Grave Expectations (Terrainfest 2025)

I started by building some of the buildings in the Sigmarite Mausoleum set. As far as I can tell they come in 3 designs, so I build one of each. I decided not to use the bottom of each as they contain useful looking tomb stones that I could harvest for use elsewhere.

So, as there was no foundations for the buildings, I used plastic cement rather than superglue, to give me time to adjust the joints. I also had to break out the clamps to hold the parts in place while the cement dried.

With that done, I needed to decide how to create the elevation I wanted. Two options sprung to mind: expanded polystyrene or a layering of my kids old EVA faom play mats.

I went for a combined approach: polystyrene for the bulk of it, and EVA foam for the steps up, glued together with PVA.

I surrounded the raised area with EVA bricks, then disguised the joins of the stairs with gravestones, most made from ice pop sticks, but also some Renedra plastics.

I glued the chosen mausoleum in the centre back of the raised area, with a couple of gravestones on each side. I like to think these were for the poorer members of the family, or perhaps faithful retainers.

I made a rail out of fancy bamboo cocktail sticks and chain (you don’t want to fall off a height when you’re visiting your ancestors) and added a texture slurry of polyfilla, pva glue and craft paint.

As I mentioned in the ‘About …’ I’m standing on the shoulders of giants in the form of excellent projects from admiralfb  and Demonsub , I’d recommend that you look at them immediately if you’re not familiar with them.

There’s also been a couple of inspirations outside the community that I have to acknowledge.

First of all there’s this reddit post from a user called Ultraviolet52, and the current work of herr.poom

What I’m picking up on here is, of course, using the ubiquitous Sigmarite Mausoleum set with the addition of other terrain, sometimes MDF, sometimes 3D prints. There’s additional scatter such as gravestones, statues and so on. Perhaps the major thing to take away is elevation. Graveyards can be very flat areas, but I intend to add some appropriately themed risers.

I’ver got all of those, gathered over a number of years, in cupboards and drawers around the house. It’s time to see what I can conjure up.