My Life in Millimetres

A little bit more progress this past month. This beauty had been sitting mostly finished on the painting desk, and I found the time to finish it. Got a bit of motivation from our local gaming group who started a monthly painting challenge!

The photos are a bit overexposed, but I hope you like them anyway!




One day I hope to have a table full of these buildings painted up. I'll get there someday ;)

Recently, Tabletop World held their online painting contest. A nice little event to get people to show painted examples of their product in exchange for a 20% off discount off their next order. Or, if you have time and ambition, to possibly win a prize. I chose the first reason to participate!

I started painting up the cottage and the townhouse, but only finished the cottage in time for the deadline (surprise, surprise). The townhouse is almost finished, but life seems to keep me busy enough that painting tends to come along rather slowly. I hope you enjoy the cottage though, these kits really paint themselves. Very well defined details that take really well to washes and drybrushing!


Now, I just have to finish the last of the drybrushing for that townhouse and post it up here...

So I had a bit of extra time over the Christmas holidays and managed to finish off the Frostgrave table that was sitting around, begging to be finished.  Since the last time I posted I moved one of the roads to make the board more nicely spaced, added the sand and some rubble to the gutters.  Finally, I applied paint!


The cobbles were painted dark grey up to white with drybrushing, and the show started as a medium grey and was painted up to white.  The gutters were first painted dark grey, then brown, then dark blue, light blue, and white.  They were given a gloss coat to simulate the shiny ice and water that fills them.

I hope you like the table, I am eager to try it out as a finished, rather that WIP, piece soon!

So, after some suggestions and some thinking, I decided that a recessed gutter would look better than a raised curb for this table.  It would also be more practical as the curb could interfere with some terrain placement.

Additionally, I replaced several areas of blocks with some foamcore I had laying around.  I am planning to cover some large swathes of the cobblestone in snow drifts, so there is no reason to cover up the completely good tiles I worked so hard to cast.  This has the added bonus of leaving me more leftover tiles to make some board expansions in the indefinite future.

Any other suggestions?  I think I will start gluing down the tiles this week, time (and glue permitting)!


Also, I forgot to add, the snow will be made using regular PVA glue and fine play sand.  It will then be painted appropriately along with the rest of the table.  Should work out much cheaper than purchasing enough snow flock to cover a table, considering I already have the sand.

So Frostgrave is the new thing it seems.  For those unfamiliar, it has a big following over at the Lead Adventure Forum, even with its own section. It is a fantasy skirmish game, set in a magical, frozen ruin of a city,  Seems pretty self explanatory.  I played a game with a buddy a couple weeks back, and we both really liked it.  We played on a 3x3 table, but both thought it might be more fun on a cramped 2x2 board.  This got me to thinking about all the unused hirst arts pieces I had laying around...

After a bit of foam cutting and experimentation, I came up with this:


The pieces are not yet glued down... I am still torn as to whether I should keep the raised border around the cobbled street.  I am considering removing the bigger blocks to leave a sunken gutter rather than a raised curb around the street tiles.  Any suggestions?  I think I might need some more glue...

I hope you enjoyed Santorc as my first Orcmas entry.  If you didn't well, keep it quiet, as he does come visiting to uppity grots, and his big bell ain't made of pillows, hur! hur!

Moving right along, you might ask what good would Orcmas be without an Orcmas tree?  Well, Santorc would agree with you, so long as you don't ask too rudely :P

Of course, the Orcmas tree is the second piece I would like to share with you this season.  The Orcmas tree is a longstanding tradition - it is fought over year after year by ambitious greenskins looking to claim the title 'da Boss of Orcmas.  'Ol Santorc has defended his title for years uncounted (since orcs can't count!) and will be the Boss for who knows how long.  It is a massive, ancient growth.  Scarred from dozens of previous battles it always manages to sprout branches anew, even when it seems to be nothing more than a scorched ruin!  Santorc defends the tree proudly, ready to take on all comers as he rings his bell across their heads.

Behold, the Orcmas tree!





