Narrative Gamer’s 30k/40k Table

I originally intended not to buy anything new for this project. Then PWork had a Black Friday sale…

I picked up the “Warworld” mat from them. Goes rather nicely with the terrain and it was so exciting to place everything on table as it would look like to game with.

There’s still some details to fix and work on, and everything needs a matt varnish coat for protection and kill the shine. Anyhow, here’s some photos I took of where I’m now with the project.

This is the tedious bit. I did a monster 5 hour sessions just painting the details, weathering down everything. I quite got into a flow of it didn’t take huge amount of WIP shots. Here’s a gallery on how I ended up. 

On the techniques used. I did some airbrushing, a lot of sponge stippling, washes and Dirty Down  rust effect. 

Time for painting!

Before I started, I checked everywhere for exposed polystyrene or otherwise non-natural texture and covered them with modelling paste. I used a dark brown Pro Acyl paste, it has very similar texture to the sand I used. 

To avoid unnecessary  repainting, I masked off parts that I wanted to keep grey.. 

Everything was sprayed brown. The colour I used is RAL 8008, which is really nice for terrain and happily my local hardware store has that as a rattle can. The finish is satin hence looking a bit harsh on the photos. A matt varnish in the end will tone down everything nicely. 

Next up, a dry brush of cream colour. I’m using Liquitex unbleached titanium  artists’ acrylic. 

As a final step for the ground, everything got a burnt umber wash. 

I nearly forgot — there was also the Sector Imperialist Ruins as part of the set. This got completed while I waited for the main build paint to dry.

They’re really quick to put together and I had a a left over base with right size at hand.

Hot glued the ruins in place, adding some of the left over DAS rocks and random bits and pieces.

Mod Podge and bird sand to finish it off.

The most exciting part of the build, getting colour on!

I sprayed all the plastic bits black and then followed with a grey spray to bring out the detail. This is really to see the texture properly for the first time. And it looks really great!

I also did a colour test with the brown spray I have, painting the craters first and also part of the main terrain piece. Looks pretty good, it will get knocked back with a wash afterwards.

Here’s a photo with Land Raider for scale.

Zoomed out view of the build.

Very productive day. In addition to the main build, I managed to paint and weather the bulk of the buildings. Here’s a photo dump.

Time to seal everything.

I made a mix of Mod Podge, household black paint and a bit of water and just covered everything with it. For a project this size, I needed a lot! I probably used around 1.5 litres of the mix total.

Finally I added some bird sand into my Mod Podge – paint mix and covered the non-textured base with it, along with some bits that needed further texture.

I had printed few craters as well (these are STLs from Saucermen studios). They got a coat of the sand mix as well.

They will be themed for this project, perhaps most importantly will function as the test pieces for the final painting stage.

Everything covered in modelling compound, pieces fixes in.

Last look before this gets some colour!

Here’s a quick update on how I’m building the rock faces on top of styrofoam.

Shaping cliffs from styrofoam is cheap, easy and lightweight. But you have to get everything covered because the surface will never look natural and if you intend to use aerosols to paint it — well you don’t want to melt your project.

I like to use the Modelling Compound product from Geek Gaming Scenics. I don’t know what it actually is, I believe it’s a mixture of plaster and other stuff. It’s extremely easy to use, dries quick, hard and durable.

Simply you need to mix it with water, roughly in 3:1 ratio. And then slap it on to the surfaces and shape with your hands.

In this project I’ve also used rocks cast from DAS clay. I first glue some of them here and there on the cliff face, to have some really natural looking rock textures. Then I proceed to fill the gaps with the compound.

I’ve found hot glue working best for gluing to styrofoam. Get some on the piece you’re about to glue, let it cool for a moment and press it in. That way you’ll avoid melting the styrofoam.

Below is how everything looks completed.

Next step is to seal everything with mix of Mod Podge and black paint. I will mix some fine sand for texture on the base and the top. Can’t wait to get colour on this thing!

Quick photo update here on painting the buildings. I’ve gone with simple black-gray-white zenithal with rattle cans to start with. Next is to airbrush and handpaint details and weather all in.

Managed to find dedicated time to push the project forward a bit.

