[havre]

Hi all.
I'll be using this space to elaborate on the Mordheim board I’m currently working on and various projects related to this.

My idea is basically a rip off from Wolfgang’s renown board on Gidian Gelände. However, I have elaborated on his concept of crypts, basements and sewers trying to include a playable ‘under-city’ in a more systematic way. The board will include basements for most of the buildings, leaving some room for varying the buildings. I have no intention of building all the houses for the town myself. Hopefully I will be able to recruit members of my local game club to assist in that task, me providing templates for the outline of the buildings.

During the project I’m trying out some new (to me at least) techniques, with the overall goal of making swift, good looking and playable terrain. Anyway: Here's the first module of the board measuring 60 x 60 x 10 cm. Some of you have probably seen parts of it in the treasure competition.

Here are some shots from the building process. After cutting out the lower part of the sewer in the lower piece of styrofoam, I used baking paper to transfer the outline to the upper piece. The perfect tool for the job is my loved rounded carving knife.

After digging out the basements, small canals was carved out to connect to the sewer. The sewer bottom was spackled, and the floortiles on the basement floors stamped on.

Normally I would have just carved the stone pattern in with a pencil. With the size of the board, however, I came up with the idea of making stamps from modified pencil caps. This way I could stamp out the stones in no time.

Finally the board was painted and scatter strevn on. Here are some closeups of various parts





Parts of the street are removable for playability

For the most part I'm pleased with how it turned out. The tea blend used on the lower right side of the street was however not the best choise. Furthermore, I'm not content with the foliage at the mouth of the sewer. I will however try finishing the the rest of the modules before correting this one. Comments and remarks will never the less be most welcome in order to make nessesary adductions on future works.
Havre

[hecatonchireslm]

Looks _awesome_

Does it seperate into two halves?

[Gregbag]

Hi, Havre

This piece looks very interesting...I especially like your stone texturing (how did you create the "mold" ?, please post something 'couse I'm looking for something like yours).

Your foliage looks not so bad and can easily taken to perfect with some color (green and/or ocra, darker behind, lighter in foreground)...take a matt color...
Add some more green...climbing plants and grass (high or not) in the edge conjunctions between walls and floors...especially in the outside parts...nature would work so...

If it would mine, I'd add some shanty water in some canals (like in this with plants one you picked in macro photo).

Then I would wondering if you should think to add some ruined (or not too) buildings over all...I should fall in AWE...

But overall...VERY HUGE THING...Bravo

[Identity]

As an avid Mordheim gamer/terrain builder as well as a worshipper of Wolfgang's work, I am delighted to see what you are doing.

My group was actually going to make a board just like this one, but due to several factors it never got off the ground (despite the materials being purchased). The primary reason was deteriorating motivation, but there were some playability issues that came up as well. One is that if you're playing on a 4x4 or a 4x6 table, the middle of the table will be at the junction of two (or four) modular pieces. For the most part, this restricts you from having a large, focal terrain feature located there. Unfortunately, many mordheim scenarios revolve around having such a terrain feature. The other issue is that an underground, while fabulous in concept and visual appeal, might be a disaster as far as playability is concerned. If you have three snipers hiding out in a building, and then someone wants to move into the basement of that building, the focus shifts away from the gameplay to the logistics of getting models where they're supposed to be. Most of the designed "holes" in the ground to reach the sewers were also rather awkward to get one's hand into unless they were very near the table edge as well.

I don't say this to dissuade you from your project. On the contrary, I'm extremely jealous of what you're put together thus far, and I'm dying to see it completed. I'd just like to remind you of a couple significant issues so that you can plan to minimize any problems (if you haven't already).

As far as ideas for the project. Have you considered some shallow water or sewage in the tunnels? Or a flooded segment? It might take away from the present grey, grey, grey look of the underground. Since you already have removable chunks of road, you could easily make some replacement road chunks with obstacles on them (overturned cart, remains of a witch burning, etc.). Are you planning on replicating Wolfgang's cemetary with underground crypt? That was probably my favorite part of his board. It'd be neat to see alternative routes of access to the underground, such as a collapsed opening (perhaps due to meteor shard), or a well. You could also have offshoots of the stone sewer system which are dirt tunnels, dug and maintained by skaven. If you did a corner piece with a hill on it, you could have a rather large underground chamber. Perhaps a giant cellar underneath a guard tower/barracks, or a large skaven gathering place.

