TOMB

At the moment I’m in the middle of building a pretty big Osgiliath board, but that includes quite a few parts which need to be left to dry, etc. In between these stages I decided to build a Balin’s Tomb board, just for fun. It was also spurred by the fact we as a small group have decided to start up a campaign of Battle Companies, or Company of Heroes. These small scenario based boards provide the perfect sized boards to stage small battles like that.

Anyway, to start the board off, I cut a piece of plywood to a 2 foot square. Next I cut blue foam into strips and created a perimeter around the board. The scenario calls for a board 18” square, so the lower ground fits this dimension. After cutting a hole for the doorway and a second, crumbled hole, I starting setting out the terrain pieces that came with the Mines of Moria boxed set. After gluing these in place, a scene was already beginning to emerge. To round off the edges where the terrain meets the wood, filler was used.This entire stage took around 2 hours. To secure the foam in place, black duct tape was used, not only to strengthen it, but I feel it adds a level of neatness. To create the weathered look on the walls, I just rolled a granite stone over the foam.

The next stage was to glue sand, grit and small stones to the wooden base, and sparingly around the upper levels to indicate rubble. The sand and grit can be bought cheaply from most pet stores, and the small stones were found on the roadside. Once this had dried, the entire board was painted dark grey, and drybrushed in three stages, adding more and more white to the mix.

Finally, the smaller details were painted. The doorway and well were painted black, greens and browns were drybrushed lightly in some areas to suggest moss and the like, and the dwarves, their weapons and their books were undercoated black. Various colors were used for the books, mostly dusty browns and blacks. The book that little Ori is holding I’ve painted as the LOTR rulebook. It’s the little touches. The skeletons break up the greys nicely. And the board is ready to use for battle!