Tag Archives: scenery

Infinity, Pulp, Science Fiction, Terrain

In the Jungle, the Mighty Jungle…

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Several years ago now I did a whole banker’s box full of jungle terrain, but it was all fairly low-lying stuff, thickets and bushes and that sort of thing.

I’ve always intended to add some bigger trees to the set, inspired by the nice trees DM Scotty does in this video…

[su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ-ZvGMnTIM”]

…and Dr. Mathias’ extravagantly photographed jungle tree tutorial over on Lead Adventure forum!

Our paper towel dispensers at work are the large commercial models, and staff are expected to refill them on their own when they’re emptied, so I’ve brought home a few of the heavy cardboard tubes from the centres of the big rolls of brown paper towelling, as well as a couple of lighter tubes from home, and a few shorter toilet paper tubes.

This weekend I sat down to crank out a few trees! I started with the hot glue gun, the tubes, some CD-ROMs salvaged from the recycling bin, and some scrap cardboard to produce four trees and one big stump.

Fourth tree and stump all covered in paper towel. Three other trees drying in the background. Click for larger.

The three big trees and the stump basically fill the entire CD base edge to edge, with space between the buttress roots for figures to duck for cover. The smaller tree (from a tube that originally held glow-ropes) covers about half the CD it’s on.

I used lots of white glue to attach a layer of brown paper towel to the trunks, let that dry, then slapped on a base coat of reddish-brown and black mixed. After that dried I gave the trunks a heavy drybrush of tan, then blotches of two different shades of green here and there to suggest moss or jungle fungus.

Basecoated trees drying, before drybrushing and foliage. Click for larger.

After that had mostly dried I broke out my box of random plastic plants, gathered from craft stores over the last couple of years. Vines, random bushes, and some low-lying lichen filled some of the gaps around the trunks and provided some colour, then I put a generous layer of flock around the bases and declared these things done!

All flocked and foliaged. The white primered figure in the lower-right is an Infinity Ghulam infantry on a 25mm base. Click for larger.
Stump speech! Using the toilet paper roll for a giant stump gives the tabletop some vertical tactical possibilities, which always makes games more interesting. Click for larger.

It’s nice to have a quick down-and-done project, sometimes, and I’m really pleased with how these all came together. Looking forward to getting them onto a table for a pulp or Infinity game!

Fantasy, Terrain

BS2017: The Bloodyear Blomp, Part 7

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Greenstuff all over the place this time!

Base greenstuff work – on the troll, the barrel, and the base itself. More to come! Click for larger.

I’ve started on the heavy leather harness that the troll uses to tow the Blomp along, as well as structural greenstuff to secure and cover the magnets in his base, hold the barrel in the right position, and secure the steel plate the barrel magnetizes to.

There’s at least one more round of greenstuff here, the front and belt parts of the troll’s harness don’t exist yet, and the base needs some more patching up.

Greenstuff on the piping around the Engine. Click for larger.

Up on the gondola the various joints in the pipes have greenstuff seals added. I’ll be painting them up as leather, which has historically been used as a seal and still is to this day in some applications. I also smoothed out a few parts of the hull, and on the first photo above you can see the putty filling in the underside of the bridge wings to secure the three eye-bolts on each end.

The eye-bolts are jewelry making supplies, intended to be posts on earrings or something. I have a little baggie of dozens of them, and I think they’ll come in handy for all sorts of things – parts of railings, for example. It pays to cruise slowly down the random aisles of your local craft store, the jewelry and bead aisles are full of all sorts of interesting things!

The greenstuff work on the gondola means it’s finally ready for priming and painting. I didn’t get a photo but the fabric patchwork is also finished on the balloon, so painting will start on that this weekend. I also need to get stuck into the (mostly minor) conversions to the half dozen Reaper Bones goblins who will serve as crew!

The Feb 18th deadline looms like an irritated troll with a big club!

Fantasy, Terrain

BS2017: The Bloodyear Blomp, Part 6

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Progress, the purpose of the troll revealed, and IT FLIES.

Well, sort of!

I got most of the structural parts of the base done today, barring more greenstuff putty to solidify everything. The big troll – an old prepainted WotC figure that I’ll be repainting – has a hole drilled between his shoulder blades and one end of a length of heavy steel wire inserted. The wire goes up to a detachable section of keel on the underside of the Blomp gondola, then comes back down and ends in the small barrel behind the troll.

There’s four rare earth magnets in the troll’s base, one in the bottom of the barrel, and two more in the keel piece at the top of the wire. Everything seems solid enough to hold the thing up, although I did have to shorten the wires from their original height because everything was flopping around like a lying orange liar’s toupee in the wind.

The Blomp’s base, with ground crew troll. I’ll use greenstuff to add a heavy leather harness around him. Click for larger.

Here’s how the whole thing looks at present! Since this photo I’ve added more to the keel assembly at the top of the wires, which strengthens and stabilizes everything a bit more.

The entire assembly at present. It flies! Click for larger.

I’ve also added wires disguised as piping on the gondola, coming out of the central Improved Non-Explosive Flautulator Engine. The piping into the lower part is largely decorative, but the upper piping will be the structural supports connecting the gondola to the balloon envelope overhead.

