The World Of Twilight

(http://lh5.ggpht.com/_RRKBhA-2I4w/TQ1O-_E4w2I/AAAAAAAADNM/kZ6p_JTGqnk/s800/layout2.jpg)

How many times, talking daily, do people note your remarkable resemblance to God?

AWESOME work.  :D

Mmm... very nice  ;D

its not good sucking up, I already decided NOT to buy you a christmas present this year

(but thank you for the compliment - however turning it from a CAD file into a real thing you can touch, break and move figures on for say, near the end of April, is the difficult bit!)

Remember, it's a secret - don't tell anyone!

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RRKBhA-2I4w/TQ5gKftoeHI/AAAAAAAADNU/75ZqZBXYmq0/s640/wip01.jpg)

:o

Looks incredible already. Don't follow the cad drawing too accurately though, because in real life lines aren't straight ;)

Wow, that is going to be amazing.

That should look kinda stunning! I need to make sure it has plenty of occupants...

Yep, that

On both counts

Will look awesome when finished.

Well, the models are all laser cut styrene kits and the project is to show off what you could do with the kits so there are bound to be straight bits there, the hard edges on the terrain in the CAD drawing are just to get the levels right. The model will have smoothed terrain features.


Thank you for your confidence guys - If i was making a terrain board (which clearly i'm not - shhh its a secret) this is would be my first in 20 years. As usual i dont do things by halves, so anything could happen here!

Gotta admit I did expect at least a minimum of mentalness :D

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_RRKBhA-2I4w/TROGlrPHU0I/AAAAAAAADNg/d0X8nfabHd8/s400/IMG_0029.jpg)
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RRKBhA-2I4w/TROGmas8-vI/AAAAAAAADNk/vmRZELZCCXs/s400/IMG_0026.jpg)
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RRKBhA-2I4w/TROGm8-id0I/AAAAAAAADNo/hLwXCVb1n4g/s400/IMG_0028.jpg)

That's looking rather good! I like the way the buildings are merging into the hill - I like the image of lots of buildings growing out of hills and/or other buildings. That would seem very Fubarnii  :)

I think the cliff edge to the right of the large round building will have a cave/mine/underground building entrance modelled into it.

I also have 2-3 additional buildings that i want to put in place. Including a 6 storey tower at the back on the high point! I have a couple of scratch built buildings  that I will also be incorporated, including an engineers house and a couple od smal farm hovels that will sit outside the walls

all in all the final board will have

7 Tew-Fah wall sections
6 Benn-An watchtowers
2 Pryn-Gul towers
2 Haft-Oob Stables
4 scratch built buildings

will that lot do mr carcharoth?

i'm off now to do more carving and sanding and shaping and smoothing and stuff...

There is one question I have yet to resolve.  How to assemble, store and transport this thing!  I dislike sectional boards as the edges are always so visible so i preferred to glue this all together into a 6x4 or 8x4 complete board. I guess to do that i should glue the foam to a sheet of 6mm MDF or something similar? I'm then paranoid about the edges being damaged... especially as i will need to move it about the country. Should I surround the outside in a box structure of ply or MDF or something? How will i then transport it? I can probably borrow a van in which it will travel and the buildings will be held in place by magnets so I am not too worried about them getting damaged but the other end of the board is likely to be wooded and the trees will be a nightmare to transport. I'm also worried about stuff falling on the board and damaging the foam. My natural reaction to this is to make a wooden box with handles that completely surrounds the board?  Those of you that transport large terrain boards regularly... what do you do - advice please?

Any more pics to share?

I'm not sure many people tend to have the problem of regularly transporting large terrain boards! I've always had to resort to breaking boards down beyond a certain size - the circular demo board I have was scaled so that it'll fit in the back of a reasonably sized car in one piece... How's the boxing solution coming along? Sounds like you've got a good plan there, and i think a neat frame to a board can make it look much better than just having plain edges.

no more pics yet... hopefully some tomorrow

I've had a nightmare getting more of the loft insulation boards I have been using for this terrain - seems a little bit of cold in the UK and everyone wants to lag their lofts!!! grrr

Anyway finally solved that problem today.

