Hobbit Smials Update

Hey Reader!

Been a crazy several months for me, but wanted to do a quick Shire Board update, as we finished a few more pieces for it.

ForgeWorld has a hobbit hole (or smial) set out, and my wife was so cool and got it for me for my birthday! The set comes with two windows and two chimneys, but the most interesting thing is the double-sided door/entryway:

So I decided to try my hand at cutting the double-sided entryway into two usable entryways, starting with a guiding line that would miss the inset details on either side, and then shaving down: 

And let me tell you, it was really hard because of how the resin piece is designed, but I made it through! Not super pretty, but it will do the job. And the back will be up against the polystyrene, so who cares what the back looks like, :P

So, with our ForgeWorld pieces ready, it was time to cut some polystyrene!

Step 1: Cutting the Base Pieces

So to get started, we are going to cut our 2' x 2' piece of polystyrene into four 1' x 1' squares, as we will be using half of these for the "tops" of the hills and the other half for the bases/bottoms of the hills. When cut, it will look like this:

I use a $5 or less bread knife because 1) I like how it handles, and 2) I don't care if it blunts.

Once we have our pieces set, I measure off how far in I want the hill. The general rule is 3" deep for every 1" up (which is the height of the polystyrene) to insure that models won't tumble down the hill when set on it. So since we want this to be a terrain piece that people can walk on, we'll set the starting line 6" in, leaving us with half the base for a yard, orchard, etc.

We cut the top piece first, and it looks like this:

And then we cut the lower side, shaving out a space for the yard, and then sloping the side to lead up to the second "level" of the hill:

And then we line up the top section just to make sure it works:

This gives us everything we need for our first smial.

For the second, I decided to do it as a farmer's house (maybe Farmer Maggot's farm?) and wanted more room for crops, so I went with a smial off the corner of the base instead of all the way across it. We measure off the top section, showing us what the base and "second story" will look like:

We cut out the top section, and measure it up against the lower section to make sure they measure up:

Then we shave it back to make it more like a slope - this is trickier, as it is going to slope more rapidly than the first one. The trick is to shave from the center of the hill and work your way down. An in progress shot:

And the final shot, after we stick the pieces together, with the pieces next to it to give an idea of what it might look like:

And with that, it's time to do some gluing and spackling!

Step 2: Shaving, Spackling, and Sanding

First things first, we're going to get an idea of where we want everything to go - this will then guide our shaving/shaping of the hill, and then the spackling and sanding process. So when all is said and done, we'll plan on it looking something like this:

Now naturally this is blocky, and doesn't look like a hill. So we'll taper the sides of the hill to make it look more natural. This will likely result in the moving of the window and the chimney, but that's fine. We expected that.

So we taper it by cutting into the polystyrene, and then spackle over it, giving us this look:

And then we glue the bits on based on where the angles work best, and sand it down:

And after we glue the pieces on, it's ready for painting!

For the second smial, spackling takes a lot less time as more of it is just the flat surface of the yard. Pretty straightforward, and much more rounded as a hill (which is fine, as this will likely be the corner of the board when all is said and done):

We then sand down the hill and glue the other pieces to it, but instead of just sanding down the yard we are going to also use the corner of the spackle knife to make lines in the spackling for old furrows, like this:

Since we're making this farm as if crops have already been harvested we don't actually want raised furrows (as the farmer has trodden the field to harvest it), but we do want clear lines to serve as visual aids to the players as to what was there, so this furrow system works. Alternatively, if you want to show that planting has happened, you can make indentations while the spackle is still wet to make wide furrows. Lots of options.

And now comes the fun part - bringing our smials to life.

Step 3: Painting and Flocking

This part always takes the longest for me. To get the first smial started, I began by base painting the yard, and adding in a pathway using sawdust that I had on-hand. I used to work at a construction site and just picked up the sawdust come the end of the day, but you can also get this for cheap by going to your local hardware store (here in the States I go to Home Depot but I'm sure most stores will have this option), grab a $1 piece of wood, and they typically allow you to cut it there with their tools to the size you want. I cut it up several times into smaller pieces, grab the sawdust and put it into a bag (which you brought with you in your pocket just for this purpose), and buy my piece of wood (which now fits easily in my car, as it's been cut up into several small pieces while also providing me with my sawdust). Super simple, and great way to get a resource for house thatching, walks, remnants of chaff in fields - all kinds of things.

The result - a cool little path to the house that's different from the texture of the yard:

You will also notice a little chopping block - it's a Warhammer Fantasy piece from the Bretonnia line (which I also play), but the scale for this one actually works okay for hobbits, as it's much akin to the thickness and length of a cudgel, so it works as a two-handed axe used for cutting wood:

Behold: a hatchet from a Bretonnian is a two-handed woodsplitter for a hobbit

I then decided on a cherry blossom orchard (to add some color), PVCed the grass, threw down a random splinter of wood from my wood piece as a log for sitting on, and behold - a hobbit smial ready for the board!

I went with a really bright blue for the door, because I knew the wash (I'm an Agrax Earthshade guy) would darken it a bit, but I wanted to preserve that bright hobbit look, so I went with an intentionally lighter color before applying the wash. The cherry blossom trees were added by simply taking a drill bit (see above), twisting it into the base with my hand (don't use a drill), and then sticking them straight in, so I could interchange them with other trees of the same size base in the future if desired (especially if you want to theme the board for a specific time of year).

For the second smial things were a little more involved. I started by base painting it as usual, and then broke the piece up into four sections: the hill, the front of the house, the walk, and the fields. The hill and walk were the same as the last: PVC and flocking for the hill, PVC and sawdust for the walk, and drilling a hole to secure a tree. Since we did the furrows when laying the spackle, we base coat the furrows, and then sprinkle some sawdust in small patches on the field to look like chaff and stalks that were scythed but not collected:

The result: a very different hobbit smial! You probably won't see as many people fighting on it, but it's got a lot of character and is very usable as terrain (the issue with a number of farm plots: you can't really put guys on them).

Conclusion

I've been building hobbit smials since almost as soon as I jumped into the hobby, and they've changed a lot over the years. In the shot below, you can see my first attempt on the far left years ago, and then Phase 2 in the center from a few years ago, and now we're on Phase 3 on the right:

I'm really loving where this is going, and how more realistic and usable the terrain is becoming. Looking forward to seeing where we are at in five more years, :)

Hope you've enjoyed this! If you haven't gotten the ForgeWorld bits yet you really should: they did a really good job on detailing these, and I'm very pleased with them. Highly recommend.

Watching the stars,

Centaur

"(Your teacher) is a human...and is therefore blinkered and fettered by the limitations of your kind." ~ Firenze, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix