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Phew, a Bank Holiday weekend – I’ll have some time to make some progress on this project.
Well, I’ve made a bit of ‘progress’, a test panel for the playing surface colour:
I’ll be going with the top left, it has the right sort of cool, ‘chalky’ kind of feel shown in the pictures up thread of the kind of desert I want to achieve.
Speaking of the playing surface – change of plan!
@Mike was right, the board warped (not the frame). It wasn’t bad, and it would have been ok if I’d left it…
But instead, I tried to counter the warp by coating the underside with PVA and applying weight whilst it dried (box of sand!).
It didn’t quite work out – it’s not unusable, but any decent sized piece of terrain leaves annoying gaps when placed on it.
So I ordered a couple of TSS 2×2′ sand panels 🙂 Just waiting on delivery! Much cheaper than I anticipated! The plan is to re-texture them and paint as above.
One of them I’ll flip and paint a smooth dark green/brown water effect on, and use this as the main board. The water side for making rivers and swamps (trust me, it’ll make sense
) and the other I’ll carve into pieces to make cliffs, wadi’s outcrops and other ‘three dimensional’ terrain features.I’m also waiting on a Croms Anvil order (still with the courier…) – enough buildings for two small settlements.
A “Merchants Oasis” and “Goatherders Homestead”. I’ve also received mini’s from Mueseum and Irregular Mini’s to help populate them.
I’ve undercoated the finished terrain pieces in burnt umber (one of the Giant Sietch’s, right) and been working on some more pieces (another section of ancient roadway, left):
Tomorrow I’ll have time to sit down and get painting in earnest on the terrain, and finish up the part-built pieces.
Coolio. I use a TSS tile for my games too.
Thats where I got the idea from
Do you play Conan Exiles?
I did, a little, when it was the new hotness. Haven’t in an age though – I’m one of those paradoxical types who loves the idea of online games, but finds that generally, its the presence of other people that bring them down, in the end. Well, anything more involved than an FPS or World of Tanks like arrangement, that is. Those I can play ’til the cows come home and not be bothered by the antics of the rest of the players!
I imagine its changed quite a bit since I last played… How is it these days?
Off out to watch bad martial arts movies (Mortal Kombat and Warrior King, I’m told…) and consume beer!
Edit: Thinking about it, Conan – Exiles is where I’m channeling my terrain ideas from, isn’t?!?!?!
Edit: Thinking about it, Conan – Exiles is where I’m channelling my terrain ideas from, isn’t?!?!?!
Tis what immediately came to mind when I saw the broken road.
It is much the same, bit dull offline, PVP is just horrible as you get owned all the time, PVE-C is best, but you need a buddy to play with or you may as well play offline.
One of them I’ll flip and paint a smooth dark green/brown water effect on, and use this as the main board. The water side for making rivers and swamps (trust me, it’ll make sense
)You’re going to make swamp terrain at some point? You’re making swamp terrain??
*Jumps up and down in glee*
Edit: Thinking about it, Conan – Exiles is where I’m channelling my terrain ideas from, isn’t?!?!?!
Tis what immediately came to mind when I saw the broken road.
Oh yeah, now you say it, I’m totally seeing it.
I’ve been content just watching gameplay of it on YouTube and Twitch. I agree that online games are cool as a fantasy, but all too often ruined by “hell is other people”. Conan Exiles does have some good visual inspiration though, and that’s all I was after in it.
Edit: Thinking about it, Conan – Exiles is where I’m channelling my terrain ideas from, isn’t?!?!?!
Tis what immediately came to mind when I saw the broken road.
Yeah, just googled it up – that’s clearly what I’ve been templating from! I’ll have to log in and see if I can get smoe more inspiration
Tried playing co-op with my partner, but we found the ‘tethering’ really annoying.
One of them I’ll flip and paint a smooth dark green/brown water effect on, and use this as the main board. The water side for making rivers and swamps (trust me, it’ll make sense
)You’re going to make swamp terrain at some point? You’re making swamp terrain?? *Jumps up and down in glee*
You dig swamps, eh?
Well, I got beguiled by @Thomaston’s (here) and @Stroezie’s (here) boats, so I went and ordered myself a Zvezda 1/100 Nina and a couple of Zvezda 1/72 ‘medieval lifeboat’ to convert into merchant and fishing boats.
The swampy areas will be part of a huge river delta type area, so warterways, islands, shifting sandbars and mangrove/everglade type zones.
