Vissy - Takes on Frostgrave

[VisOne]

Good Day Gentlemen and Me'ladies.

I wasn't actually going to start and account on here initially I do wander through from time to time but I usually see what I want or read what I need and head back to my usual stomping grounds but I noted a little bit of a hobby hero of mine posts here so I thought why not chuck my work up as well if nothing else might help me keep in touch with him.

I normally only stick to Infinity as my single game system but Frostgrave seems to pry barred its way into my heart thanks to the fact its run from a D20 system and Din's awesome Adventures in Mordheim thread I couldn't stop myself from going all right if I have to have a second game it might as well be something fun to play with friends at home and plus its not Sci-Fi. Besides even if I don't play it heaps if I keep my terrain generic for the most part it can be used for Infinity.

I'm a bit of a fluffy bunny sometimes so once I decided I wanted to actually build and play I knew I wanted to build to a theme or even a backstory so I while reading through the types of wizards I could play and the 'history of the rise and fall of felsted' I came up with one.

Decided I wanted my Wizard to actually be a mistreated Apprentice of one of the original great Wizards or Felstad who through a poor turn of events most likely of his own doing was transposed into another’s body just before the fall of the great city itself. A let’s just say the other body is nothing special it was the soulless dead body of a once great hero king. Now he is little more than a Wight in the most kingly attire. This body of dust, bones and heavy armour was nothing like his own and he was never a fighter learning to use such a body would be difficult for even a Master Wizard and that he is not. Frozen for aeons he recently was released from his own personal hell by a self-styled Necromancer who little more than a hedge wizard himself in fact that’s an insult to hedge wizards everywhere. Still he knew enough of the dark arts for my Wizard to drain him of all his knowledge of the arts of today. Alas nothing of worth on how to lift the curse he finds himself under. However he is not concerned much he now has an indentured servant I mean apprentice of his own he is free to move about the city and its outskirts once more even if he always feels compelled after a few days to return to his lair. Clearly there is a geas at work keeping him trapped in Felstad just one more layer of curse it seems. His drive now is to break them all return himself to his body or at least one that isn’t a corpse and be free of this a curse frozen hell!

Did I mention he has a name its Dr. Bonesplitter M.D. really keen fans of a certain fictional podcast will know what that is from.

I had a miniature in mind and I was lucky enough to source it for a decent price without giving me hard earned monies to the big bad. I was even lucky enough to grab a couple tertiary models from the same line to adds to the theme. Then earlier in the week I was talking to Paul from the Emperor's Legion one of my FLGS who stocks Frostgrave and he mentioned getting in some of the Soldiers Boxsets so I grabbed one of them too.

• The GW Wight King will be my Wizard I'll swap out his sword methinks for some sort of a staff.
• The GW Necromancer will get a little de-grimmination and a head swap for a younger head to become the indentured servant sorry I mean apprentice. 
• The GW Cairn Wraith will be my Barbarian or Templar 2 Handed Weapon kind of puts him in that area that or I might not use him in the warband and rather as a monster or summoned creature.
• The soldiers will be a mixed bag and I'll decide more once I get the kit in my hands.
• I've also got a couple warhounds here left over from a BSS a few years ago all in all a good starting force.

THEN!

I have goodies coming from Red Box Games in the US! A Warband made around the awesome The Lady Nyvenne with Yrsa the Accursed as her apprentice and mixture of HelsVakt Hordesmen and the The Craven to back them up. Finally if I can fix an issue with my order I should be getting some Lesser Undead which I think are the best zombie models I've ever seen.

OHH that's still not all.

I had to order me some 3D markers for the treasure you hunt in this game. I like me some laser cut tokens but for objectives I would rather real terrain.



All of it is from a nice resin business run out of Poland by found it through one of my google searches which lead to a forum thread talking about funnily enough what you can use to make 3D objective markers for Frostgrave. Good reviews from what I have seen and all of the Polish people I have dealt with thus far have being solid so I'm willing to give them a go. Their called Ristuls Market.

[VisOne]

And that about does it .... OR DOES IT! Wouldn't be a Vissy thread without some terrain.

I wanted my table to be reasonably generic winter ruins so in a pinch it could serve as a Infinity table as well if need for say tournaments or just as a second table my place since I've lent all my other tables out. 

I had a workplace incident today cut my non-dominant index finger the other day with a knife as may happen when someone is engaging you in conversation when you're using sharp objects. Anyway it gave me an extra few hours of sun today to get out and watch the kids while I started on my Frostgrave table. I proceeded to bleeds on everything while I worked though ended up wearing a glove. Any hoooooo its finally stopped bleeding now and here are some photos of what I did get done.



The first step for generic ruins for my winter frost grave/infinity table.
Need to etch both sides and distress the joins a little before I cut down the wall sections and form them into various Heights.



Both sides etched now comes the making the walls part



What it looks like mocked up on the table.

