Monday, May 14, 2018

Jungle Terrain Test Piece

 Here's a shot of an "almost completed" jungle section that was built as a test.  I added the yellow and purple plastic flowers on a whim and like how they came out.  Some of the hot glue is still visible so I need to make another pass with the ground cover to finish this up.  The next step will be to hit the plastic plants with a light sepia wash to tone down some the the "plasticy-ness" (yes, that is an official terrain making term).

Overall I'm really pleased.

I'm also thinking about touching up some of the palm trees (painting the coconuts, etc).

 Jungle construction room.  Hot glueing all of the plants down can be a bit tedious but I'm really liking the results.  It's also kind of dangerous as I've burned my fingers more than a few times!

The bamboo sections also came out nice.  When attaching the plant pieces there's a balance one needs to find between creating a dense "jungle" and playability in terms of being able to move figures through the section.  I'll only know if I got it right after a few games so lets hope there isn't a lot of touch up work to do!

Only 8 sections need to have the plastic vegetation attached and then it's on to ground flocking.



 This project should be done in a few days and them I'm thinking of redoing some of the other terrain features from last year's "DAK & Dragons" / "SOCOM & Sorcery" games.  The picture to the left is the original desert themed table.  I'll be keeping the desert theme on the the two end sections but replace the middle with a jungle.

I do want to redo the oasis sections as they are very rough.  I made them two days before the con and they show it.
A close up shot of the middle section which was rather sparse but it worked.  I'll add some simple vines and other details to the ruins.  I'll also need to make better entrances for the catacombs that are more scenic.  Last year the game used dime sized plastic disks which looked awful.

I've got a jungle floor terrain cloth from Cigar-Box Battle Mats and just need to figure out how to soften the transition between the deserts and jungle, especially where the one mountain range veers off in an angle.

There are rumors that some dinosaurs may be found roaming around the jungle section - these are just rumors at the moment.  If proven true, perhaps the inclusion of historically accurate dinosaurs in the game will appease the purists who scoff at anything not historical.  I take their concerns about the corruption of the hobby from silly and fun games very seriously - yes, very seriously, indeed.

4 comments:

BigLee said...

Amazing terrain...makes me want to play some sort of Pulp skirmish game with daring adventurers and toothy Dino's. Hollow Earth anyone? (I can almost hear Ray groaning in the distance).

Peter Douglas said...

Great looking terrain Miles. Di you ever think you'd end up painting your coconuts?

Curt said...

Beautiful work Miles. As another suggestion to mitigate the plastic look of the plants, try overspraying them with a khaki spray (Krylon has a great desert camo colour that works nicely). It does a great job of making the seem more natural looking.

This reminds me that I have an ACW unit to pack up for you... :)

Millsy said...

Looking good mate! My only comment is I found with my own bamboo is it looks better in clumps of 3-4 rather than one-offs. You can still leave gaps between...