Malifaux City Board Build Diary

[KrazyIvan]

On 6/8/2016 at 3:23 PM, Underworld king said:

The very ruined plastic buildings.. where are they from??

The houses are from two Ruined Hamlet sets by Warlord Games (each set contains three of their Ruined Farmhouse kits). The larger Gothic ruin is half of a Pegasus Hobbies Gothic Ruins kit.

Now, I've made some more progress. The buildings all have vegetation now, and I have started on more scatter terrain in the form of walls, fences, and lamp posts.

[KrazyIvan]

We are nearing completion of the project. I have the following elements left to complete:

• Other half of the large Gothic ruin
• A large ruined fountain with a statue for the board with the stone ring
• 4-6 trees in overgrown planters
• A ruined Gothic clock tower
• Several sections of ruined wooden fencing
• Several sections of wrought iron fencing
• Several sections of low stone walls
• A crumbling, castle-esque wall that spans the width of the board
• Two ruined wagons, to block LOS in the road ways

When this project is done I want to be able to setup the board as if it is two sections of the city, with a wall separating the two. One side is business, well-to section with the large Gothic buildings and fountain, while the other is residential. One thing is for sure, I will have plenty of terrain for the board.

I've ordered the materials required to finish up the project this weekend, and continued working on some of my scatter terrain:

[Bengt]

Why do you post such enormous images? The forum code makes images display at max 1000 wide, but it still the original image file however large it may be. I only say something because I find your progress interesting, but the thread loads really slowly.

[KrazyIvan]

7 hours ago, Bengt said:

Why do you post such enormous images? The forum code makes images display at max 1000 wide, but it still the original image file however large it may be. I only say something because I find your progress interesting, but the thread loads really slowly.

I didn't realize I could do that. I have just been dropping gallery images right in. O will double check the size going forward.

[KrazyIvan]

There, smaller is better? I'll make sure to resize the images going forwards.

[KrazyIvan]

More work done this evening:

• All the gas lamps are painted, but are still a little shiny. That will go away when I seal them.
• The fences are on their bases. Next will be to bevel the bases and apply resin sand.
• I started work on the overgrown planters. The base forms have been built.

[Bengt]

The images themselves are still ~4000 pixels wide. To make them faster to download you'd either have to resize them in an image editing program or use a hosting site that creates a new smaller image when referenced in certain ways. Not sure which sites can do that (besides tumblr, which isn't good as a hosting service anyway) as I tend to use the former method myself.

The terrain looks really good though.  

[KrazyIvan]

Been a little while. Was prepping for my GenCon trip, but then it feel through. So, back to terrain.

This is one of the centerpieces for my board. The top of the fountain is a Weeping Angel Christmas ornament, the fountain base is from Puppets War miniatures.

[KrazyIvan]

Much work was done today. I poured the "water" for the fountain, completed my wrecked carts and finished some trees in overgrown planter boxes.

Lets start with the planter boxes. The trees are 4" blood elms from Scenic Express. Like everything on the board I wanted them to be modular so I build bases for them. The bases have been modeled as planter boxes overgrown with vegetation. I basically brush primed these black, applied a dark grey base, then highlighted three steps finishing with a white dry brush. The green vegetation in the planters adds a much needed splash of color contract to the boards.

 

Next the wagons. The streets are these giant sight lines. I needed to break that up so I bought a couple of MDF wagon kits from 4 Grounds. I wrecked the kits, and attached them to rubble bases. I also added a "cloth" cover to the covered wagon. That is 1 ply from a 2 ply paper towel soaked in a 1:1 mix of white glue and water. It's now rigid and should hold up ok to use. These should offer a pretty good break to sight lines across the board and add some much needed hard cover.

 

Finally we have the fountain. I purchased some Envirotex Lite crystal clear resin on advice from the Resin Jedi group on Facebook. I added some clump flock to to the inside of the fountain. After mixing I added a little Army Painter green tone ink then poured it in. Once it had set up a little I added some more foliage on top. To me it looks like algae (but YMMV). I did not check that the middle section was totally sealed (as it was a separate piece) and consequently had some leakage. Still it turned out ok. I'll be adding some more to get a ripple effect this week some time.

 

Finally we have picks of the layout so far...

