Dungeon Terrain - Mushrooms, Dwarves and More!

Been spending some time with some Dungeon Terrain lately.  Rather than boring you with tons of pointless details, here are the pics that are the real reason you come to my blog.

Dwarven Terrain Features (Skematic Pyramid Mold from Hirst Arts)







Giant Mushrooms, Crystals and Angry Fire Temple Faces (Custom work)





I may be selling casts of the custom stuff in the future, but I have been having problems with the mushroom with the spikes.  I may have worked out a simple solution by removing them all together and the attaching toothpick points instead, they are a bit thinned, however they won't break off so easily. 

Modular Ruins Board Pt 2

So I whipped up the next two tiles, they just need spacking alpplied where needed and sanded.  Then off to painting and flocking.

Modular 3x3 Terrain Board

So I had the incredible urge to try a new bit of terrain, this is a 3x3 board made of 4 1.5' panels.  I should not it is far from complete, but you can get the overall premise from this.  The bridge tile and the blank tile need a lot of work, the other 2 need detailed.  Obviously I haven't messed with painting or anything yet.  So far total expenses are about $15-$20 as all it is is Pink board and Hot Glue.  I will be attempting to keep it that way.








Cheers

Ultramodern City - Prototype

I started working on an Ultramodern city for playing Relic Knights and whatever else on.  I am trying to avoid the city rubble look that tends to plague gaming.  I am building it mostly with foamcore, cardstock and clear plastic page dividers.  There are obviously going to be detaily parts which are going to be more expensive, but for now, I have spent less than $10 and have fundamentally constructed for over 15 (4"x6") buildings, 6 (12"x12") floor tiles, and am less than half way through my supplies. 

Here is a quick glance at two stacked structures.



The intent is to build a bunch of these and a handful of key detail structures.  Any structures with windows will have interiors designed as well.  Most interiors will be glued to old gift cards that have been detailed out with chairs and such.  Some walls will feature mounted screens and the like.  I am endeavoring to make this as simple a project as possible and keep it cheap.  Though I did just buy a police box for my wife to hide and a set of arcade machines (which will be detailed as Super Dungeon Explore arcades) to be positioned throughout the town. I'll be adding some vending machines and other fun things too. 

Simple Trees

So I have seen a number of simple tree designs in the past, some aren't too bad, some are insane, some look like crap, some aren't too shabby.  However, I recall seeing a post once upon a time on the Heroscapers forums about some trees a gent made using something called Naturally Wired, it is wire wrapped with a sort of plant material, it is a shade of brown with natural variation. So I looked it up and managed to snag a 40' roll from JoAnn fabrics for $8.  I then grabbed a few different sorts of plastic plants to experiment with, one is bamboo leaves, the other is Amazonian Phyllo, the latter I prefer, but they both work, you could use a number of other leaf types.

The construction process is pretty simple (though I didn't photograph it, but you'll be able to figure out) cut between 4 and 6 wires around an equal length.  Bend about an inch of it with a pair of needle noses and keep a hold, then start twisting it all together in whatever pattern you'd like, it doesn't have to be perfect.  Make some branches up top by leaving some without merging and some in smaller groups.  Now grab your plant and start pulling the leaves off, leave a bit of stem behind as it will make it easier.  Grab your hot glue gun and go to town, try and make them pretty.  Now, I will admit, I could have gone a step farther and painted my hot glue gun blobs to hide them, but I don't really care as you'll likely never notice.

You can turn out a good quantity of these pretty easily and quickly and they are quite cheap if you do enough.







Till next time campers :D

Insulation Board Dungeon Tutorial Pt 2

I was holding off a bit till I got to painting, but I've not had the time to mess with it too much, so here is the chunk of designing the walls and detailing the floors.

Detailing Floors
To do the floor detail is really easy, get a ballpoint pen (Some people use a dead one, I like to see my lines and find it is easier when the ball still rolls) then have at it.  This is really easy actually.  If you want to roughen up your ground, you can use an aluminum foil ball as shown below. 



Wall Design
I am doing the walls in a variety of techniques at once here, so bear with me.  Sections 1 and 2 are both hewn rock walls, 3 and 4 are different types of cave walls.



