realm of battle (gw 40k board) blog

we bought a board last night and i've started painting up the first tile.
i started off with primering the tiles with a black textured spray to give the glue and paint something easier to cling to.
to prevent models from sliding down the hills, i've glued a black sand to the slopes.
once this was dried, i did several successive layers of drybrushing mixing a little more white in each time to make the paint lighter as i repeated over the prominent ridges.

so far this is how the first tile turned out:

i've started the 2nd tile, and this is what it looks like so far.

you'll notice the flat blat primer on the overall tile, then a shinier section near the cliffs; this is the textured rustoleum paint.

right now, this tile is getting a layer of black sand glued onto it. in an hour or so, i'll knock off the loose stuff and begin drybrushing.

here's the 2nd tile finished beside the first:



edit: im going to make the skull pits filled with water effect, and i plan to tint the water. im just not sure what color to make them. does anyone have suggestions? since its an ash waste zone, i was thinking of green, or orange, or maybe red blood.

ok, this update's about the oozey slimey pits of skulls. we opted for orange because it would be the most striking and its unlikely you'll see many other people ever use orange slime.

First we start by basecoating the pits with orange foundation paint. i also drybrushed this onto the rock in some areas to help give it the hue of orange but show its shallower because some of the rock's original color is showing.


now we make the slime:
for this you'll need:

• realistic water effects (hobbyworld)
• food coloring dye
• a jar for storing the slime between layers

mmm, alien slime. this batch was made by pouring 2 finger widths of water effect into the jar, then following the dye directions to make orange (in this case, 2 drops red, 18 drops yellow) for those wondering why i used food dye, this is because it gives you transparency when the water effect cures. you can also use clothing dye for a semi opaque(not-transparent) look if you're making a deeper pool, followed by a layer of water effect on top done with the food dye to simulate how deeper water is harder to see through. if you don't want 'any' transparency, just mix paint into the stuff and it'll be a solid color. myself, i like the semi-clear to clear transition.


here's the board with its first layer of clear effects. this being the first layer, and its fresh, it 'will' shrink a bit while it cures. and it will become more clear as it cures; this stuff is slightly cloudy, like water with a couple drops of pva glue in it when its poured out of the bottle. when it cures, it becomes glassy so dont worry if you try this and you cant see the details beneath too well at first; that will clear up once dried.


if you guys try this, you can speed up the curing with a fan, but DO NOT use heat of any kind!!!!! that will actually ruin the water effect and mess up your model. if you're going to use a hair dryer, of shrink tube dryer, make sure it has a 'no heat/cold' setting.

looks awesome so far! would love to have the cash to drop on the realm of battle board.

thanks, im still waiting on the water effects to cure; this is the single longest part of the painting, as it takes several hours to a day to cure. then i get to see if i need a 2nd layer. le sigh. but the results are freakin awesome

here's tile #3. this one didnt have as much ridged detail, so the method i was using to drybrush the last two wasnt enough. i went in afterwards with a small drybrush and used longbeard grey to edge highlight the broken rocks. i couldnt get the camera to quite show the effect in person though, it comes off too strong. in person its more muted and makes that area of the board pop out better from a distance.

Looks sick man. Like the rocks and the orange liquid stuff.

I love how you can tell its gw because theres pits of SKULLS in the board Looking good man, keep up the good work, its quite an under taking as well as a rather large investment

Very Nice boards.


I rather like the pool of skulls

Bought some mdf board and made a 4'x4' table for playing games on this weekend. Here's some of the tiles sitting on it:





the upper left and bottom right tiles need painting, and then all 6 tiles will be done paint-wise.  one of the flat tiles with the skulls is currently waiting on the orange water effect to cure as i type.

so the board is finally finished, and here we are:


some close ups on the pools:

Those pools turned out awesome!

thanks, they're super easy to do too.  you just paint the pools the color you want them to be, then take a small container and fill it with some Water Effect, and add in a few drops of food coloring to make it match the color you painted the pool. then just pour your mix in slowly to avoid bubbling.

after that, just let it sit for a few hours and it'll set and give you a nice pool.  and they immediately catch your eye from a distance when looking at the table.

if anyone has some of these boards and wants the pools done this way, i'm fine with being requested to do the pools.  but make sure you paint the rest of your board up first.  the pools have to be the last thing you do.