[KrazyIvan]

Oh, and a little video commentary on my boards.

20160806-203146.mp4

[Omenbringer]

That is a wonderfully detailed and featured board. Absolutely love your work.

[Nimo]

Very nice board. I really like the weeping angle statue.

Next Christmas I'll have to search for something similar.

[KrazyIvan]

The tower centerpiece for the board is done. All that is left is the second Gothic Corner Ruin and 8 4" sections of ruined wrought iron fencing. I expect to have those done this week...then the board is done!

Lets go through the build of the tower, starting with building the model itself. This tower is made from sections from several Pegasus Hobbies gothic building kits. The rubble is built up using pink urethane foam, covered in my standard kitty litter-glue slurry. I added broken up tiles the ground floor, a ruined wooden floor to the other two levels, and a half ruined roof.

 

Next I primed, and pre-shaded/highlighted everything...

Then the paint. Unfortunately it was pretty windy when I sealed these so there is a lot of grainy overspray in the matte coat. Luckily this is stonework, so the grainy texture looks fine.

 

Over all I am quite please with how it turned out!

[Flat Tooth]

This is too dang fantastic

[Alessandro]

With a table like this I would ask an automatic win the first time an opponent put a single model inside it

Great work!

[KrazyIvan]

Finished up some ruined wrought iron fences. These are from Puppet's War Miniatures. Heavily dry-brushed, which I would normally avoid, but I just wanted to get them done! There is only one piece yet then this board is complete!

[lusciousmccabe]

Have to say I love this thread and everything in it, but it's getting really hard to read with the way pictures load and push the posts all over the place. 

[KrazyIvan]

My fault unfortunately. The pictures are very large since I have been taking them in high resolution. The next time around I'll be using lower resolution.

[KrazyIvan]

The board is done.

THE BOARD IS DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONE!!!!

I finished the last piece this evening. Here is the final product:

 

Now that it's done I'm ready to answer any questions that you might have. Ask away!

[ArcticPangolin]

What was the last piece?

[KrazyIvan]

 

What was the last piece?

A second two story gothic ruined corner. The one without vines.

[Scourn1]

I saw this on FB, and it looks just as amazing. This might be a big question, and I know answers are all scattered around, but could you provide a comprehensive listing of where you got what or what was used? Such as...

Board times were - XXXX

Trees from - XXXXX

Roads from - XXXXX

Fences from - popsiclesticks DIY

etc etc.

[KrazyIvan]

Lets go ahead and do the postmortem for the city boards. I'm going to go through how I created all the elements or the boards, along with links to the various bits and bobs that I used. Strap in, this is going to likely be a lengthy post...

Step 1: Planning

I started with some basic ideas:

• The board must be suitable for multiple games, in this case Malifaux and Frostgrave.
• The board must be modular so that it can be configured in multiple ways.
• No mats! Lots of people like mats, but I'm not one of them. I wanted texture on the ground.

With those rules in mind I fired up 3D design program called Sketchup and started rendering the board as a 3D model. The main purpose for doing this was to check size and scale. By building the boards actual size in 3D I was able to check how many possible configurations  the board had and ensure that there was plenty of space for terrain on top of the boards.

Sketchup is an easy program to learn, and is pretty simplistic for 3D design software. Most importantly the basic version is free. You can download a copy here:

http://www.sketchup.com/

Note that I use Sketchup version 8 (which is pretty old at this point)

Step 2: The boards themselves

The boards themselves were the most labor intensive part of the project. They are completely scratch built, using no commercial war gaming terrain products at all. They are made from double layered 1/8" MDF. I used the 3D render of the boards to create a template for a laser cutter, using a Sketchup plug in called 'Flights of Ideas' then sent the file to a local shop to have the MDF precision cut. Once I had the MDF in hand glued the boards together. The surfaces to be glued together were scored  first to ensure a strong grip. I used E6000 multi-purpose adhesive to glue everything. You could use whatever glue you like for this purpose, but I would recommend something stringer than model glue or white glue. There is going to be some warping to deal with when everything is painted, and using an industrial strength glue will ensure that the boards don't separate in later steps.

