Finally, something new to post! As I said in my last post, I have been super busy with real life lately, so I have not had much time, at all, for hobby work. Little by little, though, I have managed to get a few small pieces out. What I have for you today are several ground cover pieces. Ground cover pieces are the smaller pieces that go in between buildings. Having lots of really well made and interesting buildings is very nice, but if that is all you have, then your table just will not end up looking like a real village or city. It is these types of pieces that add character and believability.

When first thinking about making these pieces, I started checking toy sections in various stores looking for anything that had conversion potential. I went to several different stores with no luck before finally coming across a Toys R Us brand called True Legends. I found a set that comes in a 72 piece bucket for about $10, and it has warriors, witches, elves, orcs, a few wall pieces, and even a dragon. The minis are far too large to use as models in game, and there sculpt quality is marginal, but they have a lot of potential for terrain conversion. The mini size is just about perfect for medium sized statues in 28mm scale, and several of the other pieces are so close in scale, that the difference is not noticeable.

Along with converting some of these pieces, I also wanted to try my hand at a few trees. I have never made trees before, but having seen several different methods, I went with what I thought was both a relatively simple method, and one that produced good looking results. I found a really nice looking stick, and I broke it into pieces to give me what I thought was 4 good trees. At this point, I had everything I needed and began assembling.

The process was fairly simple for each. The statue was made by taking one of the True Legends minis and gluing it to a stone platform that also came in the set. I then added a few bits, rocks, and sand to make things a little more interesting. Then I took my dremel to the mini to add a little “battle damage” and simply painted the piece up. For a final flare, I added a nice blood splatter on the back side of the platform with bloody drag marks leading away from the statue. I used the Citadel Technical paint, Blood for the Blood God. It lived up to its name. 🙂

Next up were the wall sections. Honestly, these were, by far, the easiest pieces to make. I simply glued on a few bits to make them look a little more interesting, and then painted. Fairly straight forward.

Please ignore the shine, the matte clear coat was still slightly tacky and I had a bright light pointed directly at the pieces for the pictures. Under normal lighting, there is barely any noticeable shine.

Last, but not least, we have the trees. I made small round bases out of MDF and super glued the trees to those bases. I also then drilled and pinned them to add a little more strength. Once that was done, I texted the bases using stucco patch, and started adding bits. I also tried my hand at sculpting for the first time. Nothing fancy, just a tattered banner, a couple of signs nailed to the trees, and a label for a handmade crate. After that, it was just simple painting, and a little static grass to finish off. In the following pics, the glue is still slightly wet for the static grass, so that is why those spots look a little funny.

And that is all I have for today! I have a couple of more ideas ready to hit the work table, and as requested, I will be working on a tutorial post soon, so check back!