Initially, my plan was to shape it like a traditional Christmas tree.  That, however did not seem as interesting, and I am happy with the results.  Here it is with Santorc proudly defending it:

The more astute among you have noted that Santorc's base is snowy and the Orcmas tree has no snow.  I am still undecided on whether to make the tree snowy or not.  I have no other snow-covered terrain, so I think the tree might look out of place among the rest of my scenery and would not be suitable for multi-purpose use.  Any suggestions would be appreciated!

I hope you like the Orcmas tree.  Perhaps you even want to claim it.  I am sure Santorc would welcome the challenge!  Perhaps next I will describe how I made it...

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/524168246/rise-of-the-draconids

Just under 2 days left in the Rise of the Draconids kickstarter.  The pace has picked up a bit, and thanks to some rearranging of the stretch goals, we have passed a few today already.

Next up, and just a few hundred dollars away, is the fungal patch.  I think it will turn out spectacular with Eric's sculpting skills.  He does not have specific artwork yet, but he says it will be similar to some of the older D&D fungal forests, as in these pictures:

Should be great, lots of new unlocks to reach in the next couple of days.  Make sure to head on over to pledge for these great figures!

Tabletop world recently ran a painting competition.  While I had visions of an elaborate diorama, real life with young children saw me complete but a single building.  It was nice to get the building painted though, and it will make a nice addition to my table, along with the windmill which I have also finished.

As I said before, these things practically paint themselves... very enjoyable.  I have not fully finished the interior yet, but the exterior is pretty much finished.





You can see my entry along with many more over at the Tabletop World facebook page.  Feel free to "Like" my photos in the contest.  Though truth be told, there are many entries more skilled than mine.  I am still happy with the results, however.

I have now finished the windmill upon which I was experimenting.  I am quite pleased with the results, though I imagine that the quality of the piece would make it hard to get a bad finish.  This tabletop world terrain is simply mind-blowing.

Anyway, after a bit more painting, and dipping, and pinning and gluing, I had the windmill 'finished' to the point of requiring only some touchups and a coat of matte varnish.


That would work well in a pinch, no?  While it looks nice, I found the metal was too shiny for something left out in the elements, and the stones needed some weathering and differentiation of colours.  A healthy number of stones were given a wash with a mix of brown and red ink.  The metal was given a similar was to simulate oxidation.  I then washed the bottom bit of the windmill with green and brown to simulate moss and moisture growing up from the ground.  Lastly, a drybrush of the stones to bring out the detail, as well as the blue shingles, and a few touchups here and there give us the finished product.  It was sealed with a spray of Testors dullcote.



Lastly, we shall give a parting shot with the wizard of the tower (should we just call him the miller or something?) with a landsnkecht mercenary.


I hope you enjoy the photos.  It would be nice to use all this stuff in a game for once.  One day...

I am sure there are a few folks out there who have used future floor polish to make washes and stains for miniatures in the past.

It is an acrylic floor polish which has magical properties to flow into every recess of a miniature, while leaving only a small amount on the raised detail - perfect for shading details.  It dries to a hard, glossy finish which will require some matte varnish to overcome, but it typically gives a good result.

As for the recipe in question, here it is:

1. One bottle of Clear Floor Finish.
2. Black India Ink
3. Brown India Ink
4. A Tap
5. A container with a VERY tight lid (I would recommend a large mason jar)

Mixing intructions:

1. In the Mason Jar put in 150 mL of Future Floor Finish.
2. Add 30 mL of black ink, and 30 mL of brown ink. Then, add 60 mL of water.
3. Mix well and let it sit (Until all the bubbles are gone).

After that, you use it as you would any other wash or dip - flow it onto a basecoated miniature for instant shading.  It won't win you any painting awards, but it will help you get good tabletop standard miniatures out quickly.  Just make sure not to forget the  matte finish!

For my recipe, I could not source brown India ink locally, so I used an acrylic ink instead.  So far my house has not burned down, and all seems to be fine.  Except that the brown pigment seems to settle out a bit on the bottom.

