Scenery in 40K - why are we fighting in Sherwood again?

Ok, look at those two pics (concept art for Avatar) - just looking at them evokes the feeling of another world - the colours, the strange shape of the plants - similar but not quite right, the lighting. Instantly it transports you to another world.
You can see that this is an area of dense jungle, ancient in age (by the size of the trees), and is unspoiled by man.


This one, also from Avatar, gives pause - is it a strange natural formation? Some relic of a lost culture? A temple, a forum, a prison even?



This is just plain cool.


And here are the guard, waging war on... Colorado maybe? Meanwhile the dastardly Tyranids have invaded...


Louisianna bayou? Cairns? Lots of bugs there.

Now the purpose of this isn't simply to bash GW's scenery range but ask what we, as gamers and modellers, are doing to fix the lack of interesting scenery.
I don't mean things like an awesome objective marker or a detailed ruin, I mean thematic tables that evoke the alien worlds that exist in the 41st millenium.

Most tables I've seen can be divided into a few simple categories:
1. Scattered bits of trees and scrub, a few hills and a couple of random ruined buildings.
2. Barren moonscape of craters and boulders.
3. Aquarium plant jungle.

These all offend my sensabilities on different levels:
1. Ok, why are there the random remains of large buildings in the woods/jungle? Where's the remains of the roads? Shouldn't the buildings be overgrown with plant life?
2. Almost always red or grey.
3. Always green.

People take great pains to ensure a cohesive look to their army, it's one of the basic tenents of painting a large tabletop force really. But when it comes to th eboard all to often people neglect scenery as a chore, or just throw together a board with whatever is lying around.


What causes this? I have mentioned GW's fairly uninspiring terrain already, but I don't think it is to blame. For instance GW will only show the stuff it makes (now it makes it), and only carries a limited range as there are companies dedicated to making scenery so it would be fruitless to compete.
Similarly if they were to make unusual scenery it would just mean I'd add category 4 to the list above - default alien world made of nothing but ten lots of GW's alien scenery kit.

So why do people always resort to the generic woodland/jungle board? Personally I think it has a lot to do with ease of construction. Model train stores are one of the biggest suppliers for the wargaming industry, and as most model train layouts are based on Earth (plus a few in Wales) the materials are all very much like western Europre from the German brands and the London / east coast area for the UK suppliers (LNER being the most popular area). North American suppliers offer desert and winter supplies more readily, but it's all very terestrial.

So what to do with what we've got?


Looks like Earth, but the rather distincitve building makes it seem very far from here. Add a few more butresses and a millon skulls and it could be a 40k building.


Similarly the architecture here is not like that seen on Earth, with the impossibly suspended pillar and its style. Creating unusual or distinctive buildings is a simple way to make a battlefield out of the norm (and no, I don't mean assembling your Manufactorum and Bassilica kits as not-ruins).
The idea is to create a whole table theme rather than a table made of isolated pockets of terrain.


This may be due to my preference for narrative gaming than randomly rolling scenario. But even then having a table that... looks like something is preferable. Picture a table like my point #1 above - a buliding in each corner, a few knots of trees, a low hill slightly off centre... we've all seen them.

Now picture a table with a single building to one side with a series of low walls around it making a series of pens. Further afield are piles of machinery and large tractor wheels. Nearby is a water tower. The rest of the board is scrub and bits of farming equipment.

Battle over an abandoned (or is it? maybe that's why the defenders are defending!) farmhouse or a battle over... D3+2 objectives? I know which I'd prefer. Same mission but giving the table a theme makes the battle have meaning and a story without really trying.


It doesn't have to be as dramatic as a massive, detailed building - thematic terrain is pretty simple to make:


Behold the desert terrain of my super cheap creation. None of it is finished yet, but it gets the point across. The building is pretty standard, as is the water tower - but it gives the sense of people actually living there. The two plant pases on the far left and right are simply air drying clay stuck with pipe cleaners. The big racist head at the back cost me 20 cents.
The stuff in the middle is air drying clay and sculpted in an afternoon. In the pinkish clay there's a skull and eye (made by my girlfriend) and some mesa like rocks. The darker brown has the faded remains of an ancient civilisation - a worn statue and obelisk, and a sunken statue (with a seperate piece to show its hand energing from the sand.

The most expensive part of this is the building, which cost $16 from MiniatureScenery.com, though I bought the sets so it was even cheaper.

Not all alien scenery has to be so totally removed from the norm:


Standard green world, but the giant, twisting tree is very sci-fi. It could easily be made using a few small branches from the garden.


They do come in other colours people! Another idea is to try some different lighting - replace the bulbs in a couple of lamps with blue or green ones to give the battlefield an otherworldly tinge.

Also don't be afraid to try and replecate some crazy idea you've seen:


Floating rocks held down by chains? No problem!



There will be a third chain on the opposite side from the others. This is made from coathangers, chains from dollar store novelty necklaces, air drying clay, foam spheres from a sewing store, pollyfiller and a bit of trial and error.

It looks impressive, but game wise doesn't provide a game winning strongpoint or anything:


So even if you do create a green board don't be afraid to jazz it up - throw in some weird statues or some funky looking plants. And when setting out a board don't be afraid to sacrifice fairness by making an asymetrical layout that makes it look like your guys are fighting over more than randomly generated points - it's what I try to do and it makes the whole experience that much more enjoyable.

More Terrain

During this holiday period I managed to get some time to make a whole bunch of woodland terrain I've been planning to make for ages.

There are ten marines in this picture, can you find them all?

