Terrainfest 2025 – Dinosaur Park

I’ve cut and bevelled the bases for the bamboo. I think I’m going to vary the heights up a bit, they’re a bit too uniform. I’ll modelling compound up the edges for strength. Then paint the base brown. Then I plan to glue the bamboo in just before I add the ground cover.

Let’s star small with a trio of deinonychus. These will be taking the place of raptors. I had angry peacocks in mind when I painted them.

Let’s go with a herbivore next. Parasaurolophus, my wife’s favourite (she even made me print one for her).

Now on to my favourite.  Stegosaurus. This is the only one of my dinosaurs that I didn’t print myself, so as far as I’m aware it’s not a Dino and Dog sculpt. I got it from etsy, and it was a saga, because Royal Mail delivered it to the wrong shed, twice.

I’m still waiting on the ground cover and modelling compound arriving. So I thought I’d show off a few dinosaurs.  I’m going to be ignoring the majority of the base sizes for the dinosaurs in the beta rules, because they seem too small.

I’ve already put Rexy in a few pictures. But here’s a better look.

I’m probably going to modify the rules for the Dilophosaurus quite heavily. These things were about 7m long. So one at this scale will definitely not fit on a 25mm base, mine is on a 50.  I’ll probably beef it up a bit in the power department, I might keep the venom spit, it’s genetically modified after all.

I’ve added modelling compound (plaster and cellulose mix) to the foam board.  But I only had enough to do 2 bases. So I’ll need to order more when I get paid. The advantage of the modeling compound is it adds a crazy amount of strength to the base and cements the trees in place. If the base warps slightly you can use it to cover the raised edges allowing it to sit flat again.  The Downside is it makes a hell of a mess. So I’ve got some tidying to do. Luckily I can just pick it off the trees.

After that, I’ll paint the base brown and add the ground cover. Unfortunately I don’t think I have enough ground cover, actually I don’t think I have enough left for 1 base let alone 2. So that might have to wait until I get paid too. Sigh

I cut some bases from foam board, and bevelled the edges with a  sharp craft knife.

I next punched a few holes in the foam board where I wanted the trees glued them in place with some Gorilla wood glue. I had to shorten the pins on the trees first, because they were too long.

The varnish did its job. A coat of bootstrap brown  from army painter held better, when I drybrushed it with canvas from vallejo.

Now to make some bases

So I painted the trunks brown.  Then drybrushed them, and the brown started to come off. That’s my bad for selecting a brown for its colour, not its adhesion.

To rectify this I’m hitting them with a coat of varnish to try and lock what’s there in place. Then I’m going to repaint them with a different brown, which will hopefully take a drybrush.

I’m going to repaint the trunks of these, because they don’t look great. The leaves I might just hit with a wash.