For my first victim, I started painting my Tabletop World Windmill. I cheated a bit, in that I primed the main building grey, and the roof brown.  From there, it was a heavy drybrush of light grey for the building, with brown, blue, and silver for the wood, windows, and metal, respectively.  For the roof, I drybrushed two shades of blue on the shingles, and two shades of brown on the wood.  The metal was done in silver.  Then I applied the wash, and that is as far as I have gotten (no matte finish yet).  I might do one more round of drybrushing, and a bit of inking on the bricks, but the building is mostly done, save for the sails.



Not bad for minimal work, IMHO.  Here you can see it with a few Oldhammer friends:


It certainly helps that the Tabletop World scenery is top notch.  This stuff practically paints itself.

Life has been quite busy around the Timbor household of late.  That is primarily due to the arrival of a new little goblin, thanks to the hard work of Mrs. Timbor!  The family is well and fine, but it does leave less time for hobby work.

That being said, I managed to finish something fun this week - another piece of scenery for DeepWars!

I was out at my local Petsmart, and they had a bunch of aquarium plants on sale, so I picked up a few for the various DeepWars terrain that has been floating in the back of my mind for some time now.

The Kelp Forest terrain is used in games set in the Shallow Sea environment, and provide cover for your troops while also counting as a difficult terrain (I can imagine a massive tangle of kelp would be hard to navigate if you are not an otter).  These pieces were pretty easy to manage, so it should not be too hard to recreate if you so desire.

To start, here is a nice group shot with some of my Scaly Horde figures hiding amongst the leafy branches.


I made two pretty much identical pieces.  The materials used:



- plastic aquarium plants
- green floral wire
- sand borrowed from nature
- hot glue and PVA glue
- large tree base from 4ground terrain
- a few crystals from Anarchy models
- some craft paint

A couple closeups:




I really like the 4ground tree bases, as the plants are removable for ease of use during gameplay:


So there you have it, I hope you enjoy my latest addition to the DeepWars table I am making!

I took some time this weekend, and finally finished the paintjob on my sunken ruin for DeepWars.  I am quite pleased with the result, although I had thought of trying one last wash with a darker grey to tone the colours down a bit.  For now I will likely not, but if you think it is a bit too bright, I would appreciate any suggestions.

The painting was fairly straightforward - I started with a base of flat latex exterior house paint.  I mixed black and white to the colour I wanted.  Subsequent layers had differing amounts of cream added.  After I was satisfied with the stonework, I painted the sealife.  Many different shades of purple, pink, green, red, blue, yellow, orange, green (did I miss any, lol?) were applied to give it a sense of diversity.  Mostly it was a base of purple, and other colours drybrushed on.  Although I did apply some blue washes to the whole structure.  The sand was done as my gaming mat - a base of brown with purple, green, and blue, followed by another drybrush of brown.  Final touches were applied with bright blue-green to simulate the shining effect of the ethers in the Shadow Sea.

Onto the pictures!  We will start with overall shots:



Next, a few closeups of the encrusting life:





A better view of the stairs and platform:


Top view with the corals:







And a final parting shot with my painted miniatures so far - the Dagathonan Salvager and the newly finished Draconid Shaman (who will get his own blog post shortly!)




I am very pleased with the way this piece turned out.  I think it has a nice shallow reef feel to it, and the plaster/glue trick really looks like coralline algae!

As always, comments and suggestions welcome!

One project which I have put off finishing for a while has been some forest scenery for my gaming table.  I used the 4ground forest bases link and some woodland scenic trees.  Basing was done with a variety of sand, flock, and grass tufts.


This is the large base, with a drunken 28mm Saxon warrior for scale.  He must have wandered in the wrong direction.  The nice thing about these tree bases is that the trees are on round 60mm bases that are removable:



Makes it easy for gameplay, and if you want to mix and match different trees, you can.  Speaking of different trees, I also finished two smaller stands of trees using the 4ground small tree bases.  Here is our hero in his continued wandering:



And with some of the bases removed...



The nice thing about the woodland scenic trees is that they have their own bases (which were glued to the MDF) from which the trees can be removed.  So, not only can I switch the tree stands around, I can remove trees from the bases and mix and match them if, for instance, I wanted to make a base with mixed deciduous and coniferous trees.  Unfortunately, our noble Saxon did not wander into such a mixed forest, and hence there are no pictures.  Hope you like them!