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After a lot of work and patience ... not to mention delays for surgery and rehab ... I present to you: The Old Way A diorama display base made from a cork mat (coaster, under plants, hot pad). If you followed the WIP then you know the story behind the piece but here's a revised summary ... "The Old Way … that road found in post-apocalyptic, fantasy societies that the current society has no clue how they made it. Once the road way in this piece was created by such builders that it lasted for millennia. At least until the water changed course and eroded the road bed and shifted the land. Now there are only small reminders of the once great society in a wondrous slice of creek bed." And a recap of what went into it ... The foundation are two cork rounds atop MDF. The land is made with more cork added to create the higher points. Ground red foam foliage surrounds a sculpted tree stump. A small pool of water sits atop the small hillock jutting into the creek. Flagstone pavers still remain clustered together for strength showing the shards of the Old Way. The creek bed is made from actual sand and the flora and moss in the water is more ground foam. Realistic Water covers the creek bed and pool of water. Now for photos ... Top views ... Close ups of the creek bed ... As always I appreciate any comments or suggestions and would be happy to answer any questions regarding the piece.

So I'm going to be making a diorama for a friend soon. I have a pretty solid idea of what I want to do but no idea how to go about it. I've never worked with cork before and am going to be using quite a bit of it. I want to pour water effects(?) into it but don't want the cork to soak it up. My questions are (photos to be added below for reference): How do I seal the cork so it won't absorb the resin water effects? Do I need to seal the wood I am basing it on as well? If so what is the best way to do that? What is the best glue to put the cork on the wood, sealed or not? ETA: How do I fix the small hairline cracks in the cork (not sure if they're visible in the picture)? Kind of related but what is the best glue for plastic to wood (I'm going to be putting the wood on top of a painted Tropicana lid)?

I thought I would start my own Frostgrave terrain thread, since I started on my second ruin this week, and don't see my self stopping anytime soon. And, I didn't want to keep posting links in David's excellent Frostgrave terrain thread found here, http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/65272-frostgrave-terrain/ , and detract from his efforts. For those that missed it, I already posted my first ruin here in the Frostgrave thread in the Fantasy sub-forum: http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/63635-frostgrave/?p=1252554 This week, I thought I'd take things to another level and try my hand at a two-story ruin... Two improvements I wanted to try this week were to add more debris on to the base; and to mount the building on a squared base to help it feel more like an urban building. The main structure is made from cork tiles, and the extra details are made with balsa and bass wood. IMG_5605 by cnjpalmer IMG_5606 by cnjpalmer

A while back I promised Frank Franksson (Matbar) that I would do a short WIP or tutorial on how I use cork to make rock bases. I figured since I was doing the work anyway, I would drag the rest of you kicking and screaming on a magical journey through the dark, and twisted recesses of my questionable creativity. There are many other resources out there for bases of this type, but I will do a quick WIP of my quick and dirty method. I frequently sit, and build bases while I'm watching Netflix on my PC. I will list all the materials I use, and break it down into sections in case anyone wants to build along with me. I will be using my phone for a camera since I am coming down with the crud again, and I don't feel like digging out my DSLR and tripod right now.

It's that time of year again, the High School Play where my wife, the English Teacher, handles costumes, props, hair and makeup. This year's play is an amusing comedy called ... And I was tasked with creating the badge. It started out as an oval of light weight wood from AC Moore or similar store; approximately, 4.5 in by 2.25 in. I printed a Star out on my computer to size and poked holes into the wood where I wanted the star on the oval. Then I marked the cuts I wanted on the edges to get the "shield" shape for the badge. Then I added cork pieces in the shape of the 5 points of the star from the middle to build the star. After hot gluing the pieces down I sanded a bevel into the shape. Then I skimmed the whole thing with DAS air-dry clay to bulk up the background and smooth the star over. Then sanded it down smooth and sealed it once it had cured. Then sanded down the seal with some fine grit and primed it white. From there I painted the background of the badge Reaper Scorched Metal and the star Reaper Honed Steel. Then to set off the star a bit, I pained just the inset top of the star with Vallejo Silver. Voila! I think it came out nice and should show well from the stage. The back just got a nice coating of a craft paint ... specifically Wrought Iron Black like I used to Prime the Marvel Golems. Of course, it got a heavy coat of Testors Dullcote to seal it all up. Seeing the play this Friday. The prop will likely get all of 10 seconds of visibility. LOL But it's all good practice. Enjoy!

HEY HO! I'm back ... sort of. Things are finally starting to wind down at work. I haven't had my new employee start yet (July 5th) but we're hitting the slow season. New work will continue to come in but the pile-on won't be there. So, while I have a couple of projects sitting on the shelves ... Thrym's WIP List ... I did receive my Bones 3 order and feel the need to replace the Reaper in Talisman with a much more WORTHY version. For those that don't recall or have never seen the Reaper in Talisman ... here's a version: Plain jane Reaper. Which is fine. BUT ... my poor fellow is just a little tipsy: I specifically tilted him on his new base but he's still listing quite to the side. So time for an upgrade! One of the issues I have with Bones in general is Weight. They need a little metal shot or something in the middle of them for weight. Anyway, I started resolving this by adding the weight to the base of the mini. But this is the REAPER of all the LANDS of TALISMAN! He needs something significant. So, i am showing him with a partial column behind him and will continue the bone pile he comes with around him using the skulls and pieces @ub3r_n3rd and i bought in on. Here's the start: The partial column is made from cork rounds I cut down to a particular slice and stacked with a support wire through to the bottom and super glue between each slice. I plan to soak the cork with some diluted white glue and then spray the whole thing with Dullcote to seal it. I think I will be adding the one of the shields from the various Bones weapons kits to the column. It's down to a toss up between: Of course, your first thought is ... duh, Grave. But, the second one is just as creepy as a piece of the column. Especially if you are a Doctor Who fan these days. With the skulls and bones littering the ground, I think the Virtue one might be the better route. But ... Grave. Duh! Hit me with your thoughts! Since the Lord of Death is standing on a tilted grave stone, I will add at least a partial one somewhere I think also leaning. There you go, the layout of the project and concept. Enjoy and stay tuned!