Section 1 has blocks cut out like the floors are done, this creates an old block feeling which would be good for most dungeon style layouts.  It is mildly time consuming but looks nice.  Section 2 has blocks drawn in with a pen, this creates a new block wall style that would work well for a castle or an egyptian looking location.   Section 3 is done by taking the knife at an angle and ripping chunks of foam out.  It is fast easy, but does require a little bit of time to learn to do well, a few practice pieces will work well, try whatever tools you have around.  Section 4 is done with a wire cutter, this would make nice ice or water worn cave. 



I'm going to spend more time on 3 as it is what most of you have seen from me and seems to work best for Super Dungeon Explore (especially with Caverns of Roxor coming out soon) After cutting some chunks out with a knife, take your fingers and dig in with your nails pulling upwards, this makes a circular pocket pullout that works well, linking them together has a pleasing appearance.



Now, holding the knife perpendicular to the surface drag it across lightly, do this a bit till it starts to break apart.  Then rub with your finger tip.



Lastly, section 1 and 3 have had a ball of aluminum foil rolled across them, this makes a nice rough surface that works well for drybrushing, to be honest, I don't like this appearance and rarely use it. However, it does work well and can create a nice appearance.



Once again, break out the pen and draw cracks onto section 1, this gives the stone character, try and be random.  Evenly spaced is not random, have some clumps, have some clean sections, etc.  When painting, weather accordingly. 



Now, Section 2 is getting a special treatment.  I have a Silhouette SD paper cutter which is essentially a printer with a knife blade.  It cuts out paper for scrap booking and the like.  I designed some wall patterns and fed them through the cutter, you could do this by hand also, hence the inclusion.  As a point of interest, it took me 4 hours to do walls for a single tile using this technique, so migraine alert.  It takes that long to do an entire caves walls.



Comparison with figure.

Till next time.

Insulation Board Dungeon Tutorial Pt 1

Ok guys, I had promised a tutorial on how to make Insulation Board Dungeons, and here is the first half.  This goes all the way up to wall construction, but does not include wall detailing, floor detailing or painting, to be fair, most of that you'll be able to figure out yourself. 

To replicate what I have done, you'll need the following supplies (I only priced things that are disposable)
1/2" Insulation Board ($12)
1.5" Insulation Board ($22)
Break Blade Utility Knife ($3)
Steel Ruler (A longer measuring tape will help, but isn't required)
Pen

Also, here are a few important notes, this information is relevant all the time, and if I skip a measurement, it is here.
Squares should be 30mm, 25mm (1") will work, but things will be too tight, you can go larger, but then your layout is larger with out more playable space, your call.
My Tiles are 12 squares across, this includes the halls though, original tiles were 12 squares across not counting the halls, it is your call how to proceed.  I count the edge tiles when moving and such though, so I still have 12 playable.  36cm for my tiles or 42cm to replicate the original boards.
Walls cover all but the center 2 squares at the edges.  You can change this to add more access points per tile, but keep it consistent.  I could have went with a layout with 2 entrances per tile say at the 3rd and 4th square and the 9th and 10th, but you'd always want that.
Everywhere must have a 2 width hall or Angry Bear can't fit.  Also, goo luck squeezing your fingers in there.  Diagonals have a minor exception.  You can create a tiles that has a diagonal of 1 tile corner to corner, as per the movement rules angry bear will still fit.  I believe one of the official; tiles is layed out like this.

Some quick tips
-Make your tile cuts and wall cuts as straight and vertical as possible, the tiles will fit better if you do. 
-Use a pen, not a marker, marker seeps through the paint as it doesn't bond properly to the foam board (IMPORTANT)
- Don't use a hot wire cutter. Unless you have a table and are using it to make the blocks that will be walls.
- Don't sweat minor mistakes, just leave them alone, no one will ever notice.
- Long Cuts aren't straight, use a ruler to draw your line, then remove said line with your cuts. 45 degree angle on either side is fine, but don't make the knife be perfect, better it strays a bit to provide character to the lines.
- Many shallow cuts rather than hacking through the foam in one pass.
- When making walls and such, use your fingers, run the blade across the surface roughly, dig deep V's into the foam, then rub the stuff with your fingers, it makes a nice texture.
- Hot Glue is the best glue to use.
- Don't worry about painting it well, just well enough that no one notices how badly it is really use, make sure to use a fat brush.

Alright, onto the tutorial, I skipped some basic stuff, so please forgive me.

 1) PLAN - Grab some graph paper (or print some offline) and layout your dungeon rooms, turn the page, make sure everything will work, decide early one the theme of the dungeon, a cave, a castle, a forest, you name it and it could be done. Also something like a lava cavern sounds cool, but will be a lot more challenging than a simple cavern, once you get good, add cool rooms like this later.  I pick a theme first, then start making my tiles.