Anyways, you rekindled my excitement from my own shelved project, and I've gone a bit overboard I think. I'm sure you have quite grand plans of your own. The one piece is already stunning by itself. I really can't wait to see the next few.

[havre]

Thanks for the feedback!
[color=black]Hecaton:[/color] No separation into two halves I'm afraid.

Gerbag said:

how did you create the "mold" ?

I'll get some pictures, but for now, the small cobblestones were made from a round pencilcap heated and then formed into something resembling a square, and then filled in with Milliput. The larger tiles and walls were made from a
Marker cap. The sides of the cap were sharpened and the inside filled in with Milliput. I havent tried out Phil's way to do it yet.

I'll try following up on your exellent ideas for foliage, using the example you set in the water competition. Pools of dirty water is coming up!

Identity said:

you could easily make some replacement road chunks with obstacles on them (overturned cart, remains of a witch burning, etc.).

Good point. I have trouble removing the tiles covering the sewer, and debris will help in that respect as well. As for your remarks on playability, yes it is the biggest downside of the project. And I see no way around the problem of models in different floors.

The next module will contain a halfway collapsed cistern leaking into the sewer. Together with a broken aqueduct it will hopefully enter the water competition. (All though any hope of winning it lost after gerbags entry ) I really loved Wolfgang's cemetary and crypt, as well as the dungeons in his Vampire Castle. The possibilities are so many! I hope to see more of your own Mordheim work, Identity.

[havre]

couldn't help my self but uploading a pic with a few houses, and my first trial with WS Realistic Water.
Looks like a few more coats is needed. Vermin brown is added for sewage effect.

[Gregbag]

I really love what you're doing here.
The house is awesome.
Your water apply looks so nice...I love it.

You've skills...

(How would I like to get in a workgroup with same terrain builders... )

Fantastic work...

[Schting]

I love the board, I have tried something like that for city fight 40k (some years ago) and utterly failed to come even near completing it. And your work her are just lovely in the details, not enough to make placing of minis hard bur enough to make it look interesting and "alive". Therefore it feels abit harsh to mention that your buildnings (the gatehouse and the big house) looks out of place. They are just to clean...the ground are not really that dirty but the buildings just looks shining. But that is also my only "complaint" about the terrain you show here.

[Paladin]

What an utterly brilliant idea!!!!

The great thing about this is that the addition of basements allows for quite a bit of complexity to happen on a very small board. Amazing.

Plus, it also solves that age-old dilemma of "To base or not to base" your buildings. This just makes sense.

Way to go!

[Nenjin]

This is ace. The inclusion of basement tunnels is fantastic and really adds something to Mordheim that's part of the lore but isn't well represented by standard boards. I love all the extra detail you put in on the sewer drains. Aesthetically I like how the stairs are placed relative to them, it has a very Venice-y, European feel.

[gauterg]

You must update this thread with some pictures of the next module, the one with the aqueduct.

And bring me the template for the foundation of the building you wanted me to make.

[Eris Artwork]

I think this is very atmospheric and an excellent concept, esp with all the small details like the plants in the tunnels. I'm planning (sometime in the future) to do a Town terrain board but now I've seen this I may well consider putting in some cellars and other bits and would also mean that I wouldn't have to attach the houses to the base.

Great work and I hope it gives you some great games!

[Techman]

You guys never seize to AMAZE me...this is a beautiful work of art. Is everything glued on? Or is it modular (as in buildings).

Is this for the game store? Or private use (I wish I could have a board like that in my house )

Now on to what I've seen. I love the stonework, the time taken to stamp all that....jeez man. The water I think adds a good effect.

Could we get a model for some scale pretty please?

-Techman

[havre]

2. Module: Here's an update with the the second module. It is a square in the inner city surrounded by a palace, gate, aqueduct and some minor buildings. I made it as part of the water competition.

Here without the removable parts to make the sewer accessable.

Some details of skeleton beeing fed off by fish

Sewer...

Closeup of aqueduct..

And some dwarfs searching through the town.

Finally the two modules put together with existing buildings. As you can see some work remains on the sides of the last module, but I guess I will start on the third before finishing it entirely in order to keep the project moving. The second module also got a bit lighter, and I will adjust the colours later.

[havre]

I've had some questions about the 'stamps' used to make cobblestone and basement walls. Here's a pic that should explain...