Circle of Stones

"Behold, ye losers,"  cried the witch, "flowers!"

Our Circle of Stones started life as a small model box bought from Hastings at the checkout.  I think it was meant to be one of those Zen garden style things.  It had puzzle pieces forming a decorative (though flimsy) base.  Foley picked it up and put it together, enjoying it's simplicity.  

Somehow, it sat for ages in a dark and forgotten area of shelf.  Eventually, Foley dug it out and reported it for finishing.  Taking a bit of flat baseboard, she went to work on the project that was at least a year old.

"So, who's got a cool ritual?"

The base was sprayed a nice Hunter Green.  The original base was placed on it, but there was some warping due to the glue.  The original base was even flimsier than I originally suspected.

From there, Foley took to the supply bins and raided a bunch of cool material to flock and finish out the base with.  Notice the Army Painter Meadow Flowers tufts in there.  Very...uh...Spring-y?  Admittedly, not what I expected when Foley told me she was finishing a ritual circle.

I probably should have, though.

The finished product is good on the table.  The little addition of a bright spot on the battlefield can change the whole look of the table layout.  The Circle will probably feature in some objective driven scenario play as well.  All in all, well worth what amounts to just the $5 spent on a box in the checkout line at Hastings.

Brown World Hills

 Howdy folks!

We're going to be working on a lot of terrain in the near future, so to kick things off we're going to take a look at these cool gaming hills the club got ahold of!  We've been using them for a while, but there is an interesting thing about these hills:  they've been refurbished.

Sacks the Giant, out for his evening stroll through the Badlands.

Jerry Wargate brought the three gaming hills (the roundish three) a few years back.  They were covered in a green flock that had lost it's adhesive, and the flock was peeling off.  Any touching it, and it would come off.  So, we did what anyone else would do.  Underneath the flock was a styrofoam hill that was in great condition, and I was determined to keep that.

The flock came off relatively easy, but it took a moment and everything had to be as smooth as possible on the surface.  A layer of white glue went over the entire hill, and we allowed that to dry.  This created a second "skin" on the hill and made it a bit denser, but the real reason we put that on there is so we could spray paint the white hill with a light brown satin spray.

Oh no!  Sacks will have to walk around the steep part of this hill.

 The irregular piece was done the same way, but it was carved from some leftover foam tiles.  Once they were dry, another layer of glue went on in places (but not the sides) for some light brown flock, or dark brown, some talus and some dead grass for the irregular piece.  I hate putting flock on the sides of hills where it will be rubbed away by gamer's hands.

Such a jolly old stroll!  Now, to head back home and have a snack!

These hills turned out to be quite interchangeable.  They can be stacked and arranged in many different ways, which is always good for terrain.  They fit right in on the Brown World table, but don't look out of place anywhere else so they are good for a lot of table configurations.

Well, that's it for me for now.  Until next time, try not to die of thirst in the desert.

Terrain Log: Green World Rockies!

Howdy!

Sorry for the gap in posting, been a little wild around the house with Summer drawing to a close. We have lots of cool articles written by some of the other members of the Wargate coming up, so you can hear some more opinions by your fellow gamers on some subjects that are relevant to your interests!

In the mean time, I want to talk about our 'mountainous' terrain - the Green World Rockies! Ok, so they aren't really mountains...just kinda rocky. Hence, the names...but honestly I think I still prefer "mountainous". Lets go with that instead.

These two formations are modeled after some actual rock edifices we have here in Oklahoma. If you've ever been out in the wastes on I-35 near Ardmore, you will pass between them. They might be a little thicker, but on the table these two pieces are quite dynamic. As they totally obscure line of sight, it adds a dimension that was lacking in our games after Warhammer 40,000 5th Edition came out. We played with them for quite some time before I finally put the bases on these...what a pain that was. Now they are a mainstay on the table, and a a great many warriors have felt these walls concealing them from fire or closing them in for an assault massacre!

