Wednesday 20 April 2016

Desert Terrain

I am chairman of our local gaming club here in Shrewsbury UK, and we have been doing a revamp of our clubs terrain and boards following a venue change, which has significantly reduced the rates we have to pay, enabling us do a complete revamp of our gaming tables, and invest in some FAT mats and themed terrain to fit in with them. I took on the task of painting a desert type board to go with the barren wasteland mat we had purchased.

The club treasurer did a fantastic job sourcing and modifying a bunch of terrain, including GW age of sigmar kits and Amira vacuum formed walls and hills. He added plasticard, cardboard and basing to make the kits not only functional in game (adding floors to buildings for LOS etc.) but extending the value we could get out of the kits. Alas I forgot to take any pics of it all before painting but he did put alot of effort into it and they look great.

I took a photo of the colours on the mat and set about matching them to my existing colour collection. I purchased some vallejo air paint and used my airbrush to lay down the base brown colour. I then highlighted up with various browns, yellows and bone colours in patches all over, to get the mottled look similar to the mat. The buildings were drybrushed with a grey mix so they stood out a little from the bases and looked a little more like stone brick than red mud. Once all the colours were done I mixed a brown wash and lathered this all over the buildings and bases, not only to tie them all together, but also for that additional bit of shading that wa lacking through all the mixing and drybrushing. As a final touch I added some dried grass to the bases. I feel that static grass always adds a bit of life into scenery if done well (although obviosly it is not always suitable for some terrain themes) and I think it works pretty well here.

I have to say I am pretty pleased with how this all came out, and having played a couple of games on it now I am chuffed our club has a decent board (one of many now) for games of 40k, KOW, AOS etc.

NafNaf

 

12 comments:

  1. That's a great looking table! Nice work!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers dude. Not too shabby for a days work i think :)

      Delete
  2. Well played. I like the muted colours all matching in and then the vibrant warpflame on the gates.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Rory. The flames make a nice focal point for the table, as the tones are all quite muted. That's why I added the grass too, to make it slightly less plain

      Delete
  3. Looks awesome. I'd be very happy to play on that board (might even match the new bases on my White Scars!).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers dude. I have had a few games on it now and it works pretty well and looks good too. Matches my DE bases pretty well too :)

      Delete
  4. Hi Dude,

    Im not far from Shrewsbury. I was wandering where the club is based, what the cost is and if I brought a friend down to play a game would that be ok? We are both highly competitive 40k players so would be good to have somewhere nearby to playtest our armies for the ETC or something :)

    Thanks
    Alex

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Alex. You and your friend are more than welcome. We are based at the English bridge workshops in central (ish) Shrewsbury (Coleham).
      We charge £4 per person currently, but your first time down for a game is free. There are a couple of more competitive minded players here too, so if you wanted a game with more opponents I would recommend signing up to our forum http://www.gatekeepers.me.uk/gateforum/, where you can book a game etc.
      Will be great to see you down. Let me know if you are coming and I can meet and show you round etc :)

      Delete
  5. That is a fantastic table. Terrain and tables make all the difference!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Awesome cheers Greg :)
      I agree, it really brings the game alive when you play on a decent table. Although modest, our club efforts to improve our terrain has been well received so far

      Delete
  6. great work on it NafNaf, they have a nice interesting details and yet wouldn't distract from the game play.
    It's clubs like yours that makes me wish there was a bigger gaming presence near me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Joe.
      There is nothing In our area expect the local GW store, which is very small and cramped, so joining a club has been a great boon to me, as I got to meet loads of people, try different gaming systems and also have more time and space to play bigger games (like 1850 40k in a 6x4)

      Delete