Tianaris' cemetery gates

[Tianaris]

It's about time I post my first own pictures. I joined this forum about one year ago and I had never built any terrain before. The inspiration and tutorials I found here or through this forum were just incredible. So it didn't take very long before I started building my first terrain. After some easier things like hills and stuff that didn't really fit to each other I decided to go for one single theme in my next terrain pieces. And who wouldn't enjoy playing on a ruined cemetery?

I started with some modular walls and the cemetery gate (insert pantera riff here) centrepiece. Simple pink foam walls (except that the foam actually was green) about 1/2'' thick, some 2''-2 1/2'' high, brought into shape with hobby knife, pencil and sandpaper.
Painting was easy standard work as well: basecoated with black, drybrushed with 2 or 3 different shades of grey, a few brown washes as stains to add a little colour. I then flocked the pieces with static grass and moss and added some foliage as eyecatchers. Turned out pretty nice in my opinion.
My wife produced that incredible wooden gate for me. She cut each single board from balsa wood and spent some effort on making the gate look like it's already been hanging in its hinges for some time...

Then came my birthday and my wife somehow managed to make my in-laws give me those amazing cemetery bits (and other cool terrain stuff) from www.tabletop-world.com that I had shown her recently. In-laws had barely left the house when I already started on building some small pieces with tombstones. By now I have even more of those pieces, but I only have pictures of these. I'm not really sure whether I'd use these pieces as linear obstructions, rough terrain, scenario objectives or simply to make the gaming table look more awesome...

My latest piece then was the ancient tomb entrance. I'd really like to show you some close-ups but I can't find my real camera anymore, so blurry cellphone pics is all I can give you. And the closer to the terrain pieces I get with my phone the blurrier the images.

But for now, 'nough said. Here are the pictures:

[CPFinnit]

Those are fantastic. How did you do your brickwork?

[Tianaris]

First of all, I didn't use straight foam pieces because mine was about 1'' thick. Too thick for what I had planned. So I took a saw and cut the pieces in the middle. The result were some pretty irregular pieces, which I then sanded down a little bit. If you want less ruined walls I guess 1/2'' foam would do as fine...

Now for the brickwork:
I simply took a ballpoint pen and drew each stone onto the foam. You have to make sure that you use enough pressure so that the pen leaves a permanent impression. In my case I drew every line twice. It took some time but it was well worth the effort! Now, for a newly built wall you could already start painting, but the real fun was the next step.
I picked out some single stones or even rows of stones which I wanted to look like they had moved in or out a little bit. Zig-zagging lines, diagonally... whatever pleases you best. I then took a hobby knife and cut along two, three or even all four sides of those stones. Next I took the end of a brush to push these stones inside. Depending on the number of cuts you made before, the stone 'shifts' in the wall. Alternately I even removed some stones completely from the wall and put it on the floor right before the place where it once sat.

It really is a very easy technique but it gives those walls a much more realistic feel. I first saw this technique in a tutorial where somebody showed it on a paved street (intented for Mordheim I think...). That guy 'shifted' each and every stone of his board. Unfortunately, I didn't bookmark that tutorial otherwise I'd have posted the link.

[whitekong]

Looks good, nice looking stuff.

[Zealot]

That stuff looks great! I love the gate and the tomb/crypt piece. Very cool.

I don't know if this is the tutorial that you were talking about, but this is the one that I saw some time ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPFTi...eature=related

[GrandMcMuf]

I really like how this turned out. I'm thinking about duplicating it. Thanks for the idea.

[Tianaris]

Nice to see that you like these! Best motivation to go on with it...

@Zealot: Definitely a different tutorial, but he basically shows the technique I used. His brickwork is much more regular than mine, though. And he used very thin foam, so it's hard to really push the bricks inside.

Oh, and I totally forgot to pay my tribute to the artist who ispired me to the gate-centrepiece:

Caspar David Friedrich: The Cemetery Gate (The Churchyard)



Before I came across this picture I would have never even thought about letting grass grow on top of a ruined wall.

