Lustrian Themed Gaming Board!

[A_Reptile_Dysfunction]

So as the title may suggest I am planning on creating a Lustrian themed gaming table and using this thread to record my progress and maybe get some input by others who have done this kind of thing in the past.

This is one aspect of the hobby I’ve never delved into but now is a good time for me to dip my toe, admittedly into a large pool!

Phase 1 - Planning

I’d like to make it a modular board consisting of 6 2x2 ft sections that can be rearranged to create some variance by switching them up. So far I have come up with the following ideas for features but welcome any additional ones:

• Aztec/Mayan themed pyramid 17”x17”. Staircase on two of the sides and a hallway running from side to side on the other. Flaming torches and maybe even a few temple guard painted up as guardian statues.
• Temple ruins. Using various spare parts of kits I have in bits box to ‘lizardify’ it up
• A river/stream that begins and finishes at the centre of its section. I’ve thought it out and one straight and two right angles should offer the most combinations
• Spawning pool, standard.
• A stairway and temple wall with a celestial gateway/portal from which the Slaan summons forth his armies. Thinking something similar to the Engine of the Gods only larger
• Various jungle trees/plants scattered around as mainly decoration with a single dedicated area to be counted as “cover”.

 

[Nazqua]

Sounds awesome!

 

[Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl]

I'd advise you have a look at @Warden's stuff over on his blog - his Lizardman scenery is truly inspiring:
http://www.lustria-online.com/threads/the-jade-host-mayan-lizardmen.17603/page-31#post-289692

 

[A_Reptile_Dysfunction]

Thanks for the tip. That’s some seriously good looking terrain and a fantastic army with tonnes of character and unique conversions!

I’ll try do some basic concept designs tomorrow and upload the pics to give people a better idea of what’s in my head.

 

[A_Reptile_Dysfunction]

Okay, when I said basic designs, I meant it!



Obviously (I hope) the blue line is the water feature. This will only be shallow and I’ll use 2 part epoxy resin with a top layer of water effects.
Bridges made from lollipop sticks and gardening cord.

The bright green star shapes will be single jungle plants/trees scattered as mainly decoration with the large block being a dedicated feature.

Temple, ruins, spawning pool are all pretty self explanatory.

The green base is going to be mainly various flocks and the tan coloured parts of the base will be sand/rubble and in some areas a thin layer of modelling putty rolled with the Aztec rolling pin from green stuff world.

Not 100% sure what I will do for the stargate/celestial portal just yet but I’m liking how the idea is coming together.

Next step, materials!

 

[Warden]

Wow this is great! I like your plans and wholly support this project.

I had a lot of fun with terrain building, I definitely wasn't able to do it all at once though. For me I did it slowly over time, taking breaks between mini painting to do terrain, and then going back to it. I still have a big back log of terrain projects I am working on.

Working on my large burial mound/temple was fun, definitely do some good measurements beforehand. I would also recommend making your stuff "modular" so you can move it around and make each battle different if you want. I did this with my river tiles and have lots of options now for different battle/skirmish/mordheim configurations.

Also working my own modular terrain board!

 

[A_Reptile_Dysfunction]

Wow this is great! I like your plans and wholly support this project.

I had a lot of fun with terrain building, I definitely wasn't able to do it all at once though. For me I did it slowly over time, taking breaks between mini painting to do terrain, and then going back to it. I still have a big back log of terrain projects I am working on.

Working on my large burial mound/temple was fun, definitely do some good measurements beforehand. I would also recommend making your stuff "modular" so you can move it around and make each battle different if you want. I did this with my river tiles and have lots of options now for different battle/skirmish/mordheim configurations.

Also working my own modular terrain board!

Thanks! Yeah I can foresee it taking some effort. Although I've never done a board before, or even built terrain for that matter, I tend to get healthily obsessive with certain projects! Haha.

That’s a great suggestion and I do plan on having the bigger pieces on their own base. The stream however is like as part of the board. But with 2 corners and a straight piece you can come up with a number of configurations.