First, my cast rocks turned out fine. Glued them on and started with the modelling compound to build up the rock faces.

I also started placing few detail bits here and there. I’ve lot of consoles, hatches, vents, grilles etc I can use to add details. Really going with the flow as I add the surface material, sticking some detail in.

The bridge piece connecting the pieces got more or less built to day.

An older TerrainTutor video series came to my mind where he was building large rock faces, quite similar to what I’m doing.

I have few of Woodland Scenics rock moulds at hand. Casting a set of these in DAS clay to be glued on the rock faces for genuine texture.

Day 3.

I cut the bases to shape and sanded the edges. The big styrofoam pieces got glued on top using PVA and reinforcing with filler.

I continued shaping the styrofoam, both with blade and a hot air gun, at the same time glue on additional bits on top to break up the surfaces and filling in the cracks. To fill the hollow parts I used sprayed urethane foam. Once all solidified I’ll continue shaping it further. Super happy to have the basic shape there.

Plan is to add human made bits to it, which will include parts of the GW kit. Started here with a drink can and a piece of pipe which got integrated into the rock.

While stuff was drying, I completed the builds of  most of the plastic kits.

And while I was working, so was my printer.

These are prints from Miscast sci-fi greebles set https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-miscast-s-sci-fi-greebles-bits-kit-vol1-360963

I started off cracking open the boxes and cleaning up and gluing together some of the plastic kits.

The Nachmund building are rather straightforward and will go to the board as a set on pieces. They don’t even need bases.

For the other kits I pretty quickly realised I don’t want to build them as described in the instructions or the box art. Rather do few subassemblies and see how to integrate them into my custom built pieces.

I also found this Mantic terrain crate box, which would fit the set very well.

To figure out the layout, I pulled some random styrofoam pieces and started arranging them on a 6’x4′ table. And with a bit of shuffling around an ideas started to form.

This could be an Imperium/Mechanicum mining colony where they are mining off of a mesa type of hill or cliffs. I’d make the bigger pieces in two chunks for storing and they would probably be set on pieces instead of full on sculpted boards. So after all this would become fairly modular set.

Oh, and I definitely want to build a tunnel and a bridge. Imagine the heavy heresy era tanks rolling through! (more modern Land Raider for scale).

I started off sculpting the story foam pieces and breaking them off a bit to get rid of the straight angles. Messy business (gotta have the hoover at hand!) but fairly quick once you get going. I plan to stuff the hollow bits of the styro foam with crunched up newspaper for some support without adding weights. And all of it will need a good coat of modelling compound (messy business part deus) to solidify and cover for painting.

Already cut the bases from Foamalux PVC sheet, so there will be something very sturdy to build on which is also warping free.

I got my grunt work laid out, hoping to find few free evenings to push this forward.

A year ago, I built an aircraft crash terrain board (https://www.beastsofwar.com/project/1840185). Turned out some dudes on the internet liked it and I received delivery from Northern Ireland…

Now, these are the same kits Justin used for his 2023 Terrain Fest “True Gamer’s table” (https://www.beastsofwar.com/project/1839253)

Conveniently during the last year, I did happen to rekindle my love of 40k — and also got into Horus Heresy big time. So these kits definitely have a use for my but…

… I’m not a “True Gamer” as Justin. I’m a 100% narrative, figure painting, terrain building, play-few-times-a-year hobbyist. I don’t care about “balance” or “firing lanes” or “modularity”, it’s all about the visual spectacle for me.

So I thought, for the 2024 Terrain Fest, I will reverse the polarity* on the kits chosen by Justin and do the opposite — Narrative Gamer’s Visual Spectacle Anti-Tournament 30k/40k table!

*leave a comment if you got the reference

The initial goals for the project:

• Use the 2023 Terrain Fest prize kits, except the Orky one (I’ll save it for something else).
• Avoid buying anything new. I’ve got loads of materials, I shouldn’t need anything new. Standard modelling supplies excluded.
• Complete it for Terrain Fest 2024. Scope down if I’m in danger of running out of time.
• No need for modularity, but I need to be able to store it reasonably.
• Match the style to my Horus Heresy basing scheme.