** Please note that many industrial strength adhesives, like E6000, give off noxious fumes that can cause serious damage to your eyes, lungs, and inside of your nose. When using this stuff you either want to respirator with cartridges rated for solvents, or you want to do your gluing outside. DO NOT ASSUME THAT A ROOM WITH AN OPEN WINDOW AND A FAN IS SUFFICIENT. I can tell you from personal experience that no room in a typical house is ventilated well enough when using this stuff. **

This is the glue that I used:

http://www.lowes.com/pd/E6000-Multipurpose-Adhesive/50149282?cm_mmc=SCE_PLA-_-Paint-_-Glue-_-50149282:E6000&CAWELAID=&kpid=50149282&CAGPSPN=pla&store_code=1032&k_clickID=200c254c-730e-4597-a156-90418298fa0c

Once the glue dried I start prepping them to have all the stonework attached. When dealing with MDF preparation is key. You have to understand that nature of how MDF is manufactured results in a very "thirsty" product. It will absorb any water based substance you put on it, and that absorption will result in warping to one degree or another. This is why using the proper glue is so important; if your glue bond isn't strong enough the board will pop apart when you start to attach anything to them. The following steps allow for the warping to be corrected.

I started by priming the boards. I used acrylic gesso and a $0.99 chip brush from Home Depot. Gesso was used because it is not self-leveling, meaning that it will not provide a smooth surface. Instead the product has a 'tooth' to it. The brush that you apply it with will leave a texture on the board that makes it easy to attach bits and bobs to it. In this case that'll be all the stone work. You want to apply the gesso to one side the boards then let partially dry. This will cause warping, but that is ok. Once the gesso is dry to the touch put a heavy book, brick, rock, can of speghetti sauce, or whatever on the boards to flatten them out until the gesso is completely dry. This won't correct the warping, but it will minimize it.

Then flip the boards over and apply gesso to the other side, following the same drying procedure. The second layer of MDF will warp the opposite direction of the first layer, and will bring the board back to level. When done the boards should be completely flat.

You can get gesso at any art store, or online:

https://www.amazon.com/Liquitex-Professional-White-Surface-Medium/dp/B000KNJF6W

At this point I moved on to the most time eating, soul killing, sanity rending portion of the build...the stone work. I used the most labor intensive process possible because I wanted complete irregularity in my stone. I basically made each individual flag and cobble stone from scratch. It was a ton of boring work, but I am pretty happy with the result.

The flag stones themselves are bits of irregularly cut up cardboard from cereal and soda boxes. I just chopped up whatever boxes we had on hand until a quart sized ziplock bag was mostly full. There is no magic trick to this stage. It's simply cardboard, scissors and time.

Once I was done with all the cutting I got to work placing the flag stones. They are simply glued to the board with white glue (PVA). I bent the cardboard flagstones along the roadway and glued them to both the top and the side of the boards. You have to keep an eye on the gutter area where the bend in the cardboard stones as they don't like to stay put. You can use a little dab of model glue to tack them down while the PVA dries.

The cobbles stones were made from a variety of materials, that changed as I went along. I stared with greenstuff (kneadite). This stuff worked great but I quickly ran out and it is pretty expensive per ounce. I switched to miliput, which functioned just as well as greenstuff but wasn't quite as expensive. When my initial supply of miliput ran out happened accross Apoxie Sculpt on Amazon. After a little research it seemed like it would be a perfectly good analog for miliput, and it per oz cost was much less. I ordered some, and it was perfect.

All of these products are two part epoxies. That means there is a A and B compound that you mix together. Once mixed you have a bit of time to work the material before it hardens. Most of these materials come with part A and B in the same package, but Apoxie Sculpt is sold in two parts, each with it's own tub. The initial is higher than the other products, but the per oz cost is less. I used this stuff for all my sculpting needs, including gap filling on my minis.

To create cobblestones you simply mix a small amount the material then roll balls of the appropriate size. Those balls are then pressed down on the board where you want them. These will have a hard time adhering directly to MDF, but if your primed the boards with gesso there should plenty of tooth for the Apoxie Sculpt to hold on to. I left some areas clear of cobblestone so that I would have ruined sections.

