Dakota Smith's Oriental Adventures, Chapter 3: Coming to a Boil

    An overview of the most elaborate table I've ever set up: the river encircles an island in the center of the table. White steam marks where the cannibal cookpot has Brother Virigi on "simmer". The cliffs and pathways represent the various entry points for the five archeological factions.

The drum beats and howling from the pygmy cannibal village unnerved the archeologists as they crept towards it. Through the trees, they could see the glow of flames. Would they be too late? Would the Portuguese monk, Brother Virigi, already be the village dinner by the time they arrived? Caution and haste were called for at both times.

    The players study their initial fortune cards and try to map out a strategy to be the first to rescue Brother Virigi

On the river, Harris McLeod poled his hastily-built raft to shore, motioning his companions to follow him. The monk knew the location to the hidden city, and God alone knew the riches he could find there for the British Museum! Not far away, Pierre Fournereau hissed instructions to his men, "Zee monk must be rescued at all costs! Only with him, will we find zee ruins we seek..." Far above them, Von Jaeger and his Germans surveyed the scene from a rocky cliff. Giant stone idols loomed out of the jungle -- doubtless showered with riches by the savages of the jungle. Hurrying down the path leading to the cannibal village, a step ahead of the Germans, Dakota Smith and his friends also were eyeing the same giant stone heads, and the riches that may lay hidden near them. Another group of fortune hunters, Lady Shannon's Irish, looked down from a rocky hill at the two paths ahead of them. Should they cross the perilous looking rope bridge -- the quickest way to the village -- or detour to the temple below them and search it? Meanwhile, hidden in the jungle, three agents of the Order of the Fire Coral watched the approach of the westerners -- vowing the foreign devils would not succeed.

The leader of the secret martial arts society, Opay, saw the Irish head towards the temple and acted first. He found a way into the temple and discovered the skeleton on the floor. The satchel of the long-dead foreigner carried maps, he saw, maps that must not fall into the hands of the foreign devils! Before he could escape the temple, though, the rugged Irish mercenary Ryan O'Shea burst through the door and the two struggled over the satchel. Eventually, Opay disengaged and dove out through the window. There, he had to dodge a fusilade of shots fired by Ryan's companions. Unscathed, he scampered off into the jungle. Here was one clue to the Forbidden City's location that the Westerners would never find!

    Both the German and American archeologist leagues close in on one of the stone idols. Dakota Smith's band would spend the game frustrating their rival Germans, snatching treasure after treasure from under their nose.

On the other side of the village, Dakota Smith and his pal Harold found their way to one of the giant stone idols. Together, they pried out the immense ruby eyes, and disappeared into the brush as the sound of German voices drew near. Von Jaeger, cursing that Fraulein Blucher had fallen and knocked herself out climbing down from the cliff, let off a stream of Teutonic obscenities as he saw his rival Dakota disappear into the jungle. The empty eye sockets of the idol seemed to be mocking him. He and Otto hurried out onto the path, where they saw Dakota Smith and Dolly Flanders clambering up a cliff path towards another one of the savage's stone idols. Chuckling evilly, he and Otto Tulmann fired bursts of automatic fire above the Americans, which set loose a rockslide. Dakota reached for Dolly's hand as she slipped, but missed and watched her fall, knocked senseless onto the rocks below. "Zat is for Frau Blucher, mein American..."he growled. Dakota leapt up and blazed away at the Germans with his six-shooter, who ducked, then fired back. Harold Fortwine, who had made it to the bridge leading to the village, hearing the firefight, turned and pulled out his revolver and joined in, as well.

    Dakota blazes away at Von Jaeger and Otto Tulmann below, while Dolly takes a tumble from the rocky cliff path

Harris McLeod and Maj. Speke-Eastman had looted an idol of their own when they were surprised by the Fire Coral agent Jaz Minh leaping onto the path next to them. Inexplicably, all were too stunned to attack each other. Instead, the speedy martial artist raced up the path towards the cannibal village. Dumbfounded, the two Brits looked at each other, "Bloody Hell...?" Harris cocked his head, and asked, "Say, my good major, have you seen Clara?"

