The Six Realms WIP

[ashrothedm]

I've been gradually working on this project for a long while and I've hit the point where I thought I would post something up. My players were having a rough time with maps, and they could never remember where things were in relation to one another, as they referenced the world map maybe once a session every month or so. I decided that the best way for them to remember was to make the map memorable, and with some crafting techniques picked up here, I started working on a 2.5Dish version of the Six Relams, a homebrew campaign world that I've been running for the past seven years.



The map is still a work in progress, so the images are a bit condensed and cramped. Overall, it is about 24"x36", and no more than about 1.5" tall. Everything is made with crafting techniques that have been shown on this forum or in one of the 2.5D videos. I'll briefly describe the process that I've used to get this far:

• Cut out the 2.5D land mass from double corrugated cardboard and applied it to a full double corrugated cardboard base
• Rivers were cut from a single layer of the land mass
• Mountains were added - Random pieces of pink foam insulation applied with hot glue. They are stacked and arranged, not cut to shape.
• Hills were added - Hills are small balls of paper towel, wrapped in aluminum foil, and hot glued to the land mass. They looked like little silver beans on the map
• TP and Glue - Almost everything was covered in TP and White glue, like several of DM Scotty's videos. This filled in the gaps left by the foam and the hill-beans
• Coffee Ground Texture - Dried and used coffee grounds were glued to the entire map where a rough terrain texture was needed. 
• Larger Sand Added - To accent different areas, sand with a more course grit than the coffee was added. This helped make some rocky places and some of the wastelands
• Base Coating Black - Cheapest paint that I could find, base coating the entire thing
• Painting - It would take an entire additional thread for me to go into the colors and techniques that I applied. In short, I used base colors, watered down washes, and dry brushing. Each of those techniques has been shown before. Color selection was important.
• River Painting - Rivers got a watered down blue application
• Water Effect Step 1 - A thick layer of Modge Podge was applied to the dark blue sections of the water. Some of this and some of the blue worked its way onto land, and will be removed in a later touch up step
• Forest Added - The forests are scenery shrubs, a few dollars at a craft store. The best looking was the cheap shrub which I soaked in a wash of my own colors. Once it dried, I applied it with white glue everywhere there needed to be some forest. 

And... that's where I am today. There are still some follow up steps (touching up the river edges, adding snow to some treetops, adding city markers, adding roads, basing the map, framing the map) but those are going to have to wait. I need to finish preparing the adventure for this weekend which will unleash the preview of this map onto the players.

I could not really get any great images of the map, but I expect that as I complete more of it and as I capture some better images, I'll post them as well.

So, this is a long post here, but if you have any questions about it, want to see any details, or anything else, I'd be happy to respond. Enjoy! 

[uncledog]

Very nice. Just.. wow!

[rane]

holy crapoli!

[gallant]

That map looks incredible, well done!

[wildagreenbough]

What an amazing idea. Your 3D map is an excellent piece of crafting work.

[runningwolf]

*5 minute long streak of cursing and cussing* way cool

that is on par with stuff you'd see in a natural history museum.

[ashrothedm]

Thank you everyone!

I tried to get a more shallow shot and included some US Quarters (0.955in, 24.26mm) to help with the scale. The main mountain pictured is the tallest on the map and is just under twice the height of the mountain nearly in the background. I tried to include two quarters in the shots for scale to help with perspective.  The foreground makes sense, but even in the main image, it's hard to see the scale of the background mountains. With the scale, my phone camera wants to really focus in on something (usually the quarter) which takes the rest very much out of focus. When I get a good wide shot, that should be resolved. 

I added the sky background rather quickly, mostly because the photo background was very confusing for scale, but also, because I wondered what it would look like. 

Keep in mind that the rivers and lakes pictured still have more modge podge that needs to be added to fill them up, so they look a little shallow on the low angle. I'll try to get a nice wide shot once I either finish, or have it in play this weekend (If I take a shot)

I took several photos, but these were the ones that I thought added something to the first post. 

[dungeonmistress]

Lucky players! I want to do something like this when I get my game fully morphed into Pathfinders.

[DMScotty]

So cool!

[Sleepy Hollow Mike]

Awesome!

[dmagamus]

That looks really fantastic. The water looks great!

[blackrosebronwen]

Awesome! I did something similar back in middle school for a project where we had to make a map of middle earth. Though I used play dough on a form board with rain deer moss for tree tops and glued brown painted rice grains standing up around the perimeter of forests so they had little trunks.

I felt bad taking it to class, since everyone else just drew the map in a bigger scale from the back of the book, at most painting it if I rmrmber correctly

[Cyan Wisp]

[cue Game of Thrones theme as map is examined] Looks great! Lots of fine detail. Would love to see more photos. My school class is busy making a Marscape with human habitats for Science/Art and I think I could get some good ideas from your map. It's nice how you have the sky in the background of the photos.

[Deleted]

Awesome build, I love 3d landscapes like that, you often find them on display at hydroelectric dams.
Cyan Wisp, be sure to tell your kids that it has to be a Kiwi who climbs the tallest mountain in our solar system!

[Cyan Wisp]

Jun 15, 2014 12:06:28 GMT @aj said:

Cyan Wisp, be sure to tell your kids that it has to be a Kiwi who climbs the tallest mountain in our solar system!

Too right! Our overarching theme this year is overcoming challenges. Hillary has been an obvious icon for that.

[gnomezrule]

This is epic. One of my players joking asked for a fully functional Game of Thrones Map to help him with the geography.

[skunkape]

Looks great!

[grym247]

Fantastic Work