Oldhammer Lustria

White Dwarf Issue 223 with all the instructions I need to get going

The next step would be the last for the board itself. Simply flock it and seal it. I started by painting PVA over the entire board. I first applied the dark flocks and then followed with the light flocks on top. I finished off with the custom blend I mixed using all the colours but mainly using the Heki light green fine.

This was then sealed using isopropyl alcohol to break the surface tension, then I saturated the flock using scenic cement (PVA, matt varnish & water). I repeated this for a second time to make sure it was all solid.

Following the instructions in the white dwarf I made a bunch of trees, this turned out to not be enough and I had to make more (probably should have counted them).

Simply put: twist 4 or more lengths of wire together into an interesting tree like shape, wrap masking tape around the trunk and cover with a texture paste of some kind. The leaves were also masking tape, stuck to both side of the wire and cut to shape.

The bases in the background are some old Citadel woods bases I had in the attic. I could have used MDF but I quite liked all the rocks that are sculpted into them. I sprayed these green like the board, painted the rocks and flocked them the same as the board.

Now I needed some bases to attach the trees to so they don’t keep falling over. The Citadel woods come with small circular holes for swapping the trees out. After laying my jungle trees out over these, it was obvious there just wouldn’t be enough space for everything I wanted to stick down.

The solution was to make paper templates of the available space between all the rocks and transfer this onto some expanded PVC Board. After cutting these out and bevelling the edges, i covered them in texture paste.

To finish the trees I sprayed all of them black, then I sprayed the trunks brown with whatever cans I had. I then painted them with a brush by dry brushing the trunks with zandri dust followed by a homemade black/brown wash.  A single coat of dark green on the previously black leaves and the painting was done.

Some of the trees used aquarium plants for leaves which I had spray painted and others used the bristles of an old wallpapering brush (an old yard brush would be better). I also used some aquarium plants for shrubs around the trees.

I painted then flocked the bases the same as the Citadel woods.

I also painted up some rocks from the garden to match those on the Citadel woods

All of this was glued down using either hot glue or superglue. I made sure to drill little holes in the bases so the root wires could feed through making the trees extra secure.

Hills! After all the high elves need somewhere for their repeater bolt throwers to snipe my lizards from (I’m sure it’ll be fine, i’ll just bring Mazdamundi or take high magic and cross my fingers).

One of the hills is an old GW hill that I found in a forgotten box. I covered the old patchy static grass with flock to match the rest of the board and re-painted the rocks to match.

The other hills are 2″ XPS foam that I cut to shape and flocked. I wanted to go for the classic steep sides and flat tops.

Moving on to some of the more iconic lizardmen centre pieces, I decided to tackle the pyramid first.

I printed off the Alien Throne from printable scenery https://www.printablescenery.com/product/alien-throne/ which was almost perfect, although I wanted a flat top so that I could place regiments atop in a fairly stable position. I cut off the throne, leaving a rather large hole in the print. I filled this with a mixture of foam bricks, sand and PVA. I later decided to cut off one of the pillars that went too high, not only did it look out of place but it would also make it slightly more awkward to store. I filled the resulting hole with sand and superglue so I could get to painting it quicker.

I wanted a scheme that was fast, easy and repeatable. I started with spray cans, firstly a black undercoat, followed by a light to medium covering of Stone Grey Dark from Molotow. I then applied a heavy dry brush of Gobi Brown, followed by a heavy but lighter dry brush of Zandri Dust and finished off with a light dry brush of Pallid Wych Flesh. I went on to pick out the vines with a muted brown.

To finish it off and make it blend in with everything else, I followed the same steps of texturing and flocking the base. I also added rocks, trees, plants, some small leaves to the vines and a few static grass tufts to the pyramid.

Onto some of the final pieces now. If his bolt throwers get hills then my skinks get some pools. So lets start with the spawning pool. This was constructed out of XPS foam bricks, hot glued together and fixed to some PVC foam sheet. All of the XPS foam was then coated in a mixture of Mod Podge and black paint. After bevelling the base, it was painted and flocked the same as the previous pieces. The stone of the pool followed the same painting steps as the pyramid and I simply painted the bottom of the pool black.

To create reeds; I hot glued to the inside of the pool some of the same brush fibres I used for of the trees.

To finish off this step I poured the first resin layer, making sure the table was level.

To finish off the spawning pool I stuck some lily pads and a swimming frog to the top of the first resin pour. I then poured the second layer of resin to cover the frog but not the lily pads. Once this layer had set, I brushed on a layer of gloss Mod Podge and spayed it with compressed air while wet to get a rippled surface. While the Mod Podge was still wet I sprinkled on some fine foam flock around the edges.

Finally I glued some trees, plants and rocks to the base so that it matches everything else.

The final piece for this project (at least for a while) is a pond. I made this at the same time as the spawning pool because they both involved resin pours. The base of the pond was a 3D print. This was painted green and black. I then added reeds, foam flock and sand before pouring the resin.

Once the resin had set I added the gloss Mod Podge in the same way as the spawning pool and while this was still wet I placed a few lily pads.

For some reason the Mod Podge dried a bit cloudy this time. Luckily it wasn’t too bad and it will still be usable.

After this had all dried I flocked the border.

And there it is, the project is finished (for now).

There is plenty I want to add to this set of terrain like rivers, more jungle and a few scenario pieces but there are just too many miniatures that need painting, so I’m calling it done.