Henge of Stones

simmuskhan · **Posted:** Mon Feb 11, 2013 8:54 am

I'm a complete amateur when it comes to scratch-building terrain, but here's my first attempt at making something with styrofoam...

WIP and more shots up on the blog (http://simbattleboard.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/henge-of-stones.html).

It's pretty amateurish looking compared to a lot of the other stuff on this site! I kind of wanted something that would be fun to try and attack. Lots of spots for archers to shoot (maybe off-setting some of the recent grumbling about nerfs) narrow spaces, climbable bits etc.

Anyway, I learnt a bit about working with styrofoam.
1. It would be nice to get the pink/blue stuff instead (but it's really hard to find here in Melbourne, Australia.
2. Really need to cover surfaces well with glue or something before spray painting, but didn't matter too much here as I was going for worn rocks I guess.
3. It makes one heck of a mess!

All in all, though, it wasn't that hard or time consuming, but then again, it's just lots of shades of grey!

Any advice for further projects gratefully accepted! In the background you can see I'd like to do some tall cliffs, I've got some polyfilla and was thinking of just using that to help on the edges and what-not but I haven't done it before!

Mithaearon · **Posted:** Mon Feb 11, 2013 9:13 am

Looks good but you can easily improve the finish.

One thing is to cover the polystyrene in a product called Modrock, its used my model railway builders and is basically plaster on a roll, this gives a nice solid finsh, covers the polystyrene effects and gives a texture to the surface. I have jsut written an article about making cavern and mountain pieces:
HERE

Next is the paint. A common trap for people is to paint stone pure grey. I would recommend for the first layer mixing a bit of brown in to warm the grey up a bit. There is details about it in the article above. Also why not try a more "brown" grey, if you look at the colour of the stones on stone henge they are not grey at all. In my Hints and Tips article HERE I cover a section on this technique but basically its undercoat black, drybrush with Graveyard Earth and then Kommando Kharki. You can see photos of the results in the article.

Beowulf03809 · **Posted:** Mon Feb 11, 2013 2:30 pm

I think it's looking really good, especially for a first shot.

My only game-play impression was that if yo do another go about 50% larger. That way you can get a little more open space right in the middle, and perhaps include some short stone formations, while maintaining a lot of the LoS blocking you have presented. For example, look at how "open" this shot is but would still give a lot to hide behind and make for some good chances to block ZoC and try to surround foes.

I agree about the stone being a bit 'cold gray'. There is a lot of variation in stone though so it does depend on what you're after. What you have is often seen on gaming tables but not necessarily 'realistic' stone color (it might be in some areas though...we have a wide variety of rock and granite color out here). What's a real good idea would be to have a reference picture of one or two stone types you are trying to simulate and paint to match those. Again, look at the color in the pic above.

Curufinwë · **Posted:** Mon Feb 11, 2013 5:02 pm

Nice work I think it came out nicely especially for a first attempt.

ElfLover · **Posted:** Mon Feb 11, 2013 8:16 pm

That is really great for a first attempt :yay:

Mithaearon · **Posted:** Wed Feb 20, 2013 8:10 pm

I have written an article on how I made and painted my standing stones HERE.

Azog · **Posted:** Thu Feb 21, 2013 7:15 pm

Nice work - you might want to take a look at my article about rock making where I compare normal polystyrene and dense foam. The PVA /sand mix idea might be useful for you.

kb.php?a=30

My only slight criticism might be it looks a bit too angular. Time might have worn down the stones a bit more. However it's great work for a first scratch-build.

I look forward to seeing lots more :-)

@ Mithaearon - i like your article - nice work again :-)

Henge of Stones

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