    A "Parley" fortune card made for this comic moment as Jaz Minh leaps out from the underbrush at Harris McLeod and Maj. Speke-Eastman, only to have all concerned stare at each other until she darted off.

The major looked back on the path and shook his head. "She was behind us just a moment ago..." In the woods a ways off, Harris' niece lay unconscious. They pygmies looming above her noticed the two Brits, and turned to stalk them next.

    Tex becomes my rope bridge's first (and probably not last) victim as his cowboy boots break through the rotted slats and send him hurtling towards the river below

Meanwhile, Lady Shannon's American mercenary, Tex, swallowed and tread softly out onto the rope bridge. His cowboy boots seemed to sink into the soft, almost rotted wood until there was a crash. He caught himself, though, and slowly dragged himself onto the next wooden slat. Beneath him, the waters of the jungle river writhed with evil dark shapes. Tex watched them for a few seconds, then pulled himself up and raced for the end of the bridge. There was another crash, and the American screamed as he fell towards the river below.

    Cue climactic orchestra music: With a display of athletic prowess, French leader Pierre Fournereau kicks aside pygmies and rescues Brother Virigi from the cookpot

There was a chorus of shouts and the drumming ceased when Pierre and his Frenchmen came charging across a bamboo bridge into town. Pygmies ran towards them, but Pierre kicked them aside. Dr. Lambert swatted another with his stout leather briefcase, while Jacques Nero blazed away with his shotgun, scattering the crowd of cannibals. Pierre hurled himself across the village and up the wooden plank that led to the boiling and hissing cookpot. He picked up the two pygmies who were poking the flames with their spears and hurled them to the ground. With a display of superhuman strength, the athletic French archeologist snapped the leather bonds holding Brother Virigi and lifted him bodily out of the cookpot. The monk was flushed red and looked slightly scalded, but seemed not unduly hurt. Pierre half-dragged, and half-carried him back down the plank towards his companions.

    Jaz Minh bravely hurls herself on the three Frenchmen to keep Virigi (and his knowledge of the Forbidden City) out of the hands of the foreign devils

There was a shout and the martial artist Jaz Minh raced towards Pierre and began kicking and punching the Frenchman, who fended off her blows. There was an even louder shriek of fury, and the pygmies of the village converged on the intruders. Jaz Minh gasped as a pygmy spear laid open her leg. The Frenchmen knocked away pygmies from all sides, gathered up the monk and moved towards the bridge. Pierre handed the monk off to the doctor, and stood as a valiant rearguard, battering aside any pygmies that tried to follow.

    Another agent of the Order of the Fire Coral, Tatko, bravely holds off the Irish leader and sidekick for several turns -- keeping them out of the action

Not far away, the martial artist Tatko and the Irish fortune hunters Lady Shannon and Ryan were engaged in a fierce brawl themselves. Tatko showed blazing speed in avoiding the attacks of the two Irish. The furious clamor from the village prompted them to break off their melee, and sneak towards the path to investigate. When they saw Dr. Lambert hurrying the monk down the path, they knew the French had been successful. Tatko stepped out onto the path for a clear throw, and zipped two shuriken at the archeologist. Dr. Lambert calmly ducked, then opened his briefcase, pulled out a revolver, and blazed away, wounding Tatko. Lady Shannon and Ryan appeared and both raised their weapons. "The monk comes with us!" they shouted. Lambert trained his revolver on them and fired. The Irish clucked in disbelief, "Och, bad decision, laddie..." They aimed at the doctor and squeezed their triggers..."Click! Click!" Out of ammunition -- both of them! The two let out a stream of curses in Gaelic as the Frenchman scooted past them, laughing.