I also spent this afternoon building the base and frame for the board - it doesn't look like much - a hardboard base with 18mm softwood frame under it. The 12mm MDF surround will come next. I'm trying to do this as a single board to avoid the 'gaps' you get in modular layouts. But I'm also trying hard to keep the weight down.  

Size of the board isn't a problem as I can access a large van for transport - it's getting it in and out of the van and into exhibition spaces and storage in my garage that is worrying me. I want enough rigidity to stop the board from twisting or bending and therefore cracking.

nothing to see here... (http://brandlin.blogspot.com/2011/01/super-secret-project-iv.html)

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RRKBhA-2I4w/TTHp358-YSI/AAAAAAAADOM/4ADKR_a19Zk/s640/wip05.jpg)

That's coming along very nicely.

work is progressing very slowly as i am away all week and only have weekends to do stuff in and the glue takes ages to thoroughly dry.

The name of the game next weekend will be plaster 'icing' and assembling the frame which will finally make it rigid!

Are the hills at the bottom end going to be smoothed out?

Yes. Fortress end will be craggy and rocky, the other end will be mostly smooth rolling hills  with occasional crags.

This is the look I am going for. More pics on my blog.
(http://instaar.colorado.edu/tundracam/img_gallery3/Niwot_TundraLab2.sized.jpg)

That's just the sort of thing I was imagining!
But without the people  :)

This weekend's progress

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_RRKBhA-2I4w/TUV2pTz5cPI/AAAAAAAADOk/_Tj7DBMLQ4Q/s640/wip07.jpg)

More info and pictures on my blog (address in signature)

Great to see the progress! It's at a not very glamourous stage at the moment, but it certainly is taking shape.

It is getting there

I have faith in Alan's lunacy that it will look good on the day

Relaunching Delays and Salute 2011 Issues (http://brandlin.blogspot.com/2011/02/relaunching-delays-and-salute-2011.html)

:(  >:(  :'(

At last some paint!

Firstly the surrounding MDF frame was given an undercoat and a couple of coats of flat black to act as a frame.  Then I masked out the edges and covered them in news paper to protect them. I also marked out where all the buildings are going and masked those areas out as well, so that when I peel the masking tape off there will be black location points for each of the buildings.

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-58a09nrY094/TVgUZPOWsYI/AAAAAAAADO0/OtALEoTWr24/s1600/wip08.jpg)
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iN_st1CF2rY/TVgUZ-qOvqI/AAAAAAAADO4/bgCjeEXW058/s1600/wip09.jpg)
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GCaoBqCjb0c/TVgUYdKsfuI/AAAAAAAADOw/_wrd8Yq_BCI/s1600/wip10.jpg)

Then I applied all the scree, and collapsed rubble at the bottom of the cliff edges and such like, and gave all the exposed rock a couple of spray coats of dark gray base.

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-j36vXuB7Jig/TVgUyTBmJNI/AAAAAAAADPA/jhrQVcWrlMA/s1600/wip11.jpg)
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_IMkyvC4SEc/TVgUzO5guHI/AAAAAAAADPE/7bvQlLT36sg/s1600/wip12.jpg)

Then a couple of layers of progressively lighter grey paint dry brushed onto the exposed rock faces and scree.

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HM1E8Le85sw/TVgUz0En7eI/AAAAAAAADPI/YA3BttwzPxo/s1600/wip13.jpg)
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-w1givmd5WlQ/TVgU0clf6YI/AAAAAAAADPM/80wIKWXMebE/s1600/wip14.jpg)

Finally a close up of the rock formation on which the fortifications sit.

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-w8J5z4_L0HE/TVgVyOjirSI/AAAAAAAADPY/PrZEauF-vnE/s1600/wip16.jpg)
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oglQMbSWeKU/TVgU1K-2QiI/AAAAAAAADPQ/52oT2Q-_eTc/s1600/wip15.jpg)

Lots more WIP shots and discussion on my blog (http://brandlin.blogspot.com/2011/02/super-secre-project-vii-paint.html)

that makes you more of a lune than me then!