These two pieces have phallic nicknames that I won't repeat here, like Low Schlong and Penis Mountain. I'm not sure why they acquired those monikers. It was probably Warmaster Laserwulfe, but I digress. These are interesting pieces on the table, as the low one is good cover and difficult terrain to cross, or perhaps a barrier. The larger mountain is an important tactical piece due to it's sheer size...you can hide siege tanks behind it or get clear views for weapons teams on the summit, even claiming cover for the large phallic rock.

All these pieces were made from random bits of packing styrofoam. I cut them to shape with a hot wire cutter, then glued them together. I then coated each piece in a layer of elmer's glue, just like the hills. After that, it was safe to spray paint them black, then grey. Add a layer of flock, stones and peat moss and VOILA. Penis Mountain.

Terrain (Back) Log: Green World Hills!

Yo, it's Bone again! This time I'm here to talk about more of our 'Green World' table - our hills!

These hills are only made of styrofoam, and they get a lot of use here at the Wargate - but the edges of the hills always flake away no matter what we do. I nicked a piece off with my fingernail just the other day during a frantic battle with the tyranids. When it comes time to make the 'Brown World' hills we'll be using some sterner stuff, as well as some molded components to try to avoid that issue.

All in all, we have 5 pieces for the set. I formed them from various trash bits of sytrofoam packing with a hot wire cutter, then used Elmer's School Glue all over the entire mess to create a sort of 'shell' for the hill so I could spray paint it. After that, another layer of glue, flock and details and that's how each one was made. It makes a pretty firm item that will stand up to most things. The styrofoam on the surfaces of the pieces does not crinkle due to the thick glue shell, and even the heaviest dreadnought or daemon prince need fear damaging them. Just those pesky nicks on the edges.

Very old Wargate veterans might recognize the hill in the lower left corner of that pic. It's another surviving piece of the 'ice world' table from the '90's! Now of course, it's been repainted and flocked but it's a very functional hill.

The best part about these hills is that they are easily replaceable! Built for literally pennies, these babies are also quite simple to make. If one ever gets destroyed or degenerates to the point of uselessness, they can always be recycled or a new one generated from crap laying around the house.

Terrain Log: Where we're going, we need...roads?

That's right. We need 'em, with all the tanks and buildings getting constructed around here. What better way to set up the table for a cityfight than by building the city itself? Buildings are one thing, but roads can really change the tactics used in a battle by adding all sorts of permutations to the general drill.

We've been doing what one of my good friends refers to as "Forbidden Planet" for quite some time - that is to say, most of our terrain resembles what you'd find in the middle of Motofrakkin' NOWHERE. Time for that all to change, with the arrival of our club's 40k roads!

Yeah, we're behind the curve. We get so caught up blowing the hell out of the landscape on our Forbidden Planets that we forget to make terrain. I've been trying to fix that for a while, and lately it's not been a one man effort! I'd like to take a moment to thank Jerry on behalf of our club for the generous contribution of 40k buildings he made, which you'll be seeing on the blog soon. His new website just went up, so take a moment and follow the link and see if you find anything titillating.

Anyways, here's a photo of the setup. I made sixteen sections of road, each one 12" x 6" long. They aren't very pretty, but then again - vinyl road?

They don't exactly line up straight - perfectly - but I forgive them. They are totally modular, and very sturdy. I cut them out of 1/8th inch masonite, and textured them with Rustoleum Aged Iron. I cut a road-stripe stencil and sprayed with Krylon Primer White. Take a look at the complete set arrayed around a building, and with more terrain on the board I think they will do their job just fine for quite some time.

They can be used on any of our boards we are currently working on, and work fine with the "Green World" we are used to playing on. Most of the new missions in 40k are jammed into the expansion books, Cities of Death, Battle Missions, Planetstrike and the upcoming Spearhead, and we want to plan for every eventual situation - all those missions come as standard on the Mission Generator we use! Now that we will soon be fighting bitter wars deep in the cities of the 41st millennium, the galaxy is a lot more dangerous as there are fewer places to hide!