        Clutching the monk's arm, Dr. Lambert runs the gauntlet of Tatko, Lady Shannon, and Ryan -- aided by not one but two "Out of Ammo" fortune cards

Meanwhile, far away in the jungle, Dakota Smith was definitely not laughing as he fled from the angry orangutan, whose frustrated howls rivaled those of the pygmies. Although he had not rescued the monk, he was somewhat relieved to see the French had done so. Now, all he would have to do would be to follow the French to the hidden city! He'd calmly finished looting the last of the pygmy idols and had been sneaking off into the jungle when he'd surprised the massive ape. His shots back at it did not seem to deter it from its chase, though. Eventually, he blundered onto the path, where he met Harold Fortwine, carrying Dolly Flanders. "What's that sticking out of your tail end, Harold?" Dakota asked.

    A comic end to the tale was a great ape chasing a wounded Dakota Smith out of the jungle

The burly academic grunted, "Cursed pygmy arrow!" Behind them, they heard more howls, though they could not tell if it was pygmies or apes. The two giggled and fled off into the jungle, not sticking around to find out.

Our third game of Pulp Alley was a blast. I had six players -- five archeological leagues, and one martial arts society whose job is to frustrate the objective of the others. Each team except for the martial arts society had a Leader, Sidekick, and Ally. Humorously, four of the five allies ended up being knocked down and out -- and all by the play of Fortune Cards. Both Frau Blucher and Dolly Flanders took tumbles on perilous cliff paths, while Tex was the first character to try to cross my rope bridge (and failed). British Clara was ambushed by pygmies in the woods early on. The only Ally to survive was the French Jacques Nero.

The French won the scenario, with the heroic charge led by their leader, Pierre Fournereau. They were really the only faction who made a concerted effort to go for the major plot point -- Brother Virigi stewing in the cookpot. All of the others were distracted by the minor plot points of idols and temples. The Germans in particular, spent the game chasing after Dakota Smith and his band after they snatched a plot point from under their noses. The Irish were also frustrated, but by the Order of the Fire Coral. First, Opay stole the plot point out of the temple just ahead of them. Then Tatko was a one-man wrecking and dodging crew, holding off the Irish leader and sidekick single-handedly. The Order of the Fire Coral has three sidekicks instead of the Leader/Sidekick/Ally combination. They played masterfully this time. They did not win, as the French had the major plot point, but they prevented the Irish from being a factor. The British succeeded in looting one idol, and seemed content with that. Dakota Smith surprisingly ignored the quick pathway to the village and left it to the French to rescue Brother Virigi, while he went off idol hunting. The Americans snagged two plot points, and escaped off board.

The players all seemed to have a good time...well, except for the Germans! We are getting better at creating the storyline of what happens in each perilous area, and making up what form each challenge takes. In the extremely perilous river island -- the cannibal village -- the perils were simply pygmies rushing at the players. Easier challenges represented lone pygmies, while difficult ones were swarms of them. The systems forces us to tell the story as we go along, and it often turns out to be a fairly hilarious one, too! Seven friends sitting around the table can be pretty ruthless when it comes to thinking of embarrassing things that happened to your characters when they fail challenges...!

The next chapter will find the archeologists finally exploring the hidden city that Brother Virigi had spotted so long ago. Stay tuned to this channel for more thrilling Oriental Adventures with Dakota Smith...!

Snowed in? Build a temple! (Part 5 - finished!)

    At 10 inches tall, this temple is definitely the centerpiece of a gaming table

So, the big temple is now complete. I have to say that I am very happy with how it turned out. This build has to be up there with my Dark Ages Saxon church as one of my all-time favorites.  Is it my best work? Not sure...but it is certainly not my worst!

    Some of my 28mm Pulp figures gathered around the entrance to the temple

All patting myself on the back aside, when I left off in the last article the temple outside was complete. All that remained was the flocking and the interior. I painted the styrene base with white glue and poured medium ballast over the glue as a first coat. Then, I painted the ballast (when dry) with a mixture of white glue, water, and brown paint. I poured sand over it while still wet. Then I painted straight white glue in large patches, sprinkling this with Woodland Scenics blended green turf. Once it had dried, the areas left brown I painted with 50/50 white glue and water and sprinkled lightly with Woodland Scenics brown turf. I added three different colors of clump foliage here an there, as well as some wire plants, flowers, or bushes.

