Skip to toolbar
Terrain Fest 2024: Desert Table

Terrain Fest 2024: Desert Table

Supported by (Turn Off)

Project Blog by thehumungus Cult of Games Member

Recommendations: 86

About the Project

I wanted to make a desert table that could be used for many games. Science Fiction, Fantasy, Historical. different scales also. I'm going to repurpose some old stuff and breath some life into it. Going to add some new stuff also. Gonna have to add some 3D printed scenery also if can get my printer working properly. So..... away we go!

This Project is Active

First battle report. OnePageRulls- Prime Brothers vs Alien Hives

Tutoring 0
Skill 1
Idea 1
No Comments

Turn 1
Beginning of turn one, my prime brother’s stationed in the center building annihilated a unit of Support Grunts . The Alien Hives immediately returned fire with the Psycho Rex and killed one of my terminators(image gallery 1 photo 7), but the Psycho-Rex misscast and lost one of his magic dice and couldn’t cast for the rest of round one. My assault Marines killed the rest of the psycho Grunts (image gallery 1 photo 9) only to be charged by his Hive Lord. Killing one of my assault Marines. With an valiantattempt to stem the tide of alien invasion. My prime master attacked his Psycho-Rex. inflicting two wounds ( image gallery 2 photo 6). John’s Shooter-Grunts inflicted two wounds on my terminators thus ending turn one.
Turn 2
Turn to started with John’s infiltrators coming on the table, followed by my bikers, getting out of range of an assault but keeping them in range of their weapons, knocking out one and leaving a wound on another. The Gun-Grunts then attacked my Prime Master only to be routed. Next, one of my Prime Squads open up on John’s Shadow Leapers. killing one and leaving the other wounded. Next John’s Hive Lord #2 attacked my Prime squad. His hive lord completely whiffed.(image gallery 2 photo 7) Fighting Back my boys did two wounds. The hive lord #1 attacked and completely annihilated my assault marine thus ending that squad, utterly. After that, the Shadow Leaper loan model attacked my bike squad inflicting two wounds, and taking one in return, leaving him with only one left. He past his leadership test . Next My, now two man squad of heavy Pime Marines unleashed a slew of fire on the cycle Psycho-Rex. Causing another two wounds, leaving him with only two wounds left.

Turn 3
-turn three begins with the Five man Prime Brother squad opening on Hive Lord number one on top of the main building. In return. He takes out his vengeance on the squad on top of building one. Killing one of the prime brothers and seriously wounding another.
Prime squad number two opened fire on Hive Lord#1causing another wound leaving him with one wound left.
Next the Shadow Leaper attempts to eradicate my bike squad! Killing one biker and leaving a wound on another, only to be cut down in return. Thus ending him and his squad.
Next with the bikers activation, they opened up on Hive Lord#2 to no avail.
Next up the remaining Shooter Grunts attacked my Prime Brother squad in the third building. While inflicting only one wound, they were decimated by the counter attack, routed.
Next my heavy Prime Brothers advanced and opened fire on Hive Lord#1. (Image gallery 3 photo 9) Finally killing it. Thus winning the scenario because there’s no way that the remaining Hive Lord could take two objectives in the next turn as he is the only model left from the other Army. I’m sure I made some mistakes with the rules, but I’m just learning this so I hope you guys enjoy this report. I really love how the table turned out. I look forward to getting in more games with this scenery.. this years Terrain Fest Really got me motivated to make something cool. On a sidenote, the space marines that I used were 3-D printed. I really like those models. Pictures 2 and 3 from photo gallery #3 is a pic of the number of dead on either side. Prime Brothers were on fire tonight. The last picture of gallery #3 is of the last men standing on both sides. The demon was our proxy Hive Lord.

Phase 6-Mod Podge/safety coat.

Tutoring 2
Skill 3
Idea 3
No Comments

And now with the Mod Podge safety coat. The first picture is of everything non-coated. As you could see, I included pictures that showed various stages of covering with the Mod Podge. Don’t be afraid to get it on there in a nice coat. It doesn’t dry white, it dries clear. And even if you have some little white sections that look like they’re gonna stay white when it dries completely, they will become clear. It has a matte finish, but I’m still going to give it a matte  spray to give it that extra dry coat look. It won’t protect it completely but it will definitely help with the wear and tear of taking the scenery out and putting it back after a game. After time, foam scenery tends to chip and scratch. I also inncluded a picture of the bottom of the large pieces that I put a Mod Podge coat on, so it will adhere really good to the masonite that I’m gonna put on the bottom of that. This will also help to protect the edges of the hills. That will be the last stage of this project. Putting that masonite and sand and just a general brown spray paint coat on the sand and then Mod Podge on that too. I really wanna get this project completed in the timeframe for terrain fest 2024. I’m really close and I’m gonna get this thing done!. Once again, if you’re using mod podge, don’t hesitate to get a nice thick coat on there because it will dry clear and it will protect your scenery. OK y’all happy gaming until my next post.

Phase 5-Drybrushing the repurposed terrain pieces.

Tutoring 1
Skill 3
Idea 3
No Comments

Phase 5-Drybrushing the repurposed terrain pieces.

