Alkony miniatures updates

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Category: Alkony miniatures

Last Updated: 03 June 2018

The rough terrain rocky ground pieces

Basic concept

I wanted to make some dry, black, wasteland tree stands, so I cut out the shapes for them from foam, when I realized I couldn’t find my trees. After a while I gave up, and changed my plans to create rough terrain pieces from the prepared stands.

Choice of material

I had some leftover polystyrene foam from the red hills project, so I used them.

Construction

Due to my use of terrain pieces as tiles, the basic shapes should fit 25mm tiles. I made four 2x1 and one 1x1 piece. To give some weight to the pieces, I’ve carved the bottom, and added a 18mm washer. I started to cut off parts of the foam, until I was satisfied with the result. Some parts of the rocks had hard edges, other parts looked like normal ground.
This was the time when I wanted to fit the trees on them. Not finding them was unfortunate, but watching the bases gave me an idea.
While I covered them with Pentart decoupage glue (it gives a better, rigid base to the foam), I pushed some small pieces of foam into the glue. The pieces already had some hard, rocky parts, but this gave them a more pronounced shape. I tried to make sure that while it shows how rough the terrain is, a miniature could still stand on it.

Base coating

I covered everything with black acrylic paint. I painted even the bottoms, so when I put them over other terrain pieces, the bottom might show up white, as that could be distracting.

Bases painted black

Paints

Pentart acrylic paints brushed on.

Painting

The original idea was to make the ground black, the rocks grey, and the trees black and dried up, to make the pieces dark and brooding. When I had to change the plans, grey rocks on a black ground seemed boring. So I came up with the idea of painting the rocks lighter, almost white, with a shade of yellow or light brown.
I've painted the larger rocks with dark brown.

Rocks painted brown

As they were already black, I gave them a heavy grey drybrush to raise the highlights.
Then I drybrushed the rocks with light brown. I added more and more white with the subsequent layers, and used lighter and lighter drybrushing to pick the edges. I painted the layers until I ran out of the prepared white. Then I called it a day, and stopped painting.
It’s not the exact colour I wanted – I painted at night, I was tired, and I thought they will look good. While in the morning I still liked them, I’m not fully satisfied with them.

Final version

Finishing seal

Pentacolor Pentart acrylic matte varnish brushed on.

Plans

• I still want to make those light brown rocks sometimes in the future.

Uses

• None yet

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Materials used

• Expanded polystyrene foam
• Acrylic paints

Buy Expanded polystyrene foam from Amazon
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Buy modelling materials from Element Games (UK) Buy modelling materials from Firestorm Games (UK) Buy hobby supplies from Wayland Games (UK) Buy hobby supplies from Noble Knight Games (USA)

Buy Acrylic paints from Amazon
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Buy Acrylic paints on eBay
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eBay AU	eBay IE	eBay AT	eBay CH	eBay BE	eBay NL
Buy acrylic paints from Element Games (UK) Buy the acrylic paints from Firestorm Games (UK) Buy hobby supplies from Wayland Games (UK) Buy hobby supplies from Noble Knight Games (USA)

 

Possible substitutes: If you don't want the hassle to build it yourself...

Buy Rocky terrain from Amazon
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Buy Rocky terrain on eBay
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eBay AU	eBay IE	eBay AT	eBay CH	eBay BE	eBay NL
Buy scenery from Element Games (UK) Buy the miniature from Firestorm Games (UK) -10% Buy miniature scenery from Wayland Games (UK) Buy miniatures from Noble Knight Games (USA)

 

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How do you build your own rocky terrain pieces? What do you think of my way? Do you have suggestions for possible substitutes? Tell us in the comments!

Details

Category: Alkony miniatures

Last Updated: 19 June 2018

Renegade Miniatures orc with spear painted as Red orc veteran

I painted an Orc with Spear #2 from Renegade Miniatures as red orc veteran for the Alkony games.

Read more: Painting a Red orc veteran for Alkony - Orc with Spear #2 from Renegade Miniatures - Painting and...

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Category: Alkony miniatures

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Last Updated: 29 February 2016

One of the finished pieces.

Basic concept

I planned a chase scenario with rolling terrain, so I needed some small hills to create variety for my wasteland terrain. They should not be too wide, because that could just stop the whole chase, and the chased ones would take another path if they would see it from the distance. They also should not be too high. Some could be just high enough to jump on it with a mount, and jump down on the other side.
Our games use movement with 25mm horizontal grid, so they should fit onto rectangles those sides are multiples of 25mm. The elevation levels are 12,5mm high, so I’ll make smaller 12,5mm high rocks, and the some 25 mm high hills. This is an elevation that doesn’t slow the chase down to a stop, but it gives players a choice to cross them or go around them.

Choice of material

I had a couple of small expanded polistyrene foam blocks from the box of a piece of furniture, so I used them.