The main catalyst for getting it done was The CNC Workshop releasing their terrain basing series. These are pre-cut (though on a sprue of sorts) MDF templates of various sizes for mounting terrain on. Saves using the jigsaw for such small pieces.

The trees and basing material are all from SiSt model trees, the tree stumps from Zuzzy, and the runestones by Fenris, purchased through Hasslefree.


Speaking of Hasslefree, I used thier Tiriel as a statue, standing in the base of Gen's Altar, wrapped in etched brass ivy, and backed by brass reeds. She's standing on a small plinth, and the water is just the heat and melt stuff for model railways.

Closeup of a Zuzzy tree stump - it was simply painted Khemri Brown, washed with Devlan Mud, and the non-bark areas drybrushed with Khemri again.
The rock is styrofoam covered in plaster, painted Charadon Granite, drybrushed Adeptus Battlegrey, then again with Fortress Grey and washed black (same for all the stones save the fountain, which I did a light white drybrush to make it stand out more).


Some of the SiSt trees, with rocks picked up from the bush behind the house.


Zuzzy tree with Fenris marker. I sunk the marker into the foam to make it appear more ancient. This tree was painted Astronomicon Grey, washed with Devlan Mud, then drybrushed with Dheneb stone on the exposed areas.


Rainbow Warriors on patrol (with some of my larger SiSt trees)! I've designed the terrain so that it gives a fair amount of LoS blockage and made sure that there is enough room for minis to stand on the hills and between the stumps and rocks.
It's also kept not too 40kish so I can use it for LoTR and go with my Argonath and Amon Sul pieces.

'tis the season...

for cheap scenery!


This is a piece I made a few years ago, around this time of the year. It is simply an angel statue purchased from a department store, stuck to a art store nameplate with a Reaper mini (The Praying Paladin) kneeling before it. Finding the right one can be hard - there were others in this line playing harps and such, but holding the book seemed to fit the Imperial motif well enough.



The whole thing was sprayed grey, then I sprayed black from a fair distance to give a slight spatter effect. After that I sprayed it closer up from above to give an acid rain effect. Lastly I got an old toothbrush and flicked black paint up closer in spots and scrubbed to give some more texture.


Here's the paladin up close showing the mottled effect.

A very simple project, taking about an hour all up for assembly and painting, but one that turned out rather well I think.

Well that was quick...

I got a package from Forge World this morning - my ruined watchtower of Amon Sul (Weathertop). You know, the one that was being dispatched November 30th.

So I got a Forge World item before it was even dispatched. It must be some sort of Christmas Miracle.

Or more likely that as the postage indicated it came from GW customer service in Nottingham it's was produced some time ago and due to licencing it had to be sent via GW not Forge World. Still, a rather nice suprise.


Also finished the last quest in the main book for Hero Quest, moving on to Kellar's Keep next week. Additionally I'll hopefully be off of all nights soon (though probably not until the new year) so I'll have much more time and energy for painting and gaming.

Review: Monolith Icon scenery

The Argonath

I recently recieved my two "King's Monuments" from Monolith Icon in the mail. These two bad boys are BIG - 37cm tall to be precise - representations of the Argonath monument from The Lord of the Rings.

The sculpture is taken from the movies, rather than the books (more on that later) and is a pretty close representation, though quite a bit smaller. They are cast from stone ceramics, so a quite heavy and feel a bit dusty to the touch. The detail is very good, though not as fine as a resin sculpture it is more than enough.

Click for larger

Again, Glorfindel for scale. Big.

You may also notice Anárion is lying down and Isildur is missing his hand. Well....



First off I must say this is in no way Monolith Icon's fault. The inside of each piece was packed out, each was individually bubble wrapped, put in foam with more bubble wrap and covered in fragile stickers.

They were packed head to toe so where Anárion is broken on his base is where Isildur lost his hand. I'd guess some dim-witted postal worker dropped something onto the box, breaking them. The breaks are all clean so a bit of epoxy and milliput will have them looking right as rain.


As for dealing with Monolith, they were incredibly helpful with dealing with PayPal's derpiness. My initial attempts to pay via PayPal were met with a gibberish error message, and when I finally got through to a human being they told me money couldn't be sent to Poland from Australia, but not why (WTF?). I emailed the Monolith team and they said they regularly got payments from Aus, and sent me anther request. Which worked.

In summary, Monolith:



Paypal:




But anyway, Monolith were a pleasure to deal with and kept me updated on the status of my order, and it arrived very quickly.

I rate these guys 9/10.

For a painted version you can check out CoolMini.


My only issue is with "historical" accuracy. You see the Argonath is a monument on the river Anduin to Isildur and Anárion, who were joint founders of Gondor with their father Elendil. Anárion founded Minas Anor (later Minas Tirith) and Isildur founded Minas Ithil (later Minas Morgul).
The statues were set at the north of Nen Hithoel, the northmost border of the kingdom of Gondor in a much later time (by Rómendacil II, roughly 1200 years after the death of Isildur and 1800 years before the fellowship passes by). The outstretched hands are a warning not to proceed further.

What is innacurate is that the statues are both described to carry axes, and shouldn't have beards due to their Númenorian blood (being part elvish [who don't have beards {except Círdan}] due to the blood of Idril and Tuor). Also one is significantly older than the other, and neither brother lived to be that old (Anárion slain at the siege of Barad Dúr, Isildur at Gladden Fields).

What is likely is that the film crew decided to make the other statue represent Elendil as he is shown in the prologue rather than complicating things by adding in Anárion. And of course it's more visually interesting to have two distinct visages.

Not that that really matters.