Custom Fantasy Terrain

Andy from What's New Today over on the Games Workshop website recently ran a competition to win a Gameboard. To build up the hype he would show off terrain pieces that were sent in. Below are the pieces with original commentary from Monday the 23rd of August...

Ben Johnson is a member of the 'Bad Dice' gaming group and normally wouldn't spend time on terrain - he's an avid tournament player and his time is usually spent devising fiendish army lists and painting armies. But the new edition has reformed Ben. I'' let him tell you more.

Ben: Scenery is so important to the new edition of Warhammer. It plays a huge part in the battle and is as interesting and unpredicatble as the armies themselves. Stelek has a brief rant about something or other here that may relate in some way or another. I had tons of fun modelling all of my terrain and my games have been far more enjoyable since I did. I really would recommend spending some time making yourself some characterful terrain, even a couple of pieces will make your games far more real.' Amen my reformed brother. Testify and renounce your sins of being a tournament gamer!

Here's a look at Ben's terrain.

Here's a look at out office gaming table set- up with Ben's terrain. You'll notice that all of Ben's scenery pieces have been painted in a similiar manner - he basecoated them in Calthan Brown and then drybrushed them with Dheneb Stone. This helps to make the battlefield look cohesive and also matches the bases of Ben's Empire army.

Ben made his Blood Forest by adding bits from the Corpse Cart and some Skeleton Warriors to a Citadel Wood set. A Blood Forest eats people, so it seemed only right there'd be some bones within its evil depths,' said Ben. To represent the blood of the forest's latest victims Ben painted the edges of the leaves with Mechrite Red, highlighted them with Blood Red and then applied a coat of Gloss Varnish.

To the left is Ben's (Dark) Elven Waystone, which is made from the large pillar from the Arcane Ruins set with some Dark Elf shield icons glued to it. To the right is Ben's Sinister Statue, which he made by glueing a Dark Elf to one of the smaller pillars from the Arcane Ruins set. Ben finished the pieces off by adding some slate from the Warhammer Basing Kit.

Inspire by July's issue of White Dwarf Ben made a Sorcerous Portal, again using pieces from the Arcane Ruins set. He finished the base off with some slate from the Warhammer Basing Kit.

Ben made his Bane Stone using rocks from his garden. Ben's runes were inspired by twisted imagination. but you'll no doubt find inspiration for your own in the Daemons of Chaos and Warriors of Chaos army books.

This Venom Thicket was made by adding spiders from the Forset Goblin Spider Riders set to a Citadel Wood. Ben also added some smaller spiders from Warhammer Quest, an old Games Workshop game. Which was loads of fun to play. As for the Venom Thicket... could use the LoTR spiders. Would even use it in 40k to represent dangerous terrain.

Ben made three sets of woods for his collection. For this Abyssal Wood, he added pieces from the Arcane Ruins set to a Citadel Wood and some extra rocks from the Warhammer Basing Kit.

This Charnel Pit began life as a Moonscape, which ben filled with Corpse Cart bits, slate and even a Tomb Kings skeletal steed. Once painted, Ben covered the pit in a layer of Water Effects.

Ben modelled a Magic Circle from (you guessed it) the ruined pillars from the Arcane Ruins set. To make the Chaos star on the base, Ben applied a thin layer of filler and then scored the star with a pencil.

Ben made his Ghost Fence using the Walls and Fences set and some old metal ghost models (click on the image to see them just look below) but you could just as easily use Spirit Hosts.

Disclaimer - All images taken from the Games Workshop website and will be removed if requested.