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Post by jennifer on Dec 24, 2015 12:07:27 GMT
Hi, my name is Jennifer. I've just recently gotten into crafting terrain and I'm just creating this thread to introduce myself and to have a thread I can reply to as I like to take photos of each piece of stuff I make. The DM's Craft has been a big help -- Scotty is so nice to spend all those hours creating wonderful terrain for all of his players and all the lengthy informative videos for us as well!
I've played D&D when I was a teenager back in the 80's. And have gotten back into it recently. Right now I am focused on fantasy wargaming and working on a set of my first miniatures and first set of terrain. I'm making them for some Song of Blades & Heroes skirmishes I have planned with my nephew. After that I'll probably get back into D&D and work on more dungeon stuff.
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Post by jennifer on Dec 24, 2015 12:15:56 GMT
RUINS Since I am sorely lacking in terrain (all I have made is a few trees and scenery/roads), I needed something that would be useful and quick to make for wargaming skirmishes. I looked up ruins and found that Scotty was making spectacular ones, on the cheap, that look better than most expensive ones I see. Anyways, I made one ruin piece so far (proof of concept), referencing Scotty's wonderful video, and here is a photo of it: So that turned out great (I can tweak it later some more if I want but it's good for now). So I decided I want to make about 6 more pieces. I am going to get all the cardboard ready first and do them all in one big batch. Here are the next two unfinished pieces .. I have four more to craft. It's fairly easy and quick to make these--not to mention fun! (Ignore the pencil and sharpy marks.. I was just doodling before I decided where I wanted to actually cut -- it'll be spray painted over with flat black.
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Post by jennifer on Dec 24, 2015 12:24:16 GMT
MINIATURES So I am just learning how to paint minis, and just finished my second humanoid -- the knight that follows The knight came from a 36 piece knights set from Amazon.com for $6.95. I only have 35 more to paint--just kidding! I'll paint another FIVE because there are only SIX unique figures in the set.. 36 pieces 6 of each figure. The dragon I got from the flea market for $2 unpainted (white). It was actually the first (and currently only) creature I have painted. The dwarf in the background in the ruins by the pond, was my first mini I have painted -- I still need to finish him (base and highlights etc).
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Post by Admin on Dec 24, 2015 12:49:32 GMT
These are looking great and welcome to the community! Looking forward to seeing more Jennifer.
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Post by jennifer on Dec 24, 2015 13:17:49 GMT
These are looking great and welcome to the community! Looking forward to seeing more Jennifer. Thanks Scotty! (I assume Admin account is you?) Yeah, I'll be making lots more posts
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Post by SpielMeisterKev! on Dec 24, 2015 13:32:45 GMT
Howdy, You made the trees in the pics? EXALT BUTTON!!! for you. Great work on the ruins, the Knight, and everything. I am interested in the pond. Welcome, Kev!
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Post by jennifer on Dec 24, 2015 13:40:23 GMT
Howdy, You made the trees in the pics? EXALT BUTTON!!! for you. Great work on the ruins, the Knight, and everything. I am interested in the pond. Welcome, Kev! Thanks Kev! Yeah I made the trees in the pic. They are super easy to make! Just used some wire, wood putty I made from leftover pencil sharpener shavings (for the bark), some acrylic paint, chipboard and flock. Glue gun as well here and there.
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Post by SpielMeisterKev! on Dec 24, 2015 13:47:13 GMT
Howdy,You made the trees in the pics? EXALT BUTTON!!! for you. Great work on the ruins, the Knight, and everything. I am interested in the pond. Welcome, Kev! Thanks Kev! Yeah I made the trees in the pic. They are super easy to make! Just used some wire, wood putty I made from leftover pencil sharpener shavings (for the bark), some acrylic paint, chipboard and flock. Glue gun as well here and there. What about the pond? Have any more pics? Kev!
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Post by curufin on Dec 24, 2015 13:58:15 GMT
Welcome to the forum and crafting community! Great looking ruins and trees! And the paint job is very well done.
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Post by jennifer on Dec 24, 2015 14:03:58 GMT
BATTLE GROUND When I got into this earlier this year (took a break for some months now), I had in mind to use modular tiles for the ground with sections of roads and recessed rivers/creeks, etc. (Made of three layers of cardboard criss crossed capped on top and sides with medium weight chipboard -- LOTTA work). Here is what I had started on: I've decided it's too much work to do that (for the time being at least) and have switched to a mat. I bought some heavy canvas (100% cotton) from Hanncock Fabrics for $5.99/yard with a daily coupon from their web site (normally $10.99 a yard). I cut it an inch larger than I wanted all the way around. I then painted it with SOIL brown acrylic paint. After that dried I trimmed the edges 1 inch all the way around; since the fibers are all glued together it no longer frays / falls apart along the edges -- and after the trim it's nice and clean and stays that way. I then flocked it by first giving the entire surface a coat of 30/70 white glue/water mixture. Then tossed various shades of flocking (from browns, burnt yellow to yellow, yellow/green mixed and solid greens). I just tried to make it look as natural as I could. I left a little more soil showing on the edges which led to a wonderful effect: the mat looks like an old/tattered map with burnt edges -- I really love the way it looks. Here is a photo: After that dried, I sealed the top a couple different times with a 15/85 mixture (or so) of white glue water in a spray bottle. It doesn't shed at all now. What's nice about the map is I can roll it up and it's lightweight. I am gonna wrap it around some sort of tube (cardboard or plastic.. haven't decided yet what to use). I am going to make several of these mats, they are so very affordable and they sit flat due to the weight of the canvas and its flexibility. (except for the very edges which has that cool treasure map effect). I'll be making ones with various roads. For rivers I'll just use overlays like I did for the pond (which is also painted on canvas) along with flocking. (I also gave the pond a few coats of varnish -- we'll see how that goes.. it does look shinier now I'll take a photo of the pond canvas later. If I can't easily handle with river/creek overlays -- i.e. it's too complex or would look hokey-- I'll just create a new custom map from another piece of canvas. I am guessing I can roll up several together on the same tube or maybe I'll just drape them over a wide round bar on the wall. EDIT: oh by the way, when making a pond/lake make sure to cut the canvas with a couple extra inches of border. SO that way when you give it the base coat of water based acrylic paint, you can trim it after it dries and wrinkles along the edges. Two inches will ensure enough of a border that you can cut off and have the end result being a flat pond (or road section / river section).
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Post by sgtslag on Dec 24, 2015 15:18:13 GMT
Wow! First time at bat and you hit it out of the ballpark! I feel like a total hack, after looking at your work. Back to my cave I go, to toil away in mediocrity... Really gorgeous work. Very well done, indeed. Also, very inspiring, and encouraging. Thank you for sharing. Looking forward to some "how to's" on the water works, and the trees. Your ruins are quite good. Cheers!
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Post by jennifer on Dec 24, 2015 16:22:32 GMT
Wow! First time at bat and you hit it out of the ballpark! I feel like a total hack, after looking at your work. Back to my cave I go, to toil away in mediocrity... Really gorgeous work. Very well done, indeed. Also, very inspiring, and encouraging. Thank you for sharing. Looking forward to some "how to's" on the water works, and the trees. Your ruins are quite good. Cheers! Thanks for the complements For the trees, I used Mel's tutorial video mostly: I used saw dust from my miter saw actually for the bark (mixed with white glue to form a putty) -- above I said I used pencil shavings but that isn't the case. The saw dust is chippy/gritty enough that when it dries it kinda looks like bark. I paint the trunk/limbs a good shade of grey/brown as the base then I dry brush on some very light grey/tan over the sawdust chips / bark and it works quite well bringing out the detail. For the water, I am learning how to do that. The pond is just a mix of a bunch of dark grey, much less dark green, and even less dark blue. Then I just lightened up the palette a bit with white and stippled here and there to try and simulate ripple. I might of used a mid tone before the highlights I forget. I just messed around with it.. don't really know what I'm doing yet hehe (I'm no artist). One thing I noted though, to me, the more realistic creeks & ponds look very dark grey with some green in it.
