Time for Terrain

by Novus

I thought it was about time for me to post some of my own stuff.  Since 7th has dropped and CSM got the nerf stick applied again (GW, why nerf the only serious unit CSM had going for it?  Why do you hate CSM so much?  WHY!?!?) I figured I should try other avenues for my tabletop gaming fun until things shake out in 40k.  Time to build some nice terrain and use that effort as a way to bolster my painting and weathering skills.


I bought one of these vacuum formed terrain pieces...

... (along with a few of its buddies) a few months ago and I finally got around to putting it all together.

Here's a WIP shot from back in April.

That early version ultimately turned into what you see in this post.  Still needs a bit of work, though.

I wanted a small Forward Operating Base (FOB) feel.

I also wanted it to provide cover for vehicles on 3 sides.  Hence the barrels, the crate, and the radar/shield generator.

The crate is a great place for a commander to perch!  Forging that narrative!

Back in the first part of the year I helped Frontline Gaming a bit (a very little bit) in getting ready for the LVO by weathering some terrain for the event.  I was being timid with the powder and was promptly advised to "go wild."  That was the key: not being timid with the powder.  Turns out, I was still being timid as what you see above for the deck plating is about 4x more than I used on a single unit of large terrain for the LVO pieces.

I still need to do some weathering on the crate.  I bought a grip of these pre-painted crates for use as objectives, but they were just too big.  So, now they are terrain details!

This camo tarp was fun to do!  It's just gift tissue slathered with 1:1 PVA and water.  I think I did 3 coats of that plus all the paint and brush on dull coat.  Seems pretty sturdy so far.  Wouldn't be too hard to poke a hole in with a metal model, though.  Have to be careful.

You may recognize the barrels under the tarp (above) from my previous post on super easy scatter terrain.

I really like the look of boards sunk in the mud for a walkway.  This is just Popsicle/craft sticks pushed down into the ground material and painted up to look sorta muddy and dirty.

This is my version of a short range radar or maybe even a shield generator.  It's just a ping pong ball stuck on top of a quad-gun base.

Weathering on this was fun.  I really went for the "10,000 years of grime" look.

The top is paint, not powder.  I found it works best if you do a wide dry sponge application of your lightest rust color and then a smaller and sparser dry sponge application of your darker rust colors.

This was a fun break from the usual getting my CSM ass kicked.  My wife also got me about 2000 points of Dropzone Commander PHR models for my birthday, including the Hades!  I've assembled and primed them and will begin the painting shortly.  DzC is a great game.  Very balanced and very different in play from 40k.

I have about 6 other vacuum formed pieces I have to complete in the near future, too.  I'll likely post WIPs and such as I work through them.  The only problem is, where will I put them all?