Draconis does…. TerrainFest 2023 (Deadzone, KoW Vanguard and Mordheim)

22nd October 2023

A few extra little touches, final weathering etc and the Deadzone add ons were completed.

I laid them out on my martian desert mat so they would pop a little more.

Then I put them together in a number combinations to try out the modularity.

While I had the mat out I also grabbed some of the rest of my terrain and put out a small layout combining the new pieces, old pieces and made an effort to add in the conveyor belt system, as I hadn’t used that much.

They mix really well I think, so the weathering didn’t go too far… this time ?

24th October 2023

With the Deadzone bits finished I cracked straight on into the Vanguard objective set.

These had been sprayed at the same time as the Deadzone pieces, so I had a good head start.

I gave the rock parts a couple of washes with thinned black and brown, but they will definitely need some more weathering applied.

The wooden parts I gave a coat of brown contrast.

For the rocks with the snake/dragon engraving (duplicate) I chose to add a touch of colour by washing the engraving on one side. I went for a red and a blue. These may get a stronger colour at a later date perhaps – will decide once I have done the weathering and the base.

Then I worked on some of the ‘loot’ piles, picking out weapons and suchlike.

Three are pretty much finished now, just need to decide how I finish off the bases. These have so far had a coat of a naturalistic green, a brown wash then a highlight. But they still look a little one dimensional.

27th October 2023

Just a quick one on this, as I am aware I sometimes put up too many pics…

The Vanguard objectives are continuing.

Further detailing added to them, and I have been working in stages.

Most are close to finished now, and once complete I will post up pics of them, and a group shot.

But for now I just wanted to share the painting stage pics of the flame (for going on top of the wood pyre) as I was pretty happy with how it came out.

I started off painting the whole thing with contrast yellow, then gave the upper flame parts a drybrush of red.

This was followed in smaller areas by grey, then black, then a touch of grey.

Finally I added white at the base of the flame to represent the hottest areas, and added a few touches of white elsewhere.

I also used my new colour change paint for the Dragon egg (and a Stormcast to test). The picture doesn’t show the colour-shifting effect overly well, but it goes from a green through to a purple (although the colour is called ‘pinky blue’ ? )

28th October 2023

With some more work on a few details, including adding some patches of flock, grass tufts and leaves to some of the bases, the Kings of War Vanguard Battlefield Objective set is complete ?

Some of them I enjoyed painting more than others.

Some I also still missed mould lines on…… and some had a bit of detail loss – but since they are objectives I didn’t feel too bad about it (although I don’t have the skill level to recreate the female prisoner’s nose, which seems to have either gotten flattened or not quite cast properly).

Next up is some Mordheim buildings. I have got some work in on them in the background.

I may not finish them, but will push on and post up before the end of the month.

30th October 2023

I carried out the early stages of these builds alongside the other work. Some may be pleased to know that I forgot to get pictures of these early stages….

As such though I have knocked up a quick very basic building shell as an example of the process.

I first draw out the two side walls (with gable ends) and the front and rear walls on the foamcore, and cut them out.

I then join them together using small panel pins and pva glue. The pins give some extra strength and rigidity to it.

Then the wooden beams are added using coffee stirring sticks, balsa strips or other similar material – whatever you can get your hands on really. These are used to cover up the ends of the panel pins as well.

Then they were sprayed black – A good tip here would be to use black foamcore if you can – it saves so much time in the later stages…..

Following this I overbrushed them in several browns, then drybrushed on some lighter colours. This came out a little messy though.

At this stage I also found a small piece of cobblestone plasticard, so decided to add that to my largest building.

To even things up a little I pulled out my airbrush and sprayed on a few browns onto the wall panel areas, concentrating in the middle of each, and with some areas stronger than others to give a little variation (but smoother than my drybrush attempts). I also added a slightly darker tone to the base of the walls.

Next up I added some gravel to the bases, to break up the flat areas somewhat.

With that done it was time to start picking out some of the (albeit minimal) details.

The stonework was painted using Deneb stone, and old foundation paint.

31st October 2023

After the stonework I added some browns to the bases, to represent the soil and earth. I went for a slightly reddish tone, to represent a more clay soil. Not sure why though, just did ?

Started out by stippling on the darkest colour, then stippled progressively smaller areas of lighter tones. I put some of this onto the gravels as well, to bring the colour palettes together.

To cover some of the flat gaps on the earth areas I added some flock, tufts and a couple of small bush tufts.

Getting near to the end now, it was time to paint the wooden beams in.

I used a dark peaty brown for these, followed with a wash of nuln oil.

Then it was time to pick out some more details, like painting in the sign on the larger building and adding a wash of grime on the window areas and tops of walls.

Next up I decided to try to add some bird droppings onto the roof of the largest building, and on to part of the balcony railing as well.

The final stage was to add some more base scatter such as a few leaf piles in some areas, and a couple of patches of lichen.

And with that done, the fantasy style ruined buildings, suitable for Mordheim, KoW Vanguard and other fantasy systems were finished.

Some thoughts on these:

I enjoyed adding the detailing like the bird poo, water staining and the leaves, flowering bushes and tufts.

The airbrushing helped get rid of some of my messy drybrushing.

The plasticard cobbles worked well – I need to get some more of this. Scoring lines into the foamcard to represent flagstones worked ok though.

It would be much easier to use black foamcore rather than white foamcore – especially when it comes to the cut edges.

In hindsight I should have added coffee stirrer planks to the flooring for the upper floors, to add a bit more scale ‘realism’.

I could do with making the buildings slightly larger in footprint. Although it is good to have a mix of sizes I think the double width building gives more opportunity to have combat within a structure.

31st October 2023

Just a quick summary.

I aimed to get Deadzone terrain, Vanguard objectives and some Mordheim buildings done for this TerrainFest project – and managed to achieve those.

The Star Wars Legion barricades were added when I was spraying the Deadzone terrain, but I haven’t had a chance to detail those. But, since they were an additional  bunch of bits then I’m not too worried about those.

Overall I’m pretty happy with how things turned out ?