Building a Lord Of The Rings / Warcry Skirmish Board

I’ve documented the stages I went through to build this board for use with Lord Of The Rings Battle Companies, Warcry or any 28mm skirmish game.

The materials list
22 inch x 30 inch x 18mm MDF cut to size by merchant
Concentrated PVA glue - if you’re doing any kind of terrain building get a big tub of good quality PVA
Superglue
Arkenfel 3D printed terrain (Arkenfel Shop)
Black spray can primer - Testors black matt primer
White airbrush primerAirbrush paint thinner
Typhus Corrosion or Luke’s APS cheaper alternative, mixed with 50% water
Geek Gaming - Clump Foliage (Clump Foliage Shop)
2x Flagstone XPS sheets https://www.firedragongames.co.uk/materials/random-flagstone-sheet
Geek Gaming Lukes APS modelling compound (Modelling Compound Shop)
Black craft acrylic paint
Brown earth craft acrylic paint
Geek Gaming Base Ready Arid Grassland (Base Ready Shop)
Geek Gaming 2mm Autumn static grass (Static Grass Shop)
Mapei Ultracolor Plus Chocolate Tile Grout
Used, dried peppermint tea - we drink a lot of peppermint tea and so this is effectively a free way to bulk out ground cover. 
Mixed autumn leaves for basing (birch tree seeds)
PVA + water spray
Matt varnish spray
Half-round wood mould trim https://www.selcobw.com/products/timber-mdf-sheet-materials/mouldings/half-round/light-hardwood-d-mould-fscr
Veneer pins/small nails
Antique Pine gloss stain + varnish https://www.selcobw.com/ronseal-interior-varnish-antique-pine-gloss-750ml

Tools
Airbrush equipment
Decorators paintbrushes - medium and small width
Hobby paintbrush
Hammer
Mitre block

Step one - the base

I bought a large sheet of 18mm thick MDF from my local hardware shop, Selco, where they’ll cut it very accurately for free. The sheet I got was enough for two 22”x30” bases with two smaller squares left for “projects”. 

I then painted both sides and edges with PVA. This seals the MDF and helps prevent any warping, which is always a danger with large flat sheets of pretty much any porous material. This was left to dry on some narrow stands to allow the majority of board to dry at the same time. Once dry, the areas under the stands were also painted with PVA.

Step two - the buildings

The buildings and walkways were already 3D printed from our Arkenfel range, so I didn’t have to wait to use them to design a layout. Since I was going for something that could be used with Warcry, which often has symmetrical terrain, I went with the long Walkway being the centrepiece and dividing the board in two lengthwise, two identical towers in corners and then the buildings, fountain and statue matching each other. I drew around the pieces onto the board once happy with it. 

Next, I primed the terrain matt black from a spray can. I used Testors Matt Black, as I bought 6 cans cheaply on eBay. This was done quite heavily since 3D printed terrain has print lines, so a heavy prime can help soften these a little. If I had more time, I would have lightly sanded the tops of the walkway and sizes of the building to reduce these lines, but it turns out that the lines look quite organic anyway. 

Once dry, I carefully zenithal highlighted the terrain using a white airbrush primer, mixed with 5% thinner. It’s important to have the pieces of buildings and walkways highlighted together at the same time, otherwise it’s easy to spot each piece individually, as can be seen on the walkway where I failed to follow my own advice.

I accentuated the white on a few random bricks and tiles on each model, as well as the building edges, doorways and windows. Internally I used a heavier spray through doorways and windows to suggest light coming in from outside and create internal shadows

On the buildings with roof tiles I then painted them using Games Workshop Blood Angels Red contrast paint. This is an expensive way of doing it, but it combines with the zenithal highlighting and random accents to give the roofs a lot of texture and shade. 

Once this was all dried, I used a mix of 50/50 water and a homemade version of Games Workshop’s Typhus Corrosion wash ( a black/brown/green plus fine particles dirty wash) generously over all the models using a small decorators brush. This will drip, so best to leave them to dry somewhere that can catch the droplets. It gives the stonework its weathered, organic look.  

Finally, I added small patches of brown tile grout and green sponge moss placed onto superglue, sparing in places that might catch dirt and allow for plants to grow. On the roof tiles once the sponge had dried I pulled off thicker bits leaving a moss-like coat. This step really adds a rounded, aged element to the buildings. 