4' by 4' so decent coverage for frost grave. A little light for infinity.

However allot more to come trees, scatter terrain and of course treasure!



Another angle with site foreman fatty dog in the back ground ensuring safe work practices.



Other side.



Hope you had fun checking this out.

Feed back welcome as usual. Hoping for some more updates on the table soon.

[VisOne]

Earlier this morning I was able to finish distressing the walls since the buildings compound/glue I used on them had dried. I even had enough time to get the walls painted today but fate in the form of my 2 devil offspring decided to intercede with my ability to actually get photos done or even get past the primer and first couple of highlights with the rattle cans.

Tomorrow I'll head back out and work on them again this time I'll get some happy snaps. They have come up pretty well though.

Need to really consider if I want to base them or not. They are pretty light but basing is a PITA! Plus it makes them harder to store. Offset is they look better and allow me to put grass tufts and what not on them.

I'm tempted to counterweight them using some lead sinkers like some 10 grams countersink 3 or 4 holes in the bottom and 2 part epoxy them into the holes. I'm done it before with chest pieces but not sure how this foam will react with 2 part epoxy.

Decisions Decisions.

[Xintao]

That is some great work there. Looking forward to more.

Xin

[Helznicht]

I really like the look of the foam block ruins, and yours are great.  Plus its a nice inexpensive way to build a lot of terrain. 

But I always wondered several things about them.

1) Wouldnt you need to mount these to a base?  Seems the foam would be too light,  opening doors, dice and hands knocking them about would seem to be a problem to me. 

2) Transport and storage.  Seems these would be fairly fragile and have a tendency to break/chip, especially if mounted to sturdy/heavy base boards.  I would be afraid to stack them. 

I have a lot of the pegasus plastics all mounted up and dont really fear sticking them up in bins to take to a friends house. I was thinking about doing something like you are doing for the underground library scenario, just the above has kept from starting (as I cant afford another $100 for Pegasus walls to make a modular library right now. 

Any thoughts or advice?

[VisOne]

I really like the look of the foam block ruins, and yours are great.  Plus its a nice inexpensive way to build a lot of terrain. 

Thanks for the feedback I'll have a crack at giving you some answers or at least some experiences I've had and that will either way lay or increase your fears I suppose.

1) Wouldn't you need to mount these to a base?  Seems the foam would be too light,  opening doors, dice and hands knocking them about would seem to be a problem to me. 

No you don't need to base most of the time. Assuming you are working with pieces that have a decent flat surface and are in turn on a flat surface. These walls are made from 25mm (1") sheets of yellow extruded polystyrene and each 'block' is 25mm (1") high and 50mm (2") wide so most of the pieces have quite a lot of flat surface to support them.

They do move though thats where I was thinking I might increase their weight by countersinking some lead wishing sinkers into the base of the foam. Excuse the sorry paint shop image I couldn't be bothered opening fireworks and making something better at the moment.



Basing them increases the size dramatically and as I think you yourself have covered in your second point raises more issues than it necessarily fixes.

BUT basing adds to the look of a table so its really up to you. When I do base I use 3mm MDF or Masonite and leave a 1 inch edge from each terrain item to the end of the base. However as mentioned increases the size dramatically so I tend to only do that for house/club terrain.

I have done similar things before without basing and I've not had serious issues with playability.

2) Transport and storage.  Seems these would be fairly fragile and have a tendency to break/chip, especially if mounted to sturdy/heavy base boards.  I would be afraid to stack them. 

Yes they are to some extent but so is plastic, MDF, HDF or resin if you mishandle your terrain and don't at least try to soften some of the blows it might take in transit then you will be forever fixing things that's just a given.

I think the relative cost offsets the issues of possible damage well it does for me at least and if you are even a little like me you might have some spare foam or bubble wrap around you can use to create some cushioning for your travel boxes the terrain goes in when not in use or in transit. I don't wrap every item like its model but I do put a layer of something being say my Laser Cut MDF buildings and the Foam 'Ice' pieces then another between the the Ice Pieces and the Laser Cut Cardboard pieces and so on until the box is filled.

Hope that helps and don't let something as simple as doubts about material or storage/transit get in the way of a good game.

[VisOne]

PICTURE TIME!!!







Right so did I get to this stage?

I use my Ironlaks - Sugar Artists’ Acrylic series color Plaque which is a dark grey as the base. That's the foam friendly spray I use as a primer.

Then I hit it with a lighter Grey to get some zenithial highlights. Since the foam is now sealed I can use normal rattle can spray this time I used Motortech - Grey Primer which is just a normal spray enamel.

Then finally to start the winter look I hit it with a white spray for this I used Dymark - Spray Mark which is actually line marking spray its great as it can be sprayed straight down!

That means I can now once its all dry go and give it a hit with some snow effects. Then a coat of varnish and maybe some grass tufts or something like that to make it look even more weathered and ye olde ruins.