[Tianaris]

Time for a short update:

I started working on the next piece for my cemetery this weekend. This time, it's the gravedigger's hut which has been built against some section of the graveyard wall.
The pictures are only WIP, but I thought they might be quite interesting anyway. On the first pic, I lay out the four wall pieces and the furniture for the interior. For the other pictures I put the pieces together loosely to show, what the hut will be looking like. More or less...
I didn't start working on the roof yet, but I plan on making it removable. Thinking about hiding scenario objectives inside for maximum fun on the table.
Door and window shutters will be following soon, too.

[andoutcomethewolves]

Looking really good. can i ask where you got the furniture and barrels from?

[GrandMcMuf]

That is quite amazing. This is very very cool.

[Tianaris]

Thanks guys!

@andoutcomethewolves: the furniture (as well as the tombstones from my first postings) is from http://www.tabletop-world.com/. Their stuff is amazing. High quality and lot's of detail! They're located in Croatia though, so orders might take a while and shipping cost aren't the cheapest...

[andoutcomethewolves]

@ tianaris. cheers. there stuff looks great, and has given me quite a few ideas. does work out a bit pricey but i'll see if anyone else from the club is interested and that way the shipping is shared.

[Tianaris]

Just finished the brickwork on the back wall, pushing inward and crumbling of selected bricks on all walls. I also basecoated the inside walls, because I realized it would be much easier before assembling the walls and glueing them onto the wooden base.

I'm going to post some new pictures when I'm done with basecoating, drybrushing and assembly.

And maybe I'll also start working on the roof as well...

[Tianaris]

Back after a long time... A serious case of real life kept me from working on my terrain. I've got some new pics to show.

1. After playing Diablo 1 for nostalgic reasons, I decided to try to create some deep lava chasms like the entrance to hell you find behind Peppin's hut. I tried to create the illusion of depth, yet I'm not sure if I really succeeded... If you've got any suggestions how to improve, please tell me!



2. The next terrain piece I started a few days ago is inspired by pictures of an actual megalithic location called the "Heidenopfertisch" (heathen sacrificial table". Although it's pretty close to where I live, I haven't been there yet. But you can find pictures of it, when you google the name...
However, here's my progress with it so far:





I'll be posting some update pics for my gravedigger's hut as well. Working on the roof right now. When I've got some colour on the walls, new pics should be worth taking...

[redmanphill]

Nice looking stuff here. I especially like the attention to detail on the hut.

[Defenstrator]

Very nice. And thanks for the link to table top world. There is much to drool over.

[GrandMcMuf]

Can't wait for the updates.

As far as the depth goes the easiest way is to put a slight rise from the edge of the piece to the fissure. This lets the lava split be lower than the "floor" of the terrain.

[Tianaris]

Can't wait for the updates.

Finished building the roof of the hut, going to paint in a minute, so pics might be up in 2 hours at the latest.

As far as the depth goes the easiest way is to put a slight rise from the edge of the piece to the fissure. This lets the lava split be lower than the "floor" of the terrain.

Thought about filing away some of the wood in the middle of the two pieces and decided not to do this. Probably made the wrong decision here... Still thinking about doing it, which of course would mean that I would have to repaint the lava and all...

[Tianaris]

Okay, didn't make in two hours... got lost somewhere on this forum...

Now, here's the painted hut with the roof. Next up on my schedule is adding some stains, moss and grass. Furniture and details follow later.