The statue was painted with a dark bronze paint, followed by Games Workshop’s Nihilakh Oxide verdigris paint and then highlighted with a lighter bronze.

Step three - the board basing

With the buildings in their final locations, I worked out where I wanted to use the flagstone textured XPS foam and where I wanted bare earth. I went with the idea that the walkway sate on bare earth, while the buildings mostly sat on flagstones. I cut the flagstone sheets following the patterns of the stone themselves so that they would appear to randomly merge with the earth. 
Using PVA to glue these down, and remembering that PVA needs air to dry, I used rivers of PVA rather than smearing it completely across the backs, and then using some old weights to keep these firm against board while drying. I left this overnight to ensure the glue had completely set.

Geek Gaming Lukes APS modelling compound mixed with a drop of PVA was used to build up the sections of bare earth against the flagstones, I created raised and lowered sections to give the sense that the floor dropped beneath the walk way. I then painted the entire board a mix of black acrylic hobby paint and PVA to help harden the foam. Once dry, this was followed by a similar process using brown paint and PVA on the bare earth sections.

Step four - painting the board

For the flagstones I used 3 shades of grey in increasingly light drybrushing layers. The final layer was a creamy off-white, that was very lightly sponge-brushed on the flagstone edges. 

The bare earth was done in sections approximately 4in square. A layer of PVA glue is painted on, then in random quantities sand, brown grout, the Base Ready Arid Grassland, autumn 2mm static grass and used, dried peppermint tea leaves was sprinkled on. The peppermint tea leaves are green-brown fine texture with lighter bits that look like small twigs and is a very cheap bulking base material. The brown grout tends to cover everything a very fine layer if not used carefully and sparingly. In hindsight, I might apply the brown grout first, let it dry and apply a second layer of glue for the other basing materials in places to keep them clean. Once this had dried, I used a heavily watered down PVA mix in a spray bottle to fix loose material in place, all over the board. Some of the grout naturally smudges the edges of the building, which if controlled produces a nice effect.

After leaving this to dry for a couple of hours I finally fixed the buildings down to the foam and board. To achieve this I drilled small holes in the bases of the printed terrain, added metal pins made from paperclips and superglued these in place, I trimmed this down to slightly less than the depth of the foam and then applied PVA on the bases. The paperclip pins stop the terrain from moving and help fix them while the PVA dries. 

Then I applied more sponge clump foliage around the bases of the buildings to blend them in and hid any obvious gaps that make have appeared between the printed models and the base.  Using superglue I fixed small patches of the autumn mix silver birch seeds to the bases in places the wind might blow them and a couple floating on the surface of the fountain.    

Finally, I carefully sprayed the whole board with a matt varnish spray. There are bunch of youtube videos on how to apply varnish spray without causing misting. This gives a final thin layers of protection, fixes things like the autumn leaves down some more and removes any shine from patches of exposed PVA glue. 

Step five - the bordering

I cut the mould trim to size by measuring the actual board, rather than trusting the measurements given to the cutter, using a cheap mitre block and - cough - hacksaw. You should definitely use a wood saw for this, and if you have a proper mitre saw, even better.

The vertical sides of the boarded were filed to remove any overhang, particularly from the modelling compound. Then using PVA and small veneer pins, the borders were fixed to the sides. I hadn’t got the best 45-degree edges, so I used some wood filler to fix the slight gaps formed from uneven edges. Once dry, I used fine sandpaper on the whole border to smooth and work down the sharp top edge.

I then applied two (thin) coats of the antique wood stain and varnish. Again, in hindsight, I should have not affixed the borders to the board before varnishing them, as it was tricky to get at the inside of the trim without getting varnish on the board. But this was the final stage, and the board is complete!  

It was a really enjoyable build, and I think the Warcry board size is perfect for letting your imagination go wild without have a great deal of space to fill. Infact we at Illusionary Terrain like this format so much we’re running an inhouse competition to build better and better boards.

We’d encourage you to have a try at building your own, but we’d also love to make one of these or bigger for you. So get in contact on info@illusionaryterrain.com to talk ideas and budget.