Christmas 2008 Project - The Amber Shrine Board Finished

Nearly one month overdue, the 2 foot x 2 foot terrain board is now finished.

Photos One, Two, Three and Four show the completed skirmish board from each of the four corners. The photos taken outdoors and in natural light give a great impression of the naturalistic groundwork I was attempting with this project. For better images, please click on each of the photos.

Photo Five - this is the first time that I have photographed the board from this angle, giving a 'birds eye' view of the stone shrine and monolith as well as showing the random flocking and ground foam vegetation.

Photos Six, Seven and Eight - are three images showing the shrine in greater detail as well as adding a figure/figures to highlight the scale of the finished piece (the Hawkmen are converted Graven Images 40mm miniatures with body parts and wings taken from a Foundry Sky Elf).

The static grass is from TSS mixed with a small amount of Games Workshop static grass applied over diluted PVA glue. I tried to paint the glue in a random 'snake-like' pattern while still allowing the grey rubble to show through. The ground foam areas are two shades and grades of foam from my spares box (manufacturer unknown, but I suspect Woodlands Scenics). The foam was mixed with PVA glue, distilled water and flow improver then applied with a couple of wooden coffee stirrers, once fully dry, the clumps are very strong and resilient.

The final two photos, Photo Nine and Ten - show the novel feature of this terrain piece - the fact that the monolith can be lit from within with some Christmas decoration lights powered by a small battery pack built into the base of the tile. These two photos were taken indoors and without a flash.

The terrain piece was initially inspired by a Privateer Press terrain making article in the magazine No Quarter, however I feel the piece is generic enough to be used in Pulp, Horror, Fantasy or my preferred gaming genre Flash Gordon. I hope that you agree.

There you have it - the Amber Shine Board, finished. I hope that readers have found the whole construction sequence interesting and informative. Thanks for taking an interest.

Tony

Christmas 2008 Project - The Amber Shrine Board part sixteen

The next stage was to paint the rubble. I used the same paints as earlier posts and while my Wife watched Sunday night TV, I sat (quietly) at the dinning table and painted hundreds of individual stones, first Charcoal, then Medium Grey and later Pale Grey. The whole experience took about three hours, but an enjoyable three hours, not rushing and taking my time, cherishing the fact that I could paint in the house, admittedly with lots of newspaper placed on the table!

I find that this part of the project is very therapeutic and the main issue is knowing when to stop!

Photos One and Two - show the progress so far. The grey painted stones help to dilute the effect of a plain brown basecolour, as well as adding interest. I have the same effect on the Rock Kings Throne Room Board (see earlier posts).

Photos Three, Four and Five - show the effect in greater detail. Remember that once the painting and varnishing is finished I will be adding static grass and ground foam vegetation.

Photo Six - since the above photos were taken the whole board has been varnished with Galeria Acrylic Matt Varnish. I used my Paasche single action airbrush and diluted the matt varnish with water (3 parts varnish, 1 part distilled water and a drop of flow improver).

Note; For every five photos I take, I upload about three, the reasons are varied, out of focus or the same stage of construction but taken from a different angle. I would be interested to hear comments as to how many photos is the right amount for a project like this?

In addition I am attempting to finish the board before the start of February, given that I am so far behind plan, I felt I needed to 'draw a line' under this terrain project before moving into yet another month.

Tony

Christmas 2008 Project - The Amber Shrine Board part fifteen

Earlier today I painted the main groundwork. It took about three hours from start to finish with part of the time being spent waiting for the initial coat to dry.

Photos One and Two - are pretty self explanatory, a dark brown base colour painted with a large round brush and a smaller pointed brush for painting around the detail.

Photo Three - shows the paints used, Anita's Burnt Umber and Game Colour Charred Brown.

Photos Four and Five - show the first drybrushing, painted with a couple of large synthetic children's brushes. The aim at this stage of construction is to get good overall cover, with some variation in colour.

Photo Six - Lists the two Game Colour paints used - they are; Charred Brown and Cobra Brown. (Sorry for the poor photo).