    Eric Bylan and his native guides investigate the rear of the grand temple

At this point, I had a decision to make: Do I flock the roof to represent plants taking roof up there, as well? I went back and forth on the idea, and finally decided to do it. First, I painted the area with straight white glue and sprinkled on blended green turf. I then followed it up here and there with clump foliage atop the green. I even added a couple flowering plants or bushes on top of that. Once everything was dry, I sprayed it with Testors Dullcoate, and then followed that up with a 50/50 white glue and water. I am glad I decided to flock the roof. I think it adds that extra bit of "lost in the jungle" feel to the temple.

    Looking down at the roof of the temple -- I think the flock added to the roof really makes it appear like it as stumbled upon, hidden deep inside of a jungle

For the interior, I downloaded some images from CG Textures -- a free website with great pictures of stone, brick, cloth -- you name it! I resized then in Photoshop and printed them out. I decided to have the interior of the temple made of reddish blocks of sandstone. The floor is an almost-mosaic like rock floor. Once they were trimmed to fit perfectly, I painted the interior with Ceramcoat Spice Tan (the same color as the base coat for the temple surfaces). That way, any join between the walls or floor that doesn't fit perfectly has a nice, dull background to blend it in. Once dry, I painted it with a thin layer of white glue and affixed the images of the walls and floor. I know the images look less three dimensional than the outsides, but I think they look nice as interiors. I used the same technique for my other temples, as well as the interiors of the jungle huts. Using these images is a quick, easy, and nice looking way to finish the interiors of buildings.

    The interior of the temple, which is simply covered with images printed off in color and glued to the inside walls

I'm not 100% sure my pictures do the temple justice -- it is simply so large of a build. Its final measurements are about 7" wide, by 5" deep, and 10" tall. As I mentioned earlier, the roof comes off, and the second story and stupa atop the roof come off the roof, as well. This makes it easier to store, of course. So, with this build, I think I am done with Southeast Asian temples for awhile. If I do anything else, they will likely be small stupas to place here and there to fill out a larger board.

    A closeup of the false second story, which is detachable and lifts off of the roof for easier storage

I hope you enjoyed the series of entries detailing its work in progress! Feel free to leave a comment, or ask questions...! Thanks.

Snowed in? Build a temple! (Part 4)

    The build is essentially complete after this stage. Only the flocking and interior need to be added.

For some reason, I was really worried about this stage. I had a feeling that the styrene brick pattern would be difficult to paint and make it look realistic. I planned on painting the mortar a light tan color and then dry brushing the reddish-brown for the bricks. Just about all the dry brushing I'd done before typically featured a lighter color atop a darker one. This would reverse that, and I wasn't sure if my dry brushing would fill cover the mortar. I even read up some on painting patterned styrene brick on the Lead Adventure Forum. The advice I gleaned was to hold the brush at a 45 degree angle and to do successive lighter coats instead of bearing down and try to cover it all in one coat.

    The styrene brick pattern was not nearly the pain to paint up as I worried that it might be!

The advice worked like a charm, I was relieved to discover. I painted the mortar the same shade as the highlight layer on the sandstone -- Ceramcoat Dunes Biege. I figured this might work with the eye to tie the color scheme all together. I let it dry overnight, and then sat down and began my dry brushing experiment. The advice also said to turn the pattern around and dry brush both "up" and "down." I was very pleased with how the color -- Iron Wind Metals Red Brown -- stayed inside the lines of the bricks, for the most part. I tried to do a highlight color atop it but it simply wasn't showing up. So, I decided to see what it looked like with an ink wash. Wow! It transformed it completely, and made it look so much more realistic, I thought. It really brought out the different tones I'd tried to do with fewer or more layers of red brown dry brushing.