During this process I staged a raid on my wife's crafting materials and stole a 30mm round button that had the appearance of manhole cover. That was glued to the board with superglue. I also used the Apoxie Sculpt to hand sculpt the some gutters. Those are simply the material formed into a rectangle with slits pressed in. I used a typical modelling sculpting tool for this part of the process.

I applied Liquitex Resin Sand to the empty areas as dirt showing through. Resin Sand is an artist medium that you can find at mode craft stores. I used it for nearly all my basing. It's applied with a popsicle stick and wet paint brush.

This process took me about 3 weeks to get done, working in small batches while I watched TV in the evening.

I buy my Apoxie Sculpt on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0013UDWXI?psc=1&smid=A1LQ759O23Q0NG

My current set of modelling tools also came from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/SE-DD312-12-Piece-Stainless-Double-Sided/dp/B000SVRSRY/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1472926031&sr=8-3&keywords=wax+sculpting+tools

This is the resin sand:

https://www.amazon.com/Liquitex-Professional-Resin-Effects-Medium/dp/B000KNLGYQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1472926731&sr=8-1&keywords=liquitex+resin+sand

Once all the stone was affixed to the board I primed the boards with gesso a second time, but this time I used two coats and I stippled on the second coat. Since gesso hold its shape this created a stone like texture on the boards. Once the gesso was dry I started in with paint. The painting followed a process, much of which was done with an airbrush:

• First prime everything black. A rattle can would be ideal for this, but I elected to use my airbrush along with Vallejo Black Primer.
• Using an airbrush I applied pre-shading to each and every flag stone by spraying a small amount of Vallejo Grey Prime on the middle of each flagstone, and in random spots on the cobblestone roadways.
• I then sprayed a base coat of Creatix Medium Grey on the flagstones. This paint is translucent and made for airbrushing, so with the pre-shading in place the middle of each stone was a lighter grey than the grout lines.
• Army Painter Ash Grey was thinned down and applied to the cobblestones via airbrush.
• Pure black and pure white Army Painter paint was lightly stippled onto the flagstones.
• Army Painter Monster Brown was applied to the dirt areas
• Army Painter Soft Tone wash was applied via airbrush all over the cobble stones.
• Army Painter Strong Tone wash was applied via airbrush to all the flagstone and dirt areas.
• The cobblestones were dry brushed with Vallejo Grey Primer, then again, very lightly, with Army Painter White.
• Army Painter Green Tone wash was applied in several layers in the gutter ares to simulate grime from settled water.
• Army Painter Purple Tone, Red Tone, and Green Tone wash was applied haphazardly via manual brush all over flagstones. This was done because natural stone is rarely just shades of grey. The various colors will be toned done in the next step.
• Army Painter Uniform grey was dry brushed all over the flagstones, followed by a slight lighter dry brush of Army Painter Ash Grey, followed by a even lighter dry brush of Army Painter White.
• The dirt areas were dry brushed with Army Painter Oak Brown then a lighter dry brush of Desert Yellow.
• Finally Army Painter Strong Tone was applied to the dirt areas a second time.

The manhole covers and grates were painted black, dry brushed with Army Painter Weapon Bronze, followed by an application of Army Painter Strong Tone Ink then Army Painter Green Tone ink. Buffalo Grass from Scenic Express was glued on in various places, then the board was sealed with Valspar Gloss Varnish, followed by Valspar Matte Varnish.

Buffalo grass can be found here:

http://www.sceneryexpress.com/Buffalo-Grass/products/1232/

Step 3: Buildings

My buildings are all commercial kits, mounted to MDF bases. The bases were laser cut squares of various sizes that were ground down and beveled with a Dremmel tool. Since the bases are pretty small there was no need to go through the counter warping procedures mentioned above. Gluing your buildings to their bases prior to paint should give enough support to prevent warping.

The buildings were assembled, cleaned, then glues to their bases. The tower was "ruined" by cutting it up with a Dremmel tool and a heavy duty hooked xacto knife.

Rubble was created by gluing down shaped bits of urethane foam (pink foam), then applying a kitty-litter slurry as the rubble itself. That slurry is simply a hefty amount of white glue mixed with non-clumping kitty litter. The resulting slurry should be wet, but not runny. Use a popsicle stick to apply and shape the slurry. This method will result in a rock hard coating on the underlying foam that will be very resilient and hold up well to use. You could also apply glue, then sprinkle on the littler. If you do that you will need to coat everything with a final layer of PVA mixed with water otherwise the kitty litter will be easily knocked off the board.

