Tuesday, March 12, 2019

Frostgrave Ghost Archipelago Table Improvements

I'm running a large FGA game at Cold Wars in a few days. As well as fixing up the Rivoli battlefield, I'm doing some work on the FGA table as well.

Diving right in...


Here is the table from Historicon 2018


Vaal???





The first thing I want to fix is the tree stands. A friend of mine Tim Pleaslee made the stand in the upper right. I made the other tree stands. His stands look very jungle-ly. Mine look like the back 9 on Waikiki Country Club course.


First up, drown them in glue


The "dip" into flock bath. Various colors and textures.


Let them dry overnight


A lot of tree stands


Step 2, at foliage to each stand. I've been collecting bits of jungle terrain for a while.


I love my glue gun.


That is much better. It's a slow process but worth it.


 Another terrain element I had going was some free standing palm trees that I could sneak into tight spots.

First, cut off the head of a pin. Heat up the cut end till it's glowing. Then shove it into the bottom of a plastic tree. 


Bazinga! Free standing trees for your Foam battle table. Or a not very aerodynamic dart. 


The next thing I'm gonna fix is the pyramid topper. It worked for the snake god statue, but I was not happy with the look. Made me think of a Battlemech hanger. So it's out.


Replacing it with a ceremonial building on top. 


Since I did the game, Northstar has come out with some new figures that I want to use. How can you not get some Snake-Men?


Just released are the Tribals. And thanks to Lon at Brigade Games, he rushed me a box so I could get them painted.

So with Rivoli and Frostgrave I have a few things going on. I've been in way worse shape in previous cons. I got this.

Xin/Jeff


Monday, March 11, 2019

Fixing Rivoli Part 2

We got some more work done on the table. The fields are 95% done. Just touch up in a few spots. On Tuesday we got the villages put back on the board. Glued the buildings in place and let them set up for the night. I might do some paint touch up on the buildings, but we'll see if I have time for that. Just something that my bothers my OCD, not anything wrong with them.

We also started in on replacing hedgerows. Anyway here's some pics.



 Fields done


Villages added back on











Touched up buildings


 Really coming together now


The big one is Rivoli


These damn Hi-res cameras show all the flaws


Making Hedgerows


Yarn, sprayed with glue


Roll yarn in your flock of choice


Waiting for Alan to glue in place as I crank out more strips


Trim to fit


Looks pretty good once the glue drys.

So we need to finish the board by Tuesday so everything has time to dry. It's mostly done, but those hedgerows take time. Anyway we are in good shape. If your going to Cold Wars, stop by and say hi.


Xin / Jeff

Test pic


Monday, March 4, 2019

Fixing up Rivoli

My friends Alan and Bob are running a Napoleonic game at Cold Wars 2019. I will be running Frostgrave Ghost Archipelago. The Nap game will be The Battle of Rivoli. We ran this game before at Fall In 2015.



We pulled the board out of storage.


It's in pretty good shape


 Some fields have bare spots where the flock wore off.


The biggest issue is mold on some of the hedgerows


 We used Lichen for the river bank and some parts of the hedgerows. That all has to be removed.


 With paint, glue and time, the soft lichen is harder than rock. We had to chip it off.


 In some spots we used a dremel.


 Not bad looking after clean up


 At some point we decided to redo ALL the hedgerows. During the removal process huge divots were dug into the boards. We filled them with spackle, then painted them our base brown color.


 We had to touch up a lot of spots.


 What was a simple clean up has become a major project, more supplies needed.


 Damage was done to the roads too, so then need fixing. I need small "Men at Work" signs


 Re-flocking the fields


 Hmmm lots more fields to fix.





 Starting to come together.




Don't have the pics, but most of the fields are fixed. Next we put all the buildings on. And last step is all the hedgerows.


A week out and I've been in much worse shape on previous builds. We got this.


Xin

Part 2