    Sand glued to the surface of the bricks represents the original outer surface of the temple which has fallen away in many places

I was so pleased with how it looked I almost abandoned my idea for the next stage -- attaching plaster to the brick walls in fragments as if most of it has fallen away. After staring at it for awhile, I decided to give it a go. I painted the surface of the bricks here and there in an irregular pattern -- covering maybe 25% of the surface, at most. I then poured sand across it, which stuck nicely to the glue. After drying for a few hours, I primed it black and let it dry overnight.

    Another highlight of "Dunes Beige" was given to the columns and the top trim, as well as the Hirst Arts stone pieces

The next day, I replicated the sandstone color scheme with Ceramcoat colors "Raw Sienna," "Spice Tan," and "Dunes Biege." After completing this step, I decided to go ahead and do another highlight on select areas of wood trim and Hirst Arts pieces on the temple. They had gotten a tad darker than I wanted with the ink wash, and felt they needed to be lightened up a bit. I dry brushed "Dunes Biege" over the upper portions of the Hirst Arts stone pieces, the wood trim, columns, and finally, the guardian statues and their pedestals.

Only two stages remain in this build. The next will be the flocking of the ground around the temple. The final step will be to print off textured paper to glue on the inside of the temple to represent its floors and walls. Who knows? Maybe I'll even construct and paint up a Buddhist or Hindu altar to be placed inside. Either way, the actual construction part of this temple is now complete! Stay tuned for the final touches...!

Snowed in? Build a temple! (Part 3)

    Where I left off -- the temple black primed...but will those smooth surfaces look good once painted?

As I sat looking at my black-primed temple, I realized I had been in too much of a hurry. I should have found a way to put brick on the sides of the false "second story" so that it better matched the main level. It looked cool, but once I started painting it, I had a feeling that the paper mache sides of the second story would look less than impressive. The best way to salvage the temple, I felt, was to give those sides some texture. I decided to give it a rough, sandstone look. Many of the temples at Bagan in Myanmar had a stone facing that has fallen off after centuries, revealing the brick core. So, the lower level of my temple would be exposed brick, but the upper level would be standstone.

I took white glue and painted all the exposed pieces of paper mache, as well as the entire roof except for the foam block that the paper mache box fit around. This included the tin bells and acrylic rod decorative railings and the mini-stupas on each roof corner. It did not include the Hirst Arts stone pieces or the statues, though. I then poured sand across the surfaces that had been painted with glue, which stuck on nicely, giving it a rough texture.

    White glue painted on the smooth surfaces and sand poured over them to add texture

I let it dry overnight. Then I watered down black acrylic craft paint 50/50 and painted it over the sand. I was really surprised how easily and thoroughly the watered down paint covered it, making it all black again. I had expected to have to fight to get the paint in the nooks and crannies of the sand surface, but the watery paint flowed well over the surface and into every bit of it. I'd been dreading this stage, but it was actually a breeze. In addition, this glue, sand, and paint coating has likely cemented the whole build together. I shouldn't have to worry about pieces popping off again.

I pulled up my travel website to look at pictures of Bagan, again, to help me choose the colors. I decided to go with a brown base coat that had just a hint of red tone to it. I took a large, flat brush and wet brushed this over fairly thoroughly, but leaving some of the black undercoat showing through. The next day, I did my first dry brush of a Ceramcoat color called "Raw Sienna." It is an orangish-brown color. I followed that up with another Ceramcoat color called "Spice Tan." This is a lighter, more yellowish color, but in the same tone as the Raw Sienna. Finally, I did highlights with "Dunes Biege." The effect on the Hirst Arts stone pieces and the wood trim and columns was slightly different than on the sand, but they don't look jarringly dissimilar.

    The final dry brush of "Dunes Beige" lightens the temple up considerably

The one thing I mulling over in my head is whether to do an ink wash over this. Looking at the stone pieces, columns and wood trim, I definitely feel a black ink wash would enhance how it looks. I'm worried that putting it over the sandstone parts will hide some of the layering of the four different colors, though. I'm also afraid it will darken it up too much. I will probably wait to make that decision until after I have done the brick surface, which is next.