I have done some calculations for the temple and it’s 9 layers thick which if I can get some 1” thick styrofoam would make it 17” square and 9” tall. Maybe a little taller if I decorate the top platform.
That leaves a 3.5 inch perimeter around the edge which should fit snuggly on a 24”x24” tile.

Edit: just taken a look at your ruining temple! That’s brilliant, I didn’t think of hollowing out the centre and having the top section be removable. Great idea!

 

[A_Reptile_Dysfunction]

More basic drawings.


Temple to consist of 9 layers total decreasing by 1” per increment. Each of the first 8 layers to be 1” thick styrene sheet with the final one a little higher once I’ve decided what to do with it.

Layer 1 - 17x17”
Layer 2 - 15x15”
Layer 3 - 13x13”
Layer 4 - 11x11”
Layer 5 - 9x9”
Layer 6 - 7x7”
Layer 7 - 5x5”
Layer 8 - 3x3”
Layer 9 - TBD

The orange spots donate where I will place torches (made from cocktail sticks and cotton wool).

The grey boxes donate where I plan to put some temple guard painted as statues.

The black areas are stairs on the North & South sides and a passageway on the East & West sides.

I’ve calculated that I can cut each layer from a 1” thick 3x3 ft sheet of styrene with enough left over to use for the ruins and spawning pool. Potentially even more if I take inspiration from @Warden and hollow out the centre of the temple.

 

[Warden]

The design looks good to me! Enough space on each step that you could put a lizardman-sized model on each rung.

 

[A_Reptile_Dysfunction]

So finally got to work and went a purchased some MDF board and some styrene sheets! Cut them into 6 2x2’ tiles. I also bought some decorators caulk which is what I will be using to bond the styrene to the MDF base. My next stage will consist of marking out the stream on the 3 tiles it will feature. Because I’ve decided to do this modular, and with a stream I need the measurements of the streams cross section to be perfectly uniform throughout.



With the spare styrene I made the basic shape of what will be the mesoamerican pyramid! I’ve decided I will be hollowing it out which will provide a 9x9” space in the middle. It will be accessible through the walkway and the top layers will be removable (as one piece) from the 4th layer. There is still offcuts of styrene left which I will use as my ruins and maybe start the spawning pool.

 

[A_Reptile_Dysfunction]

So just a quick progression update!

Used some decorators caulk to stick the styrene tiles to the MDF tiles.


Next I started to cut out the area for my water feature . I did this with a friend’s hot wire cutter and it was super easy and super satisfying as it’s the first time I’d used one! The stream is about 4” wide but I will be marrying up each board at a later stage to ensure that each tile can be placed against any of the others in a modular fashion.


Next I’ve started to fill the river bed with a mixture of paper pulp, casting plaster and water to make a substance similar to “papier-mâché” but on steroids. I’ve used it to round out and shape the river bed as well as give it a bit of texture, I’ve added in a few rocks which will serve as decoration once painted.



I left an inch or so at the ends of each river where the boards will meet as I will have to be precise to ensure that the sections marry up nicely. Next step will be to finish the other two tiles with river sections before lining them up and finishing the last inch of each.

Then I will coat the naked styrene in PVA glue to toughen I up each of the six tiles and also the pyramid. Once this coat has tried the board will be ready for its first coat of paint! Exciting times ahead!

 

[Imrahil]

Nice progress!!
It is coming together fine

Keep up the good work

Gr, Imrahil

 

[Crowsfoot]

Coming along nicely

 

[Warden]

That does look great! Glad to see how modular it is, so many options!

 

[A_Reptile_Dysfunction]

Another update. Been busy with birthdays and work but here’s what I’ve managed to get done in between.

I have finished moulding the river with modelling compound. To make sure it’s level where it meets I did them one at a time and butted them up against each other before carefully cutting apart with a craft knife.




Next stage for these is getting hold of some wood to use as a border. I want this to be as perfect as I can get so the boards line up crisply no matter what configuration they’re in. After that it’s a case of PVA and tillers grout before giving a coat of paint.

