Frostgrave Low Ruins & Walls, Part 2: Gallery

The basic terrain layout for snowy skirmishes!

Since I started this new site, I've wanted to revamp my entire gaming existence.  Miniature games have pretty much been on hold while I've been painting, and even posting on this site has been janky as I've been so busy with so many things.  I wanted to start completely over with something new, and not allow anything unfinished, neither terrain nor miniatures on my table.  Eventually, I'll go back through my old terrain, refinish, reframe and re-photograph each piece and catalog it here, but today's gallery is special as it's the first set of terrain I've finished since moving house.

Ruin sections and smaller scatter pieces make up the core of my Frostgrave table.

So, here's how I built the base ruins.  Now, the finished pieces have had the Woodland Scenics Soft-Flake snow.  I have to say, I'm both satisfied and not-satisfied with how this set turned out.

Melting snow on the tundra doesn't look uniform.  I hope.

 I learned some things about how to apply the snow during all this, and with how cheap they are to make I'm not certain I'll keep every single piece going forward.  In the above picture, on the right, you can see how the snow dried a little strange.  I won't be flocking pieces prior to applying the snow if I can help it from now on...the dye leeches into the water based glue the snow is made of.  This might have also been what caused some of the patterning on the surface...but it does resemble a muddy field after snow and rain.

A good portion of the table is covered with just this basic set.

Now we've got enough pieces to start a good map with.  Anyone who plays Frostgrave knows there's a lot of terrain used for specific scenarios, and I'm going to be adding select pieces going forward to make this set much bigger.  Those pieces will expand the options to setup the board, and in so doing adds to any other games we may play on this board.

The deep, wet snow will hamper movement.  Slippery.

The smaller pieces can fit together to make larger sections.  They can also be arranged around one of the larger based pieces to create ruined buildings with a footprint larger than the footprint of the base.  We'll be using this feature in certain scenarios to make building outlines.

Two different shapes to choose from.  Build-a-Ruin!

Here's the thing though:  I should have applied less snow.  It got pretty deep, and the textures I had applied it to got me some weird patterns.  In retrospect, if I hadn't applied to the flock I wouldn't have had to apply a second layer to cover the bleed of the dye.  Going forward I will apply a light snow residue, like on the smaller blocks, to even the largest of pieces.

I think my Water Effects will yellow.

Another issue I had was that I was originally going to make it much 'wetter' using Woodland Scenics Water Effects and Realistic Water...but I found that these yellowed only days after application to an insufferable degree.  They were in a case, so there's no reason for that.  I must conclude that the supply I have of these products must be...out of date?  Not sure...but they are a few years old.  I didn't realize that age would cause them to yellow like that.  That can't be though, can it?

A Zeus prowls the ancient ruins of a long lost civilization on the polar region of a planet in Prefecture IX.

In either case, I did get a usable setup.  Pieces that yellow or I just can't stand will simply be replaced or refurbished.  At present, I can live with this, but I won't be making the same mistakes going forward.

Imperial Stormtroopers assault rebel positions amidst ancient jedi ruins on Manda's northern tundra.

The cool thing about these ruins is that they are largely scale and setting neutral, even thought I originally built them for Frostgrave.  There will be some pieces that won't really make sense for the table in certain situations, like a 28mm well on a table meant for 10mm mecha.  That would be a really big wooden well, and basically just a large pit.

Just look at that guy's (poorly painted) face. 

Really the worst part is all those air bubbles caused by the glue drying and collapsing into the rough surface of the bricks.  That and the light in my war-room.  I think I may have to invest in a rack or two of LED's to line the walls to brighten the place up for pictures, so I can avoid using up floorspace for a reflector panel.

The Enchanter Orrick Vos prowls the ruins of Frostgrave with his mechanical minions.

It's not perfect, but it was my first try with snow since 1998, and we just used spray paint back then.  I think the biggest concern I have going forward is my water products yellowing on their own in less than a week.  I should find a new set of products for that, but Realistic Water and Water Effects are kind of what I'm used to.  I don't want to use anything that requires mixing, so if there's a comparable product out there that you've used and got good results with let me know so I can pick some up.

Until next time...stay frosty.