The plumbing going in around the Improved Non-Explosive Flautulator Engine. See text for details; click for larger!

I’ve also gotten almost all of the fabric glued on to the Blomp’s envelope, but didn’t get a photo of that.

The next round is going to be more greenstuff putty action on the plumbing, base, and troll. I also need to get started on converting Reaper Bones goblins for camera operators, flight crew, and famous Blood Bowl announcer & personality Gobb Cherry, host of BB Nite in Gobada! I’m looking forward to puttying and painting a suitably loud suit and tie onto Gobb!

Infinity, Science Fiction, Terrain

Tables From Last Weekend’s Infinity Tournament

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We had another one-day, three round Infinity tournament this last weekend, our first of 2017. We had two players come over from Vancouver on the ferry to play with us, which was awesome, and while we only had eight players total it was a good event overall.

I did the terrain for two of the five tables, and other players put the other three together.

I didn’t get any in-play photos during the tournament, but I did get some reference shots of some of the tables when we set them up on Friday night! See the captions on each picture for a few details!

Fantasy, Terrain

BS2017: The Bloodyear Blomp, Part 5

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Progress! Greenstuff! An incompletely explained troll!

I broke out the greenstuff and went at the gondola this evening. I filled in under all the various discs where piping will come out, and then ran lines of greenstuff across the two spheres of the engine to make it look like it had been roughly welded or soldered together, probably by terrifyingly incompetent trolls under the direction of intoxicated, insane goblin engineers!

Greenstuff on the engine, pipe connections, and the start of the base. Click for larger.

I also started on the base, with a rectangle of craft plywood, a big thick washer, and extra greenstuff.

Base, troll, and such. Click for larger.

The big troll on the right is going to be part of the base, forming part of the “flying” part of the flying base. Magnets will be involved. More in due course!

Finally, I got another round of fabric bits onto the envelope. Hopefully one more round of gluing fabric bits down will finish off that part of the envelope, then it’ll be time for some detailing and paint!

Envelope, with fabric patchwork in progress. Click for larger.

Painting might start as soon as this weekend, although I have an Infinity event all day Saturday and I’m not sure how much time I’ll have after that for even more gaming stuff! The deadline for this Build Something contest is February 18th, which is closer than it appears, so I need to keep the momentum up!

Fantasy, Terrain

BS2017: The Bloodyear Blomp, Part 4

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Good progress on the Blomp gondola this weekend, with all the major structural assembly finished, skinning done in styrene sheet, and the start of the lifting-gas engine and associated pipework.

The bow and stern have “masts” (not sure what else to call them, really…) that will eventually have lines connecting to the envelope overhead, with metal strapping reinforcing them both. The flying bridge has more detail now, too.

Just a couple of quick photos!

Der Blomp, front-quarter view. Rivet lines on the hull tanks, rear camera station finished, and bow- and stern-supports in place. Click for larger.
Der Blomp, stern-quarter view showing the start of the Improved Non-Explosive Flautulator Engine midships and the circular rear camera station. Click for larger.
Holding the partially-complete envelope over the gondola to give some idea of the size and proportions of the finished article. Click for larger.

On to greenstuff next to clean up some parts and strengthen others, especially around the Improved Non-Explosive Flautulator Engine, which will connect all the wire pipework that will actually connect the envelope balloons to the gondola!

Fantasy, Terrain

BS2017: The Bloodyear Blomp, Part 3

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Blomping onward, in a classic goblin-engineering “make sh*t up as you go” fashion!

The front half of the gondola has been skinned with styrene sheet, cut in one continuous strip for strength. I also glued in more styrene strip on the inner edges of the gunwale. The edges of the flying bridge received similar treatment; both areas will be getting more detailing/decoration to finish them off.

Styrene skin on the front of the gondola and the flying bridge. Click for larger.

On the underside of the gondola I superglued a pair of 40mm X 20mm galvanized steel bases, and some scrap styrene to keep everything level. The keel went on next, long strips of 1/8th x 1/4th inch basswood. The metal bases and the slot in the keel will hold another piece of the same basswood with two or three rare earth magnets embedded in it to hold it into place, and a long steel wire (possibly two) leading down to the ground as the “flying” part of the Blomp’s flying base.

Keel installation, with steel bases. The piece of basswood behind the superglue bottle is already notched for rare earth magnets. Click for larger.

Finally I cut sections out of two plastic tubes (till receipt paper rolls salvaged from the recycling bin at a previous job!) and glued them just behind the flying bridge as part of the lift/propulsion machinery – tanks of whatever mysterious, hazardous lifting gas the goblin alchemists have invented, probably! The end caps are wood craft circles trimmed slightly to fit, and the tanks will get detailed with rivets, weld lines, pipes, and such in due course.

Midships tanks added. Click for larger.

More soon as we progress! The February 18th end date looms like a looming thing!

Fantasy, Terrain

Build Something 2017: The Bloodyear Blomp, Part 2

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Progress on my Lead Adventure Forum Build Something 2017 entry, the goblin-crewed Bloodyear Blomp!