Several of the buildings have wooden bits added - floor boards, barricades and, in the case of the tower, floors. All of these bits are balsa wood obtained from the craft store. Use can use any kind of balsa you like, just eye ball it for scale. PVA and superglue was used to affix the wooden bits and bobs to the buildings and boards. Finally nail heads were applied to the barricades. The nail heads are tiny pieces of Plastruct plastic wire. These things will go all over the place as you cut them so use something to block in your cutting area.

Liquitex Resin sand was liberally applied to the rest of the base.

The final modification was the roof of each building. These are simply more of the cut up cardboard pieces from the previous step.

All of the buildings were painted in the same basic manner. I used an airbrush to pre-shade using a zenithal pattern. Then sprayed translucent paint over the top, followed by line highlights. Here is the process for each type of building:

• Prime via airbrush using Vellejo Black Primer.
• Apply pre-shading using Creatix White sprayed through an airbrush. White it sprayed where ever the piece is to be lighter. In this case each section of stone was highlighted near the top and left darker near the bottom. This is that basic zenithal technique that I mentioned.
• Vallejo Grey Primer was sprayed on as a 90 degree angle to the piece as a a final pre-highlight.
• The entire piece were sprayed with Creatixe Medium Grey paint.
• Sharp edges were highlighted with Army Painter Ash Grey using a standard brush.
• Roof tiles were pre-shaded with Creatix White paint.
• Roof tiles were then stippled and lightly dry brushed with Army Painter Uniform Grey paint.
• Roof tiles were based coated with either Creatix Blue or Creatix Red paint.
• Roof tiles where then edge highlighted with either Army Painter blue or red paints, a lighter ton than the base color.
• Army Painter Blue or Red tone was sprayed on the roof tiles to bring everything together.
• The wooden sections were painted a very thinned down Army Painter Desert Yellow.
• The wooden sections were dry brushed with Army Painter Skeleton Bone, then Army Painter White.
• The wooden sections were given a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone wash.
• Creatixe Medium Grey was sprayed on based.
• Army Painter Strong Tone was washed over the base.
• The base was highlighted by dry brushing Army Painter Uniform Grey, then Army Painter Ash Grey, then finally Army Painter White.

The last step for each building was adding some plants. The previously mentioned buffalo grass was used all over. Some areas received static grass...that I've literally had for years. My stuff is from Games Workshop and is a blend that isn't actually made anymore. The vines are by Silflor purchased through Scenic Express. The lighter green bushes are from a model briar patch purchased from scenic express.

Links!

Gothic Ruins from Pegasus Hobbies

http://pegasushobbies.net/catalog/Peg.-Gaming-Accessories/c2/p98/%234930-Gothic-City-Ruins/product_info.html

Gothic Building 2 from Pegasus Hobbies (used for the tower)

https://www.amazon.com/Pegasus-Hobby-Gothic-Building-Small/dp/B001FFZBJE

Ruined Hamlet from Warlord Games (2 kits were used)

https://us-store.warlordgames.com/products/ruined-hamlet

Silflor Ivy from Scenic Express

http://www.sceneryexpress.com/O-SCALE-ENGLISH-IVY-MULTI-SET/productinfo/MN93632/

Briar Patch from Scenic Express

http://www.sceneryexpress.com/LIGHT-GREEN-BRIAR-PATCH/productinfo/CA0711/

Step 4: Fountain and Scatter

Everything in this section, except for wrought iron portion of the fences and the weeping angel statue, was painted in the same manner as described above so I will not be going into the painting of the stone and/or ground cover.

The wrought iron fences are resin, purchased from Puppet's War Miniatures. The stonework was painted like all the other stonework in this project. For the fences themselves I used the following process:

• Prime via airbrush with Vallejo Black Primer.
• Paint the fencing with Army Painter Monster Brown using a brush.
• Stipple Army Painter Orange paint on using a sponge.
• Lightly stipple Army Painter Skeleton Bone using a sponge.
• Liberally apply Army Painter Strong Tone wash.