In the mean time I made a start on my ruins scatter terrain.



I used some offcuts from the river and some foam core sheet and built up with some modelling compound before adding in some Lustrian decorations!





Once dried I covered the whole thing in PVA before dusting a layer of tilers grout over to give it some texture. I then sprayed I mist of isopropyl followed by a mist of 50/50 water to PVA mix to seal it all together. Unfortunately I was far too eager and didn’t take any pictures at this stage before painting the whole damn thing up!



Once I’d painted it I superglued some jungle themed aquarium plants in places to give it some contrast. I still need to finish some of the detail but I am happy with how my first piece turned out.

Here’s some of my boys enjoying their new habitat!

 

[Scalenex]

I don't have much in terms of finished terrain, but I did create two random generators for Lustrian themed terrain that I use proxies for. Intended for 8th edition.

Lustria/Southlands
2-Inpentrable Jungle (raised impassable feature)
3-Wizard Tower or Acropolis of Heroes
4-Lake (1-3 Ordinary, 4 Boiling Flood, 5 Necrotic Ooze, 6 “River” of Light)
5-Building or Ruin
6-Mysterious Forest (1-2 Venom Thicket, 3 Abyssal Wood, 5 Fungus Forest, 5-6 Wildwood)
7-Forest
8-Hill (1-4 ordinary, 5-6 Scree Slope)
9-River (1-4 ordinary, 5 Raging Torrent, 6 River of Light)
10-Mysterious Marsh (1-3 ordinary, 4 Khemrian Quicksand, 5 Earthblood Mere, 6 Mist-wreathed Swamp)
11-Obstacle (1-3 Fence, 4-5 Wall, 6 Blazing Barricade)
12-Sinister Structure (1-2 Sinister Statue, 3-4 Banestone, 5-6 Charnel Pit)

Ruined Lizardmen Temple City
2-Ordinary Hill
3-Mysterious Lake (1-3 Ordinary, 4 Boiling Flood, 5 Necrotic Ooze, 6 “River” of Light)
4-Steadfast Sanctum (1-3 Acropolis of Heroes, 4-6 Wizard Tower)
5-Mysterious Marsh (1 ordinary, 2-3 Khemrian Quicksand, 4 Earthblood Mere, 5-6 Mist-wreathed Swamp)
6-Obstacle (1-4 Wall, 5 Blessed Bulwark, 6 Blazing Barricade)
7-Building or Ruin
8-Mysterious Forest (1-2 Ordinary, 3 Venom Thicket, 4 Abyssal Wood, 5 Blood Forest, 6 Wildwood)
9-Mysterious River (1-4 ordinary, 5 Raging Torrent, 6 River of Light)
10-Magical Mystery (1-2 Magic Circle, 3-5 Arcane Ruins, 6 Wyrding Well)
11-Sinister Structure (1-2 Charnel Pit, 3-4 Haunted “Mansion”, Sinister Statue 5-6)
12-Makeshift Settlement (d3 buildings and d3 fences)

 

[A_Reptile_Dysfunction]

So I got hold of some strip wood and added a border to each tile. I used some filler to smooth over the gaps between the styrene and the wood. This left only the edges where the river sections meet to redo with modelling compound until flush with the border.





Next step was to paint each tile with a layer of PVA before covering them in a layer of tilers grout. While this was still wet I sprayed on a layer of PVA/water mixed at 50/50 and then again with a spray of isopropanol. I’m am told that this causes some kind of reaction which seals it all together and speeds up drying time.

Once dry they looked like the two tiles on the left and I used some paint to give it a base layer of colour before I dry brush it with various greens.



Once I’ve added he paint I can add this variety of flocks and trees to help add some variation and ‘jungleiness’ to the board.

 

[Warden]

Once I’ve added he paint I can add this variety of flocks and trees to help add some variation and ‘jungleiness’ to the board.

I like where this is going!