Something of a Maze

Taking a step back, I felt something was a bit off and realised it was a matter of balance.

I love the orange, but with orange bushes, it makes the bottom of the setting feel too heavy.

Moving the orange bushes up to be the tree canopies helped, however created a different problem.  Sure, it helped balance out the distribution of colour, spreading the burn orange across both the top and bottom of the setting, creating more balance; however, they looked too heavy and needed to be larger, fanning out more, to be better in scale with the trunks of the trees.

The solution was to go back to the tried and tested method of expanding some of the tree branches, thinning them out with rubberised horsehair.

I pulled small flat clumps of horsehair into irregular shapes and gave them a quick spray with brown and grey rattle can primers.

I then attached them to the tree structures in various places to increase the span of the canopies.  The existing branches came in handy for securing the pieces.

After that, it was a matter of spraying Water / Mod Podge over the horsehair and sprinkling even more leaf scatter over them.

I secured it all in place with another coat of the glue mix spray.

I think I am now done with the groundwork for this project.  I gave the whole thing a final coating of Watered Down Mod Podge and a light sprinkling of brown ground cover in a few places.  I also removed most of the leaf scatter from the areas that will eventually become water features.

The Mod Podge has made everything pretty robust, and I have only had a couple of odd leaves fall off, and I literally mean a couple.

Here are some pictures of where I am currently with this project.

What’s next?

Well, I have some more work to do on the bushes, but I think I have come up with a reasonably good solution to those.

After that, I have to go through and start to add some detailing that I have in mind for some of the tiles, and of course, everything needs to be tidied up around the edges.

I have started adding small details to help portray each base as its own little scene. I’ve begun adding some fungi to a few trees.

I rolled out some Milliput, although any modelling putty would do, before cutting into small blobs.  I then flattened each blob into a roughly circular shape before cutting each in half and bending them over a small round modelling tool.

The result was lots of bits that looked a bit like nail clippings.

Using a gel superglue and tweezers, I attached the small pieces to the trunks of some of the trees.

Once the glue has thoroughly dried, I will paint them up to blend them in.

I will also knock out some quick mushrooms and toadstools to add to a few of the bases too.

NOTE:  I have also removed the leaves that appear to be stuck to the sides of the rock.  Once I get towards the end of this build, I will go over each and every tile again to make sure that nothing looks out of place.

For those following along, you would know that my initial bushes were quite orange and made everything look a bit too orangey.

I liked everything about them except the colour just didn’t quite work when laid out with everything else.

My solution was to use green ink washes over the orange bushes to stain them.  Nothing too fancy, I just grabbed whatever washes I had from the Citadel range and started to splodge it onto the orange bushes.

Once I had a few blobs of wash on the bush, I gave the bush a quick spray with Isopropanol alcohol, breaking down the surface tension of the wash, causing it to rapidly spread and cover the whole bush.

I used a few different greens for this and found that because the bushes were made up of different coloured foam flock, the washes created a nice variety of colours.

The bushes were then stuck in place, along with some small pieces of the brambles I had previously made before finishing off with the odd bit of static grass and grass tufts here and there.

This morning, I decided that I needed to have a tidy up.  All the messy flocking and stuff is done, and I needed a clean space so that I could give the edges of all the tiles a black rimming.  This not only creates a nice border but will also tie the tiles in with my other terrain.  I have harped on about the benefits of this before I know, but it really is an important step for helping things look finished.

With that small but important step out of the way it was time to paint the Mushrooms and Fungi.

The tree fungus was painted with a couple of washes of Citadel Reiksguard flesh.

The mushrooms were spray-painted with Zandri Dust followed by a quick light dusting of skeleton bone.  To finish them off with a mottled effect, I used Citadel Wraithbone spray.  I applied the spray by holding the nozzle, so the paint spluttered out, creating small dots.   Just like I did when base coating the rocks for this project.

The mushrooms were then glued in places where I imagined that they would get shade and possibly some moisture.

I think I am getting pretty close to the final stretch with this project.

I know I still need to apply the water effects.  I did consider adding some lighting effects to it also, and have the space beneath each tile to do that, but I don’t think it really needs it.

I am quite happy with how it looks from figure height.  The rocks and bushes really break up the lines of sight nicely and create lots of hiding spots, whilst the tree canopy gives the hint of trees, whilst still allowing access to move figures around easily.

I have some resin left over from my Dungeon Terrain project.  It is a two-part resin where you simply mix equal parts together.   I added some Citadel Agrax Earthshade to the mix to give it a bit of depth.

I then used a combination of pouring the resin into place and applying it with some cheap disposable pipettes.

Forests are just full of life, small creatures and critters crawl, walk or slither around, mostly unseen by the human eye, unless you really get down and look for them.

Cobwebs are a good way of indicating that little bugs carry on about their day, and let’s be honest, who hasn’t done the Kung-Fu walk of karate chopping their way through unseen webs?  (I find this is the perfect role for children; send them ahead to clear the way for you)

And where there is life, there must naturally be death; it’s the way of nature.

Some time ago, much longer than I care to admit, I got my hands on these remains’ pieces.  I have a feeling that it may have been a Kickstarter at some point in my ancient history, but I just can’t remember.  It really has been a long time.

Anyway, I thought they may come in handy for some long-forgotten project, so why not give them a new lease of life on this one?

So, with Greenstuff World Cobwebs, Airbrush, Bones and dirt ground scatter I set about my terrain boards once again.

With the bones, I scattered a few around, mostly in places where you have to go looking for them, so there is a sense of discovery when you actually find some.   They are very subtle from a distance, and it is not until you start looking closer that you actually notice them.

I could keep adding more and more to this terrain, but at some point, I have to step back from it and convince myself that it is done.

I have been invited to take part in an upcoming Burrows and Badgers campaign, which is exciting news.  It’s a game that has been on my radar since the first edition, but I have never got to try.  So, I am really excited to build a little party of forest critters and join in with that.

I figured it was about time I took a look at how this build would look with some of my Gothic Horror elements, as that was the initial intention before Burrows and Badgers came along and became something I could actually get involved with this year.

The Black Coach.

The forest pressed in on all sides, suffocating the life from the air. The trees, twisted and gnarled, branches reached towards the moon, as if to snatch it from the sky and plunge the world into an even deeper darkness. The only sound was the creaking of the carriage wheels, the heavy breathing of the black horses, and the rustling of leaves as unknown creatures scratched at the underbrush.

The horses snorted, their eyes rolling wildly as they strained against the harness, their hooves pounding out a relentless rhythm.  Devoid of a driver, no reins guided the horses; no whip cracked through the air. The carriage seemed to move of its own accord, driven by some malevolent presence that brooked no resistance.

As it passed, the forest itself appeared to recoil, as if even the twisted trees and noxious undergrowth feared the dark vehicle. The air grew colder, the shadows deepening into pools of black ink that seemed to writhe and twist like living things.

The carriage hurtled on, its pace unrelenting, as if it knew exactly where it was going and would stop at nothing to get there.

And then, without warning, the carriage slowed, the horses coming to a stop before a massive, ancient tree, its branches twisted into impossible knots. The silence was oppressive, the only sound the heavy breathing of the horses and the creaking of the carriage as it settled into stillness.

I am pretty happy with how it’s looking, although a little concerned that this could be heading in the direction of a certain Romanian Castle.  It doesn’t help that my wife is busy coming up with ideas for our next Europe Tour, and Transylvania keeps popping up in her plans.