Dungeon Bowl pitch casting has begun...

Devante · Post by **Devante** » Tue May 18, 2004 4:45 pm

My pitch is based on 12mm mdf, which i've now realised was stupid, it makes the whole thing really heavy. I'd recommend 6mm or 9mm mdf, it's plenty strong enough.

As for the walls, 2 inches high (50mm) They make for some excellent tactics, ie: hiding players

which i think is perfectly exceptable, it's dungeon you wouldn't be able to see everyone on the pitch. Just don't lose your own players ! I didn't use doors, or i haven't yet, i think they just get in the way.

Sadly though Phreedh i think you have to stand up to play this.

Devante · Post by **Devante** » Tue May 18, 2004 4:48 pm

Oh forgot to add,

The wall sections arn't glued down, so if it becomes fiddilly to move players or theres not much room to fit the models in just lift the wall out.

Phreedh · Post by **Phreedh** » Tue May 18, 2004 9:32 pm

Ok, I've been a busy little bee and now have 20-something floor tiles... yay. :E

Anyways, I figured I'd snap a few pics just to show you what the stuff looks like:

Click the image to open up a window with a larger version.

1: This is a floor tile which I test painted gray. In the end it'll all be painted with a larger brush and I believe the grainyness will be reduced. Looks good enough for me though, as I'm building this for gaming enjoyment and not display. Won't hurt if it looks good though.

The small square is a sample of the tile without using the flash... gives you a better idea of what the colour is like, it's somewhere in between the two.

2: Floor tile test painted in a brownish colour. Will probably use this alot, possibly all over. I liked it better than the gray one. Will mix a bit though (not every second tile ofcourse, but over the board sections).

3: The mold. The smaller rod like pieces in the bottom are separators for the original size tiles. I pour excess plaster in that one... one never knows when 8 mm wide rods will come in handy...

The tiles might look a little skewed in this pic but in the end they aren't that bad. I'll have to fidget about a bit as they aren't completely square though... oh well, the first test section will show if it works. I'm expecting to have slightly offset floor tiles, but that doesn't matter. Au contraire, I don't want surgically precise tiles. It's a dungeon, damnit!

4: Some of the other sections I have molds for. Two different size walls (to make corners look good) and a wall with a door. I'm yet to cast a door which doesn't break when removing it from the mold.

Will have to let them cure longer... damn lack of patience.

5: Uh... there's really no five huh? Well - the troll to the bottom right is the mini I'm currently painting. Decided to include him as a mate was wondering how he was starting to look. He's for my orc team (see black orc in the large pic) hence the green skin and red details. Base coated in rotting flesh, green wash, soft parts will be rotting flesh and the scales will either stay like they are or get a layer of some lighter, more yellow green.

The background pic shows a better pic than any other how the brown looks, and some unpainted tiles.

Four days off of work coming up, I'll have an end zone section ready come sunday. Well, either that or a scrapped project due to too damn mismatching tiles.

I'm already overflowing with ideas for details, like gutter tiles, critters peering out from the darkness of a portcullis (using a door wall as a solid wall), gw rats, discarded helmets, lichen... can't wait until I reach that stage of the creation.

Will update you all with pics whenever there's any progress worth noting.

edit: just counted, got 28 tiles done. 740 to go. That's 14 tiles a day. Worst case scenario = 52 more days before the casting is done.

/Phreedh

Phreedh · Post by **Phreedh** » Sun May 23, 2004 6:27 pm

Ok, I've now managed to cast and assemble the first end-zone tile of my DB-pitch... I saved on making 12 floor tiles by just making the end zone area one tile deep, instead of the two tile depth of the paper variant. Painting will commence later tonight.

I like the irregular feel of the tiles, both on the sides as well as the depth of it all. I drew a grid matching the grid of a BB-field in square size etc on the base (really really thick cardboard which doesn't warp) before glueing the tiles down. The gaps are filled with... toilet paper...

I tried plaster filler first but it didn't work well, the tiles got messy etc. so the plan is to fill the gaps up with the paper, add diluted pva to the gaps and hopefully get a smoothish finish in the end.

Once painted up, I'll have a pic up.

/Phreedh

Snorri · Post by **Snorri** » Sun May 23, 2004 8:13 pm

I like what you've done to the board

.
Looks really good.

Post by **GalakStarscraper** » Mon May 24, 2004 11:57 am

I put mine on 1/4 inch pine boards. But I kept the concept of different tiles so the dungeon could be rearranged.

Galak

Devante · Post by **Devante** » Mon May 24, 2004 12:28 pm

Once my new house is sorted and i can find all my BB stuff again, i think i'm going to build a BB pitch using these tiles. it will look all dungeon-ish.

I'm also going to make the Endzone two sqaures like it used to be in 2nd ed, basically so i can do team endzones again which were cool.

Has anyone tried a two square endzone for the current Edition, shape and size ? i seem to remember there being a topic about it in general chat about a year ago.

Sallacious · Post by **Sallacious** » Tue May 25, 2004 3:06 pm

Very cool lookin' Dungeons. Mine is quite simple... made entirely from Polystyrene. I will post it once it is completed.

Phreedh · Post by **Phreedh** » Tue May 25, 2004 8:20 pm

Ok, first few layers of paint are on the pitch.

This is after a black base coat and a first brown drybrush. The streakyness probably comes from the brush not being dry "inside", just on the surface. Also, I should've built up a few layers of darker browns in between.

Anyways, I figured I'd just push on and started darkening the brown to do a heavy drybrush and then build up lighter shades. In the end I got this, which I'm pretty happy with:

I then realised I hadn't done the end zone squares...

So I fetched another can of paint and did one basecoat of that over the end zone squares. It will be shaded and highlighted with dry brushing to get a light yellowish brown in the end. I hope...

I've got a question for Traveller, btw... how the _hell did you get so nice looking and smooth a paintjob on your dug out's stone tiles? Please don't tell me you painted it all individually, like a mini?

You others, what do you think so far? Should I go on and construct the whole pitch? Should I paint the thing differently? More shading? More highlighting? More naked chicks on it?

/Phreedh

traveller · Post by **traveller** » Wed May 26, 2004 7:06 am

I've got a question for Traveller, btw... how the _hell did you get so nice looking and smooth a paintjob on your dug out's stone tiles? Please don't tell me you painted it all individually, like a mini?

Nope, i didnt paint them individually

I just did the same thing like you ... about 4-6 different drybrush layers. Last one real bright, edges nearly white,.. But i think, those hirstart molds, and so the stone, got more details and so more the whole things look smoother ?!

Traveller