Great progress! Must be satisfying to get some paint on it having taken such care on all the groundwork.
Whats the next step?

Looking really good.  Inspiring even.

:D Possibly

But great progress on the table

Yes, it is.

I'm away for the next couple of weekends so no progress now until early march!

But next step is scatter. I have a mix of browns for the roads (though i think they may be a little dark) and a muted green/brown for the wintery stubble grass/ground. That's applied with scenic cement and sealed with a spray. Then over that in selective areas I have a wintery static grass, and oocassional longer reeds.

I also have some white and lavender flowering clumps for odd and infrequent outbreaks of colour, and some natural lichen and pale/dead foliage to make some gorse type bushes.

I think the trees will be very limited to literally one or two to relect the rugged landscape (and make the build easier)

simple huh?!

How's the project progressing? Any more news from the world of Brandlin?

Spring is sprung the grass is ris, i wonder where the birdies is?

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-hW8lb1pwMsE/TXN_7QSKQHI/AAAAAAAADPs/iCxdRN683fg/s1600/wip18.jpg)

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-B9wY26d7p0M/TXN_6q9NcoI/AAAAAAAADPo/N9CnqwdbXjA/s1600/wip19.jpg)

This is just the first coat of flock, so its a little thin - it'll get another coat of flock all over today, and then I'll focus on getting more texture. 

Also the camera is making this looka  alittle more yellow and vibrant than the muted colour it really is..

Very good! Definitely looks like we should have a good looking table for Salute.  ;D
Hopefully everything goes to plan with the buildings as well!

What's the plan for the roads? Are they going to be very heavily worn, or are they going to have some greenery over them as well?

do you ever listen? ;)

roads will be flocked in a dark brown muddy colour. the main road heading away from the stockade will be all mud, the other will be a little less worn with some greenery.

I'm still running out of time on the buildings though! :(

Whut now?

I do listen, its just easier to put questions in context once there are piccies  :P

Time is definitely passing quickly!

There...


... are you happy now Mr nag-nag-nag??? huh are ya?

A couple of areas are a little pale but thats because the glue isn't fully dry the roads for instance will be a shade or two darker...

As always, a couple more pictures on my blog ... http://brandlin.blogspot.com/ (http://brandlin.blogspot.com/)

Oh yes, i'm happy  ;D
Must admit the colour of the grass on the previous one left me slightly nervous, but that's looking fantastic now  :)

This is looking fantastic.

Can't wait to see what the other sections going to look like.

Ooh look at that, only a month to Salute

 ;D

Not quite yet...

You know i was thinking the other night that for next year I should make another one the same size that goes next to it... but the mdf surround is a problem, and we wouldn't be able to reach into the middle of an 8 foot square board.

Oh, and frankly i've had enough of this now and want it done!

Oooool... dangerous!

Nice looking board tho

Nearly there!

What you could do is have a "bank" on either side, and have two boards connected by a bridge. Or have a double-size board with a central lake that had a hole someone could stand in to move troops...

Or raise the whole thing up and build a complex tunnel system beneath... There's still a month to go - plenty of time.

I was talking about next year. Just think I should clarify before a certain angry and frustrated explosives engineer and board designer decides that this particular Jenta has annoyed him a little too much.  :P

Nah, I'm not the angry type.

Mike's suggestion is something we seriously discussed and something I would like to do one day.

That and a vertical board - a ramshackle stair and walkway apparatus up a 6 foot cliff with entrances into cave systems and mines, complete with hoists and pulleys and cranes.

Maybe next year.

Just maybe. 

Maybe.

well i spent the weekend putting together 150 styrene kits - thats over 250 sheets of laser cut styrene all hand bagged along with all the 4mm magnets, tiny pieces of balcony rail all hand cut from 1.3mm diameter styrene rod etc

and even then i ran out of magnets and rod.

Oh, and I managed to put together 3 wall sections!

So that's just 2 towers, 2 wall sections, 3 bridges and 4 watchtowers to build and paint in the next 3 weeks! Plus a case to make for the board, retouch the stone paintwork, assemble and paint around 30 fubarnii and beasts, and design and print the display signs for the display ...

piece of piss!

i was feeling ok with this after the board came together - now i'm not so sure!

progress...

