Create the scenery that you love

(Intelli Gaming: Article) I have shared recently on Noise.cash some pictures of miniature scenery that I created in the past. I find it important to have scenery that is pleasing to the eye and which also brings more interest to a miniature display.

In the past, I did share some pieces that I had done. Here are the previous articles:

• Miniature scenery

• Drilling miniatures

• Heavy Gear Elite Southern Militia Squad

More recently however, I have taken each piece individually and photographed them for documentation. What documentation you might ask? This article IS the documentation!

Today, I finished putting together the images in the context of this article. I hope you enjoy those creations. I will follow this article with similar ones because I have too many! I wish I had more but at some point, I am a single individual, not a corporation and moving those pieces from one home to another is always a lot of work.

However, it is my goal in the future to portray those pieces of scenery in better settings, with better lighting, with painted backgrounds and with miniatures (of course!)

First, I want to thank my generous Sponsors and a few weeks ago, I asked my sponsors which articles they would like to hear about. One answered first and the answer resulted in my article about the Wonders of Antiquity. Another answer which has not resulted in an article yet is still in the works. That future article will be about Castles and Fortifications - as requested by @Luna1999 .

I should mention here that as a kid, I had built a wonderful castle inspired by Disney's castle but mine was a Necromancer's castle with skulls, tombs and with a dark grey colour. Unfortunately, someone in my family did not have patience or did not see any value in that art and it was discarded in the garbage. How I wish I had at least taken pictures of it. I had built it entirely with cereal boxes.

"While artists die and are forgotten, art lasts forever"

--From the Greek  "Ars longa, vita brevis" (art is long , life is short), attributed to Hippocrates

Introduction

The pieces of scenery you are about to see were all created by myself around 1993 and 1994. They have been accumulating dust for a long time and some of them show their age. I tried to dust off some of them as much as possible but I always try to be careful because the materials are often brittle and dusting or cleaning can remove some of the materials.

Nearly every piece (except the miniatures) were created from pieces of Styrofoam along with white glue (often diluted with water). Green paint was also used and I also dilute the paint to cover larger areas while staying economical on the paint.

The colour used for all the grass is called "Goblin Green". This was a paint colour produced by Games Workshop and Citadel Miniatures in the 1990s.

For the grass texture, some Autumn burnt grass is used. I try to always use the same colours and textures so as to maintain a sense of unity between the various pieces.

1 - Small Hill

This pieces was one of the first ones that I did. This hill is about 15 cm in length on the longer side and about 10 cm wide.

This next pieces shows the same hill but used in combination with a fortification that was adapted from the Warhammer 40k boxed set 4th Edition. Combinations like this is what makes the scenery come alive.

Again, the same combination, seen from a different angle. Notice that the fortifications play an important strategic role in various war games since the rules of the games often account for units being behind cover, which obviously shields them from damage.

2 - Fortifications of a Gothic cathedral in ruins

I built those fortifications in 1994 using the cardboard pieces that came with the boxed set of Warhammer 40K. Originally, the pieces were just pieces of cardboard but what I did was to glue the pieces solidly together and then I glued them onto a base of their own. To add further details and texture, I used plaster (wall filler). I then painted the plaster with Goblin Green.

The ground was then painted with a white glue and water mixture and finally the grass flock was generously applied and pressed into the glue. As mentioned above, those fortifications have in game advantages of protecting the units that would take cover behind them. As such, they not only make the battlefield more interesting but they also add strategic elements.

Here is another angle of the same fortification.

The following piece is another crumbled part of the cathedral but smaller than the one above. If you look carefully, you can spot a "jumper" (in grey). That should not be there but I remember why I placed it there. It is because it looks like an ammo clip, which is used in this fantasy universe of Warhammer 40k.

Again, I have another piece of fortification which looks like the one above but is different. I added some rust (not much) colours to make it more realistic.

Below is more of the same but seen from a different angle. You can see damage that has occurred over time when a piece of plaster chipped off. Also, you can notice cracks in the foundations. If I had more time, I could easily repair it, perhaps not by filling the crack but more likely by just painting it.

Coming Up Next

My next article will be looking at more miniature scenery, miniatures themselves and some constructions. Stay tuned and follow my channel so you don't miss out on future posts. Also go check out my sponsors and as usual, thanks for reading!