Tuesday 22 March 2016

XCIX. The Wilderness Project vol.1

The Cemetery Project is on hold for the time being as I got tired of it. Will continue when inspiration returns. In the meantime I took up another terrain project. Back when I started thinking about building scenery I listed several environment types, and for each of them which terrain they might contain. Like this:

WOODS
  • trees
  • woods
  • rocks
  • mushroom ring
  • shrine of St. Hubertus
  • uprooted tree
FIELDS
  • rocks
  • trees
  • fences
  • windmill
  • ruined cottage
  • rotting wagon with supplies
  • mud

Since these two environments share a good number of terrain pieces - rocks, trees... for the building project I combined them into a single category I named Wilderness. Plenty has been done, although some of it was just some extra work on pieces you might have already seen on the blog.
Once again I found inspiration in Diablo III, where I observed the Fields of Misery area and its features. I gathered up a folder of reference photos, too. The overall tone of the Wilderness environments differs from the Cemetery; the colour scheme is much warmer thanks to the use of dry yellow static grass and brown soil. I used two shades of Field Grass from Noch, as well as three types of Gamer's Grass tufts in order to prevent an overly monotonous look. 

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Forests and trees.

A Citadel tree on a scratchbuilt larger base. The base is polystyrene built up on MDF.

The reverse of the same piece, to show the magpie I put on the tree's portruding root.

This is a combination of Wyrd and Citadel trees.

A Citadel Wood tree on an extended base.


A tree from Wyrd. An older piece, but now I've redecorated its base to match the new idea.

A forest area terrain. Another one just like it is on its way.



This terrain has been through a number of transformations in its lifetime.


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Rocks. My process for making these includes use of polystyrene, papier-mâché and plaster.

Rocky outcrop I.

Rocky outcrop II.

Rocky outcrop III.
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Special features. This group is comprised of pieces that are landmarks and/or annomalies in the wilderness. When used for gaming they will serve as objectives or as terrain with special rules.

The Arch. There is something odd about it, and people tend to avoid it. It's a resin kit from Origen Art.

The Standing Stone. This piece was my brother's idea: a standing stone that looks gravity-defying and uncanny. Also, it does have a habit of moving around when no one is looking. My addition to the concept was a subtle face. I carved it into a small piece of plaster and blended it with the polystyrene rock.

Fairy Ring. Folklore warns against touching the mushrooms that form the circle, and entering the ring is regarded as even more perilous. They say it can transport tresspassers to the cruel land of the Fae. 
  
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As you can see from the group shot, the set is shaping up nicely. I'm planning to do another area forest and another one or two lonely trees. A water well and some stone field fences might be a good idea, too. And I could really use a proper, textured and flocked gaming board...

27 comments:

  1. Amazing! There are some great ideas in there. I especially love the basing for the single trees.

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  2. Lovely stuff. It's nice to see terrain painted so well, it's neglected by many gamers but probably has more impact on the gaming board than anything else.

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    1. Thank you! A game is certainly more enjoyable when it's played on nice scenery.

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  3. Also, where is that arch from?

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    1. Thanks! The arch is a resin kit from Origen Art. I forgot to put that in the post; I corrected that now. :)

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  4. Beautiful work Ana. When you play with your miniatures across this terrain it must look absolutely stunning.

    I've got some sketches I've made for for my own future terrain projects that have a fairy ring and floating stones!

    I need to invest in some more grasses when I make my terrain to break up the monotony.

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    1. Thanks Jonathan! Looking forward to seeing your terrain when you make it.

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  5. Really creepy, yet strangely beautiful. Love this terrain :)

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  6. Wonderful stuff! I always know when you're away for some time to expect massive updates like this. Very much look forward to them. I love the simplicity of the mystical archway. It's exactly the kind of construct there'd be a story about in the real world. So mundane yet so full of mystery.

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  7. Very good work, and with another forest base (maybe some pines?) you will have a nicely filled table.

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  8. I love these so much - I shall be shamelessly stealing ideas from this post!

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  9. This all looks so good, it's nice to see people putting effort into terrain. I'd love to see some pictures of all this from a models eye view.

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    1. Thank you, Remnante! I'll see what I can do.

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  10. Lovely blog, astonishing. A great source of inspiration. Wonderful!

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  11. Beautiful work. Can I ask how you created the bases for your scenery. I use mdf and I have problems with it warping when glue is applied.

    Thanks,
    Richard

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    1. Hi Richard!
      Some of my bases are plastic (I put walls on cut-up geometry sets and some other pieces on old CDs). Others are MDF, from East Riding Miniatures. When working with them I just try not to get them too wet. Some of the larger ones did get slightly warped after I applied sand with PVA (though not enough to be obvious). The smaller ones did not warp. Also, those that had most of their surface covered with some other material (e.g. a chunk of polystyrene, like in the first few single trees in the above post), did not warp.
      If you do not need your terrain's bases to be very thin, you can make them from polystyrene. But remember that superglue and some sprays will melt it. So if you undercoat with a spray make sure to coat the base in a layer of PVA first in order to protect it.

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  12. Beautiful natural looking scenery, Love the Fairie ring and the wandering stone.

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  13. Thanks! I honestly don't remember if it was even Citadel paints. They were painted some time ago. I think it was grey, shaded with a darker grey and then highlighted by layering with lighter and lighter greys. A brown wash may have been involved as well at some point.

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