Turnip28 Terrain Set

 

 

Feeling confident from the recent refurbishing of older buildings, I pushed forward with the necessary terrain pieces for a Turnip28 table.   Turnip28 has three types of terrain: dangerous (usually on a 9"x9" base), defensible (on a 6"x6), and impassable (also a 6"x6).  After making a few kitbashed custom regiments, I managed a casual game using available terrain created for other games, and was immediately struck that the effort that went into the figures was diminished by the lack of matching terrain.

 

The first new piece was this dangerous terrain board (8"x10", so close enough to 9"x9") featuring a ramshackle and broken foot bridge. I had two goals for this piece: (1) to try using Woodland Scenics Realistic Water effect for the first time, and (2) to resolve a perpetual thorn in my side when making terrain, which is that the base MDF board always warps like crazy.

On the second point, it turns out that I have been using way too much water in my PVA mixes and too much water when thinning paint for terrain.  I also discovered the habit of applying a "primer" coat of un-thinned PVA to a side of the board, then using a brush just wet enough to help spread the glue evenly, then immediately doing same for other side.  This greatly helps control warping during the various steps. As to the Realistic Water effect, I think I did not "push" the effect to the edges of my pond enough, which caused the effect to have a raised surface-tension appearance like a puddle of oil instead of water.  I painted the pond area black to create illusion of depth, which seemed to work.

The second piece is this 6x6 impassable terrain, featuring a house sinking into a pool of water. The recent refurbishing of the older buildings using DAP joint compound and individual shingles was applied here. The white fungal stalks growing at the side of the house are stems from the leaf stalks of the horse chestnut tree that grows behind our house.  I pre-soaked these in a water/PVA mix, and after letting them dry, discovered that if you cut them they had a hollow tube in the middle, which gives them an eerie organic look. They also have some natural little bumps that look that part.

Speaking of those chestnut leaf stems, the next piece is a boggy dangerous terrain piece, 8x10, featuring little islands with fungal growths all over them. Here you can see how different parts of the chestnut stems can look very different based on what part you use and even which direction you glue it to the board.

The only fault here is that I poured the water effect a little too thin, and you can see granules of coffee grounds which I used for texture that got into the "water" portions of the board. These reflect light and create all those little white spots. Otherwise, I am quite pleased with use of some thinned dark green paint I applied before adding the water effect.

This house and bridge is a 6x6 defendable terrain piece. I think I originally was envisioning a bridge with a toll gate, and maybe a warming hut/guard hut on the side. But this is what actually came out. The house has a rhomboid footprint, so I got make an irregular shaped, warped roof.

This was a fun exercise in trying to cram the visual features I wanted into a small space.

This last one was very fun and definitely did not end up being what I originally intended.  The initial idea was a piece of dangerous terrain consisting of a bog or marsh with a few small muddy islands, with two Reaper Bones giant toads lurking around. 

I painted the toads first and while looking at them was struck that it would be funny if they had little crowns. So I made little crowns out of paper, carefully cut with spikes and sealed with superglue. And toad monarchs need a throne, right?

The idea of an ancient stone set of thrones as a terrain piece for fantasy wargames is an idea that's been kicking around in my head for a while, so making a stepped dias and two simple chairs out of foamcore scraps was easy enough. I then covered in joint compound and sanded down (and coated in PVA before painting!).  I did a base coat in very dark gray and then did two coats of drybrushing in progressively lighter greys.  The toad on the right came with its tongue extended, but I trimmed it out.

Now the next game should be a real treat!