    A close up of the roof (which comes off of the main temple), and the false second story (which pops off also, held in place by the snug fit of the paper mache box around a piece of foam.

So far, I am very happy with how this temple is turning out. Architecturally, I think it is very sharp looking. I'm hoping once the brick is done it will "tie it all together," looks-wise.

Snowed in? Build a temple! (Part 2)

    A row of tin bells glued along the roof trim made for a nice, final architectural flourish for the temple

Not a whole lot new to report on the build, so far. I finished the "construction" phase of the temple by deciding upon what decoration I wanted on the roof trim. I'd glued a piece of wood with raised rectangular sections that looked perfect to have some decorative bead or architectural flourish on them. So, I headed down to Michaels craft store and perused through the bead aisle. Nothing really jumped out at me, so I kept browsing through the store until I came upon a pack of 30 tiny, tin bells. I measured them and they would fit in the rectangular areas of the roof trim almost perfectly. The only thing I wasn't crazy about was the tab with hole at the top -- doubtless meant to tie or hang them with. Then I got the idea to thread a tiny dowel through the lined up holes. It would make a perfect decorative railing. I stopped by Hobbyland for a length of acrylic dowel small enough to fit through the holes.

    Close up shows the length of acrylic rod threaded through the lined up holes in the tab at the top of each bell

Once I got them home, I found out I needed to yank out the ringer to get them to sit flat. This didn't take long, and then I simply used Tacky glue to affix each bell in its row. First, though, I threaded them along their length of dowel and lifted them up as one to the trim piece. The long sides took 7 bells each, the short sides four. It worked like a dream, and I thought I was ready for the next step -- painting. However, I hit upon an unfortunate snag. I discovered, much to my frustration, that Tacky glue does NOT stick to styrene. At all. Whatever is affixed with Tacky glue pops back off at the first jostle. I had nearly every piece that had been glued to the roof pop back off. And the top molding on the lower level popped off on all four sides. Lesson learned. I scored up the styrene to try to give is some grip, and then re-affixed them with 5-Minute Epoxy. Hopefully, this will make them hold long enough that the layers of glue, paint, and texturing cement it into place!

    The temple after being spray primed black, and then gone over with an additional coat of brush-on acrylic black paint

Since it was still relatively cold here in Ohio, I set up a large cardboard box in the garage to spray prime the three temple pieces. The first day that it got warm enough to do so, I sprayed each piece down with flat, black acrylic paint. After it dried, I then brushed on Ceramcoat black acrylic craft paint over the entire surface. And that is where I am, now. The next step will be to add some texture to the non-brick surfaces of the temple.

Stay tuned for more!

Snowed in? Build a temple! (Part 1)

    The big one -- at least as far as my Southeast Asian temples will go -- after two days of construction. The only thing left before painting is to find some sort of fancy bead to put along the roof edges inside those squares on the wood trim.

What do you do when snow cancels gaming, and the next two days of school? Why, build something as far away from Midwestern snowscapes as possible — a temple in the steamy jungles of Southeast Asia! I’d planned all along to build a big temple to go with the two smaller ones and the stupa I’d constructed last year. And I guess it was “next” in line for terrain I’m building for my 28mm Pulp games — Dakota Smith’s Oriental Adventures. So, as I sat around the house Sunday night moping because there was no gaming, I figured I may as well get started on it.

    The walls of this temple would have a brick pattern, courtesy of a great find at Hobby Lobby!

I had a 4”x6” paper mache box to use as the core of the temple. Unlike the other boxes I used for the temples, this one did not have a patterned surface. Instead, this was plain because I was going to give it brick walls. Many of the temples at Bagan in Myanmar (the inspiration for my temple complex) are made out of brick. The plaster or other surface has worn away on many, so when I visited the complex back in 2003, you see a lot of reddish-orange brick. What’s more, I’d picked up a half dozen patterned, styrene sheets on clearance at Hobby Lobby earlier last year. They included two sizes of brick ones.

