Barbarus Table: Part 1

G'day, Macca here. Today I am looking at some terrain. I have started work on a new table themed on Barbarus, the home planet of the Death Guard. I decided early on that it had to not just be a swamp, but that it had to echo the horrors of the Third Battle of Ypres in World War One, commonly known as Passchendaele (after the village near the heart of the battle). This battle is also rumoured to have been the one that provoked Tolkien to write the chapter on the dead marshes in the Lord of the Rings.

These haunting images, especially this last one, exemplify the very themes I am aiming for. Swamps, quagmires, damaged, rotting vegetation, horrible mists, the carnage of warfare. Why these as opposed to plain swamps? Well, it's a warzone, it'll have good sized craters and such. The table would also need to be workable for the game, so by limiting the pools of water, I can achieve this.

Of course, I have to be careful that these 'interesting humans' get nowhere near my table. Swamp People, get some teeth you weird inbred (well, likely inbred) hicks.

So, with these images at hand, I began to put together my plan. The basic outline called for a Games Workshop Realm of Battle board. This is because I needed the table to be easily transportable. Whilst I can make my own really swampy board, I wanted to limit the pools of murky water, so by picking terrain that I can move and place I will keep the table more playable and easier to actually game on.

Cue: The terrain.

To start with, I have a Games Workshop 'Battlescape'. I traded a bunch of old 40K Terminators to Cat for it, so it was a good bargain for me.

So, I got to looking at the kit, and needless to say, it's kinda half-assed. The rhino front right end is floating in mid air, and the interior of the open rhino is a hazard for model placement. I decided that I would thus fill it. On top of this, there are numerous marine and Cadian parts lying around on the terrain. I am led to believe that no Games Workshop product is complete without having either:

.....an Aquila...

.....or a bunch of skulls.

Please, if anyone at G-Dub is reading this, stop sculpting fucking dead Cadians onto everything. Please. PLEASE.

Now that my rant is sorted, I moved onto the Battlescape. I carefully used a de-grinder (re: hacked into the plastic like a serial killer into a bunch of skinny dipping teens at a haunted campsite). I then glued some card into the rhino as a foundation, before carefully sculpting on some texture using car body filler. In order to get a good texture, I merely pressed some large grit sandpaper into the wet putty.

The idea with the rhino is that it has filled with sediment and it's falling out the side hatch. In an ideal world, I would have got the kit brand-new with both the top hatches and side ramp not attached, but I have made do.

The other bit of kit I have on hand is some 'Moonscapes'. These are simple but effective swampy craters. I could use other brands, or the new 'Quake Canon' kit, but I just plain like the look of these.

The other kit I will be using is the Citadel Woods. I am not including pics of that here as they are using the same techniques I am using on these terrain bits, so why double up?

First up, I gave the pieces a coat of brown acrylic paint. This paint cost me $5 from an art store, and I mixed it with water and put it through my full size spray gun. This is my undercoat, and I applied 2 layers to get exactly what I wanted.

Next, I used a mix of brown, white and pale green, and I have something similar to Camo Green. I then did a coat that wasn't quite aimed at covering the entire surface of the terrain.

As you can see, at this stage, the terrain is fully base coated. From here, we will move inside and I will begin the mud effects. These use a combination of secret weapon powders, a small amount of plaster and a little PVA glue. I painted the surface and allowed them to dry.

You can see the difference between wet and dry (wet is much darker).

Next, I mix up some much lighter powder, then I apply it to the higher surfaces, when dry, this will be a lighter tone.

...like so. Here is the lighter mud. This simulates the dried mud, and is best used in a less is best fashion.

Next up, I airbrushed all my rock surfaces.

I also have airbrushed the rhino base colour.

Airbrush once more... this time I applied a dark green to wherever a pool of water will be. I also used it as a base coat for the trees.

I used a much lighter shade of green to add 'ripples' to my craters, as this is where the water will go later.

So there you have it, the basic colours and patterns for the craters. I will throw up a few pictures of the craters with some additional work tomorrow. Maybe.

~Macca