Miniatures & terrain?

[tkdco2]

I have a bunch of historical 1/72 miniatures. I have tried based many of them with tactical tokens, but I suggest scratching up the surfaces to make the glue stick better. Use superglue, not plastic glue.

[Parzival]

On trees, I wait till after Christmas and hit Lowes or Michaels or Jo-Anns, when the dump all the Christmas village stuff— you can get a bag of 21 pine trees of various sizes for next to nothing. Works with any scale (how tall is a tree anyway?).
Also, if you don’t want the snow flock effect, stick a tree in a cup of hot water; the snow stuff dissolves right off.

[Punkrabbitt]

Jul 17, 2022 21:33:34 GMT -6 Parzival said:

if you don’t want the snow flock effect, stick a tree in a cup of hot water; the snow stuff dissolves right off.

Fantastic tip!

[thorswulf]

Some scrubbing of the snow stuff might be necessary, but not much. I take several spray cans of different greens and hit them after they are dry. Makes them look a little less plasticky. You can make better winter trees by mixing mod podge, white paint and snow flocking or baking soda and brushing it top downward onto the trees. It looks more like snowy trees to me. Don't forget to hit the dollar stores too. They have trees as well.

[tkdco2]

I've also toyed with using props and visual aids in my game. Photos and paintings of cities and people work well for historical settings as well as fantasy. I've filled a dice bag with old coins and passed them to the players when their characters were paid for a job. I thought about using a puzzle box as one of the challenges. For safety and legal reasons, it's better to use photos of weapons than to bring the actual items; some companies offer catalogs of their products.

I haven't tried crafting items like potions yet. Here's one way to do it.

[tkdco2]

How to place your terrain is also important.

[Malcadon]

Jul 29, 2022 11:21:10 GMT -6 tkdco2 said:

How to place your terrain is also important.

What I'll add to the video is:

Don't be shy about underbrush. Or better yet, assume that the whole d**n ground that is not path, creek, pond, clearing, outcrop, etc. is just one big thicket of underbrush! Some classes and races would have some advantage in this environment, forcing other characters to maneuver to what clear ground is available or otherwise slog though the thicket jumping from cover-to-cover like a modern solider. A Kobold or Goblin ambush should easily overtake Adventures who are not made for such an environment. When you assume that the default ground is underbrush, terrain like path, creek, pond, clearing, outcrop, etc. will stand out more as they have their own tiles or terrain pieces. Underbrush can hide things. A lot of horrible things! So don't be careless.

[tkdco2]

Here's one way to make cheap miniatures. And if you're a beginner, use craft paint, which is a lot cheaper than the paints we use.

[tedopon]

For 1/72 or 1/76 or 20mm lead, I base them all on 3/4" washers and I used to use whatever is cheapest out of the heavy glue E6000 or equivalent. Gorilla version is better long term, and it is the one I use now exclusively. You use the plastic or lead base and attach them to the washer. I've had around fifteen fail since 1996 or so when I started doing it that way. Have probably based 1000+ in that time if I were guessing. The one labeled E6000 is the one that literally all the breaks happened on, the Gorilla equivalent is perfect. Even if you're using the E6000 glue, the fail rate is really low and could be applicator error.
My method is take the 3/4" washer and lay a ton of them out on painter tape, then cut to the edges. The painter tape creates a reservoir for the glue to sit in the middle, which is where you are placing the 1/72 1/76 20mm miniature.

[tkdco2]

I've based one or two miniatures on washers. I've used pennies as well, which seems to be popular with some wargamers.

[thorswulf]

I use washers all the time. I use boxes lined with magnetic sheeting to store them in.

[tedopon]

Aug 29, 2022 22:07:24 GMT -6 thorswulf said:

I use washers all the time. I use boxes lined with magnetic sheeting to store them in.

Yeah me too, line whatever box you choose with the magnetic strips that come in rolls. The box would need to roll down stairs or get thrown from a moving vehicle for any of them to move.

