Pagan Wolfe

Lots more later, as I said I want to do the set. These are the experimental ones i did up to try out some ideas. Works largely with what you said...concentrate on what is fun to play rather than a 'realistic' floor plan. In saying that, have some idea about space. The guild office has a kitchen area (tiled floor and larder) while the General Goods has a storeroom full of stock (printed shelves on walls as opposed to clutter on the floor). I will do the full down town next...after I get through 11 Demos I have booked for the next four weeks! First month as a Henchman and I am hitting up everyone I know for a demo before the end of the month. Years of people looking at my glass cabinets and shelves of stuff and now I have asked "OK, so want to try? Please? Will bring beverages and chips". It is going to cost me a fortune in food and drink

Sneak peak at Down Town...now that is all buildings you can walk in and out of. Currently only two buildings with a set of 4 large and 3 small planned. But that is later This town is for demo games mostly, so easy to play. I think it is also fun to have some different style sets. the Western Town is all outdoors focused, while Down Town will be moving in of, out of and around buildings. The Resurrectionist labs are going to be...interesting

I am in the process of trying to get them painted. As for inside? Well you can always fight on the roof...so the footprint of the building does not deny area from the table/game, rather changes the way models interact (deny LoS, provide cover). So really they work like having an inside with actually needing an inside. No fiddly bits

On that point I forgot another design feature! The blocks, when rotated the way they are, are 5cm high (or so close to 2 inches nobody would care). That is ALL ladders, even the ones in the towers. This makes it very easy for players (especially new ones) as once they understand one ladder they will understand all of them on the table (climbable terrain @ 2 inches = 4 inches of your movement to use). Thanks! And more...these one weekend projects are FUN! So to fly in the face of popular opinion SAND is not the only method of adding texture to terrain. The effect I am after for these trees made me go for PVA with plaster mixed in. This makes for a very thick mixture that will retain some of its 'gloopy' structure once dry. On the base I used...sand...undone! Yes, sand is good I also knocked up some extra buildings while I was at it, since they were so easy... A toilet And the town entrance... Oh, and this was one of the multi-story buildings. There are doors on both sides of the upstairs part so I may say you can move through that with no penalty but you may not stop INSIDE...otherwise there are ladders but that is 12" of movement as opposed to about 5". Here is the set so far...all in a weekend with KIDS and family time too... And a water tower...yes Now the weather has gone all cold and wet chances are this stuff won't dry properly until tomorrow.

