My first serious scenery making adventures: The Arena

Hi All,

A few weeks ago I suddenly got the urge to be creative and start making Mordheim terrain. (Despite the fact that we only play Mordheim about once a year...)
At my girlfriends house I found a nice polystyrene leftover from some electronics packaging that resembled an arena already a lot, so the decision of what to make was easily made. As it was my first serious project, it has been a very interesting learning experience so far (I once made a smal ruin about 2 years ago, but that was rather basic).
Below are some pictures of the current status: please feel free to give comments/suggestions. I have most of the finalisations already in my head, just need time to finish it, but always open to extra ideas ; )

pictures:

That is AWESOME!
A VERY nice piece of polystyrene, and I love what you have done to it!

But why can we not see the little construction that we get a glimpse of, in the first picture?

I am really lookin' forward to seeing this one done!

/Maikacir

Wicked!

Nice work! I really like using pieces of packaging similar to the one you found. Cut a little off, add a little back and presto, scenery!

Are you going to add a base?

Wow! That is great use of packing foam!

VERY COOL! Being able to visualize things as they MIGHT BE is a real talent. This bit of visualization is turning out to be a TERRIFIC looking arena. The barred entry way is a REALLY nicely done feature. Now all you need are some Pit Fighters or Thespians & some Blood Thirsty Spectators. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

You need a concession stand area selling beer, peanuts and skaven tail on a stick!

Wow! that is one vicious little arena! nice!

Very impressive! Cool!

Da Bank wrote:

... skaven tail on a stick!

LOL

Da Bank wrote:

You need a concession stand area selling beer, peanuts and skaven tail on a stick!

I'll consider it!

I had pictures of the back, but somehow the picture uploader failed. It's a staircase to enter the back part, nothing to impressive...

I will definately add a base: some polystyrene in between the arena and the wooden board, to make it stand ou a bit more.

Unfortunately my time in the next month will be very limited due to PhD preparations and a proposal deadline soon, so most likely: "to be continued in a few weeks!"

This is amazing!!!!!!!
I love the work.
As a tip, maybe that grey needs a brown wash, because grey has blue parts 8like black), and that makes the building a bit irreal (or comic book style).
By the way, COOL AS HELL!!!

Well you sure reached up to the right level of seriousness – it looks dashing

Worked a bit further: painted some more, added the "VIP-platform" and
added a rough base. The differences in color/brightness make it a bit
hard to see details pn the base. (Anyway, my painting-details-skills on
the arena are amateurish to say the least, not much detail there)

I tried the brownish dry-brushing on some places, but didn't really
find it an improvement (probably my color usage was completely wrong),
so just left the rest untouched.

I'm thinking about what color to give the base... The rocks and rubbish
I'll do the same as the arena itsef, but I'm not sure about the wooden
and polystirene underground...

OH BABY! That looks SO COOL! GREAT PROGRESS...keep up the FINE WORK!

Looks awesome so far Hope to see more from it soon

For being your first serious terrain piece...it is AWESOME! Great job, cant wait to see the finished project.

Great use of free stuff!!!!! I'm always looking at polysterine packaging for use in terrain.

Have you painted the base yet?

If you want a tip, with some PVA (maybe slightly watered down) and base the areas that arent rocks it with sand, then black/dark brown wash, finish with a drybrush up to a light brown (maybe 3 or 4 level of colour) and finish with a very light drybrushing of a bone coloured paint. This may sound wierd but if you do it light enough it will take out the "yellow" from the lightest brown.

This is using citadel paints, it may be different with othe brands. You will get the effect of brown dirt, which will contrast nicely with the grey of the rock.

I have based up alot of stuff with this and the brown and grey go well together.

Try it on a base to see how you go.

Can't wait to see the final product...Hurry up!!!

Final version 1.0 !
I might add some extra details later (sword 'n shields, skeleton and corpse, etc.), but all in due time...

Sorry for the late reply, as actually this version was already finished more then two weeks ago, but a last minute backpacker trip through Thailand with gf postponed the picture and update/posting stage... Anyway, here are some pictures : )


























I have to say I learned a lot (with the simultaneous actual building of the arena and all the forum browsing : p), and would have done some of the earlier stages different (for example add more different color layers to the black/gray/blue-ish arena itself: both the brown and grey rock base have more layers and look better than the arena itself...).

It's also very fun to explore and discover techniques: the semi circular construction has those "sheets" made from paper. I first cut it into the more or less appropriate shape, put it in water for a while, got it out and crushed and wrinkled it, unfolded it again and let it dry. Finally recut it finer and painted it (with multipe layers: amazing what just more layers do with the looks of any surface , Like I said some of the wood and rock I should have done with a lot more layers, in hindsight).

@ Nurgle's Bratwurst Bugle:
Thanks for the tips, although the base was already painted over 2 weeks ago... But I'm happy with result: the polyfilling leftovers on the base created enough roughness for me

Any further comments and feedback (positive and negative) are always welcome!

edit:
ps: I tried to make the piece of terrain as "functional" as possible, for mordheim. That is, different ways to enter/leave/climb the building and manouvre through it. Hence the (broken) bridges etc., although they might not be very "fluffy" for an arena : )...

A TRULY BEAUTIFUL piece. All the cool little details... like the rope bridges & that slimey little Guy in the pool...make it one of those SPECIAL pieces, that no matter how many times you view it, there will ALWAYS be something new to discover. VERY, VERY WELL DONE!

Since reading this post and seeing your photos I have been paying more attention to bins in the hope of finding a piece of polystyrene of a similar shape and have drawn up a plan for a fighting pit incase I son't find one

I love the extra detail, especially the wonky bridge. Also I think the broken bridge is fine from a fluf point of view.

Good work. Now use it in some games!

Glad you like it : )

Using it in some games is the next thing: trying to get our small group together for a weekend of Mordheim one of these weeks/months...

Started on the next project, for which I hope I'll have enough time... I'll post some stuff when I'm at some nice intermediate stage.