We shaped the cliffs by hand, planted the forest one tree at a time, then added a tour boat, a pod of orcas, and a bear on the ridge. Once we added the boat and animals, the scale finally felt right.
Every building on this project starts as a clay sculpt on the bench, gets scanned, then gets printed so we can paint proper copies of it. This one went on in that order: terracotta base over the tiles, a thin dark wash pulled down into the gaps, a dry brush of lighter orange across the ridges, and the timbers picked out last so the wood reads warmer than the roof. The little rag in shot is doing most of the work, wash on, wash mostly off. Sculpted by Johnny Fraser-Allen, who spent years at Weta Workshop before this.
https://youtu.be/t0ed6oSZONs?si=hldDbrk7JhNe94Fk
An excellent layout featuring model scenery based on a picturesque East Anglia village, created by Roger Beckwith.
I've flocked a lot of seafoam trees before, but these are the first I made "from the wire up", so to say.
Recipe:
Twisted metal wire
Some PVA glue to flatten the texture of the trunk (don't know if it did a whole lot..)
Spray adhesive and 12mm static grass
Second coat of 12mm grass (might have overdone it)
Coat of 4 mm grass (might have overdone that too)
Spray painted the whole thing brown
More spray adhesive and WS coarse turf
Little dabs of PVA glue and red decorative sand for the apples :)
I think they look the part! Just a few more to go for my orchard.
Helpful video for mass producing fir trees that look great. I haven't tried this technique myself, but it's a great video guide.
He claims he can do about 20 trees an hour when he's doing large numbers. 3 minutes a piece. Not bad considering how good the results are.
We built the river, rocks, and plants first, then added the dinosaurs. Now we're moving a few trees around and filling in the last gaps.
Not as pretty as some of the terrariums I see here, but I’m genuinely so happy with how this turned out.
Everything is custom-made, from the electronics to the miniature models, which I designed, printed, and painted myself. Each light, the smoke, and even the windmill can be controlled from my phone. I can turn the lights on and off, adjust the brightness, control the flickering intensity, and basically tweak everything remotely.
There’s definitely room for improvement, but for my first one, I’m really happy with how it came out.
Hi! This is my first ever foam diorama, a hidden dugout bushcraft survival shelter. I made everything except the tools and water bottle. You would enter through the tree stump, which is where the battery box is hidden. Next time I will use thicker logs for the walls.
Front façade of the main building from my latest crafting session. As usual, mostly XPS foam, and some straws for columns. A bit of greenery and flowers also, for realism.
Just finished sealing my latest build this afternoon and wanted to share. I love terrain pieces that add to the campaign narrative through environmental story telling, and I'm quite pleased with the results here.
Medium is XPS foam, craft wood, sand, acrylic paint, oil washes and terrain foliage from both Woodland Scenics and the Army Painter.
Built from scrap cardboard and papier-mâché with cherry veneer on the tray. It lifts out so it can be used on a game board, and the long window in the gable has a light inside. I’m pleased with the stonework on this, it took forever but it has the sandstone look I was hoping for.
These are the original clay masters for a fantasy township we have been building. Every roof, gable and stone course is cut into clay by hand first, so what you see later in paint started life as tool marks on a desk. Sculpting is by Johnny Fraser-Allen, who spent years at Weta Workshop before this.
Shot one is the first red going onto a thatched house, shot two is a finished master waiting for colour, shot three is a separate ruin master from the same township, and the last is the painting desk on a normal evening.
Happy to talk process if anyone wants to know how the thatch is done, it is the fiddliest part by a mile.
Pretty happy with how it came out, although I do feel like it could use some more scatter like crates and barrels, maybe some little starfish etc 🤔
Made from a styrofoam head, scrap foam sheet and beads and wooden discs. Painted with modpodge and craft paints and a few adhesive tufts. Pretty much all from the dollar store.
Finally got round to taking some picks of some of the desert rocks I made. A whole lot of stacked slices of cardboard glue-gunned together, then covered in a mix of PVA, left over tile adhesive and the kids poster paints.
I created this forest for our special army rule. It got a new baseplate that is just below 9“ at the widest diameter.
Blessed to be able to ambush some South Vietnamese troops today on this lovely battlefield!
EDIT: For those looking for rules we are playing “LZ”
I built this terrain piece specifically for the Blood Moon scenario in Rangers of Shadow Deep, which suggests using a pond roughly 12 inches across. I don't have many water pieces in my terrain collection, so I'm looking forward to using this in many different games in the future.
It's built on a thin wood base with XPS foam and Sculptamold to create the main structure. Painted, flocked, embellished with painted aquarium plants, and finished with resin and water effects. Please enjoy the photos! And feedback, criticisms, questions, etc. always welcomed. Thanks for taking a look.
Gaslands with a Crimson Skies skin.
Ran a test play last night with a full table of 8. Got some tweaks to do but all in all it works!
Plexiglass board build, clouds below with lights and lightning wired below that. Used a Halloween lightning machine for flicker effect in sync with audio. Then all the lighting in the explosions and fire!
I have all the WIP and DIY either here on my Reddit posts or my Facebook/Instagram.
Ask any questions on the build, Im happy to help!