EndTransmission's modular game board (over the hills and into the woods)

[EndTransmission]

It's been quite a while since I was last posting on LAF, so rather than dredge up the very dim, very distant past, I figured I'd be better starting a new thread. Since the last time I was on here, I managed to actually build a modular gaming layout, so I'm able to play games now! This was "finished" just in time to take to a 7TV day at Board in Brum last year and went down well with those that played on it.




The primary theme at the moment is folk horror as it fitted with the 4Ground buildings I had as well as the cast I wanted to play at the event, which was a collection of animated scarecrows and flocks of crows to keep people busy as they slowly shambled across the table.

The modular manner means I can keep on adding bits, so most of this blog should be progressing through new additions as much as new casts for 7TV. The intention is to try and work out new bits for the table that open up new cast options, for example I've a bunch of shifty looking morris men on the painting table, so a may pole seems like a reasonable addition.

Given that the last few bits in the setup were finished in a rush, I suspect there will be updates to some of the pieces you can see above. If there's anything you want a closer look at, shout and I can do better photos. I'm also open to new ideas of things to add to the table, so feel free to thrown ideas into the pot. The next post will be the current ideas list that will become an index.

[EndTransmission]

Future plans

• Archeological dig site
• Camp site
• Cave entrance
• Church ruins
• Cliffs
• Dock/fishing village - Innsmouth style
• Electricity substation
• Hills
• Marshes
• Maypole
• Mill
• Mine entrance
• Power pylon
• Railway under construction
• River
• Roads + telephone poles
• Village fair/carnival
• Watch tower
• Wicker man
• Witches hut

Complete Terrain

• Graveyard
• Infected well*
• Meteor*
• Stone circle
• Summoning ritual
• Village pond
• Walls

Items with * link to another thread

Free STLs are available for the walls and gates on https://www.myminifactory.com/users/MrMagpieCreates

Complete Cast members

• Dragon

[jambo1]

Great looking board, love the scarecrows as well!

[tom q vaxy]

". . . shifty looking morris men . . . "   indeed!

[syrinx0]

Nice looking table so far.  What about a wicker man?

Who makes the flock of crows?

[EndTransmission]

Thanks all. The crows are the zombicide flocks cut off their usual bases and put onto perspex circles. I do have one of the crooked dice Strawman monsters, which is not *quite* a wickerman. I do like the Ainsty one, so I'll add it to the list

This post is going to be a long one... Just before Christmas I invested in a resin printer, which has been fun to play with. During lockdown I've taken the opportunity to start playing with Blender which has made the investment well worth it. Years ago, I had a play with carving some brick walls out of plaster to cast in resin, but never got further than doing one side of the wall. After 1 day with Blender I managed to create and print these beauties. All these walls are about the same height as the Garden of Morr walls and actually look really good next to them. This is a comparison with an early version. the height has been tweaked slightly since, but I don't have a photo



There were some issues with overhangs that caused minor print failures, specifically the cross supports on the wall. A few tweaks and test prints later and all of these have been designed and tested

Two different straight walls with a single pillar. These are just long enough to go across the widest part of one hex



A straight wall with no pillars. This is to go across a shorter part of the hex, allowing for an angled layout


Three different corner styles, one even and two offset. I needed the offset ones to fit onto a hex; the equal version is in case I decide to release these files for others as they won't have the same limitations that I do




One collapsing wall


And one archway with a door!


I'll try and take some better printed pictures tomorrow, but you can see them here with the local Laird and Lady and waiting for the grass to be applied



Still undecided what to do with the files...

[ulverston]

Beautiful work, those walls are amazing.

[syrinx0]

Really fantastic work on the walls.  Not buying into having a 3D printer is getting harder by the day.

I may have missed this in earlier posts, but are you buying the hex bases or making them yourself?

[EndTransmission]

There are so many decent Patreons for 3d models, all churning out fantastic sculpts for fantasy games or terrain that you're spoilt for choice and it's so much cheaper than buying plastic/lead. Pulp is a vastly under served one though. There's some learning to do with the printer, but it's been (mostly) fun to learn.

For the hex bases, I'd originally backed a KS for mdf templates to create the hexes by hand, but it took forever to actually get the basic shape right that I gave up and got a company to cut them out for me. I think £80 got me enough hexes to keep me busy for years. With a 6x4 layout already cut out, I'm only about 1/5th of the way into the box! The foam is three times thicker than I need for one hex, so I do need to slice them up, but that's seconds worth of work compared to the 15 minutes per hex originally. Currently trying to determine if I can 3d print the hexes for more detailed tiles, but my printer will only do one at a time and take about 8 hours... so logistics at the moment rule that option out.

[EndTransmission]

Quick update. This morning a friend asked to see everything that had been made so far and, to be honest, I didn't know either... so I laid it all out full width on my gaming table to see what would be needed in edge pieces. It looks like it currently covers about 1/3rd of the length, so a fair bit to go.



So far the mausoleums are just sat on the table and need their own tiles creating to allow for a bit more character to be added to them. I just need to work out what to put inside them as you can see through.

The graveyard is next on the painting queue as I finally got around to finishing the giant Shadows of Brimstone dragon last night. Not sure what he's gong to be used for yet, but there is 7TV Fantasy in the works, so I'm assuming there will be a dragon at some point

[axiom]

Great looking table! All the little scenic sub-assemblies are very cleverly done. I guess this is an infinite project - you can just keep adding as need arises. Love the 3D printed walls too.

[EndTransmission]

Infinite project is likely to be true. The list of additions that I have on my whiteboard are all currently for folk horror-type games, but I will want to add sci-fi, weird war and post apocalypse elements eventually.

Oh dear... I just thought of some more bits that need to go into the list. Feet for a power pylon (mainly because I'm not storing a full pylon!!) and an electricity sub-station. Folk horror and those 70s safety adverts are the same thing, right?

[EndTransmission]

While clearing up the office I found a few more bits for the table that need finishing that I'd completely forgotten about...

4 houses, 1 stable, 1 shed, 1 witches hut, 1 gallows, 1 water mill and a watch tower!

Not sure how you forget all of that...

[Wirelizard]

Folk horror and those 70s safety adverts are the same thing, right?

Yes. You're familiar with Scarfolk, I hope? Absolute total 70s safety advert folk horror and glorious. (For more information please re-read.)

[EndTransmission]

Oh absolutely, Scarfolk is an essential thing in this house. I should probably try and weave some of that in somewhere...

This weekend saw progress on a few additions to the board options. No self respecting countryside village could happily call themselves a proper cult without a stone circle and sacrificial altar. The altar and one stone were previously done, I just had to add the other 5 stones



The village also now has a nice little pond. It isn't *quite* complete yet as I need some ducks (currently waiting for Warbases to reopen). Multiple layers of ready pour water, with some Vallejo slime weathering effect painted on between the layers so it is murky


The graves have now all been painted/grassed. There is still, however, some work to do before the graveyard can be considered done. You can see in the picture how I plan things out. The joy of having so many of these tiles is I can just scribble on them to work out placement and if it's wrong, flip it over and try again... or just grass it for another flat tile. The pathways will lead through from a Lychgate, which still needs designing/printing, through to the ruins of a church off to the right. There's also going to be another broken, sort wall up the top of the graveyard. There are a few more graves printing to fill in some empty space inside the graveyard too.



Oh, I also made a bunch more edge pieces from available scrap tiles to make it longer. Previously I'd only cut enough to make a 2x2 square, now it should be 2x4... so there's still some more edging to do before then. No photos of this one as it's just a stack of half hexes with grass.