Welcome to the Wheel

Hi there everyone

Inspired by all the magificent work here at this forum I thought I would share the slow progress of my own board. Its just the two of us building it so we are planing to go slow.

The story:
the board represent a neighbourhood simply called "the Wheel" due to how the road has been drawn in the form of a wheel around a big statue. It's a working part of Mordheim so not all buildings will be in ruins and there is a church and a graveyard nearby.

The longer story is that a man, yet too be named, invested in this place and started to erect a big statue of his wife before terrible things befell his house and he died. So the statue stands half done with the scafolding around it and the neigborhood again fell into darkness.

The big house he lived in stands empty and dilapidated next to the little plaza.

Im big on setting and story so there will be more written before its done. Every house will have a history and reason. This also helps me to give each house its own character.

The board:
The board is sort of modular but not in a traditional sense. We discussed the pros and cons of doing a classical "blank" board and have the houses separate or a board where the houses is more build into the board.

In the end there was some sort of a compromise between the both. The road is fixed but the five pieces that make up the rest of the board is removable. That way we can build the houses straight on the board but could do new pieces once we where done with it.

This is a link to a photo of the board. I could not add it to the post, it was turned upside down. Very strange

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65291918@N05/10631274614/

You can see in the photo the 5 pieces that can be removed. There will be several houses on each piece. I have ordered molds from Hirst arts to mold cobblestone to cover the road with. Hopefully the will arrive late next week so I can begin working in that.

And i have started to experiment with houses to see how I want to construct them. Not satisfied with my work yet so no pics so far  

Thats my 5 öre
Kim

The board & background look & sound good. Have FUN with the Project!  

Thanks Deaf.

Going to work on it tomorrow, if im lucky I might have something to show you guys.

Oh! The Wheel reminds me of Gangs of New York, cool.

Lovely background story! Very fascinating and well worth investing time and creative energy in bringing the whole place to life!

I also like the fact that even though the board is effectively flat and square, the round shapes within the board will give it really interesting angles to work with.

Making it modular is always tricky, but with enough planning, I'm sure you'll make it work. Maybe carving some shapes out of polystyrene/blue foam where the houses can be placed would be an option?

Anyway, I'll definitely watch out for this one.

Joao

Kul ide!
Looking forward to see some houses!

christian

Did some doodling (is it a word?) this weekend to try and find a house to start with. I really hate my indecision and inability to choose one idea and stick with it

But in the end i settled for a more cottage styled house.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65291918@N05/10703713444/
(Still cant seem to get a photo into the post. Hints or a link to a posted description would be lovely)

Its reasonably simple in style but enough to try a few things like a sculpted stone foundation. I even did a little plotting to see how big it would be to move around in.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/65291918@N05/10703780614/

Did it a tiny bit larger in the end but the same shape. I added a hole in the corner with a ladder so that creatures from the sewers below can enter the board. I plan to add these entry/exit point on every piece. Im creating a story about the fall of this neighbourhood where there is a posessed warband that lives in the sewers and come back to terrorize the Wheel as revenge.

Now I just need time to actually start building it

this is Kim, Over and out

Yep, doodling is a legitimate word...I'm a long time doodler myself.    
Your doodle building looks good. Are you planning on making it a ruin or an intact building? The ruin would be more game-worthy. Whatever you decide, don't over plan the beasty; re, it's really easy to become overwhelmed. Just get an idea of what you want it to look like. Then go ahead & do it....at least, that's my approach.  

I really agree with nala, it is kind of easy to get overwhelmed if you do too much planning! I think it is à good thing to draw rough sketches of 2-3 buildings (that also resembles each other to get consistensy on the board:)) and choose three diferent themes for them like "the tavern", "the butchershop", "the clocktower" or such! But every line of building terrain works offcourse, the important part is that your are having fun whilst doing it!

Thanks for all the encouraging words everyone.

I just got my molds from Hirst art and wow! they blew me away. So detailed with supercharp textures. Me and a friend (who is going to make an egyptian board for his necrons/tomb king armies) did a few rounds of casting last night and it was faster and easier than I thought it would be.


