So I decided to play in the 30k Escalation (and Big Blam) at NOVA Open 2017. Due to my grad school schedule and unfamiliarity with 8th Ed, I figured playing in the Horus Heresy events would be a fun way to enjoy NOVA while also enabling me to actually sleep after traveling ten hours.
Maybe a year ago I purchased a lot of 30k Iron Warriors painted by Black Label Painting, consisting of a Spartan, a Land Raider, a Contemptor Dreadnought, a Chaplain and several Terminators from the Betrayal at Calth set. The minis were beautiful and the price was right, so boom! I had a small 30k force. As I read more about the Iron Warriors I got more and more interested in them, especially those factions that stayed loyalist. Perturabo was always a dick in my mind, but many of the legionaries were just hard working super humans. I decided I'd run a loyalist Iron Warriors army, led by Kyr Valen, who is a badass, running artillery, dreadnoughts and lots of infantry. More meat for the grinder, right? Well, no proper army is complete without a display board, and although I have a nice tray purpose built for carrying minis, I decided to go all in on a board.
To start, I needed to figure out how much space I would need. I wanted something I could carry easily, that would more or less fit on a chair while still holding 2,500 points of Iron Warriors with a little room to spare so I could run more. After some measuring and messing around, I decided a two level, 18"x24" board would hold what I need, while I could get a low cost picture frame as a border.
Here is my initial layout of my (then) proposed army, checking for size and position:
I used 1" hard insulation foam to build the second level, the concept in my mind being the edge of a city and a wasteland (or what became a wasteland, maybe it was a lovely park before the Heresy). The multi-level would better present my minis and add texture. I didn't want a flat terrain board, and decided to use some of my GW building materials to construct small ruins on which to hold more minis.
I also wanted a texture coat on the wasteland area. GW sells several but they are very cost prohibitive in large amounts, so I bought some Vallejo Rough Grey Pumice, its like $10-14 per 200ml jar, and its great stuff. I added in some resin wrecks off an old Kickstarter (EDIT* Worldsmith Industries makes them, great products starting at like $6), some craters left over from who knows where, and cut on the foam a bit to make it look like the concert had been damaged by indirect fire. I also added in some of Tamiya's sand bags to make it look more like a war zone. Here is the mock up:
I added in some sand to make the transition from the wasteland, and *attempted* to cut in some floor tiles under the ruins, there are some how-to's on the internet... mine didn't turn out as hoped.
After everything was laid out, it was time for some paint. For ease of transport I decided to not glue down the actual ruins, as I could just carry them in an army transport case while keeping the profile of the display board much lower.
I used some more of the Vallejo Rough Grey Pumice to make the transition between the wasteland and the concrete of the city as seen here along with some Gale Force 9 debris (cork something or other):
After getting a good, black base down, I dry brushed using the Walmart sold Plaid/Apple Barrel 2620 Pewter Grey Acrylic paint for the wasteland/transition:
I then used Vallejo Cold Grey paint through an airbrush and hit the concrete; I wanted a lighter grey and I've used Cold Grey quite a bit painting my various ruins and fortifications with good results. The drop pod was painted using an airbrush and Vallejo Air paint (Ultramarine Blue, as I recall). I wanted more color on an otherwise drab board, and along with my drab (Iron Warriors) army, I wanted the wrecked drop pod to pop. I can't remember the name of the company, but I got the resin ruins and more during a Kickstarter a couple years ago; great stuff, I want to get more.
Here is another mock up, testing how the minis will fit and how the colors work together with a different army, my 30k Mechanicum. To note, I added a suspended side walk using more Sector Imperialis bits, I wanted a little more texture and the ruins seemed to fit. The sand bags were base coated in a dark brown (like GW Snakebite Leather) then dry brushed with a tan (Khemri Brown maybe?) to make them more canvas-sandbag like.
