Dwarven Forge Cavern Kickstarter has arrived

My kickstarter order arrived today. That's 2 for 2 Dwarven Forge is on delivering on time. All I can say is WOW. I wish I had spent more money on this when I bought in. Cause this stuff is awesome. I bought 3 sets and 4 add on packs. All unpainted. Buying them painted would be nice, but with unpainted my gaming dollar stretches farther. Here are a ton of pics I took as I opened the boxes.

3 Sets with 3 stretch goal boxes

4 Addon boxes

 Dungeon Passage

Narrow Dungeon Passage

The angled pieces are brilliant.

 Eowyn and Lumpin fight off Frogs

Mixed in some of my painted Dungeon tiles

1 box set worth of tiles. Eowyn is joined by Glorfindle, Elrond and Erestor. The frogs don't stand a chance.

 Cavern Set Piece

Cavern Set Piece

 Cavern Set Piece

 Cavern Set Piece

 Narrow Cavern Addon piece

 Narrow Cavern Addon piece

 Narrow Cavern Addon piece

1 Set and Narrow Add on

I wish I could have gotten more narrow sets

Here is where I really wish I went painted. These are the water tiles

Here is the recessed bottom on the new pieces. Deeper than the dungeon set.

Stretch Goal Pieces. This is where the set really starts to shine.

 Stretch Goal Pieces

 Stretch Goal Pieces

 Stretch Goal Pieces

 Stretch Goal Pieces

 Stretch Goal Pieces

 Stretch Goal Pieces

 Stretch Goal Pieces

 Stretch Goal Pieces

 Stretch Goal Pieces

 Stretch Goal Pieces

 Stretch Goal Pieces

 Carven Set with Narrow set and stretch goal pieces.

 Even unpainted it looks good.

My only regret is I could not afford more. If you can afford to buy these, it's worth it.

Xin out.

Building Marengo, Part 5

Are you sick of these updates yet? I am. This is the last week. We leave on Thursday for Fall In, and this is the last update before we head out.

 Grassing up the boys. My method is once the troops are on the metal base stands, paint the bases green. With the paint still wet, drown them in the flock tub. The paint grabs the flock really well. I let them sit in there for 20 minutes or so. Then shake off the excess and we are good to go.

 This is a picture of the first pour of Realistic Water. One all the pours are done, we will dress up this board with more flocking/ vegetation/ etc.

 It's milky when you first pour it. It takes 24 hours to cure. But being I do this in my basement, I gave it 48hours. Once cured it clears up.

 Putting in poles for the vineyard. Using pins with a dab of glue. Not sure if the glue does anything and most of it rubs off when you stick in the pins.

 Low angle shot

Here is a small finished vineyard.

A big Vineyard on the hill.

 Here's the river dry and clear. I will do at least 2 more pours to build up the depth of the river.

 More vineyards.

 More pins. My thumb is really getting sore.

 Making the actual vines. It's Woodland Scenics Poly Fiber. We stretch it thin like making yarn. Then spray it with Hairspray and quickly dip it in flock. Then the long strands of vines just hook over the pin heads.

 3rd pour. Getting nice and deep now.

Poured the little streams as well. I got cocky here and didn't dam the edges well. The Realistic Water seeped all over my table. Turned on the dehumidifier and went to bed.

The only thing left is finish basing the troops a few vineyards and dress up the end board around the river. Easy Peasy.

Our event listing is:
F391 Marengo
Fri 6:00:00 PM, 4 hrs, 8 players

If you want to play but didn't register, stop by the table during the game and check to see if we are running it again(unscheduled) Saturday night.

See you at Fall In!

Building Marengo Battlefield, Part 4

All the pieces really starting to come together now. When you have vacation to burn or lose, it really helps the production.

I'm making a bridge that goes over the Bormida River.

There are a couple of streams with roads that cross them. One of the accounts I read talks about storming across a wooden bridge so these will be simple wooden bridges.

Test fit on the river. I will need to carve out some foam to make it fit.

Building a dam, for the Realistic Water pour. I got 5 minute epoxy. Sets in 5 minutes, but takes 24 hours to cure. Not sure what the epoxy and the realistic water will due to each other, so playing it safe and waiting the 24 hours.

Some of the accounts we read talked about walled farms or villages. I had some Time Cast walls that we used to make this village, it's late, can't remember which. We did it more for looks than anything else.

This is the shot of the vineyards. I had initial thought I'd just go brown paint but it looked like crap on our test piece. So I added this sandy dirt color mainly for the texture. Not super happy about the color, but all the other colors I had were already on the table as fields.

My friend dropped the buildings on the table just to get a feel for how they would look. He scratch built these. That's Marengo in the middle.

Not only is my friend a great scratch builder and sculpter. He is an amazing painter. He is doing all the French. I just started grassing the bases.

Tomorrow I will start the vineyards and pour the river, Xin out.

The Elementals

Do you remember these? Ral Partha Elementals.

About 20 years ago I bought these for playing D&D with. I only painted the Fire Elemental and poorly. I made the common mistake of reversing the light and dark colors of fire.

Well recently I came across them when I was looking for something else. So of course they hit the painting table, it was "new and shiney". And other projects got pushed back, LOL. So I rebased them all and got to painting.

Based on GW 40mm base. I like this as my standard go to monster base.

I love the "faces" that these guys have.

Earth, Wind and Fire!

I spent a lot of time trying to integrate the figure onto the base.

I like how the charred ground came out on this one.

I was very happy with the basing effects. Sometimes you have an idea of what you want, but not sure how to pull it off on the base or figure.

This was the hardest to blend. I think the blue works for the elemental, but smearing blue on the base doesn't. This was the weakest of the bases.

One funny thing I noticed about these. I thought the Fire Elemental would be easy to paint and the Water and Air would be hard. It was the complete opposite. Painting Flames is a pain in the ass. Yet the Water and Air was some simple dry brushing, just had to find the right colors.

Hopefully these will hit a D&D table near me soon.

Mounted Saxon Hearthguard

I know most likely Viking era Saxon's didn't fight on horseback, but for the Saga game, I can mount some of my Hearthguard. At Historicon I picked up a box of Conquest's Norman Knights. They come with both a kite shield and a round shield, so they can proxy in for mounted Saxon's. In between flocking the Marengo battlefield, I've manged to get a few figures painted. Mainly while waiting for things to dry.

Here is my first 4 mounted Hearthguard. This should give my Viking opponent some trouble. Dang it, I should have painted up a mounted Warlord as well.

 The bases are the "grab a box and fill bases" from Gale Force Nine, that they bring to the conventions. I used a grinder to give the base a beveled edge.

Just checking the Saga Northern Fury rules and I can mount ALL my Hearthguard! More to come!

Xin

Building Marengo Battlefield, Part 3

Here's a quick update on where we stand with the Battlefield that we are getting ready for Fall In.

It's most just flocking fields right now. We want to get all the fields done before we tackle the river pour and the vineyards. Saving the hardest for last. Unfortunately drying time for the fields in a basement is never very quick. Got the Dehumidifiern working overtime. 

While waiting for fields to dry. We started doing hedge rows between fields.

Slow progress, but progress

Uncultivated land around the river. From the looks of some of the maps of Marengo, this is pretty soggy ground.

Lots of hedges

Almost done

 I think in this shot, there is only 2 fields left to flock.

Painting the river, a muddy brown, green mix. Trying for that deeper in the center look. I have some bridges that I'm working on that I forgot to take pics of. There's one big bridge over the river, and some smaller bridges over the streams. Also a pontoon bridge.

That's it for now. I hope to pour water tonight or the next. We have just over a week left.

Xin