[Awesomeshotdude]

Your wall ruins are coming along really well mate, looking forward to seeing them all finished. The stuff you've ordered for your treasure markers looks very cool indeed and will help make some excellent looking markers.

[bandit86]

VisOne
  I have bought from Ristuls Market, they were quick and communication was good.  The Product is great and I will deal with them again

[Drachenklinge]

I really enjoy LAF ... not a single week without a new bookmark for pitential shops, blogs and stuff. Ristuls ... got it, thanks.


As to the walls. They look good indeed. I would base then, cause there are more possibilities to make them look nice along the rim, although it makes them less generic a bit.
One can put rubble in the corners without putting it there with extra terrain. They have a more robust stand and get their weight that way, too.
With bases they seem a little bit more "independant". Without bases terrain looks like "just put there, not beloning there" in most cases.
However, I am interested in Your outcome either way!

so far, everything looks quite cool! 

[Helznicht]

Thanks for the feedback Vis.  The weights are a good idea.  I have a ton of washers I could use.  Just put a slit up the center and line the walls with washers should help keep them in place.  I have a 2' x 2' mat from deadzone I was planning to use for the library. 


(not my pic.)

With your wall technique lined up to the 3" squares already on the mat, plus some misc bookshelves and such, I think this will work out grand.  Thanks for the inspiration!

[Sir_Theo]

Thanks for the feedback Vis.  The weights are a good idea.  I have a ton of washers I could use.  Just put a slit up the center and line the walls with washers should help keep them in place.  I have a 2' x 2' mat from deadzone I was planning to use for the library. 


(not my pic.)

With your wall technique lined up to the 3" squares already on the mat, plus some misc bookshelves and such, I think this will work out grand.  Thanks for the inspiration!

That's a brilliant idea. Consider it stolen

[VisOne]

Thanks for the feedback gents.

I'm pretty sold on leaving them baseless to try and keep it generic as possible. That doesn't mean I won't have based pieces especially the really 'frostgrave' centric pieces but for these walls to be as universal as I want them to be they will have to remain baseless or I would have to cut their bases specially to fit each one which I don't have time to do. Good I miss my old house had a giant wood working shed.

Anyway ran out of foam friendly spray paint and wasn't able to finish these fixed that issue earlier this week.







Note I've gone through with my airbrush and intentionally darkened some areas especially the base areas to help them pop a little on a white background. This will ruin the immersion for some but I'm not overly worried as more often than not they will be one a grey board or a green board or what ever the club/house I'm at using them has to offer so that black modulation will help make them different to the surface regardless of colour.

You can also see I have a Corvus Belli - Father Knight in there to give you an idea of scale. He is a imposing model and on a resin base so if I can get total concealment behind a 2 block and a good half covered with a single I'm really happy with their LoS/LoF blocking potential.

Now I just need to decide how much snow effect I want to put on them and if I want to add some earth like areas some grass tufts can be put onto them. Speaking of which were lucky enough to have a nice local small business in Australia making some awesome grass tufts now. Leadbears Tufts only through their FB page and a personal Ebay seller for now but well worth a look cost per piece is damn excellent especially for any AUS/NZ members here.

Finally some models arrived!



Some Wargames Factory Zooooombies and the few Geedub minis I mentioned earlier in the thread. Finally I can start building and painting something.

[VisOne]

Had an idea when I was out shopping with the family. Realised I could countersink these sinkers without a drill bit and most likely not use 2 part epoxy.




So here's how I'm planning on ensuring these walls don't fall down to often during games.

I'm taking a size 2 Ball sinker lightly embedding it onto the base to form an nice imprint I then lightly remove a bit of the compressed foam just enough to form a cavity the same size or a little smaller than the sinker.

I then can insert the sinker till it's flush or slightly recessed under the base.

Now with a base at least 25mm (1") wide and a much greater weight than it's top most part it's realty unlikely to knock over easily.

[VisOne]

I was up at the QNK premier event today in carboolture playing in there Chain of Command infinity tournament. Solid event took first prize lucky me.

But not super important to this thread what is. Found 2 Dark Age minis to use for roaming monsters and no joke I picked up like $180.00 worth of CnC Miniatures Terrain - Pantheon terrain for $40.00 got to be at least a 4' x 4' tables worth there.

I'm stoked a 1st prize based on skill and two great value deals.

I guess maybe it was a failed terrain project or a product range just taking up shelf space doing nothing earning no money?



Its a butt ton of terrain though!



The Darkage models there is some decent stuff in there but its more like 30mm so good for random encounter monsters I think. Especially keen to paint that clear blue resin model. Will take to it with the airbrush to zenithal highlight it to death then heaps of streaking and edge highlighting. BUT unlike the studio model I'll leave the lower unpainted edges resin OR maybe do it the other way paint it upside down!

Man thats gonna be boss can't wait to try it out.