Here is a final mock up, before adding the picture frame with my Iron Warriors for NOVA:
I also wanted a texture coat on the wasteland area. GW sells several but they are very cost prohibitive in large amounts, so I bought some Vallejo Rough Grey Pumice, its like $10-14 per 200ml jar, and its great stuff. I added in some resin wrecks off an old Kickstarter (EDIT* Worldsmith Industries makes them, great products starting at like $6), some craters left over from who knows where, and cut on the foam a bit to make it look like the concert had been damaged by indirect fire. I also added in some of Tamiya's sand bags to make it look more like a war zone. Here is the mock up:
I added in some sand to make the transition from the wasteland, and *attempted* to cut in some floor tiles under the ruins, there are some how-to's on the internet... mine didn't turn out as hoped.
After everything was laid out, it was time for some paint. For ease of transport I decided to not glue down the actual ruins, as I could just carry them in an army transport case while keeping the profile of the display board much lower.
I used some more of the Vallejo Rough Grey Pumice to make the transition between the wasteland and the concrete of the city as seen here along with some Gale Force 9 debris (cork something or other):
Next was to prime the whole thing black. Now, just in case you didn't know, spraying foam from a rattle can will end in tears. The propellant will melt the foam. As such, I used spray can on the lower (not foam), airbrush and a some cheap, black craft acrylic paint from Walmart for the foam/buildings/resin ruins.
After getting a good, black base down, I dry brushed using the Walmart sold Plaid/Apple Barrel 2620 Pewter Grey Acrylic paint for the wasteland/transition:
I then used Vallejo Cold Grey paint through an airbrush and hit the concrete; I wanted a lighter grey and I've used Cold Grey quite a bit painting my various ruins and fortifications with good results. The drop pod was painted using an airbrush and Vallejo Air paint (Ultramarine Blue, as I recall). I wanted more color on an otherwise drab board, and along with my drab (Iron Warriors) army, I wanted the wrecked drop pod to pop. I can't remember the name of the company, but I got the resin ruins and more during a Kickstarter a couple years ago; great stuff, I want to get more.
Here is a photo of my ill-fated attempt and tiled floors in the ruins; fortunately they didn't show up too much when the ruins and minis are on:
Here is another mock up, testing how the minis will fit and how the colors work together with a different army, my 30k Mechanicum. To note, I added a suspended side walk using more Sector Imperialis bits, I wanted a little more texture and the ruins seemed to fit. The sand bags were base coated in a dark brown (like GW Snakebite Leather) then dry brushed with a tan (Khemri Brown maybe?) to make them more canvas-sandbag like.
Here is a final mock up, before adding the picture frame with my Iron Warriors for NOVA:
Next was to add the foam core surround and the picture frame barrier. The foam core was just a normal foam display purchased from Dollar General for a like $4 and cut into 2 or 2.5" strips then hot glued and sprayed black with an airbrush. Again, if you use a spray can, the actual core will melt if it comes into contact with the propellant. I also tested the frame for fit in this pic so I knew if need be, I could trim the foam:
The (more or less) final step for this project was to attach the picture frame to the board. As the base plywood was like 1/2" or so, and as I really didn't want to mess with a nail gun or finishing nails, I decided to use glue and clamps to attach it. The frame was purchased via Amazon.com, the interior dimensions were more or less 18"x24"to match the display board. I used proper wood glue (Duck brand?) from Lowe's and several clamps. I laid down some parchment paper (from baking) to protect my work bench from glue leaks, and used a lot of glue. Then I let it sit and cure for about a day:
Here are the Iron Warriors ready to part at NOVA 2017 on the display board:
I must say, I rather enjoyed building this display board. My only regret is that I have bone-itis, er, rather that the board can't really be use for gaming. As such, I decided to use the techniques and what I learned here to build a 2'x2' display/gaming section for my Death Korps of Krieg in the same color scheme, building trenches and using some bits from the GW Aegis Defense Line. My concept was a corner piece that would both hold the army for display and could be popped in for use with a GW Realm of Battle Board or Secret Weapons Miniatures Tablescape. That will *probably* be my next post, as it is almost done as of this writing. I hope you enjoyed the write up, and if you have and questions or thoughts, let me know. Stay classy.
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