Welp, here we go again.
Earlier last year I had almost finished the Part 3 blog
post detailing how I made one of my favorite boards for Vastarian and
accidentally deleted it by mistake on Blogger.
This was extremely disappointing
and frustrating as I’d spent about two months working on it. It was almost 6,000
words and an awful piece of work. Yes, I’m an idiot. Rip on me in the comments
below
So now here I am! Writing it on a MS Word document to prevent myself from
fat-fingering the thing a second time. To pick back up from Post 2, the majority
of the board had been textured and built. Now all I had to do was adhere the
cathedral to the board, prime, paint and add vegetation and it’d be done! This post has quite a lot more pictures, as it was far less messy which allowed me to take more pictures than I normally recall to, so reader beware.
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The Board in its pre-prime state
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Here are some more
pictures of the Cathedral Entrance. The main superstructure was cut out, the
Eagle head removed and filed down and bips and bobs added to it. The main door
was made of balsa wood with some greebles. Actual hinges from a dollhouse
manufacturer were Greenstuffed to the doors and walls, allowing the door to open
and close (though one still has to be careful doing so…). The same was done to
the side entrance leading to the ruined lighthouse. The front walls were then
painted separately to save my aching back from painting it standing at an odd
angle, had I attached it to the board before doing so. It was primed, airbrushed
with Mechanicus Grey and then details picked out in gold or white in the case of
the skulls. Streaking grime was dabbed in places with some modest chipping and
weathering. To complete the look Barnwood from Acrylic Colors (craft store
paint) was flecked against the walls.
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| I always felt the beak was obnoxious on this kit. Glad to see it go. |
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| The hinges took far longer than I would care to admit. |
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| The finished door! |
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| Details added from bits and recasts of old Fantasy pieces I had from my college days. |
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| Additional plaster was placed on the interior of the walls to help reinforce. |
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| Plaster was placed on the exterior to form a bulwark, helping reinforce the cathedral walls. |
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| Plaster was primed over by hand, and then later air brushed with Mechanicus Grey. |
The walls were then assembled and adhered
to the board, even though the board had been primed already. Buffers of earth
were placed on either side to give the walls stability, primed black by hand and
then airbrushed with Mechanicus Grey.
The rest of the board was sealed several
times over with a sealant spray and left to dry for 24 hours, applying 3-4
layers (this would prove beneficial in November of 2024, though I did not know
it yet!). Afterwards the board was primed in Carbon Black from Liquitex
acrylics, freely available from any local art store in the USA. I now only use this brand for terrain as it is a non-acetone aerosol meaning that it does not melt the foam that is usually all over my boards and makes priming a cinch!
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| Inevitably, even with sealing sometimes drybrushing brings up small pieces... |
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| Different colors of browns and grays were sprayed to give color variation amongst the board. This helps break up the monotony of a singular palette |
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| Dark Umber, Burnt Umber and Hookers Green was sprayed sporadically alongside a dark grey - all from Liquitex |
Then the
flagstones, entrance stairway, and any brickwork was drybrushed with Amsterdam
Grey and progressively lighter tones. Patches of earth were picked out with Raw
Umber, Barnwood and then small pages of Sage tone in drybrushing. The stonework
of the lighthouse was drybrushed in a similar manner as well as the tumbled
brickworks from the ‘Spill’ of the ruined corner of the cathedral entrance.
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| A model's-eye view of the spoil |
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| An imposing view of the cathedral entrance. |
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| Post drybrushing |
The
ocean portion of the board was spray painted with Hooker’s Green by Liquitex
which was later layered with clear gel medium alongside Woodland Scenic water
effects. This gave the tumultuous effects of the ocean pouring over in waves to
crash along the beach, given Vastarian’s semi-aquatic nature.
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| A heavy clear gel medium added to the base of the water to show churning sea foam |
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| As this dried, additional gel was sculpted to give white caps |
With the majority
of the board ready to go I sprayed random patches of Umber Brown alongside some
smaller patches of Hooker’s green. This would give a more interesting vibe to
the ‘under layer’ of the color of the board and lend variation. Then mid and
light-tone greys were sprayed haphazardly all over the board, keeping in mind
that less is more – if I sprayed too much then it would over-highlight some of
the areas and distract from the drab feel I wanted to achieve with the terrain.
Lighter layers of bluish stone and sage green were drybrushed and picked out in
areas. Details such as skulls, bushes and metallics were also picked out,
including the light posts lining the main road to the cathedral entrance. The
last phase was adding vegetation, which really brings boards to life!
For this
board I used my tried-and-true classic of Harvest Gold static grass and Blended
Turf in patches. I initially applied the blended turf sparingly, waited 24 hours
and then added the static grass using a cheap Static Grass applicator from
Amazon.
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| Two grasses/flocks were used. These are my staples in other terrain pieces. |
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| Smaller tufts were applied. I particularly like the smallest ones, as they add to the realism. |
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| Various other vegetation tufts were used to add variety |
The grass was too ‘loud’ and yellow, distracting from the subdued
appearance I wanted to achieve – so I sprayed some diluted Umber Brown onto all
of the patches which suitably dulled it down! Small tufts were adhered from
different manufacturers across the board in small crevices, corners, etc. Dried
seafoam was primed black and sprayed with Burnt Umber or Raw Umber and then
adhered in small patches/corners of the board to help ‘round out’ the entrance
to the Cathedral.
The final touches were chipped and broken glass in the windows
of the cathedral, applied by cutting out old blister pack clear plastic –
alongside my stained glass formula I’d discovered years back from Tom’s Boring
Mordheim Forum: Laying out stretches of sculptor’s mesh flat, I would attach
clear masking tape on one side with the ‘sticky’ side adhered to the mesh. I
would then apply Woodland Scenic water effects and layer it on to ensure all of
the holes of the mesh were covered and let rest for at LEAST 24 hours. Then
gently peel off the tape and, wah-lah! Windows! Be careful yet intentional with
peeling off the tape, as it is not uncommon for some diamonds of the resin to
come off with the tape… The stained glass was filled in with red and blue marker
to achieve a checkered effect, then glued into the circular windows of the
cathedral.
Standing back at the completed work, I am very proud of the board and
I think it is my favorite I made for the Wier’s Vastarian event – though I have
to sell it off/get rid of it with everything going on (more on that in a
separate post in the future). One of the inspirations for it was the Pylgrim
event from 2016 almost a decade ago, a board that was made by Johann Egerkins
(sp?) that was a monumental edifice representing the entrance to the Emperor’s
Golden Throne. Though my board was less grand and encompassing, I tried to
achieve the effect of a pilgrim’s holy road leading to the doors of a church –
whosevers church that belongs to lay in the story of Vastarian. I think I pulled
it off to a much lesser extent while still keeping the character of Vastarian’s
aquatic planet by incorporating a ruined lighthouse, beach and some other
ingress/egress points to add potential havoc to the campaign should it present
itself to the players.
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| The final product! |
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| The Vastarian gang's all here |
Thanks, and sorry again this took so long. Any questions
please feel free to drop them in the comments below. I hope this was helpful to
anyone who reads it!
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| A well-deserved rest, reading UTD 'zine |
Till next time,
Bill
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