Terrain and buildings

4/15/15 I'm new at this so if it sucks........you are duely warned!!!! I have been building Terrain and painting minis since I was a teen but this is the first time putting anything out there for people to see. I have this overwhelming feeling that my stuff just doesn't cut it and everyone else's stuff is way better and cooler than mine, and the fact I can't spell worth spit is just iceing on the cake. But here it goes: The very first thing I need to do is give props to Bruce Hirst, the creater and owner of Hirts Arts, the Castlemolds company that produces the finest molds that you can use to create hundreds of bricks, floor tiles, roofs, and robots. If I can figure out how to, I'll put up a link to him. Check it out!!! Hirstarts.com I have made dozens of buildings and structures from these magic silicone patties. It takes time and patiencs but if you are like me and don't want to shell out big bucks for a small plastic hut or a full dungeon set, this is your ticket to "Terrain Heaven". Any way, getting back to why we are here.........Terrain and buildings. It's really just about any structure built for gaming or just displaying. Most of the pieces I've built were Midevil or Fantasy looking. Castles and village homes and the like. Recently I have had a hankering about Rome. Mind you, I don't have a single Roman figure in my posession. But that did stop me from starting to build Roman stuff. Let's start w/ the test fort pieces.

Well, here we have my test fort pieces displayed loveingly in my showcase. It is currently being maned by a hord of barbarians just waiting for the Romans to move in. The base is made from insulation foam. The same foam that is used in house construction. You can buy a 2'x2' square and cut it up to your hearts contenet to make a ton of things, this being one of them. Once I have my overall design in my head, I will start on a full Roman Britania fort. The wood walls and spikes are pain-stakingly cut to size and glued individually. I know......I know..... All of you historians are now up in arms because Roman forts didn't have spikes like that!!!...........TEST PIECE!!!! (Take a moment to catch your breath, and continue reading.)

Here is a near birds eye view of the walls and tower. The walkway is made up of cut up popcicle sticks and grey gravel. If you can tell, yes thoes are Grenedier barbarian minis from waaaaaaayyyyy back in the day (Showing my age.) I gave the wall a dark brown paint job and will dry brush some lighter greens and yellow to highlight it to simulate fresh earth newly built. The walkway was stained w/ a mahogany ink stain. The angle of the slope is not steep enough. Next time going for a 45% one. The tower in the back is based off of a commercial piece. This can either be one of the corner towers or the front part can be converted to the main gate entrance. I'll get better pics. As I said, this is new for me and I'll get better at it. The tower is made up of the same sticks used for the timber walls. I used BBQ skewers for the crossbeams and wall supports and the same thin popsicle sticks for the floor and tower walls. Popsicle sticks courtesy of my local coffee shop. I've been banned for 1 year for stealing them. The base is foam-board. Love this stuff.

4/16/15 Ok, lets take a closer look at the walls.

I took an old buch of sticks that were part of a display item in my house and cut them up and "sharpened" one end. I dug out a small trench in the foam base and glued each one in place. Just because I felt like it, I added some foward facing spikes. This was purely a cosmetic look. I wasn't going for true historical representation. The walls are much thicker than the spikes and I loved the way the sticks curved a bit here and there for a more natural look. I tried this w/ regular sticks and twigs, but I could never find enough of the same thickness or straight enough to complet one wall section let alone an entire forts-worth. After the walls were dry, I first gave the whole thing an earth brown undercoat. TIP: Foam and spray paint do not mix!!! The aerosol will disolve most foam items. I left the walls as is. I think they look good as they are. After I left that to dry, I put down a thick layer of glue on the walkway. Then put some planks down and sprinkled on grey gravel. Most hobby shops cary this, especialy thoes that cary model trains. They always cary something like this. It doesn't have to be gravel. It doesn't have to be planks. It can be what ever you want it to be. That is the whole point of this. Built it. If you don't like it, scap it and start over till you do. TIP: There are several glues out there on the market. Aleen's tacky glue is good. I like Tightbond's wood glue. Both are quick to dry and a bit on the thick side but as I am into woodworking, it's what I always have on hand so........ TIP: Do not use Elmer's regular glue. It will take forever to dry and is too thin in its mix that it won't hold your pieces together on its own. Also avoid using wood glue that is water proof. Tightbond makes one and I used it once not thinking that it wouldn't hold paint. Ruined an entire building because the paint didn't take to it. Lost a lot of time on that one. One last thing about glue. Less is more. You don't have to gloop on a ton of glue to make something stick. You also sometimes can't get the precision you need when applying the glue. Because I do a lot of hanywork, I have applied the same technique when it come to laying down tiles. I use a small thin strip of wood or popsicle sticks to apply glue as if it were a mini trowel. The glue holds the piece in place and the glue dries much quicker w/ less on it. It also prevents glue seepage. Moving right along.......