The groundwork received one additional layer of light drybrushing (not shown) which was Cobra Brown and tube acrylic White. I have also noticed how the stonework, when photographed in natural light looks blue/grey, when in artificial light the colour is much more neutral grey!

Tony

Christmas 2008 Project - The Amber Shrine Board part fourteen

The first two photos show how work has progressed, with the grey stone areas receiving a number of lighter drybrushings and the decorative terracotta layer painted with red and orange acrylic paint.

Photo Three - shows the paints used for the stone areas, they are; Anita's Charcoal 11086, Anita's Grey 11043, DecoArt Westport Grey and Reeves tube acrylic Titanium White. The paint was applied from a scrap cardboard palette with a large, flat (children's) brush in a scrubbing and traditional drybrushing action.

Photo Four - shows the varied selection of paints used for the terracotta layer, they are; Anita's Burnt Umber 11027, Game Colour Bloody Red, Game Colour Hot Orange and Games Workshop Sunburst Yellow. Each of these colours were applied with a medium detailing brush, well diluted and mixed in various proportions to add some variety. Once dry, the area was washed with a brown/black wash.

Photo Five - shows the finished grey stone work and terracotta layer in greater detail. I have painted the entire board indoors under artificial lighting and initially felt that the grey was a little too 'muddy'. Now that I have seen the board in direct sunlight, I am much happier with the effect, however I still plan on adding some coloured glazes or washes, to break up the uniform colour.

The painting in this section has taken about two hours and I am very pleased with the results so far.

Tony

Christmas 2008 Project - The Amber Shrine Board part thirteen

The first two photos show the stonework basecoated and washed. The paint used was Anita's Acrylic Craft Paint and was applied with a large round brush. The next stage will be drybrushing with lighter greys.


The two colours used for the base are un-diluted Burnt Umber 11027 and Charcoal 11086, mixed in a ratio of one part Burnt Umber to five or six parts Charcoal. (The exact mix was varied to give a more natural stone colour). It needed up to three coats to get a good even coverage.

I have also washed the whole structure with a wash of five parts distilled water and five parts Klear, with a spot of flow improver and a dash of dark brown and black acrylic paint.

The paint was bought from Hobbycraft, Droitwich (The Webbs Garden Centre Store) for 95p per bottle - very good value for terrain painting! The basecoating has taken about 3 hours work over a period of one week, as I have had to wait for the paint to dry in the cold and wet weather.

I realise that the whole project is well behind schedule, but I am pleased that it is still moving along and keeping me interested.

Tony

Christmas 2008 Project - The Amber Shrine Board part twelve

The latest post is more of an up-date rather than a full entry. The groundwork has now been completed. I have used two distinct grades - a rough stone scatter, picked up from a building site and a fine sand scatter. Both have been added over a coat of dilute PVA glue and further 'wetted' with a hand spray of water and dishwashing liquid.

Photo One - shows the groundwork in greater detail. In addition you will notice the ornamental urns, which came from the same plastic game set that the horses heads statues came from, one of the urns was split into two with the aid of a hammer and chisel. The plastic pieces do not take glue or paint very well and I have had some issues getting either to stick.

Photo Two - shows the battery housing built in to the base of the tile. The electrical lead goes through the base and up in to the plastic monolith.

Photos Three and Four - show the board with all construction work finished. The next step will be painting.

Tony

Christmas 2008 Project - The Amber Shrine Board part eleven

Late last night and early this morning I was able to do quite a bit to the board. The first photo shows the work-in-progress and taken in direct sunlight - the first time I have been able to do this since well before the start of the Christmas break!

The next four photos show the board from each side, which should give a much better impression of the style and imagery I have been trying to achieve. At this stage I would say that most if not all of the main construction is now finished, I still need to add some more details and the groundwork will need to be completed.

Notice how little of the green flocked tile remains un-touched.

During this phase of work I had one great big issue - when I tried to re-connect the battery to the lights, I couldn't get the lights to work! A couple of minutes twiddling and work with a soldering iron and everything was back on track, but for a time I was contemplating taking the monolith apart to check the electrical connections.