Tutoring 2
Skill 3
Idea 3
No Comments

It’s been about a month since I posted anything on this project. Life seems to get in the way of stuff like this. But I am back and a dry brushing fool! as you can see all the pieces I’ve already been painted with my spray can and sand added. As you can see. I use a cardboard box to spread my paint out. Thus removing the proper amount of paint to brush without glooping on the paint. Just a matter of getting the dry brushing done now.
tomorrow I will cover all of these with mod podge as a sealer coat. I’m really happy with this project and the results that I’ve gotten so far. Just goes to show that you can repurpose old stuff and make it brand new again. Keep painting and keep gaming my friends. I’ll see you on the next post.

Phase 4- Repurposing some old desert terrain

Tutoring 4
Skill 4
Idea 5
No Comments

So for phase 4. I am repurposing some old desert terrain that I made about five or six years ago. Now I could’ve probably just thrown them on the table and used it and been like oh what the heck it’ll work. But what is the point of train fest if you’re not gonna go all out and make everything shine! So I busted out my paint and I’m just giving everything a fresh coat so it will match, and then I will give it the same sand and darkness treatment that I did to my hills. If you are wondering what the rubber bands are for in the second picture.it broke. Had to re-glue it. The seam is where my finger is in the picture I also added some pics of the half painted pieces so you can see how the new color will change with the old color was.  Something else to think about. This nice thick enamel home paint helps to make a nice safety coat on this pink foam. Another good way to safety off some pink foam if you wanna spray paint it. Is to go over it with some MOD PODGE first it will give it a clear sealed coat, but you will be able to spray it with any aerosol spray paint. Otherwise, if you spray pink foam board with spray paint it will erode it like pouring acid on butter. So once this dries tomorrow, I will begin the next stage of adding some texture and some darker colors. See you then. Peace out!

Now that the sand and glue has dried, I can add some color to the texture. I want the smaller pieces to match the hills to make a really nice and complete gaming table and gaming experience. Not only will the smaller pieces break up the landscape, they will also serve as a great line of site blockers and areas for models to hide behind in smaller skirmish games. I can also use these for smaller scale, Miniatures games such as epic war path, which I’m waiting for my Kickstarter to arrive. I could use these as a desert table and I think they would work perfect for that. Anyways, now that I am letting this dry, I will dry brush it and add the highlights once the spray paint is dried for a while.  I can totally picture some sand people popping up behind these rocks, screaming in a good game of Star Wars Legion. 🤙🏼😎

Phase 4: Stage 2. Adding my dark browns

Phase three. Adding color to the texture

Tutoring 5
Skill 5
Idea 5
1 Comment

With the sand and glue mixture completely dry I proceeded to add some dark browns to the ground. I used army painter, leather brown for the darkest brown then I used some ace hardware radish brown primer. Can’t beat the price for the Ace Hardware paints. Then, when these brown paints dried, I busted out the original tan Color and dry brushed my hills. I also dry brushed around the edges and left the darkness and decreases to give it a natural shadowy earthy look. I still need to dig out my original Rocky outcroppings that I made before that are based on old scratched CDs. These will get the same treatment as the hills. I’m feeling good enough right now to play a game on the table as it is. Hopefully I can get in a battle report this week. Then I will continue on with the rest of my desert stuff. Looking to build some Star Wars Tantooine looking structures. Well, time to make a couple lists and test this baby out with Miniatures in a game of one page rules. Battle report coming soon.

Phase two. Adding texture.

Tutoring 5
Skill 5
Idea 5
No Comments

So. After a couple days the paint was fully dry. It was rainy for a few days so it took longer to dry. Air was moist.  I had a bag of  playground sand that I used to level some bricks. It worked out perfect for adding texture to the top of my hills. I have an old cheep paint brush that was perfect for spreading glue. I added a slight amount of water to help spread it a little better. After that it’s time to sprinkle on the sand. I went heavy with the sand to make sure I got good coverage. Now to let it dry. Next phase will be more paint. See ya in the next phase.

Getting Started

Tutoring 2
Skill 2
Idea 5
No Comments

So I have an idea for a desert table. I want it to be multi functional. Sci-fi, historical, and fantasy. I had some old hills I used under one of those plush mats. The were never painted so I figured I would repurpose them. I also have some older desert rock formations I had made .  Gonna give it all a face lift

I picked up a $6.00 piece of tan felt at the Fabric store. Then I took it to Home Depot to have them match the color of some paint with the felt. Got home and pulled out the old pink foam. It needed some cleaning up. So I broke out the hot wire cutter to redo the edges. Then I put on some paint. When it dries I will start the second phase of the project. See ya soon.

Getting Started

Tutoring 3
Skill 2
Idea 4
No Comments

So I have an idea for a desert table. I want it to be multi functional. Sci-fi, historical, and fantasy. I had some old hills I used under one of those plush mats. The were never painted so I figured I would repurpose them. I also have some older desert rock formations I had made .  Gonna give it all a face lift

I picked up a $6.00 piece of tan felt at the Fabric store. Then I took it to Home Depot to have them match the color of some paint with the felt. Got home and pulled out the old pink foam. It needed some cleaning up. So I broke out the hot wire cutter to redo the edges. Then I put on some paint.

Supported by (Turn Off)