[tedopon]

Re: the Christmas trees at craft stores. I bought a ton of them one year for under $5, but I repainted them because they were almost blue, just barely green.
For deciduous trees I make frames out of cheap craft wire and glue a ton of moss onto them, sometimes I'll dip that in flock as well...none of them looks like a real tree, but they resemble one enough that they're just fine. I have a couple dozen of them and I may have spent $10 on materials.
It's funny that all the work and ghetto crafting that goes into this hobby is often as fun for me as gaming. I can completely turn my brain off and basically play with trash for a few hours.
Nearly all of my terrain and structures are just made out of trash...it actually makes the few things I get that are purpose made look kind of silly. I have a few buildings I've collected over the years at yard sales that were made for train sets and even after roughing them up they still stand out against everything else.

[tkdco2]

I have no plans for streaming my solo games, but I have a couple of ideas if I were. Nothing revolutionary, just a couple of thoughts in my head that I need to share.

If I were going to use an overhead camera mount, I'd definitely try to use a battle mat with some features. Loke BattleMats has several books with premade dungeons and wilderness settings (Note that I am not endorsing Loke or any other product; I just need a convenient example). I would use 2D tokens in place of miniatures; they'd be easier for the audience to discern. I would have the camera angle wide enough to see my dice rolls, ideally on a dice tray.

If I were going to use a regular tripod instead, I'd hang a magnetic whiteboard with grids on a wall. I would have to draw the terrain. I would still use tokens, but they would be glued to magnetic bases. The audience wouldn't be able to see the dice rolls, so I'd have to announce the results. This way is less visually appealing, but it may be simpler and possibly cheaper.

[tkdco2]

Here's an interesting kitbash for Orctober:

[tkdco2]

If anyone is interested here are the results on my speedpaint experiments.

[tkdco2]

Speaking of miniature painting:

[tkdco2]

I usually pick my miniatures after I write my adventure, but this time I used them as inspiration for a couple of adventure seeds.

[tkdco2]

Short video on alternatives to miniatures: www.youtube.com/shorts/o3OHghUziOA

[tkdco2]

Using nature to inspire how you paint your terrain:

[tkdco2]

Paper mache isn't used very often nowadays, but it's great for making terrain.

[chicagowiz]

Moathouse Dungeon, being 3d printed, WIP. This is the first section of the dungeon - the "upper section".



Not to encourage Finarvyn or anything like that...

[Finarvyn]

Apr 8, 2023 7:38:11 GMT -6 chicagowiz said:

Not to encourage Finarvyn or anything like that...

You are so mean. I can barely make my regular printer work right, let alone buying and operating a 3D printer.

Better if I just buy the files for stuff I want and send them to you, then pay for the printing materials, then we arrange a pickup point at some pre-determined location like Games Plus....

[chicagowiz]

Apr 8, 2023 7:45:18 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

Apr 8, 2023 7:38:11 GMT -6 chicagowiz said:

Not to encourage Finarvyn or anything like that...

You are so mean. I can barely make my regular printer work right, let alone buying and operating a 3D printer.

Better if I just buy the files for stuff I want and send them to you, then pay for the printing materials, then we arrange a pickup point at some pre-determined location like Games Plus....

This printer, so far, has been very easy to use/operate. The trick that I'm learning from listening to others is that each brand/type of PLA may require slightly different setups and approaches. As if buying different types of paper would affect how you print (which, it kinda does, if you're printing on very thick paper like cardstock).

Depends on how much you want printed! I could do onsie-twosies It would be awesome to meet!

[ochrejelly]

I've been working on this modular mountain that features a hidden base inside of it made out of foam for a 1st edition 40k game. I'm going to be happy to see this project in the rearview mirror.

[tkdco2]

And now for something completely different:

[tkdco2]

If you use terrain in your game, how do you set it up quickly enough to avoid disrupting play? Here's one idea.

[tkdco2]

Easy DIY props for your game:

[tkdco2]

Does anyone have this set?

[thorswulf]

So here is what I did for D&D club at the middleschool I work at. I use UDT foam disk that is dungeon on one side, dirt and grass on the other. All you really need besides figures for your players, and a small box of monsters for the session, are a smattering of terrain features. Several doors, portals, stairs, trapdoors and pillars are handy to have, and several 3" to 4" wall segments for framing rooms. Everything else is scenerio specific garnish!