Part One - The Western Town So, with an insane demo schedule over the next month I decided to use this weekend to make some new terrain. Terrain is an interesting affair that can fail on epic levels for many reasons, but when it is done well it really helps bring the world to life. Terrain has a few basic rules, in fact the guys over at Worlds End Radio narrowed it down to three golden rules that I agree with whole heatedly (and I paraphrase here): 1) Functionality: does it work well with the models and rules you intend to play with? Is it clear how the terrain functions and what it is intended to be (of course the quick check and chat at the start of a game is essential). 2) Durability: For those heavy handed players who will drop a Lord Chompy Bits right onto that fine detail. 3) Storage: Oh, sure...themed tables are great...but where do you store them? Oh and transport for demos with that too...does it fit in a box? I also add my own rules, being a family man and all... 4) Is it cheap (or even FREE)? 5) How long is this going to take me to do (kind of an effort/time vs end product judgement) To demo games I wanted some straight forward terrain that had a few interesting features that used some of the basics while also allowed exploration of more advanced rules if we wanted. The Wacky West is a pretty pervasive theme in Malifaux, so with that in mind I set off to make Perfection (yup, Tremors dude). Balsa Wood. So easy to work with, slightly more durable than foam core card and cheap if you know where to buy it from. I got a big box of assorted bits for just over $100AU and although I used all of the blocks I still have more than 2/3 of the sheets and sticks remaining for future projects. Estimated price of materials used? About $40. EDIT - Measurements of BLOCKS Small block (square base) Length / width: 7.5 cm (3 inches), Height: 5 cm (2 inches) Large block (rectangle base) Length: 15 cm (6 inches), Width: 8cm (3 inches), Height: 5 cm (2 inches) The conversions to inches are not precise, but very close (out by something like 0.15 inches). Using the solid blocks as the basic structure for each building I set to work cutting some of the sheets into miniature planks of random thickness (using a craft knife and going WITH the grain of the wood). While I knew this would not make a high detail 'genuine' western town it would give the effect of a frontier town with the right kind of vibe. Solid blocks not only made the terrain durable and stable but it also cut down on the complex issues of having buildings that can be entered (more on those in a future post). The building can be moved around and even climbed over at some points, but the models stay out on the table where they can be seen. The mini planks were then jumbled up to make sure they would not share edges and start fitting together like a jigsaw puzzle with neat edges. PVA was applied down a face and the planks added. To make a window I just used a pair of scissors to quickly cut out the middle section of a few planks while doors were just half planks. To make some doors and windows stand out I glued some of the square sticks around as a frame. Again, most of these were cut with scissors and cleaned up with a craft knife. Larger bits of Balsa sheets were glued to the front of most buildings to allow for signs in the final stages. Time to make a building? Less than 10 minutes. In some places I cut the planks off at roof height to allow space for...the ladders. This is just two long bits of square Balsa stick with small bits of sheet glued on. The sheet was cut into 2cm width pieces using a steel ruler and craft knife as it was important this time to get it uniform in size. The runs themselves could afford to be random so, once again cutting with the grain, I used the craft knife to cut the 2cm sheet into little pieces. Once I had a large pile I pinned a piece at either end to hold the sticks in place then ran a small amount of PVA glue along the length. With the runs in one hand I quickly dropped them into place using the other hand. Time to make a long ladder (each made about 6 smaller ones that i needed)? About 6 minutes. To make some larger buildings I glued blocks together or even on top of one and other and repeated the same process. Six buildings? Just over an 1 hour. The town need some watch towers too. Thinking about it I wanted somewhere for our plucky little 30mm bases to run and hide, get up off the ground and maybe even get cover. So, the doorway had to be just over 30mm but some of the larger flying critters may want to leap to the top and crush the defenders. A 50mm ledge at the top is needed (in no way was this made so I can intentionally fly Nekima up to mercilessly hack away at some of my regular opponents ) Using more of the square stick I build a frame up and used pins to hold it all in place (and add strength) while the glue dried. EDIT - Now with LADDERS! Now, while I wait for all that glue to dry it is time to make some big, old, dead, ugly look'n trees. ---------- Post added at 10:26 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:02 AM ---------- BIG Trees Right O. So these are made out of junk and scraps I had, but honestly by the time you get two rolls of wire, some masking tape and some plastic (or even tick cardboard) pipe from somewhere you will probably be out of pocket less than $20AU and have left overs. Lets make 3 trees...estimated cost if you had to buy your materials? About $4AU each. So, this is a little trickier than the buildings and will take some extra time but I feel the effort is worth it. I also made some bases out of thin MDF I scored from a good friend that works in a warehouse. They get this stuff through in oodles as waste packaging...so another free score for me. Using the trusty jigsaw i cut out a few random shapes large enough to take the tree base and then sanded the edges down with the good'ol power sander. This can also be done with a wood rasp (bought my 3 set for $3 at the salvage yard). Oh, the big baboon kidney is for another project later... Take the plastic pipes and drill some holes through the top that are large enough to take you thick gauge wire. These will be you main branches. Thread the thick wire through and give it a rough bend to get some shape. Use some of your tape to hold them in place to prevent 'drooping upside-down' branch syndrome. Once all of the thicker branches are in place start winding your thin wire around these branches (make sure your thin wire is stuff you can comfortably bend with your bare fingers). Where ever you want a thinner branch shooting off just make a loop, give it a few twists, then go back onto winding around your main branch. Keep your lengths of wire at a manageable length, it is quite alright to have 5 or more bits of thin wire winding all over a main branch if they are wound in nice an tight. Once you have made all of your branches it is time to start covering the whole thing in masking tape. Don't worry about bending these things into shape, keep it open and easy to work with as you can bend the branches after applying the tape. Start at the trunk and wind tape around and around the branches, again keeping the lengths manageable. Now here is a trick to make the end product look better. Once you have applied tape in one area TWIST IT, that's right, pinch it and twist it around the branch. Once that is done you need to work on the trunk, which is probably smooth and boring. To make mine lumpy I just stuck some bits of junk (left over ladder runs from the building project) to the tape (actually I dipped the tape into the junk pile). Keep going until the whole thing is covered...like THIS Next...adding texture and painting!

Thanks guys, hoping these attract a few players The bases are intentionally plain so they don't detract/distract from the models. I have done some other projects with fancy bases and these guys were an attempt at something different. Here are a few of my Neverborn Lilith Doppelganger The Dreamer All of the Neverborn with the Nightmare trait have 'Floating Castle' ruins for bases with cloud effects. Looks good and helps me keep track of who is who. So...for me it depends on the effect I am trying to get from the model. My guild are all bases on basic street cobble stones like this guy, The base should give the model a 'place' but does not have to be overpowering. Kind of like flavors in cooking, depending on your materials you either spice it up or tone it down for taste and effect. And yes, I make all my own bases

1st attempt at an official demo game. Running it at my place for a friend and his wife (yes, she said she would give it a shot!). Not sure if we have to post privately organised Demo Games here (as opposed to in game store/club events), but for now I will follow the rules to the letter. Details (for public) Date and Time: Tuesday the 7th of August @ 5:30pm Looking forward to it.

Hi everyone, just joined up but have been playing for a while now. I am one of those gamers who needs to have lots of options to fit with the mood I am in, so I have managed to collect a fair bit from across the range...except the Outcasts (no particular reason, really like Leveticus). Anyway, thought I would share some of the models I have done to date. There is a ton more that needs to be photographed, but here is what I have on hand. I am also right into making my own scenery and have experimented with a huge range of materials and methods from basic and cheap through to more complex and expensive. Hopefully I will be able to start a blog on making your own stuff easily and effectively soon. My first master and still one of my favorites... McMournings mate for larger games...and great on his own. The alt sculpt got me into the who Seamus crew Lovely ladies...still have more to paint! Good golly, Miss Molly!! I had a great game with this the other day against the gremlins...by the time they stacked on and killed it McMourning was just around the corner and had enough body parts to summon it back into play! Fun times (for me...Sommer and his crew wept!) The Dead Rider. I have all four painted up together now as a kind of show case. they really are awesome. Yup, ressers are the focus for now...I'll get some neverborn up soon. Dogs, dogs and more dogs. Anyway, thanks for having a look, hopefully I will get more stuff posted up later...time to put the kids to bed :Confused_Puppet2: