Terrain is everything - Project Ω - Realm of Battle Board - Dem Bones

 PLEASE NOTE: These pictures do not represent the boards current state, it has since been ruined by Polyvine floor varnish and taken back to shadow wash stage.

Like I said I took this picture and the colours just blew me away, this had to have a post of it's own. This had to be the headline, not some subtle spots. Obviously I've painted the skulls Bonewhite and washed all the cracks with Army Painter's Devlan mud equivalent. I also washed some of the skulls.

Having apllied the Bonewhite I wanted to add a bit of variety so I did a quick highlight of pure white on a random selection of skulls. I also knocked a few back by washing them with Army Painter Soft Tone [sepia]. Once again I'm overjoyed at the result and because it doesn't introduce any further colours to the board I think I may well just stick to the this rather than turn them into reclamation pits.

    

The skulls work on their own and although adding some slime and water effects would mitigate the almost universal dislike my mates are not that set against them. Anyways it also adds another lements of fluff I could write about the questions what these skulls are buried just beneath the surface? I'm just a little unsure that there's too much red oxide showing through in this one, perhaps a darker wash in the crevices would add a bit more depth. it wasn't an issue when more effects were going to be added on top, now it looks a little like skulls moulded onto a flat sheet [which is exactly what it is!]

Similarly, close up the highlights and colouring on the skulls is actually quite poor. This would have been covered up with green/yellow/black slime btu it's exposed now but it's sufficent for gaming purposes. Listen to me rationalising shoddy workmanship just to get it done on the thing I'm going to be playing on for a good few years!

I know I had my camera settings to 'warm' but the colours are just fantastic and just as rich as my printed backdrop I'll be sad to miss [although I'll still use ot for photography].

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures with models on but I have put 'Death' on it and he blends reasonably well, his base a little more 'pumpkin' but it should be interesting to see the army displayed once it's completed.

Yet more pictures of my lovely [alien infested] red planet.

And lastly a real close-up so you can see all the spray texture, highlights and spots. It's a little blown out but I think you can see that at least the majority of the surface looks like real dirt, at least I think it does, rather than a moulded plastic field.

Terrain is everything - Project Ω - Realm of Battle Board - Man I got a Boner[white]

PLEASE NOTE: These pictures do not represent the boards current state, it has since been ruined by Polyvine floor varnish and taken back to shadow wash stage.

The original plan was to include the skull pit elements in this post but the pictures came out so well of them I thought they deserved a headline of their own. So what you have here is the addition of the Wraithbone shards on the surface of the planet. You may remember I was disappointed I went OTT with this effect on my original Armies on Parade board well this time I was much more reserved. The effect is much subtler, as it should be. The AoP board was going to be covered with models so I needed more spots to show through in what little gapes there were. This time the board will be more exposed so overwhelming spots of Bonehwite wouldn't work.

As it was I messed up and a couple of brush hairs fell onto the board. In particular the top right you can just see where there are some more highlights to cover the Bonewhite lien and in so doing make it more of a mess [it's just to the right of those three highlight spots on the hill]. Still, it could have been worse.

I used a cheap childrens craft paint brush, about .5" in diameter and flicked it onto the board from about 2-3' above. This helped the spots to fall flat, instead of having direction. There are still some elongated bits but that's reasonable.

As you can see the edges of the board are still evident but there's not much I can do about it now I've got to this stage so I'll just live with it.

Next up I'll be accentuating all the cracks and doing the skulls.

Overall I'm really chuffed though.

I very nearly have my own board!

Terrain is everything - Project Ω - Realm of Battle Board - Praise be to the Emperor!

Just a quick update in that last night I applied a new shadow wash and it has covered up most of the frosting, so I won't have to go back to square one, just square two. Obviously my blog posts are all out of whack now and I didn't take a picture but currently the board looks halfway between this:

And this:

It's obviously made the board a bit more uniform, with shading all over, instead of stippled, bcause I needed to cover all the Polyvine but I'm hoping that the caried colours will still show through the subsequent layers and highlights. Fingers crossed this could actually look better for all the additional tone that will be added. The skulls are a worry as any drybrushing will potentially catch them and it's not like I was fugal with the paint on the skulls so I do risk covering up details when I repaint them also.

Still, the worst is behind me and it's onwards and upwards.

What GW should do - Listen to me

In case you didn't know I've bought Citadel Miniatures and GW products since the late 80's. I also have a blog, it's quite cool you can view it here. Those two facts alone qualify me to make 'suggestions' to Games Workshop and their subsidiaries in how they can grow their company/improve their products. So, free of charge I will be sharing some of my sage business advice to them and just you wait as 'we're bound to see them take forward my ideas with gusto. I recently posted an article on GW rebranding it was one of a number of articles that I've started only to not do anything with and then GW only went and did something that failed to exhibit my Nostradamus levels of Prescience because I didn't end up posting the article. Only this time I bloomin' well did and then this happened:

And this:

And this:

It's a nice start, but I bet it's exactly the same inside, the logo is OK although I'd have tightened the kerning up a little bit especially between the A and the R as it currently a bit WA RHAMMER.

Faeit212 has the full story and BoLS also has a thread on it but clearly when it comes to having the finger on what GW should be doing it's the 40kaddict who has the inside scoop. Now apparently they've also got a new CEO... ;)

Terrain is everything - Project Ω - Frost me I'm an idiot!

With the last of the nice weather I thought I'd intersperse DiY duties with coating my Realm of Battle boards with my brothers dodgy floor varnish. You'll see a couple of upcoming posts that revel in just how pleased I was with how this was going but be sure 'pride comes before a fall' and the Polyvine Dead Flat Floor Varnish did indeed behave in exactly the same way as it did when first we painted my brother's vivarium. At that time we thought it was due to the cold conditions but there was some warmth in the air today, personally I think its not a product to be used on rough surfaces.

Anyway, I'll not share the full extent of the damage just yet, but I felt I had to offload this so I can move forwards. I'm disappointed but more frustrated. I'm going to struggle as the weather turns to get out and repaint the boards in the same way I did them first time around. It's only a few hours work but it's fitting it in to daylight and weather conditions. I'm hoping to start again with the shadow wash and not need a full respray but we'll see where we're at afterwards, Hopefully I can mask off the skulls, they're not too bad considering.

Lesson of the day - do not use products you know are dodgy, unless you want to ruin all your hard work.

Meanwhile I can't bring myself to edit the upcoming posts so just read them and enjoy the pictures before it all gets mucked up!

Terrain is everything - Project Ω - Realm of Battle Board - the highlight of my day

When you left me last I was debating just how cool my Realm of Battle Board was without any further highlights... well I think the first picture alone illustrates just how much they add. It's far from perfect and I know I foolishly rushed it in some places, which for a board I'm going to be using for a long time is madness. But I think it's as good as I hoped for. 

I think I managed to make it textured enough, add definition with the highlights where appropriate. The cracked slabs leading up the hill are more worn through traffic, therefore more highlights. I'll go back in with some Army Painter Washes to pick out the cracks a bit more but overall I'm really chuffed.

      

 I probably should have done step-by-step shots but there's nothing different here than what I do on a normal base. I mixed Vermilion craft Acrylic and PVA [once again for added stickiness and perceived durability] did quite a few drybrush coats with that because the Vermilion goes on like a polish. This means you're only ever getting a semi-opaque coat, so multiple coats will build up the colour which is more hard work but you do get to control how much tone you're adding to the board.

One concern is that I had the hill in this configuration as I highlighted, obviously you try not to highlight the edges of each board because that emphasises each board piece, not the terrain but I still have to see how the terrain highlights interact in a different configuration. I had seen a blog a while back that had diagrams of how to do it but I couldn't find it for this.

Following on from the Vermilion I added a small amount of Pumpkin Craft Acrylic and did more highlights. In particular I felt that you have to make sure not to brush too hard in straight lines or else it'll look unnatural. That's not say I didn't, you just have to be very careful and when you do pick up too much paint or lay down obvious streaks it's all about working the paint with circular motions to defuse the 'shape'. Of course there are now areas that look like faded spots but I think they're more natural looking at least.

Finally I went straight to a Pumpkin highlight which was quite a step. With my Crashed Aquila Lander [which I just noticed I've not done any pics of, so I'll have to rectify that] I got a bit excited with the highlights on the Red Planet Basing and it's very orange. So what I did here was do more coats of Vermilion, a 3:1 [or even 4:1] Vermilion:Pumpkin and then extremely light Pumpkin on edges. That way it remained Red Planet and not orange.

So I was well chuffed, after about 2-3 hours I had pretty much done my board, now to do some Bonewhite flecks and then pick out the skulls and add in some shading in the cracks.

Terrain is everything - Project Ω - Realm of Battle Board gets Shadows in the Warp

Now if I wasn't completely obsessed with doing things 'just so' then I'm pretty sure there's another me in a different dimension who is perfectly happy with the Realm of Battle boards as it currently stands. But if you remember I had exactly the same feeling back when I did my original  Armies on parade board.

I could indeed leave well enough alone and it would be perfectly acceptable, but I could have left my nids at basecoat and wash stage, but I didn't!

Once again I mixed my wash of Satinwood Black wood paint, water and a dose of PVA. I think PVA may add to the surface tension properties of the wash which did mean a lot 'working' the paint so it didn't always pool on the raised areas. I believe a drop of washing up liquid helps reduce the effect but I was loathe to add a substance that would reduce adhesion as I hoped the PVA would add another layer of protection and help 'stick' the wash to the paint.

A lot of dotting and dabbing also helped create a mottled effect which adds variety to the ground so it's not a flat expanse of red.

And here I think you can make out that the stone texture paint has indeed added some finer detail and texture to the board.

It is still susceptible to damage though as you can see the small paint chip in the centre. I managed this with my fingernail alone, cutting through the paint layers to the plastic. I'm hoping the remaining paint and varnish will protect it but clearly I'll have to keep track of remedial work throughout it's long [hopefully] lifetime.

Have to say I don't often see this configuration but I like it, further emphasising the versatility of the Realm of Battle board. GW got this one right for sure.

I may use this image to try and mock up my potential skull pit colours for the ultimate poll...

Another close-up of the board.

And War joins the fun to see how it's base fits the colour scheme. Nearly there, I think the highlights will tie them in even more. One thing of note, in both this and the next shot, can you see some white specs on the board? There's one in front and to the left of the Carnifex and on the left underneath his Devourers.

There are some more dotted about this pic too, in particular the bottom right in the middle of where some wash was. For the life of me I don't know what they are or how they got there. I can only suppose that while drying in the garage specs of dust landed on the board, but they're not just specs and seem bonded in with the paint, moreso than just casual floating transfer.

Whether it is the texture paints somehow eschewing the surface paint to burst forth I'm not sure but to have white flecks appear randomly on the board before I add Bonewhite flecks on the board, well, it just feels like Ferron Proxima is bringing itself to life!