Saturday, 21 December 2019

The value of saving time (pre-made scenery)


In trying to keep making progress on a multitude of projects, it can seem quite overwhelming for me, especially when it comes to scratch building scenery. So I've decided to buy a few ready-built pieces to speed up the process of populating my Mordheim boards with laser cut houses and some 3d printed items, which will sit alongside my own scratch builds. I've realised that scratch builds are better for partially ruined buildings and ready made scenery for complete buildings, the reason being that purchased/mdf buildings look too pristine for ruins and scratch built ones can be a bit more rough and ready and therefore a bit quicker to make. That's what I'm leaning towards for now anyway.

So here's the lastercut building, assembled and painted:





With smaller, detailed scatter terrain I used to steer clear of 3d prints as the level of finish with the typical horizontal striation lines was far too distracting on items that need to stand up to close scrutiny, however the prints are improving and I can hide any unwanted 3d printing texture with some painting techniques (such as stippling over the top to break the lines or even introducing deliberate vertical painting lines). So here's my 3d printed well and doors to the depths:



Part of the idea with these is that they can be links to an underworld gaming environment and therefore link my modular town tiles to my modular dungeon ones (this is an idea for an upcoming narrative game)

Here's a few glamour shots  for now:



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10 comments:

  1. Great additions to your board, 3D prints have come on a long way, depending on the filament size you print with

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    1. Yes, I've been really impressed. I'm looking to get one for my school in the near future...

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  2. Nice terrain finds, the hidden stairs to the dank gloom below have to be my favourite. It all comes to life with a lick of paint, but its funny how everything looks better with a bit of muck on it.

    I especially like the grass tuft on the chimney top. One day you'll be adding painted specks of bird doo and making tiny nests from sisal string and sneaking them into tree branches and rooftops one day.

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    1. Thanks! There actually is bird poo on the roof of the house, so I'm already there! Agreed about the dirtying up, it makes such a difference, especially to quite uniform builds such as lasercut and printed scenery. And can disguise a bit of an average paint job!

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  3. Amazing pieces of terrain, I like the old worn look you gave them. I really should get myself a 3D printer one day.

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    1. Cheers Wouter. I'm investigating g the best one for my school, see if we can afford it for my model-making club...

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  4. This gaming table is fantastic. So much details, great work. Bravo 😄

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    1. Cheers Nico. I need to populate it with more buildings and details plus I want to build at least two more boards....

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  5. They look splendid! If they are a time saver too, then you have it all!

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    1. Cheers Suber. The time saving element is crucial, as you know, trying to juggle and get through so many project ideas!

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