Construction

The foam blocks were almost perfect in size.
The smaller one was 12,5mm high, that’s exactly the size I looked for. It was a 20x20cm square, so I just had to cut it up into small blocks. A 1x2 block would be large enough to make a difference in the terrain, so I made three. I’ve cut up the remaining part into three 2x2 and two 4x4 blocks.
The larger blocks were 30mm high, so I needed to cut 5mm from them. I’ve cut a little piece halfway free from one of them, so I thought I’d make that a small ledge. They were 16x16cm squares, so I’ve created two 7,5x15cm and a 15x15cm pieces. (That’s 3x6 and 6x6 blocks.)
They won’t be modular horizontally, so I’ve cut angles and different shapes into every side of them. I’ve made them flat though, so I can build them up vertically. (Had I wanted horizontally modular ones, I had to leave the sides also flat, to attach them easier.)
I tried to make each one different. I’ve cut elevation into some of them, and carved impassable terrain in others.
After I created the shapes I wanted, I rolled up some aluminium foil into a ball, and pushed it onto the top and sides of the hills, to create a rocky pattern. It didn’t come out as nicely as I wanted, but it looks good enough.

These are the final shapes of the hills. I took the picture after applying the black wash.

Even though they are not modular, they can be combined into different shapes.

Base coat

I brushed on Pentart Decoupage Glue for a transparent layer. It also helps to get a more rigid layer to the foam, so It wouldn’t crumble during painting.

Paints

Pentart acrylic paints brushed on.

Painting

Originally I though I would only use black and white, adding other colours occurred to me later.
I started with a black wash with mostly random consistency. I’ve put some water on the parts I wanted to paint as rock, then put some dots of undiluted black paint on the foam, that I brushed over the pieces. Where my brush touched the wet parts, the diluted paint swept into the cracks like a black wash, while on the dry parts it worked just like a normal black paint. On the sides I pulled the brush downwards to the bottom, to create the illusion of a vertical wall.
I’ve applied the wash partially to give it a base colour, but also to see how do the pieces look like after the shaping. As my method is quite random, I could not be sure what will I get in the end.
After drying I’ve mixed a dark grey shade, and painted the parts that were still exposed despite the wash. Then I’ve used the same dark grey to give a heavy drybrush to most of the pieces.
After that I added two or three layers of lighter and lighter shades to highlight it. During highlighting I try to pull the brush downwards on the miniature. The upper parts will be more highlighted that way, and gives the piece a natural shadow. If you don’t need natural shading, you can just do a normal drybrush.

After finishing the grey paint.

This was the time I realized that it was too normal for my Alkony terrain to use regular grey rocks. I was thinking for a while what colours should I use. Red, green and yellow came to my mind. When I checked my collection of paints the one that was closest to me was the Red Wine – that's a darker shade of red. So I decided I'll go with that.
I concocted a wet (wash consistency) red glaze from that (1 part dark red, 2 parts matte varnish, 1 part water) and using a size 10 wide headed drybrushing brush I’ve drawn lines on the rocks that I’ve smudged a little with my finger. By the time I’ve finished with the last, the firsts were dry enough to continue. The lines became wide blurry stripes by the end, but the red turned into pink.
I’ve added 1 part dark red again, so it became more like normal paint consistency. I’ve changed to a size 4 brush and drawn lines on the pink stripes, that I’ve smudged a bit with my finger. After I’ve finished, I started again with the first one, and I’ve done this for three or four times. I’ve drawn these randomly on the previously outlined red stripes to get a good look.
When the paint started to run out, I’ve added some water to dilute it to wash consistency. With the size 4 brush, I’ve added dots of wet paint on the lines. I did not need to smudge these as the wetness helped them to run freely. After three or four runs I’ve finally run out of paint, but I was content with the result. As the dots flow and then dry up, they create a transition into the surrounding colours. If some of them remains, it can be covered up later, if you don't like the results.

The separate red dots of the glazing can be cleary seen for now, but they will disappear by the time they dry up to create a seamless colour.

I’ve also started to paint one of the half-made terrain board sections with the red glaze, to have a matching board for these rocks. After finishing one piece I decided against using this colour scheme. While it might look nice, but a more normal paint scheme could be used for a wider variety of games, and the red rocks won't look out of place on a dark grey board either.
While I waited for the paint to dry, I’ve painted red dots and stripes on two of my previously white primed draft horses, to indicate a breed that evolved to hide in these red striped surroundings. I’ll finish them later but at least the shade is the same as the rocks.

Then I started the highlights. I’ve mixed a light grey (8 parts white, 1 part black) for this.

The light grey paint was this light. It's always good to take shots of colours used for later reference.

I highlighted the upper edges with drybrushing, then the whole upper parts very lightly, so they became a bit lighter. After two layers I’ve mixed more white into it, so it became almost white. I’ve lightly drybrushed the upper edges with it. On the second go I’ve only highlighted some selected parts of the upper edges.

A hill before highlights added. When you start, take care to make the upper parts lighter. On the photo it already looks lighter because of the light of my lamp.

The same part after the highlights. Now the upper parts have been painted lighter. The parts below the edge remain darker, as if the light did not shine there.

It was after I hoped I'm finished, when I realized I've forgot about the bottoms of the hills. While I could have left them just plain white, I thought that painting them black or dark grey would make it easier to use them stacked on each other. If there would be a gap between the pieces, a white bottom would just shine.

The complete collection of the small red hills after painting.

Finishing seal

I’m still undecided about it. It looks nice enough as it is, and I’m afraid I’ll ruin it with varnish. I – however – don’t want to just leave them without a seal, as people treat terrain rougher than miniatures.

Plans

• Sealing them with matte varnish

Uses

• None yet

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How do you make hills for miniature wargames? Do you have any questions about the tutorial? Tell us in the comments!