You can get the fences here:

https://puppetswar.eu/product.php?id_product=412

The rubble piles were assembled and painted using the urethane foam, kitty litter slurry, and resin sand process as the building bases. They are on MDF bases.

The wagons are from 4Grounds, on MDF bases with urethane foam and resin sand. For the covered wagon I simply de-laminated a piece of 2-ply paper towel then cut is to size. Is was soaked in the 50/50 mix of PVA and water then put into place and allowed to dry. It's now rock hard. You can find the wagons here:

Covered Wagon

http://www.4ground.co.uk/camps-carts-and-wagons/28mm-roman-ox-cart

Open Wagon

http://www.4ground.co.uk/camps-carts-and-wagons/28mm-ox-wagon

The fountain base is from Puppet's War Miniatures, and the statue is a Weeping Angel Christmas ornament. I assembled the fountain base, then sealed the inside. The Angel was cleaned of mold lines, and had the ornament hook remove. The hole was then filled with Apoxie Sculpt. I Angel was glued to the fountain with superglue. That left a gap between the Angel and the base which was filled with Apoxie Sculpt. The painting process was pretty simple:

• The fountain base was painted just like all the other stonework.
• The inside of the fountain was shaded using Army Painter Dark Tone through an airbrush. This was done to give extra depth to the water that would poured in later.
• The statue was based coated Army Painter Weapon Bronze.
• Army Painter Strong Tone was sprayed on to the statue using an airbrush.
• Army Painter Green Tone was bushed on to the statue.
• I heavily thinned some Army Painter Turquoise and painted it into the recesses of the statute to create a verdigris effect. This was heavy applied all in one go and allowed to puddle up.
• The last step was to very lightly dry brush P3 Pig Iron all over.

The "water" is Envirotex Lite crystal clear resin. This is a two part epoxy resin liquid. Once mixed I added some Army Painter Green Tone wash then poured it in the fountain. Some old flock was sprinkled on top and pushed down with tooth picks. Once the resin setup a little bit additional flock was added and lightly pressed into the resin to created a layered algae effect.

Some pointers for using Envirotex Light:

• Mix, mix, mix then when you thin you are done mixing mix some more. You have to be sure that this stuff is mixed enough or it will not setup.
• Only pour layer of 1/8" or less per go. If you want a deeper effect our a second and third layer. If you pour too much at once it may not setup.
• Resins get HOT when you mix them because they have a chemical reaction to one another. This is normal, but the thicker the pour the hotter things will get. Pour only the indicated amount to avoid damaging the model.
• You have air bubbles from mixing. Pour then wait 15 minutes. At the 15 minute mark the bubbles should have some to the surface. You can then light a match and quickly wave it over the bubbles. This will pop the bubbles.

You can fine the fountain itself here:

https://puppetswar.eu/product.php?id_product=581

The Weeping Angel can be found here:

https://www.amazon.com/Doctor-Who-Weeping-Christmas-Ornament/dp/B00P1MSH7K/ref=sr_1_6?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1472935449&sr=1-6&keywords=plastic+weeping+angel

Envirotex Light can be found here:

https://www.amazon.com/Environmental-Technology-16-Ounce-Pour--Finish/dp/B000LNS9CW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1472935614&sr=8-1&keywords=envirotex+light

Last but not least are the trees. I wanted them in planters so that they would fit the rest of the board. I had the base laser cut from MDF. It's made up of a circular base and two rings glued together to form the lip. The stones were created in the same manner as the cobblestones. I drilled a hole in each base to accommodate the trees that I purchased. The trees were glued in, then resin sand applied. Everything was painted in the same manner as previous described, then vegetation was glued on.

Blood Elms from Scenic Express

http://www.sceneryexpress.com/3-4-ELM-TREES_SET-OF-3/productinfo/BN32008/

And that it! Congradulations, you made it to the end of the wall of text. If you have any questions after reading all that post away and I will do my best to answer them.

[ChrisB76]

What would you say is the sweet spot in thickness for the mdf bases. 3 mm?

[KrazyIvan]

I use 3mm (or 1/8") all my projects since it's so readily available. It has more warping issues than thicker stock, but that is easy to work around.