Construction is more 'Blue Foam' sliced into thin 4 - 5mm sheets (in fact sawn with a metalworkers hacksaw blade) and detailed with a scalpel, sanding stick and a broken rough stone, glued down with PVA glue and held in place with dress-makers pins. The groundwork is either ready-mixed filler or DAS.

Tony

Christmas 2008 Project - The Amber Shine Board part ten

The progress on the board has been very good, considering the bitterly cold weather we are experiencing in this part of Worcestershire, UK -10' at night with a high of -1' during the day. In fact it is so cold that my block of DAS modelling clay, bottles of water and vinegar-bath (I use for cleaning metal miniatures) have frozen solid!

These four work-in-progress shots show the main shrine now permanently attached to the 2 foot x 2 foot gaming tile, the wire for the lit monolith is now fed through a small hole in the base to a cut-out for the battery compartment.

The main stone area is raised on a sheet of spare foamboard (you can see it under the steps) and fixed to the main board with lots of steel pins and PVA glue. The groundwork is pre-mixed filler and PVA glue which when dry will be covered in sand and small stones. For now I have brought it into the kitchen in the hope that it will dry through and not warp.

Tony

Christmas 2008 Project - The Amber Shrine Board part nine

Just one evening and one afternoon later, the monolith is attached to the main stone plinth with PVA glue and the join covered and filled with DAS. I have also given the main stone areas a coat of filler and watered-down PVA glue to add some texture. The wire for the Christmas decoration lights has been fed through the shrine base and will eventually be further fed through the 2 foot x 2 foot tile. (I already have a small hole cut into the base of the tile to house the battery compartment - you can see the wire in the bottom of each photo).

In addition the edges of the 2 foot x 2 foot tile have been smoothed-out with filler and should be given a coat of sealer this week. The painting should start very soon.

The next stage will be to attach the shrine to the tile. The groundwork will then be built up with cardboard formers and filler.

I intend to place the shine in the centre of the tile - but at a very slight angle or twist. The groundwork style and colour have yet to be decided upon - should this be a desert scheme or full of vegetation? In addition I have yet to decide on the colour of the stone - dark or light, grey or brown?

Happy New Year - Tony

Christmas 2008 Project - The Amber Shrine Board part eight

I had hoped that I would be able to finish this project over the Christmas break, but illness has seriously curtailed the progress. I am still confident that the gaming board will be finished - and soon, but a deadline of the Christmas and New Years holiday is now no longer realistic.

Photo One - shows a Chuthlu style alphabet which was used as the source of the runes. The eight panels spell - TONY & SUE (My wifes name is Sue, I know I'm just a romantic!)

Photo Two - shows the lit monolith, T and S showing.

Photo Three - shows the un-lit monolith, which will be painted grey - the black is just to hide light shining through and give some definition to the runes.

Tony

Christmas 2008 Project - The Amber Shrine Board part seven

Just a quick note to say that the whole project has been delayed over Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. I expect to be back on track very soon.

Tony

Christmas 2008 Project - The Amber Shine Board part six

Today I have included some preliminary sketches and ideas that have helped me with this project. In part one I commented how the construction article in No Quarter issue 21 was the main stepping-off point and the stone shrine area follows these dimensions. The main stone platform has a ground area of 9inches x 9inches, the upper step is 6inches x 6inches and the monolith has a base area of 3inches x 3inches. The height from base of the stone shrine to the top of the Amber Monolith is 8.5inches.

Photo One - shows the final designs sketch for the monolith shape and how it will fit onto the shrine. The basic shape owes a lot to illustrations in the Privateer Press magazines No Quarter.

Photo Two - shows how early designs were refined. The Elven Monolith taking a lot of ideas from the Forge World resin monolith. The second illustration was intended to be an amber coloured rock, but the edges of the 5mm Plexiglass would have been too prominent and without mitred corners (very difficult on Plexiglass, without specialised tools) the finish I wanted would have been impossible.

Photo Three - I have included this illustration of a gas fire to give an idea of the finish I was looking for.

Photo Four - the latest illustration of work-in-progress, with the top of the monolith constructed from plastic card covered in DAS. I have still not decided on the final designs of the runes or icons and have been searching the Internet for some inspiration.

More to follow...

Tony