    A 4"x6" paper mache box with rectangles of brick-patterned styrene epoxied onto it

I chose one with the smaller bricks and cut out four rectangles to cover each face of the box. I used two-part epoxy to attach it to the paper mache because I was worried about the styrene not sticking with white glue or Tacky glue. I attached one face at a time so they would not shift on me. The problem with simply gluing a patterned sheet to a box is, of course, the corners. How do you cover up the place where two sheets are supposed to join up? I decided to use an “L-shaped” piece of bass wood and attach it to each corner. That way, it would cover up the seam (or lack of a seam) completely. It was actually hard to find the L-shaped bass wood, and I had to resort to the somewhat pricey local Hobbyland.

    How do you cover up those ugly joins between the four pieces of brick styrene? First cover them with L-shaped bass wood...

    ...and then you decorate it with wood trim to look like half-columns!

Each side of the bass wood is 1/2” long, and I decided to decorate that blank space with some fancy wood trim. I’d picked up a large back of various styles of decorative wood trim at Hobby Lobby when I made the first batch of temples. I found two pieces that were perfect and looked like spiral half columns once glued to the building. I actually, put the trim on the L-shaped bass wood first, before I affixed it to the building. That let me use gravity to keep it from sliding while the Tacky glue dried. I took another piece of decorative trim and lined the top edge of the building on all four sides, too. I liked the look of the temple so far, so set it aside to dry while I began working on the roof.

    The core of the temple upside-down, so the top trim can dry flush and level

The base of the roof would be a simple sheet of black styrene. To keep it in place atop the temple, I cut out a piece of balsa wood the exact size of the four walls and glued to the bottom of the roof. The balsa projects down into the walls keeping it from sliding around while the styrene sits atop. While that was drying, I began working on the decorations for the roof. I wanted a bell-shaped projection atop each corner. So, I dug out my miscellaneous wood bits. By assembling an upside down flower pot, spool, disk, wooden wheel, a bead, and a 15mm spear, a very nice looking corner “mini-stupa” was created. The central, bell-shaped decoration was started, as well. It was a bit simpler and consisted of a filial, upside down wooden pot, and a disk.

    The decorative bits for the roof: Four mini-stupas for each corner, and the central stupa (which will get another layer and grow even taller the next day when I find a piece to go beneath it at Hobby Lobby...!)

The next day, I took another look at my favorite picture of Bagan, and decided the roof needed to get even fancier. I decided to have a small, false upper level complete with door and roof. So, it was back to Hobby Lobby for their smallest paper mache box. I also picked up another decorative layer to add to the roof’s stupa — a flat-topped doorknob shaped piece of wood that the filial and disk would fit perfectly atop. I used Tacky glue to attach the corner mini-stupas to the roof, and cut two telescoping “levels” of balsa wood for the false second level to sit atop. I had to weight the balsa wood with glue bottles and other miscellanea to keep it flat, though, as balsa tends to warp. It was thickest material I had, though, so I decided to use it. While that was drying, I cut four more sections of decorative wood trim to go along the edge of the roof. It has a square pattern on it, and I hope to find some kind of bead that will look cool in the middle of each square.

    The beginning of the entranceway -- a stone archway made from Hirst Arts curved wall pieces

Next, it was time to begin work on the doors themselves, the false one on the second level and the main entrance. I had cruised the aisles of Hobby Lobby when I bought the box, hoping for inspiration. I hadn’t seen anything that struck my fancy, though. Eventually, I pulled out my leftover Hirst Arts blocks from when I built my Pictish broch years ago. I fiddled with various bits until something finally game to me. I would use two curved wall sections to form an arching entranceway. Attached to their front would be the door, and some flaring, decorative stone work. Many of the entrances at Bagan have pointed, decorative, arch-like entrances. I was trying to give the effect without exactly copying one. Serendipity struck when the piece I used to get it all together had a projecting stone on either side of the doorway. I looked at it, and said, “Hmmm….a statue would look great there!” I rummaged through my unpainted lead pile until I found two Khmer Maiden Guard figures. They fit perfectly on the stone ledges. The door itself was simply “scalloped” balsa wood. The ornamental door knockers were a couple beads and a pin head glued to the wood.

