Building Stones River Battlefield, Part 1

My friends and I have started building our layout for The Battle of Stones River(Link) game that we are putting on at Historicon(Link). We are a little tight for time, 19 days, cause at the last minute we decided to go for an elaborate sculpted table as opposed to a drop cloth and some trees and hills.

Nothing wrong with the drop cloth route, we've done it a hundreds of times, but we just decided to go all out. So from now until July 15th, we've got a lot of work to do.

I'll be taking some works in progress pics as I go. I hope you enjoy the ride. So here we go.

The good folks at Home Depot supplied us with 4 2x8 sheets of insulating foam.

Uhm, my car can't fit an 8 foot sheet! As our table is 5x8 we cut off 3 feet of the board in the parking lot.

Got the foam laid out, cut to size, we are ready to go.

Laying out Stones River

 

River and hills marked

Now to make a huge mess. Using a Stanley Surform I begin excavating the river bed while Lou starts cutting hills.

Hills done, base river course done, now we both go back over the river to get the depth we need. Foam is all over my basement.

Using sandpaper we smooth down the river and widen the banks. Need more sandpaper. As abrasive as the sandpaper is to the foam, the foam shreds the sandpaper right back.

Now the hills have to be surformed down to a playable level, more foam bits everywhere. I got 4 done, but at this point I had to call it a night. Lots more to do, we've only just begun.

Xin

Otherworld Troll painted up

This is my first Otherworld Miniature[Link]. Otherworld specializes in recreating iconic Monsters from the 1st addition of AD&D. Really really great stuff. Full metal too, not plastic or Resin. A tad on the pricey side but worth it. This is Troll II[Link] from the Dungeon Monsters line. I would have bought both Trolls but the vendor at Cold Wars only had one left. If you like the old D&D monsters, do yourself a favor and check out Otherworld Miniatures.

I much prefer this version of trolls as opposed to the slightly more cartoon-ish Games Workshop style. Most likely since D&D was my gateway drug into RPG's and Wargaming, some 30 odd years ago.

I am very happy with the way that it came out, and I look forward to picking up the other sculpt at Historicon. Here's the pics.

I have an idea of a troll based warband for skirmish gaming. I need some sort of spellcaster/shaman for my warband. How about a Hag/ Banshee/ Evil women kind of figure? Anyone got any recommendations?

Thanks, Xin

Guardians of the Shire

I just finished painting up Guardians of the Shire box set. It's 6 Dunedain and the elf Gildor Inglorion. Funny thing about these figures, I had been searching for them on ebay for awhile(year+). I almost pulled the trigger on a $95 auction but I held off at the last second, thankfully. While going through my unpainted pile, I found a bag of "rangers" that I had picked up at one of the HMGS flea markets. It was all the figures from the box set. And I think I got them for $10.

Anyway, here are the pics

I think they came out "ok". I didn't go crazy with highlighting and shading. Too be honest, since I am actively trying to reduce the backlog of unpainted, I am just trying to get it painted quickly. I have too much to paint, too much to game and not enough time.

Xin