2) BASICS - When you get your foam board form the store, it comes in a 4x8 sheet, good luck getting it into your car.  Ask someone to cut it for you, I usually have them cut it about two tiles thick with a little excess, sure I waste some, but then if their cuts aren't perfect you didn't waste a lot. Take off the plastic, there is a thin layer of clear plastic over the board, take it off.  Now, measure out your tiles and cut them with the knife, it's easy and the thin foam cuts pretty quick, if you are mostly through you can snap the foam by flexing it cut open, then cut closed.  Once you have your stack of tiles, which is very easy to cut the tiles, proceed.

3) GRIDDING - It is important to grid your tiles as accurately as you can, if you have a square, use it to check your lines, if not, well wing it :D  I shouldn't need to tell you much about gridding.





4) LAYOUT - Once your grid is in place, layout your dungeon, use a pen and draw in all the walls and such.  Don't draw too heavy if you make a mistake it may show on the final design.


5) EDGING - Your first cuts should be to vertically trace all your walls. this helps define them when they are in place and ensures there are no cuts under the walls.


6) TILES - Now holding your knife at a 45 degree angle, start cutting channels where the grid lines are, do all your vertical cuts one way, rotate the tile and do the other ways.  If some of the pieces get stuck a small Xacto knife can be very helpful.



Woohoo, your tiles are done!  They are pretty simple to make actually, it's just getting the hang of it.  Also, it does take a while.

Walls are a bit tougher as the foam is thicker.  You can either use a cutter to do the walls if making something like a cave as you are likely to have rough lines when done, I'd recommend this on your first go.  If you have a hot wire table, castle style walls will be easier as you can make nice clean vertical cuts. 
1) BASICS - To get your walls, I take a strip of foam 15cm long and cut it into 15cm by 18cm blocks, this gives me 2 corners and the centers are then used for other bits in the rooms when possible.  Corners should be a 15cm by 15cm L shape.


2) SHAPING - Once your blocks are cut, draw a grid on them and figure out your wall shapes, once they are drawn on, cut them out with a knife (remember many passes 3 is usually about right) or a table cutter, if using a table you'll likely need to have something to follow to get your lines straight, I clamped a piece of window screen frame to my table, but whatever you have will work (Forgot pics, doh)


3) TEST FIT - Double check everything by putting it onto the tile, make sure you didn't screw up too badly :)


More dungeony goodness in Part II.  And I need to go and cut out the rest of my tiles.

Also, if someone wants a dungeon layout and does not want to construct one, I am willing to custom make these, due to the time involved I am leaning towards $30 per tile, so a set of 5 tiles would be $150. 

Temple - WIP

Yes, I do have lots of projects generally all going at the same time.  Newest project is I am building a rather large modular temple.  I still have a ways to go, needing to detail some roof sections and build 3 more roofs for the corners and the entrance tile.  I may make another corner or two though as I feel I could use them., possible a couple more ruined ends also.  I will be sculpting some huge trees onto the ruined pieces and making some smaller ruin stands that are self sufficient later as well.  So far this project has occupied about 8-10 hours of my life . . .

The Lab - WIP

Been working on a Lab to go with my Dirz, but it would work equally well for Arcanists in Malifaux.  It is all made from Insulation board, Bionicle parts, PVC Pipe and fittings, and a few other oddities.  The walls are all modular and 4" long.  Makes it easy to rearrange bits and bobs without a lot of complex work.  Each wall is the wall section with a 1" square post at the end, it allows me to easily swap sections around.  Essentially this layout shouwld work for a wide variety of game styles, you could easily cut tiles in the floors and make the walls a more traditional dungeon for a big modular layout that can be built on the fly, I am really happy overall with this design.  Now to finish it . . .this one may take a while as I have a lot of complex plans for it.

Roofing Made Easy?

Been wanting to make some fantasy buildings with an Asian vibe, and knowing I'd never do those cool tile roofs was killing me. But, it's fantasy, I'll do as I please. So I broke out my Craft Robo and came up with this. I can now make cool roofs in minutes.

Bwa ha ha, Laziness wins again!

Some Simple Modular Ruins

This is a little experiment to make some simple ruins that could be used to construct whatever I need for a game, so if I need some random LOS blockers these will work, if I need to construct a fortification around an objective, they've got that covered as well.