Diesel DM

After being introduced to Thunderdome at CaptainCon 2015, I knew we needed a board for our local store.  I set upon it immediately to get it done before our Reckoning event.

Woodworking Complete

The boards we had seen were 36″ diameter circles and designed for up to 8 players.  In order to provide a nice wood border around the outside I decided to go with an octagon.  The octagon I built has a maximum diameter of 36″ which means the flat edges are 33″ apart.  Each interior edge is 13 3/4″, with 22.5-degree angles cut on each end to form a regular octagon.  The bottom is made of hardboard and the edges are strips of a 2×4 I ripped down to 3/8″.  This keeps the board lightweight but sturdy.  I routed grooves into each edge piece that housed the hardboard.  Wood glue in the grooves and the angled edges holds the board together.  For some additional strength I also put two nails in each corner.

To ramp or not to ramp

I cut the center octagon out of 1″ insulation foam, but it was too thick to be practical so I initially considered having eight ramps ascend to the platform, but that really cut down on actual useful space, so I scrapped that plan.  Instead I cut the center octagon into four strips so I could then use the hot-wire foam cutter to trim the thickness to about 3/8″.  I then cut the block pattern into the foam.

Sand/sawdust mixture applied

When discussing the design we stumbled on the idea of a swampy Orgoth ruin. For my Trollbloods army I base them using a mixture of sawdust, sand and glue, which provides a lumpy swamp like appearance.  After using Liquid Nails to attach the center octagon, I also glued down a trench wall built out of balsa wood.  Next I mixed up several large batches of the sand/sawdust mixture and  applied it to the board with a 3″ putty knife keeping it lumpy and swamp-like.  I then scraped out an area for a pond and pressed in a couple wooden crates.

For the center tower I used the basics from the article in NQ #22.  The tower is made of foam-core skim-coated with spackle.  This gives is a great old stone look, but makes it very fragile. And sharp impact with break off parts of the spackle coating.  So if you’re looking for something durable to leave at the game store, swap the tower out for something else.  The rest of the board is very tough.  The sand/sawdust mixture hardens like cement.

Add paint, water effects and flocking to taste

I used craft paints for the whole board.  P3 paint is awesome for miniatures, but way too expensive to do a whole board with.  I based the mud with a watered down brown. I then mixed some dark green, black and brown with some water and applied this dark color to the lower areas I wanted to look really wet.  I then dry brushed the whole area with a tan and a second dry brushing with a green.  The tower and center platform were painted a medium gray, and dry brushed with a couple lighter grays. I then used a watered down brown and green to apply some aging to the cracked areas.

Water effects, gloss coat and Pegasus Hobbies Crates

Next I added water effects. The pond of course was filled, but I also went around the board and filled low spots in the areas I had painted dark brown to represent stagnant pools throughout the area. After a couple of layers of water effects had dried I took gloss coat and heavily dry brushed it all over the darker brown areas to make them look wet.  This really helped tie in the puddles.

Sandbag wall

To help provide some survivability to the board I added a wall made from pre-cast Pegasus Hobbies sandbags.

Army Painter tufts and GF9 moss

I glued on a number of Army Painter tufts, both Swamp and Highland.  Generally nearly the edges of puddles, but a few scattered other places.  I also applied some green/red moss from GF9 to the crevices of the center platform and tower.  I considered some additional flocking in different areas, but I was happy with the overall look by this point.

Center octagon platform

The center platform gives a nice central battle area, while the tower helps block some line of sight on the board.  The tower is completely separate and could be left off if more killing area is required.

Center tower

Not as ornate or Orgothian as the NQ version, but I didn’t have the time or materials to produce silicone molds and cast a bunch of hand carved faces and spikes and things.  I did add some Army Painter Ivy to the top.

Can’t wait to thrown down 3 casters and battle it out in Thunderdome!