One shot with roof taken off:



And finally the underside of the roof, to show what efforts I made:

[Tianaris]

Instead of making any progress with the hut and the stone table I got carried away and started my most ambitious project so far. Behold the first WIP pictures of my ruined church:

1. Looking down on the ground piece. It's one big piece of styrofoam, about 30mm thick and about 25x40cm. The base work on the church floor is done. Also, you can see where I'm going to put the walls of the church:



2. "Gamer's perspective" at what is going to be the main entrance. The church will be standing on an artificial brickwork hill; I only managed only to do some basic outlines so far. A lot of ageing work needs to be done here:



3. And a little overview of the wall pieces I cut into shape so far. The whole piece will be about 30cm high, including a fully accessible - yet ruined - tower with a removable upper part. There will be no roof at all however, as I imagine this church to be deserted for quite some time, so all the wooden parts have been rotten (this doesn't sound grammatically correct...) and most of the stone debris have been carried away for further use... A lot of ivy and moss is to be expected.




Oh, and the first to identify my tabletop roots (there's quite an obvious hint in these pictures) earns a free cookie. Two cookies if you can name the GAME and the correct ARMY...

[Craftwerk]

Googled Heidenopfertisch, and your terrain piece looks really good! The stone is a little plain in coloration but the layout is accurate. You going to add some bloodstains on the rock, make it look like those crafty druids are hard at work making more Wolds?

[Tianaris]

Googled Heidenopfertisch, and your terrain piece looks really good! The stone is a little plain in coloration but the layout is accurate. You going to add some bloodstains on the rock, make it look like those crafty druids are hard at work making more Wolds?

It's still WIP, so what you see is still only black. Of course there will be more colour on it when it's finished... Admittedly I never really thought about the bloodstains although it makes perfect sense. Today and in our world that stone table is a couple of thousand years old, whereas in any fantasy setting it might be state-of-the-art architecture...

[Mordjinn]

The hut looks very good, nice design touches there. Also looking forward of seeing how the church turns out. Great job!

[Tianaris]

And here's a quick update of the church ruin: dry fitting the wall pieces before I start the tiresome work of drawing the bricks. Still need to cut the wall pieces for the entrance room into shape. Some pieces for the detachable tower already exist, but I need to do some more mork on the lower level, before I can try fitting those parts together.





Enjoy! And fel free to comment on my pieces! Criticism, creative input, encouragement... anything...

Edit:

And here's a pic of what the tower is going to look like:



Next I have to do some filing and sanding. It seems like this project is coming along quite well...

[Tianaris]

MORE PROGRESS ON THE CHURCHRUIN!!!

I just realized it's been a month since my last post, so it's time for an update. I got the brickwork, assembly, priming and drybrushing on the tower done. The seam where you can take off the upper level of the tower is quite obious and will be covered with some moss at a later stage, but still I'm quite pleased with how this is coming together...
I put in a forsaken just to show how huge that building is going to be.



Here's a shot from above with the upper part of the tower taken off:



And finally I spent some time on a little experiment: a removable part in the back wall of the tower! You can either play with it as a destroyable part ("There's no back entrance? Then let's make one...") or you can decide before the game whether you want the gap open...



...or closed.



After this worked quite well I'll probably have some more removable/destroyable parts in the other walls. The image of some heavy 'jacks breaking through those crumbling walls is just too cool...

[PG_Sauklaue]

Wow, this is awesome! I wish I had the patience for all that brickwork and the floor tiles.

[Tianaris]

After half a year of absence, it's time to resurrect this thread with some update pictures!

First of all, I managed to get all the brickwork of the church ruin down, got it assembled and painted, except for some little details. Only big thing missing is the flock: lots of moss, grass, fallen leaves...

But for now, behold:





I also made some ambient close-up shots:

Stone stair-case leading to the church's entry:



Remains of a stained glass window:



More to come in the next post...

[Tianaris]

...and on we go...

Inside the ruin:



Dead defenders of this church: they'll mostly be overgrown with moss and grass, so only parts of their rusted armours are going to be visible in the end.



And secondly, I never came around taking and posting photos of my finished heathen stone table. So, here they are:

[Tianaris]

...and finally, some close-ups of the stone table:





As always, comments, criticism and questions are welcome!