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BGANKEtPVlY/TZ725SXaiHI/AAAAAAAADRE/Cqac4C0ri1M/s1600/wip26.jpg)

More on blog ... (http://brandlin.blogspot.com/2011/04/super-secret-project-xii-so-near-and.html)

Looking good! Reckon you'll manage to finish it on time?

That is definitely good progress! Can't wait to see it finished  :)

I don't do failing.

This board is looking really cool. I'm jealous I'm not going to be seeing it in person.

Is that a river flowing under the bridge or a road?

HN

That's a road - we'll be having a large trade caravan heading towards the walls (and that gate in particular) with a bunch of rather unfriendly Devanu chasing them!

Hopefully we'll have enough militia/civilians to 'man' the walls and make the whole place look a bit more occupied.

Now, that's the spirit  :)

Only if I could send some coffee to you to get you through it, but it would probably get there after Salute.

Gate?

Oh BOLLOCKS

I knew there was something in the back of my head that I hadn't made yet!

Its a dirt road leading along the board until it meets the entrance to the fortifications which are carved into the rock, so it transitions between dirt and the rises up the stone slope, right in front of the manned battlements where the glorious fubarnii will be able to rain down death (and probably buckets of poo) onto the attacking Delgon scum and their ludicrously infeasible striders....

I posted about that on the FoD earlier but I haven;t been back there yet so I don't know if you saw it, but basically the transition is a bit harsh. I am not convinced that there even needs to be a transition at all since the land is similar on the hills as it in on the plain so the road could be the same, but even if it is not then the the transition should be a lot smoother

Having said that I like the way this is heading

Grand work so far

and i replied on the FOD too! :)

Worry not. We really don't need a gate for the demo game.

As the wonderful Strider legions would kick it down anyway.

And the Devanu would just climb over it...

Depends if it had a gatehouse. I'm sure a sufficiently smart Fubarnii could build something pretty darn hard for a Devanu to climb.

There will never be a striders on MY board :p

If I ignore the fact that they dont exist, my fubarnii could take whole legions of them out using only buckets full of marbles, piles of logs rolling down hill, and disguised as koala bears.

I think I may have finished...

Lighting isn't the best - will get some better ones taken when I have the time.

(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_RRKBhA-2I4w/TaGwLPUXjPI/AAAAAAAADRc/CSsusnkItno/wip36.jpg)

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_RRKBhA-2I4w/TaGwLaVkCGI/AAAAAAAADRk/5HJa7qpLwJ4/s576/wip34.jpg)

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_RRKBhA-2I4w/TaGwLsXfa2I/AAAAAAAADRs/nq-0UqsVv1U/s576/wip35.jpg)

(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_RRKBhA-2I4w/TaGwLxOnHaI/AAAAAAAADR0/02y3nAY5kak/s576/wip33.jpg)

(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_RRKBhA-2I4w/TaGwhmlIjGI/AAAAAAAADSA/-SWBxey8FYU/wip32.jpg)

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_RRKBhA-2I4w/TaGwipWjt-I/AAAAAAAADSE/mqFijh-TyW0/s640/wip27.jpg)

(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_RRKBhA-2I4w/TaGwjsjCtzI/AAAAAAAADSI/m72loyELzlI/s720/wip28.jpg)

(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_RRKBhA-2I4w/TaGwkrounQI/AAAAAAAADSM/sfArJty-EEM/s720/wip29.jpg)

(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_RRKBhA-2I4w/TaGwlt4ZCdI/AAAAAAAADSQ/DPYJLT8A67k/s720/wip30.jpg)

(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_RRKBhA-2I4w/TaGwmosomPI/AAAAAAAADSU/inuPQBtpwRg/s720/wip31.jpg)

The observant amongst you will notice that with all the delays I haven't been able to do the hand painted wood grain yet.

Now All I have to do is get the thing there!

See you all at Salute!

Awesome. Congratulations. Fantastic job. I can't wait to see it in the flesh.