This is the cobblestone I will be using on my road.


These are small items to litter the board with. Crates and barrels etc.

Im going to start gluing the road today so there will be more photos later. Might even paint a few pieces to decide how it will look. So far I have started with black and the dark grey and lighter grey as a drybrush. Its been too dark so I might go for dark grey for basecoat and then go for a lighter grey ontop and wash in different colors instead for slight discolorations.

Im like a child at christmas. Even woke early because im so excited

Great bit of cover you've got there! I need to get more of those bags...

its 4 in the morning and I'm up going at it

You know you are a true nerd when you use your girlfriends vibrator on the molds as an ad hoc vibrating table to get those bubbles out. Note to self, wash is properly after

 

I was up at 4 this morning, gotta sleep now. Have a good one.

COOL STUFF...have FUN with all the painting!  

Been working for 48 hours now. These last two days been really crazy, living in 25 minute intervals. It takes 25 min for the dental gipsum to cure

Im actually managed to cast enough to pave the roads and have started to base coat them.



My fingers actually hurt from all the work, but I wear it as a badge

There are some gaps in the cobblestone and the worst one I think i will use clay to model proper cracks and use flock and stuff like that to show that nature has started to invade the wheel.

I have also started to create my warband of possessed that will harass the poor inhabitants of the wheel.

Having a beer now waiting for the paint to dry so I can have a go with the paint brush again. Want it finished today.

One must suffer for one's art...or so they say...they say a lot of stupid things though. At any rate it is LOOKIN' GOOD!   
I think I'll stick to drawing on foam for my cobblestones however...incredibly tedious as it may be.  

All done for the day. Been a couple of really productive days and it feels good to get the road done. Hope this will really spark my will to build houses. Real world has been put on hold so I will have to go all in there in the next few days but i hope to show some progress on my first house this weekend.

The house in the back ground is the first one i made and its o but too square and none descript for my critical eye nowadays



Today was the first time I felt like I really need to get some proper miniatures for the board. Have too many Nurgle daemons and they are happy to be models for the things I do.

This is Kev signing out for the day. Cheer

hahahahaha seriously her vibrator??? XD

Yes, I have picture proof.

Worked really well for the smaller more detailed molds that really need a vibrating table to reach all the nooks and cranies.

Did manage to get some work done over the weekend. I started with the first floor of my first house. It going to be 2 stories high and the second one will be a little more broken I think. I will completely finish the first floor before I continue with the second one. Then I can experiment with colors etc and get a color scheme that I like before I continue.



I even made a very handmade ladder/stairs. A steep one like this takes up less room than a propper staircase so in the smaller houses I will stick to this kind. Might have to work on the construction some more



Thats all for now. Hope to be able to put some more hours in it this week.

/Kim

Whoa! Just saw this thread. Really inspirational work on the ring-road there. And the statue should give the whole table some nice height.

I love the idea of a 'named' part of Mordheim where each house has some backstory. Looking forward to seeing how it all turns out.

LOOKIN' GOOD! The stairs turned out SPLENDIDLY...nice bit of modeling. Keep up the GOOD WORK!  

Nice to see some construction springing up around the Wheel.

Kev wrote:

I even made a very handmade ladder/stairs. A steep one like this takes up less room than a propper staircase so in the smaller houses I will stick to this kind. Might have to work on the construction some more

I hate making stair cases period. I especially dislike building this kind of stairs because it tends to collapse during construction before the glue dries. Good first attempt.

Been finding some time between life to work on my first house. So many small decisions to make

What color should the wood be? How to apply texure to the walls. Texture inside as well? And million other questions like that. Finally managed to construct the first floor of my first building. Im trying to find time to paint it this week so I can show you some progress.

Experimented with the small nicknacks that will litter the board. Painted a barrel and a wooden box so far to see what colors should go where.

Going to post some picks as soon as possible. Also wrote the first draft on the story of my Posessed warband that's tied to the Wheel. One of the possessed is the former wife of the wealthy merchant that tried to breath life into the run down neighbourhood. And she blames the inhabitants of her fall from grace and is out for vengance.

Kim signing out for now.