Friday 5 January 2018

From MilesR: Treasure Markers and Dungeon Rooms/Corridors (160 Points)

I decided to scratch build some treasure markers to use for games like Frostgrave, Ghost Archipelago and D&D.  With the Challenge now including terrain, these might net me a few points.


 A close up of the six smaller markers - all mounted on 25mm diameter bases.  The two chests and the trap door are all scratch built.  The large barrel in the left front is my first 3D printed terrain piece and then the two gold piles are just just glitter and rhinestones .  The weapons are extras from the plastic sprues of Frostgrave minis and the new Oathmark Dwarves (which will be painted later on in the Challenge.


The larger supply depot is a scratch built chest plus a barrel from a Rendedra kit.



Lastly there's an open chest loaded with "treasure". I had a lot of fun making these and think they came out nicely  It was really simple:


The bodies of each chest are just some popsicle sticks cut to size and glued into place.
One the Box is dry cover the "lid with thin trips of wood and you've got a chest.  To have it open just wait until the glue sets and then use a razor saw to cut the lid off.  Easy Peasy as they say.

You know, I was thinking "now that I've got a bunch of dungeon treasure markers, I need some dungeon terrain to go along with them"

So I went about making some dungeon terrain:


Here's the first batch of sectional terrain.  They're all based on a 4x4 inch grid with 2 inch high walls.   I cut all the EPS foam using my trusty Proxxon hot wire cutting table (love that tool).  The bases and walls are all 1/2 inch think which has a nice look but also some stability.  Some of the pieces are bigger than 4x4 but every dimension if a multiple of the base size.

Some of the sharp eyed of this group might be asking - where are the doors?
 I'm trying something new - clip on doors, which still look ok but provide a lot of flexibility.


 Here's a close up of a door mock up.  It's pretty crude but does the trick.  I'm playing around with the 3D printer my son built for me to make some more ornate clip on doors.  Lets just say my 3D CAD skills are, ummm, rudimentary.

The building process for this style of terrain sections is:

- Cut the EPS to size.  Do this in large batches as it's a bit tedious.
- Hand "carve" the stone work - the walls need to be done on both sides.
- Texture the "stone" with some balled up tin foil pressed into the foam.
- Glue the walls to the bases.  I use Eileen's Tacky Glue
- Prime with a 50/50 mixture of black paint and Modge Podge - this both covers the pink and hardens the foam
- Paint Dark grey
- Dry Bruch with a lighter Grey (50/50 mix of grey and white paint
- Wash with a black/brown/green wash.

Make sure to allow sufficient drying time between each of the priming and painting steps


 An action shot with some minis and one of the Treasure markers.  I built enough so far to do a small encounter with just a few rooms but plan on adding more...
A lot more!  These will be used for a gaming event I'm hosting in April and then at Historicon to augment the DAK & Dragons game.












____________________________________________________

Amazing!! Miles is on the 3D printing bandwagon. Woo! I look forward to seeing the grandiose medals he'll print for himself for his past Challenge victories. ;P

Really wonderful work here Mr. Reidy. I really like how those treasure chests turned and your ingenious use of Popsicle sticks to build them. 


Nonetheless, the star of the show is your dungeon rooms and corridors. Wow, those are just spectacular! I love how you did the texture of the rough stonework and I really like your 3D door additions - it's all very effective and professional looking. I'm so impressed.


Miles has kindly provided an estimate of the size and volume of these terrain gems and it comes to about 7 units, for a base score of 140 points. I'm going to add another 20 for the scratchbuilding and general creativity of this submission.  Great work Mr. R!


17 comments:

  1. This is truly excellent work, in quality AND quantity; brilliant stuff, mate!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lovely chests and treasure markers, the dungeon terrain is fantastic and the multi position doors are a splendid idea!
    Best Iain

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great looking dungeon and markers!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Excellent work. Love the Dungeons. Work on Cornwallis has started

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Washington has been stripped and re-primed - I had started the figure 12 month ago but have gone back to basic metal

      Delete
    2. Cornwallis is actually finished, well nearly. Joy of a week off in rainy January

      Delete
  5. Brilliant work Miles! Glad to see you're getting some return on the investment in our son.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Given the cost of tuition at CMU. he's got a lot more stuff he needs to do for me! I'll just settle on him getting a job at the end of this semester.

      Delete
  6. Some great ideas and you’ve done an excellent job of bringing them to life!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh I am sooo jealous of this aeesome stuff!

    ReplyDelete
  8. You're really piling on the points my friend and man that is awesome stuff

    ReplyDelete
  9. Very nice table dressing, Miles! I quite like the dungeon floors, sweet idea for doors too!

    ReplyDelete