I imagine that my ‘Simurgh’ analogue will be situated on a major river/estuary, and thus justify boats and the ‘swamp’, and also let me use the Museum Mini’s samurai/ashigaru/ikko ikki I picked up years ago as a sampler for traders/adventurers/mercenaries from a distant land.
o I went and ordered myself a Zvezda 1/100 Nina and a couple of Zvezda 1/72 ‘medieval lifeboat’ to convert into merchant and fishing boats.
Oooh, keen to see how they look with 15-18mm minis!
What is the TSS board made off? You got me interested. It’s listed as half a kilogram.
Pink/Blue insulation foam. (Blue I think, which in my experience is tougher than the pink)
I have had them for years and as long as you dont abuse them they last a long time.
Oooh, keen to see how they look with 15-18mm minis!
I was convinced to take a punt by these sources:
The figures in the first are billed as 1/48 (they kinda look 28mm to me though) so dudes about half that height should look fine, and it is nominally 15mm right out of the box, so…
The figures in the second are pressumably 1/72, 20mm, so it’ll probably look a little big on 15mm guys, but I’m planning on stripping back the rowlocks and some of the benches to fit them up as little lateen rigged fishing boats – I recon they’ll be fine once any scale specific details are removed or hidden
Just the thing for adventurers wanting to get to ‘the Forbidden Island’ or get their pirate on and board a larger trading vessel for loot and xp!
I’ve been meaning to tell you about…1/144 set of 3 ships of different sizes ‘Lindberg 1/144 Columbus 3 ship set’
Interesting… I found an online review that says the ships are out of scale, as all three models end up being roughly 4.5 inches long – which doesn’t sound like a problem for our purposes! I can’t find a set I can get for less than $40 (£30), though, as I’m in the UK and they’re all in the US. For now they’ll have to go on the wishlist!
What is the TSS board made off? You got me interested. It’s listed as half a kilogram. Also yes to swamp terrain. Looking forward to seeing it.
I was going to chime in with ’40mm blue foam equivalent, from what I can gather’, but @Mike has beaten me to it by a country mile
I was going to chime in with ’40mm blue foam equivalent, from what I can gather’
Oooh you bought the thick ones eh, I went for the 20mm Space Saver ones.
Ahhhh:
“As the new owner of TSS, I hope you will find the product and the site a bit easier to use. The existing core 40mm tile TSS product has been carried over, largely unchanged. I do not currently list the 20mm space saver tiles, which may be incompatible with future developments, but will still produce them to order. I intend to introduce additional product to improve the utility of the range in the future, but all new product will remain compatible with the existing range.”
Oooh you bought the thick ones eh, I went for the 20mm Space Saver ones.
Yeah, I want to be able to gouge gullies and wadi’s etc out of one of them, felt the thick ones where the way to go
Still much cheaper than I anticipated.
Conan Exiles…
PS4 by any chance?
PC, I’m afraid!
What is the TSS board made off? You got me interested.
Just taken delivery… it appears the 40mm thick ones are expanded polystyrene, rather than dense insulating (blue or pink) foam.
Initial impressions proved to be correct, not high density insulation type foam, but expanded polystyrene. I’m amazed they arrived in one piece, excepting one minor corner ding.
And the flocking appears to have been applied to the bare panel. You can see the bubble texture of the material through most of it.
As it happens my plan was always to ‘resurface’ them, but I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone
Blimey. They never used to be like that. My space saver is blue foam with a layer of paint and then the flock.
Just spoke to Geoff, the previous owner. My memory is crook. Only the space savers were ever blue foam.
…never used to be like that.
…spoke to previous owner. Only the space savers were ever blue foam.
Tis the way of these things – the website only specified
‘foam’’tile’, and I took a punt hoping for the best. It’ll be ok with some strengthening trim and maybe hardboard backing (since I’ve got 2×2 lying around…), but I wouldn’t want to go any bigger than 2×2 with them.What is the TSS board made off?
As I am intending to re-texture anyway, the rather underwhelming finish isn’t an issue for me, but I wouldn’t want @Thomaston to rush out and buy some without knowing that so he can make an informed decision
The second tile was always destined to be chopped up for terrain features, so again, no great shakes for me.
My Nina (Zvezda 1/100) also arrived, and its bigger than I anticipated – still in scale, just bigger than I thought (8″ long, give or take a bit). No pictures until I’ve ‘waterlined’ it, and finished up a few terrain pieces
And Whilst I’m going on and on, the next pic is a montage showing the sort of desert look I want to achieve with my natural terrain:
Thanks for stopping buy and reading all this. My first wedge of Crom’s Anvil stuff is in the mail, hopefully they’ll be here for the weekend That image on the lower left was part of the inspiration for this set of terrain pieces here (click on picture):
Dan
Loads of WIPs: https://www.flickr.com/photos/9593487@N07/albums/with/72157710630529376
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