes:














































They might get a bit of extra loving when I pick out more details, but for now... these are ready for the battlefield!


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

Snazzy work.

My only niggle is that the wall does not seem to quite mesh with the bastions.


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## .Bragg. (Mar 7, 2012)

I'd have to second that, the colour scheme is perfect but due to the walls blunt and broad shape; it doesn't gel too well with the bastions.

You could create some trimming similar to the bastion? I mean this lightly as the rest of the scenery is incredible!


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

It's going to be difficult to add something extra to the walls now, seeing how they are covered in sand rather then having a smooth texture like the premade GW terrain. 

Those walls really are made to go gel together with themselves more however... They are meant to "block off" certain areas for tanks (except skimmers ofcourse) during games. 

Anyway, I finished some aegis defence lines today. Only 1/3 is finished, the rest is still in progress as I got a crapload of them when I bought 3 of my own and then recieved an imperial strongpoint box from friends as a gift...


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## .Bragg. (Mar 7, 2012)

That's understandable about the wall, looks great anyway. Excellent new editions here too!


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