A desert-themed campaign, "Into the Red Desert"

[DalyDR]

The otherr three orcs are also very old, and I'm not sure which line they're from.

The one with the spear and shield with white hand emblem is from the old Heritage line of Lord of the Rings miniatures.  He's from pack #1808 - Saruman's Uruk-Hai Orcs of the White Hand Spearmen.

[PhilB]

Much thanks to Swiftnick and DalyDR for identifying some of the '70s-era figures.

My desert village is coming together, and it has been a learning experience. The first buildings I made were from leftover styrofoam packaging, stuck together with toothpicks and white glue. I then painted directly on the styrofoam (with a few stick ends to represent the beams holding up the roof - sticks from the back yard. After completion, I realized that the painted styrofoam still looked like... styrofoam. The first three aren't going to be re-surfaced, but I learnt my lesson for the second batch.
Doors and shutters are leftover balsa bits, medicine box cardboard for the iron bracing and hinges and paperclip wire for the door handles.

[PhilB]

The second batch of houses got a different treatment. Thinner styrofoam, for one (the first batch was somewhat out of scale for my 28mm figures) and assembly with a hot glue gun. Then I coated all surfaces with patching plaster, waited 3-4 days for it to dry thoroughly, then sanded all surfaces to remove some of the imperfections. Tried to get paint to match some of the photos of berber villages I googled, but it turned out a bit too bright red/pink-ish. Oh well, not going back on that either.

The two-story house has a removable balsa roof, and the doors and trap door can all open - though I'd better not open them too many times, or the cardboard hinges will flake and eventually break off. Still, much more satisfactory than the first batch.

[PhilB]

3 years ago, an old lavender bush in our garden died. I looked at the gnarled branches and thought, "gotta save this."

Today I started snipping bits off to make dead desert trees. 3 old demo CDs and a bit of styrofoam gave me the bases, with some sand, glue and paint, then I cut some holes and white glued the "trees" into it. No paint on the trees required.

They'll be rather fragile, but hey, if bits break off, it won't change much. I tried to place the trees in kind of a semi-circle on the edge, allowing for space for a couple miniatures to take cover.

Now to wait for a sunny day to get some photos with finished terrain and figures going.

[boneio]

Looking good! I like the houses - though I see what you mean about the untreated styrofoam ones. That said if you hadn't highlighted it, it might be less noticable...?!

Nice 'upcycling' with the trees too.

[PhilB]

They'll be fine, scattered across our gaming table, but after the first batch, I knew I had to go further. The patching plaster goes well onto styrofoam, and certainly paints up better, after some rigorous sanding. Just another step, is all.

[Spinal Tap]

Some great work there. A quick really dry drybrush with a sandy colour should take the edge off those buildings

[PhilB]

I do have an airbrush, that I've never used. May be time to add a new technique to my palette. I learned the hard way never to use aerosol paint on foam, as it eats into the styrofoam.
Initially, the styrofoam village project was meant to be a quick & dirty solution to my lack of desert-themed terrain. I've still got until Friday to finish anything intended for this extended tabletop session...

Thanks for the suggestion, Spinal!

[PhilB]

We just finished our annual marathon weekend RPG session (12 hours of PF2 Saturday and 12 more Sunday), and I thought I'd post some raw pics.
Initially, I was a little worried about the different batches of buildings not working well together, but once they were dressed with bits & bobs, it turned out OK.

[Pattus Magnus]

That looks great! Playing on that would be a lot of fun, I hope your players enjoyed it!

[PhilB]

I'm pleased with how the market awnings turned out. Bamboo barbecue skewers, a bit of thread and a woven placemat cut to size, with just a bit of paint, and sand on the base.