8/12/2005

I'm The Rain Man Of Table-Making

Ok, before you all start in on me, yes... I know I've been burning the candle at both ends lately with the Warhammer thing. Basically, it comes down to this: I have free time, not a lot of money and I can't get to see my girlfriend for a while. That pretty much means I need to keep myself from going out of my mind by staying busy, and the escapism of Warhammer 40k really scratches that itch.

I've decided I want to make a game table and terrain. I have also decided I want to make it cheaply. I had two wooden tables I was barely using (if ever), so I took one of them and decided to get to work on it as the surface for my Super New Gaming Table. I also have several huge chunks of great foam (that I got from Bill) that I never use, so I started cutting it all up. Keith gave me a bag of sand and some plastic foliage, I got a few popsicle sticks to boot. Really the only expense was: A few Games Workshop paint pots, a brush, some white glue, a can of brown spray paint. That's about it.

My kids absolutely love this stuff, and that's what made the decision for me to go ahead. Basically, they are helping me glue, spread sand, even cut foam (with close supervision). They inked the bridge and even glued it together. It's really a joint project and, you know, I absolutely love having something to do with them that's creative and fun. My oldest, Ruth, really comes out of her shell when she's doing stuff like this and so I've gotten to enjoy an afternoon and evening of listening to her chat me up and tell me what's going on in her little head. As any dad out there can guess, it's heaven.

So what did we manage to get done?

There's the collection of grass patches. Keith (God bless him) gave me a bunch of plastic terranium-style grass and plants. Not only are they better than the average fishtank fare, but in my opinion they beat Games Workshop's offerings as well (sorry, GW, but those stink). By placing each on a square WHFB base (which will later be flocked and painted) they can be massed to make a little dense thatch of grass or spread out to be spotty grass. I have a similar collection of clover-like plants which are also promising to make similiarly nice terrain.

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There's this tiered hill. I actually don't know what the hell I had in mind when I was doing this, but whatever. Basically it's foam cut with an exacto blade to shape, glued together and then washed in watered-down glue from top to bottom. Then it's buried in sand and, at present, it's drying. Later I will go back and touch up the spots where sand didn't stick/glue didn't make it, let THAT dry, spray-paint it brown, dry brush goblin green, then bleached bone. Stones and flock will be scattered for flavor. The edges of the tiers will be grey to make them look more rocky.

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There's this cliffish kind of hill. Same idea as the last one.

There's this table. It looks uneven, but in the good way. It's got brown spray paint under the blue and sand. Same kind of treatment as the aforementioned hill; drybrushing and so on. It's a 4X4 surface, btw.

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There's this Aspect shrine. Recently, Keith, Benoit and I all decided to make shrines for various Eldar Aspects. I chose Dark Reapers (I was in a USF kind of mood) and this constitutes the beginning. I realize it looks more like a layer cake than anything else at the moment, but it'll be cool. I promise.

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A little rock thingie which will be the base for a statue. I have an Inquisitor-scale Ranger that I really like, but I know I will never, ever, ever get around to playing this game. I have, therefore, decided to make him into a statue, and he will sit on these stones.

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This bridge and the little snake that goes with it. I got the idea for the snake from some stuff that the guys at Games Workshop Bayshore did. I'll paint it tomorrow.

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Tomorrow, we finish the table (meaning painting and all that), finish up the other foamy things and... well, I guess that'd be about it, wouldn't it? Then we take lots of pictures.

After that? Well, I have one more 4X4 table and two 2X4 hunks of foam left... maybe something in a lava-world vein?

1 comment:

Chantilly Layce said...

You're table is looking pretty sweet Corey. Hope to see it done soon and now you've shamed me into going and doing a table for myself as well. Heheheheheheh ;)