Let It Snow: Battle Board Revisited

So, we're starting "Hobbit month," where I'm going to be focusing on my Dwarf and Goblin armies (and the battle board) in preparation for the new movies. I'm not going to have "Goblin Town" in the titles of the subsequent posts, as I'm going for a Dwarf hold, not a Goblin slum. The work on the board is coming along nicely, as you will be able to see in the pictures below.

The board has been mostly covered in white wall spackle (this 4'x4' panel took up about half of the spackle paste that I had), which will not only protect the styrofoam underneath from the primer to be added later in the month, but also gives the floor an uneven texture. Most of it is smoothed out, but there are some rough patches here and there. You'll also notice that the coating of spackle has left some parts of the styrofoam exposed...this is to get some small depressions from the primer that will later be filled with water effects (we'll see how that turns out).

Not all of the board, though, has been covered in styrofoam. I saw the effect of spray-on primer on a small styrofoam block a few weeks ago, and am hoping that the two trench portions of the map will depress but not wholly disappear. The next update will show the results, once they've gotten everything else covered adequately.

I glued down the town centers, making those portions of the board "civilized" by the terrain. Alternatively, if I place my battle mat on the board, there will be permanent hills/elevated ground. Generally, though, I don't plan on having this covered.

Next week, I hope to have the board primed and I'll show you some of the work done on the units and modular terrain. As a spoiler, I've also been working on some carts and shops for the civilized sections. These can be used as barriers on the town centers, adding some mobile terrain and a good break-up to the monotony. In the unit-department, Thorin's Company (as this is Hobbit month) has finally gotten the rocks on their bases painted. Some of the units who got their names on their bases last time have had them redone (want these to look nice), and a few got some painting fixes done after the bases were painted. A few small modifications have been made to Bifur and Oin, after seeing these characters in the movie (despite their small roles). You'll also see a modification of Ori, who will now be firing a slingshot, instead of looking like he's shooting his throwing axe (yeah, I may or may not have gotten a lot of comments on that conversion). All this and more (like the current look of Groblog) will be yours next week. Until then, happy hobbying and a joyous new year!