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Post by voodoo on Dec 25, 2015 1:40:06 GMT
welcome to the forums. Great work for just starting. How big is that piece of canvass? I would love to give this a try. I really like the way it looks. Cheers for now.
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Post by adamsouza on Dec 25, 2015 3:31:49 GMT
Welcome to the forums.
Your terrain looks great.
You clearly skipped over the awkward ugly but functional phase and got right to the good stuff.
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Post by dragon722 on Dec 25, 2015 5:46:28 GMT
Welcome to the warmest and insightful area of the forum world . Cannot wait to see what else your inspiration brings to the table for all of us. Also you may want to get in on the Insider Trading we have going on here if you are interested?
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Post by jennifer on Dec 25, 2015 9:44:13 GMT
welcome to the forums. Great work for just starting. How big is that piece of canvass? I would love to give this a try. I really like the way it looks. Cheers for now. I actually didn't measure that piece when I cut it. It's the width of the table and approximately square (in this case around 34x34 inches). I might make them the full length of the table in the future but I wanted an area on the table to sit notes , papers, cards, perhaps a dice tower, etc.. Make sure to get the heaviest canvas you can find.. Normally it's around $11 a yard, but you can always use a coupon (from respective website) to get it for around half off.
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Post by jennifer on Dec 25, 2015 9:46:36 GMT
Welcome to the warmest and insightful area of the forum world . Cannot wait to see what else your inspiration brings to the table for all of us. Also you may want to get in on the Insider Trading we have going on here if you are interested? Thank you I can't wait to go through all the threads on here and look at all the wonderful stuff! Never been to a terrain forum before, but what I've seen so far, it's quite amazing! I am going to learn lots here! Not familiar with the "Insider Trading" here.. I'll have to look into what it is.
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Post by jennifer on Dec 25, 2015 9:55:24 GMT
STEPPED HILLS (Merry Christmas / Seasons Greetings BTW.) So I just messed around for 10 minutes and produced this: Never did anything like this before but I think it might work. I don't have pink foam or foam cutter tool. Just some junk cardboard. I started by drawing a random shape for the base on some cardboard then cut it out. Then immediately after cutting I traced what I just cut out onto the cardboard. Then with a pencil I drew another shape a little smaller inside of what I just traced, then cut that out.. did this over and over -- rinse and repeat -- for all the levels. So in this particular case, I kinda made a tiny hill with 3 levels of stepped elevation -- with enough room for one miniature to climb. So what do you think? Think this might work? I have no idea how I'll finish it though. Different thoughts running through my mind: hot glue for texture and/or fill; construction sand and white glue; aluminum foil for texture. Would appreciate any ideas any of you might have on if you think this would work well (what I've done so far) and perhaps how to finish it. Thanks! Jennifer P.S. Ignore the shedding of the flock on the edge of the pond, I didn't seal it and I didn't put enough flock.. I intend on finishing up that lake sometime later on -- right now I know it'll work for me at least.
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Post by curufin on Dec 25, 2015 14:16:15 GMT
Here is the link to the Insider Trading. It is just a thread for those that like to give/trade crafting supplies to other members. I think the small hill will work just fine. And it is a very useful way to get rid of junk cardboard. As for the finishing, I would wrap the whole thing in a water/PVA glue soaked paper towel. That will hide all of the corrugation of the cardboard and give the a slightly more slope-like feel to the hill. Once it is dry, you could add more texture with hot gun, or just paint and flock. A couple of large pebbles glued down might also look nice. Anyway, just options... Your stuff looks great! You are off to an amazing start! Spend some time going though other treads, ask questions, leave comments, get inspired, and above all have fun!
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Post by Sleepy Hollow Mike on Dec 26, 2015 0:50:25 GMT
Your stuff looks awesome!
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