Lava River & Fissure to the Under Earth WIP

Guideline build, took this to remember how the blocks went together. Ended up forgetting straight away and putting it back together "wrong".

Hence the spacers at the top right and bottom left.

This awesome section of wall was done by my good friend hybrid horde. 

By carving in to the wall with a knife and pinning extra humps and bumps to the surface, an interesting and dynamic effect is achieved quite quickly and easily. The less you plan the better the effect I find.

T-rex and Copplestone Cave-woman for scale.

Improvements on the fissure and small entrance.

The (basically) finished article. I pinned it all together with kebab skewers and glued it with PVA wood glue. The whole lot is glued and tacked to a thin piece of MDF from the back of a cheap bit of furniture. 

Just got to add some real stones and sand and fill the lava river with some all purpose filler and it'll be ready for finishing. Very pleased with this so far. It's going to be the entrance to an underground civilisation of mushroom men, accessable only by the hole at the top via a rickety wooden bridge, high above the lava.

Naff little flyby of the tile.

GW Agrellan Earth Test

I decided to just go for it and throw it straight on to my Orc quarry tile. I put on a reasonably thick layer, 1-1.5 mm. This is probably the max thickness, in fact I'm pretty sure it will break away after being stomped on a few times with plastic bases, so maybe 1mm depth is the best option. Dry mud would break after prolonged stomping anyway so I'm not too bothered. 

I put some extra tufts around the dried puddle, figuring that the places where water would collect - the base of rock formations and natural low points in the landscape - would be where the grass grew.

Savage Orc Quarry tile

I bought some polystyrene from this little bit of antenocitis workshop. If anyone knows a cheaper scource of this stuff please tell me. Its not extortionate, but there must be a way of buying bulk from a home insulation wholesalers or something (surely). This tile took six A4 (a British paper size) chunks of 50mm thick styrofoam to make it, four for the base and two for the rocks. I threw on a few real stones from the beach for added detail.

To form the rocks I just hacked at the stuff with a semi-blunt kitchen knife. Something about the way it responds to the jagged violence of the knife leaves effects akin to weathering, crude Orcish tool marks and the shearing power of tectonic plate movement.

I was hoping for a more sandy desert finish rather than the grey colour that it ended up, but it suits the Orcs and thier stone based weapons better this way anyway.

I added GW Mordeheim Tufts and some tall grass from a model railway shop around the bases of the rock formations, figuring the water would run off them, hydrating the soil below and welcoming the grass seed that collected there. The last picture was taken before I put the tufts in place.

Savage Orc Bodyguard

Wood and stone body armour, made from spare shields and repurposed weapon heads. The two bodyguards of the Big Boss are like moving walls. The other one is here.

Savage Orc Stronghold

Loose practice construction. I had no plans for this, just started making shapes and building it up. I wanted a Flintstonesesque effect on the Orc stronghold. It's as if they've corralled a load of giants in to heaping up the crude stones they've hewn out of the quarry they dwell in.

I took these pictures to have a reference for the construction after I took it apart to pretty up the blocks.

Not got around to detailing it yet, I will be adding grass, small stones and Orcish graffiti. It's painted in the same way as the quarry tile. The ground has beach sand mixed with it for texture.

Stegosaurus

Big Tamiya Stagosaurus with Orc arrow in his back. His eye is about human head height. The Tamiya dinos are 1/35 scale, meaning they've got a bit of extra bulk compared to the 1/56 (roughly) scale mini's I use. Can't complain about your dinosaurs being too big though right?!

I'm not much of a painter, I prefer to just get some paint on it, no matter how scruffy. Anything is better than bare plastic/metal. If anyone is interested though, I sprayed this guy white, then did a kind of reverse zenithal shading with black spray from above (wish I'd taken some WIP shots). I then put a few layers of inks/shades/washes, picked out some colours on the fins, and drybrushed the whole thing in white.

Vegetarian Dinosaurs

Some other Dinos from the same Tamiya kit as the big croc. There's a baby Parasaurolophus, an Oviraptor and a Hypsilophodon. I've called them vegetarian on here because they will be in my game, I'm not sure if the were in reality.

I will be re-basing the two little uns on to two pence pieces. The Parasaurolophus was just sprayed black, then the brown was intended to be a first layer, but I like it like it is so I just painted his eye white and left it at that. 

Savage Orc Warrior

I like this guy because of his yellow warpaint. Yellow is the spot colour on all my Orcs.

Human Warrior (Male)

I think he may live (or not) to regret the target like body paint on his back...

Young Human Warrior (Female)

She looks bad ass. I wasn't sure about the "NSFW" stylings of the Copplestone Cave Women at first, but I think it is just my corrupt western ideals passing judgement on a more primative culture. Boobies.

Savage Orc Warriors

A few of the other lads from the Savage Orc tribe.

Savage Orc Big Boss

The Big Boss has customised headgear and weapons, but little or no armour. He has two heavily armoured bodygaurds that take arrows for him as he moves unhindered through the field of battle, whirling his dual headed staff through his enemy's flesh.

Savage Orc Shaman

Games Workshop Savage Orc. I carved away the back of a shield to make the mask of a medicine "man". I decided the main job of a Savage Orc Shaman would be animal sacrifice, that's why he's the only Shaman with weapons.