I’d said previously I was going to finish covering the blimp envelope in fabric before moving on to the gondola, but in standard wargamer fashion I’ve been distracted into working on the gondola first.

The basic skeleton of the gondola is a couple of big hardwood craft sticks, cut and butted together with more scrap wood between them. The flying bridge is more craft sticks cut and jointed together, and the support structure under it is random scrap foamed PVC board.

Blomp hull basic assembly, with Reaper Bones goblin crew for scale. Click for larger.

The crew are going to be converted from Reaper Bones goblins; I’ve got a whole bunch leftover from my BB Goblin team conversion project and they’ll fit right in!

First part of the Improved Non-Exploding Flautulating Engine. Finest goblin engineering! Click for larger.

The midships portion of the gondola, behind the flying bridge, is going to be filled with the lift and propulsion machinery. Pipes will lead from here up into the balloons of the envelope, with solid wire cores to provide the structural connection between the gondola and the envelope.

More soon!

Fantasy, Terrain

Build Something 2017: The Bloodyear Blomp

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Every year or so over on Lead Adventure Forum they hold a friendly Build Something competition. There’s a theme that imposes some restrictions; one year it was “your scenery must be based on a CD”; we had “marine/watercraft” once, and this year the theme is “flight”.

I’ve been a LAF member for years and it’s an awesome forum, but I’ve been fairly inactive over there for the last year or so. Joining the Build Something 2017 Contest was a good way to nudge me back into being an active member of this awesome online community.

The theme being “flight” I thought of doing a cargo shuttle of some sort for Infinity, but with only a six week timespan to complete the entire contest entry in, from start to finish, I shelved that tempting idea in favour of an entertainingly silly piece of Blood Bowl sideline terrain: the goblin-crewed Bloodyear Blomp, which carries magical cameras and announcers over Blood Bowl fields all over the known world!

To give it some actual in-game purpose, I’ll put a pair of Reroll counters on the base of the thing, to go along with the goblin scoreboard I made a while back.

Being goblin-engineered (to push the term “engineered” very near it’s breaking point!) the Blomp can be a bit ramshackle, so I just started building! I picked up a pack of craft foam spheres as the balloon/envelope structure of the Blomp and started jamming them together and then covering them with bits of scrap fabric.

Here’s the first building session’s progress.

Blomp! First construction of the blimp envelope, and a few of the goblins who will eventually crew the thing! Click for larger.

Since then I’ve added a fourth sphere to the tail end and done some more fabric.

More Blomp! Fourth envelope sphere in place and more fabric. Click for larger.

I’ve got a build thread over on LAF that will generally be updated faster and more frequently than I’ll do blog posts on the Blomp, in keeping with the spirit of the contest. I still need to figure out the gondola design and a bunch of other details, but it’s been a fun build so far!

Infinity, Science Fiction, Terrain

Hab Module LV4-26 Finished

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First of all, Happy New Year, everyone! Hope your 2017 is full of excellent gaming, good friends, and completed projects!

On the “completed projects” note, I get to move my first completed project of 2017 off my bench and into my scenery boxes. I’ve finished painting and adding signs to the habitat module facade I started in November.

Painting in progress on the hab module, 27 December. Click for larger.

I added various spot colours of paint here and there, some hex floor tiles in front of one of the doors and a small auto-bar setup to one module, and a few window frames and other small details. Almost all of this detail was done with scrap card or plastic offcuts.

The “BAR” sign on the left is held on by a rare earth magnet embedded in the wall and another built into the frame. I printed the letters off on my computer, glued them to thin plastic card, and cut them out carefully by hand, using sandpaper and files for cleanup. The hexes are from a 1″ hex punch I bought at a craft store; the frame behind them is an offcut of 1/8″ foamed PVC plastic board. It’s double sided; the other side is identical.

After painting it was off to the computer and Inkscape to create a set of signs for the three commercial modules on the ground floor of the unit. The bar is “Unida Drink”; there’s a legal firm, and then the Ceres Clinic on the far right. Signs identifying this as Hab LV4-26 are on either end and above the main entrance with the hexagonal outer wall.

Hab Module LV4-26, left end. Click for larger.
Hab Module LV4-26, right hand end. Click for larger.

I’ve included (Google Translated!) Arabic and Simplified Chinese text on quite a lot of the signage I’ve created for Infinity; the Arabic and Chinese text on the Unida Drink sign reads, “You require a drink”, ie a literal translation of the English-language pun in the bar name. There’s some Spanish on there too, for fun, which reads, “Your mom drinks here”.

I might yet create a second hab module (LV4-28, perhaps?) as this one was fun to do, should be tactically interesting on the Infinity table with the balconies and doorways, and they’re an awesome source of colour and a lived-in look for a table. Need to come up with some more weird/interesting/cyberpunk-ish names for businesses!

In the next couple of days I’ll be publishing a PDF so anyone can build a small craft airlock for their science fiction gaming, and then it’s off to other projects, including getting back into some pulp scenery building in advance of 2017’s local wargaming convention season!