I have no idea what you will do with it after Salute though.

The board looks great and very detailed. I'm looking forward to seeing pics of it in action at Salute.

HN

Very nice indeed! I'm sure it'll be a pleasure to see the game on it, and it's bound to attract quite a few looks too.

Looking forward to playing on it  :)

You're Barred!

has anyone seen what boards and games got awards @ salute?

No, not yet, do you know yet who won the best board etc???

Also I am sooo glad that I saw this board in person, you guy's have now got me hooked on this game and the mini's :P
I'm not complaining tho :D

Han.

i thought my hard sell had scared you off!

i've seen the painting competition winners but not the boards... doubt i won anything but nice to know what the competition is...

ah

http://slwarlords.blogspot.com/2011/04/salute-2011-games-prizes.html

well we didn't win...

shame i'm never doing this again or i might be tempted to win something next time!

Hard lines mate. It does look awesome, unfortunately others do too. Noticed on one of the Salute galleries (facebook maybe) the had yours down as some sort of Japanese fort siege lol.
I know Frothers Tron game won something.

yeah i've had to correct a couple of people about the captions. But i've also been watching links to the site and pictures pop up all over the place too- which is neat and reassuring.

places like this - http://www.theindependentcharacters.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1430

the standard of games and terrain was (from the limited amount i saw) pretty high. And whilst i can probably make stuff that well i think we let ourselves down a bit on the presentation/signage and a lot of the little details.

However though i have to remember that this is a board whose sole purpose is to show off the buildings and mike's models...

That's some good feedback on that forum!

The next step up on the scenery would be to fully integrate the buildings into the board (which would be a pain, but would make them look more natural) and to populate the interior of the town more fully (guards on the walls, market stands and street furniture inside.
It would be tricky to win though - it's never going to be big enough to really compete with the biggest demo tables, and with demoing a game it's not innovatiove enough to win the small game prizes.

The table does the job it was designed for though in a very impressive fashion  ;D

I would love to do a multi-tiered subterranian table one of these years - a much smaller footprint (maybe the size of the round table), but with tunnels feeding in and around it and being almost as tall as it is wide... that would be cool.

Your comment suddenly reminded me of this (http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2009/4/18/28290_md-Copyright%20Games%20Workshop,%20Necromunda.jpg) for some reason! I remember reading a while back from folks who made their own that it was pretty hard to play on... Personally I'd be terrified of the table being knocked and the figures falling off!  :o

Still, it I reckon could be more playable if done as "layers" laid next to each other, and when models move to a tunnel entrance they can move up or down to the connecting (and let you place the figs on the next board as appropriate). Might not have the same visual impact tho.

ah we (I) had a more impressive cantilevered design in mind for moving multiple levels...

but mike doesn't believe me.

or maybe the problem is that he does?

Heh, if you could pull that off, I'd love to see the result!  ;D

Were you thinking something more like this (http://www.chess-theory.com/image4/startrek_chess.jpg) perhaps?

Ha ha ha no you hadn't at all :P
I'd actually say about 98% of my money was spent at the Twilight stall this year, got myself the small starter box, the expansion book, trader caravan's and the Delgon advance party, with the 10% discount and 3 free pack's of mini's! WOOO!!! :D
I've put most of it together now, just waiting for my boyfriend to pin the spears on a few of them :P

It's such a shame the board didn't win anything, but it looked awesome! As I mentioned I'm soooo glad that I saw it, will we be seeing it make another appearance at any other shows???
Next year I'll prob's be getting anything I don't have and some of the awesome scenery packs, oooh and some pringle's of course  ;)
Can't forget them!

Han.

no need to wait for next year ... http://brandlin.blogspot.com/p/store.html 

Neither really. I have a vision in my head, but I'm sure it wouldn't work. It would have a large core with various gaming areas hollowed out from different angles, then short tunnels linking them so models could move through, or up and around. Maybe I should try a 1/10th scale experiment...

It's nice to look back and remember how awesome this table was! The only thing it was lacking was more city life behind the walls. If any other super secret projects were to come into being I must make time to do more fubarni eye view photographs.