Down in Dorset - part the third

The cliffs!

The main part of the build was to be a two foot by four foot section of cliffs that looked like the cliff from the Jurassic coast, a couple of pictures taken from Google images are below to show what the Jurassic coast looks like.

The basic shape was roughed out with lots of blue foam chunks following a brief discussion with Dobbie Nick regarding the layout. The white disc is a typical base size for some of my terrain.

The beach was a sheet of 5mm blue foam cut to the rough shape and placed on ribs to give it the slope needed with the edge being chamfered.

With the blue foam in place it was time to start hacking...

Te same way in which the church hill was made I went round the whole lot slashing away for about half a day until the rough effect of the Jurassic coast started to come through. We had decided on three caves in the cliffs that would to somewhere on the gaming board so these were done at the beginning.

With the carving complete it was time for the colouring in :-)

Same as before, a really dark brown, airbrushed on then built up through lighter shades until a light grey was achieved. The difference with the cliff was a two tone effect showing a period in history where there were higher sea levels. It was just a matter of keeping my hand level as spraying across the board, if there were any mistakes they were easily oversprayed again.

Also, the flocking was the same as before but the bushes were kept to a minimum on the windswept cliffs. There will be plenty of game pictures in the game post when I do it so please don't think that you won't be seeing more :-)

ttfn

Down in Dorset - part the second

As promised, here is the run down on the church and crypt.

For most of our games we tend to go for a 'Hollywood' style, specifically the older films. This being the case it was thought that a church on a small rise would be a good idea with a crypt underneath, for the horror games we might play in the future.

The basic layout for the crypt was drawn on the top of a board in pen and then a rough shape was built from blue foam on top of the normal board for the 'surrounding' walls of the crypt. These were stuck bit by bit from blocks of foam similar to the ones used in the Gondorian watchtower shown a few posts below. A set of steps was cut into the board for a passage that would lead from under the church...

A load of blue foam was then glued around this to form the hill and then I went at it with the extendible knife for a good hour or so to get the shape of the rocks.

I used a slashing motion in several directions lots of times to achieve the texture shown. A lot of bits fell off but that was the idea as it gave a rough, weathered texture and the more that came off the better it looked. I also went over it with my hands to rough it up some more and to make it look a little less 'clean'.

The crypt was given a clean edge for a plate that would cover it and allow other terrain items to be placed on top.

The whole thing was given an airbrushing of dark brown leading up to pale grey, this was done first as the goop colour wouldn't have to be repainted when applied.

I didn't need to do any drybrushing as light passes with the airbrush achieved the right look. In a few places some inks were applied to break the colour up.

Flocking was the same as the other boards, again with the addition of a few trees and bushes.

Below are a few shots of the game we played at BLAM 2014. There will be plenty more in the last post of this small series. The church is on loan from a friend but it's one I made for him and his Robin Hood project. The gravestones are bought items.

In the next instalment I'll go through the cliffs and how they were made.

ttfn

Down in Dorset - part the first

An ongoing commission for this post (and a for a few to follow) of a complete terrain build for the Dorset coastline and surrounds including buildings etc.

Some of you might have seen this on the LAF but I'm putting it here as a more succinct record of the build.

My good friend Dobbie Nick asked me to make him a six by four board to be used for some Dorset smuggler gaming but with the proviso that it could be used for other genres so the decision was made to have all the building etc as removable items to allow for the change.

4x4 of boards, made up of 2x2, 50mm thick blue foam where to form the back of the board and a 4x2 section was to form the coast (more on which in the next post).

Below ypu can see the basics for the build, the tub is filled with a mix of wood glue, sand, textured masonry paint, wall filler and some brown paint. This was coated liberally over the boards with my hands; a messy process but worthwhile in the end.

The colours for Dorset were taken from images off the internet and also from another friend who happens to live about 20mins from the Jurassic coast (again, more on which later).

I bought a few pots of differing coloured browns and tans from my local art shop and started applying.

The flocking was a mix of four different types stuck on in separate batches. The idea was to give a random, but natural look to it but also to make it generic enough for our other periods that we play.

Water was also added to some depressions that I made in the foam with some scenic water.

The colours are difficult to make out but the effect was quite pleasing. The building will be covered in a later post.

The sunken road was to be contained on one board and therefore it was felt that it should go off one edge. It was carved in with an extendible craft knife and the sides were raised up with some of the scrap and blended in with some filler before being coated with the tub of goop.

It was given the same treatment for colour and flock the same as the flat boards but with the addition of some trees and bushes along the hedge line.

I think the addition of the water really adds to the whole thing.

In the next part I'll show the rock outcrop with the crypt and the church...

ttfn

A Happy New Year

Or Akemashite Omedeto Gozaimasu in Japanese.

May yours be full of painting, making and prosperity :-)