Quick (hopefully) question on using cork as a basing material. I'm currently working on making a few rock bases using cork for my rock. The question I have is that on one of the bases, I noticed that I had a particularly large amount of overhang with the cork (i.e. the cork cuts in quite bit as it goes from high to low, leaving a nice gap between the top of the cork to the base). So that said, how sturdy is the cork? Will it still support the mini? One side of the mini will be plenty supported and the mini itself is plastic, so shouldn't be too heavy, but of course I am hoping to avoid having the base fall apart in the near future. On a related note, is there anything you can do to reinforce the cork? (and yes, unfortunately I have already superglued it to the base). There's room to get some green stuff in there, but that will also likely break the "look" of the rock if you know what mean. Anyway, any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Okay, prototype number one completed. Time for another. THE SINKING KEEP So after reviewing the previous thread other ideas I decided I really want to make the keep. I found the six-inch cork round and roughed in the water and then cut away the cork where I had drawn water in the picture. Then after finding an appropriately sized tube to create the tower, I transferred the shape of the tower sticking out of the water using a stencil I made from the drawing. Then i outlined the cut tube on to the cork and cut away the inside edge to seat the tower piece. After tweaking the cut and the fit it in the cut space I added to a small bit of elevated ground to either side. Here's what I have so far... The cork elevations are just super glued at the moment. But once I shape the slopes of them I will seal the cork with glue. Stay tuned.

New base WIP. I started in on a cork round 4 inches in diameter. I removed the cork to reveal two levels. Then started painting the surfaces. The upper levels got a basecoat of Reaper Midnight Blue. The lower level got Walnut Brown. Then I used an orange, Vallejo Amarantha Red around the edges of the raised surface. Then started painting "rings" on the raised surfaces. I used Witchcraft Purple (inner most ring), Vallejo Panzer Aces Stencil (offwhite ring), and Vallejo Blue Violet (other purple ring). I painted Reaper Auburn Shadow out from the bright orange edging and then Reaper Spattered Gore. The middle of the lower level received a wash of Reaper Black Ink to help blend in the heat glow. The Black Ink wash is still wet in the following pic. Then some finishing details were added and the rings and heat glow given some contrast. I'll be adding some gloss varnish to the geode surfaces and finishing it up shortly. Look for this in Show Off.

The Old Way. I can't count the times I've read a book or story with "The Old Road" in it. You know the one ... with perfectly paved stones and only a century has finally brought it close to becoming overgrown. This is one such road ... yet time wasn't the only culprit this time. No, this time water had its part to play. So I took a second 4" cork round and after some brief consideration about how much was water and how much was land, I started removing the cork. I left a lot of the cork for shallow water but I also took the cork right down to the MDF. Then with my shape made and excess cork removed, i added more cork to the project. I continued building up the land gluing in layers of cork. And yes, it looks like a s'more. The flagstone on the pieces is left over from my brick making for the Ankheg. Once the glue was set, I roughed up the edges. I tried to blend all of the layers of cork. The last thing I did once I had shaped everything was coat it in a glue wash to help make it more solid. Next ... priming and basecoating. Stay tuned. Ps... now the s'more is dipped in milk. Heh.

So I was working on making coral reefs for my Kraken, like I did for my Coraldrax, and I thought someone else could perhaps use a tutorial on how to do it themselves. Coraldrax: http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/56564-basing-coraldrax/ Kraken: http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/59698-77291-the-kraken/ So first I rip up cork and glue it down, using pliers to rip chunks off and get a more random and odd shape. I then covered all of it in acrylic paint, in this case Wrought Iron which has a nice green color. I did the ship as well Then I dry brushed white lightly over the cork and the ship Next i drybrush a light green over all of it After that, drybrush a gold-yellow color I focused on the sea floor now, using a mix of khaki and light blue. I added a bit of blue dry brushing over the coral, but not the boat With a darker green, i added it in areas taht would have shadow on the boat FInal steps is to dry brush a few more coats of green and yellow until the coral looks how you want it. I then go back to Wrought Iron and outline all the cracks in the boat I hope you find this helpful!

Over the weekend I've been looking at a lot of basing vids and tutorials, to try and level up my basing skills a bit. Only problem is, a lot of these involved using a stonking huge stack of thick cork that often rivals the mini that's going to be standing on it in size,and i'm having trouble finding anything similar (its surprisingly difficult to source cork in the UK, I'm beginning to wonder if there's some secret British method for making bases that they're keeping from me). So far I've managed to find rolls of cork, these are pretty large but very thin (1.8mm) and two types of cork tiles, a 3mm thick one (I get quite a few in a box, but they're coated in plastic so I don't know if I can use these) and a 6mm thick one (these are very pricey so I'd rather not buy these if I can avoid it). Are any of these any use? And how high would I typically stack them? Or should I consider using something else?

Few weeks ago I used Sandpaper to make out of cork, cork dust. Used water and a green color to get it green. I had it at first in a small glass container, but it needed very long to dry. So I dried it on a baking tray. I think it is really good, but sometimes there are bigger parts in it. It will not be the same as static gras, but I do not want to buy static gras for a big 180x120 gaming board. In Germany it is very expensive and only available in small bags. In the moment I'm thinking of getting fine cork dust or fine wood/saw dust. And try this. Has anyone experience of making selfmade gras?