[PG_Farseerixirvost]

all very well done indeed. LOTS of brickwork - its nice someone can do it...

[Tianaris]

Actually doing brickwork isn't that difficult. The main question you have to ask youserself is: Am I willing to this?

[the solitaire]

The answer is "no", which is why I really like looking at other peoples work. I´m just not patient enough to do all that brickwork myself

Is Oldenburg anywhere near Düsseldorf?

EDIT:: nvmd that last question. I now remember why the name is familiar. I once had a parcel arrive at the Oldenburg customs office.

[Phenious]

How do you do those mismatched stones? I have seen engraved paving stones but never so much difference in depth and angles. Must have taken months.

[Tianaris]

When I started with the cemetery gates, I just drew the stones with a pencil twice, then cut around some of the stones with a hobby knife and finally pushed in those stones with the back end of a brush. That really took a long time. Later, already working on the church, I realized that cutting the lines of stones with a sharp knife first speeds up the whole process a lot! Then you only have to draw along those cut lines with a pencil once, which is much easier as you don't have to break the surface of the wall anymore, and the basic brickwork is done.
Another advantage is, that now you can push inward each stone. You don't have to cut around single stones anymore and can simply go crazy. This step can really be done within a few minutes. You get the best effects when you push inside the stones in different ways - the whole stone here, next only the left side, then only the right side, a little bit from the top...

You get some practice after some time, and then it isn't that time consuming anymore!

[Borkas drinking buddy]

Very nice work man. You're doing great.

[havre]

Great work! Your sure are willing to go that extra mile to get that fine finish.

[PG_Greywolf]

Amazing looking terrain bud!

[Tianaris]

Thanks a lot everybody!

Talking about walking the extra mail: yesterday I asked my wife for advice about how much green I should add to the church. We agreed that a lot of moss and grass would be fine. However, I didn't get started with flocking because things changed a little bit with my wife's next words: "You know what would look really cool? A tree growing inside the ruin!"

And so I added a little tree, not directly inside the church, but clinging to one of the crumbling walls. And here it is:





The tree's made with a wire skeleton covered with DAS air-drying clay, slightly textured with a toothpick and a first layer of brown colour. More colour is coming soon... Nothing too difficult and time consuming, but I think it adds a lot to the whole scenery.

And I had to redo the floor. I filled in some Vallejo Still Water into the lion ornament on the floor to make it look as if rain water had run into the lower parts. Unfortunately, the Still Water somehow reached the ballpoint pen's colour (even although it was covered by several layers of black and grey!) and myde it rise to the top. I realized what had happened before the water had set completely so I was able to peel it off before it was too late.

[Soaponrope37]

I'm lovin the brickwork and the floor on the castle! You using the Home Depot pink 1/2 inch foam or the Lowes blue?

[Tianaris]

I'm living in the old world, Germany to be exact, so no home depot here. Actually, the foam I use is green and a little bit more than 1 inch thick. But it comes with a diamond pattern on both sides which I have to sand off first. I then cut my wall pieces in half with a saw and end up with two wall pieces of the same size and roughly 1/2 inch thickness. It's quite an effort, but on the other hand you get some rather irregular walls which are just perfect for ruins such as mine.

For the floor I found the inspiration in a nearby "museum village" where they have some old farmsteads which date back a couple of centuries. If found the concept quite interesting: those red floor tiles were rather expensive, yet some of the richer farmers wanted to show at least a little bit off their wealth but couldn't afford to cover their whole house with these tiles. Some they only bought a few and lay them out in the same pattern as I did in the church. They then filled up the remaining floor with small cobblestones. The result looks very interesting.
I imagined a similiar background for my church. As it is only a small chapel, maybe even in a rather remote rural area, covering the whole floor with red tiles would have been too expensive, especially after they decided to have that stained-glass window! Some they chose to reduce the number of red tiles by half to reduce their costs... Too bad that they soon had to abandon their church which now lies in ruins...