    More Hirst Arts pieces attach to the carved stone entranceway (hidden here). The door is a piece of scalloped balsa wood with two beads and a pin head attached. The statues are 15mm Khmer Maiden Guard figures.

I decided to do a smaller version of the fancy entranceway for the false second floor, too. I left off the door knockers, since the door was only decorative. I used smaller Hirst Arts pieces and was able to give them a stone ledge, too. I dug through my figure box and found — believe it or not — two female zombie hunter figures with axes to guard this entrance. So much of a project like this is work on something, set it aside to dry, and work on another phase or section of the build. I was bouncing between the main temple piece and the roof piece with regularity.

    The roof with most of its construction done. The false level attaches to that block of foam core snugly, allowing me to remove it and store it on its side. The tower mini-stupas have their 15mm spear points glued inside the bead. The only thing missing is some sort of fancy bead in each of those rectangles on the wooden trim along the edge of the roof.

Once it came time to finish the main entranceway, I had to glue the entire building down onto its styrene base. The roof was progressing well, too. One key consideration is that I want these buildings to fit in the 13”x13”x4” snap-together boxes I use to cart my terrain around. The tough part is always the 4” high part! So, I designed this temple to be three separate pieces. there is the main building, which is about 3” tall. The roof comes apart in two sections. The false second level and the stupa tower atop it pulls off, and can be laid on its side in the boxes. The roof itself is only one layer styrene, two layers of balsa, and a layer of foam core that the false level snugly fits around. It is just a little over 2” tall — most of that being in the corner, “mini-stupas.”

    And here is the more than 6" tall false level and stupa tower. I love how you can stack a bunch of these wood pieces on top of each other and it really looks like a stupa from Bagan! A small paper mache box forms the core of the false level, decorated by Hirst Arts pieces and a fake door. Two axe-wielding women guard the fake door.

All three pieces have been set aside to dry. The only thing left, construction-wise, is some form of decoration on the wood trim on the first level of the roof. I plan on going to Michaels craft store tomorrow and find some cool-looking bead to glue along the roof…well, make that 20 of them!

Forest or Jungle Paths

 

    Pathways for jungles or forests made out of acrylic caulk. The colorful flower foliage is also newly created, using the same technique I did for the "Jungle Pieces".

The last terrain pieces that I wanted to have for my next installment of my 28mm Pulp adventure were jungle or forest paths. The board for this game will be mostly jungle (as will later ones). So, rather than put a lot of variously-shaped pieces out on the table, plop trees on them and say, “This is jungle”, I figured to do it the opposite way. I would say the entire board is jungle EXCEPT designated areas. These areas would include pathways through the jungle that explorers could follow and move on more quickly.

I did a lot of searching on the internet (as well as soul searching!) to decide how to create them. Obviously, the cheapest, simplest, and least attractive way would be to cut out pieces of brown felt and say, “Voila!” Next in line, I could look for a suitable material — such as suede or other fabric — that had more of a dappled look to it. Another idea would be to cut them out of thin styrene and flock them. The one I actually settled on was an idea I found on The Lead Adventure Forum and The Miniatures Page. It involved using paintable acrylic caulk to create the roads — which would easily translate for me into forest pathways. I read several tutorials on it, which I will link at the end of this post. The material seemed to be very similar to what the maker must have used for the latex river pieces that I’d bought at Historicon. The thing that excited me the most about trying this method was that I could translate it into other types of terrain. I could use it to make that swamp or bog that I’ve been wanting to do. I could use it to make wider rivers than the ones I created. I could even use it to create a pond — heck, anything I really wanted to make with it!

The tutorials all used the caulk in slightly different ways. The biggest variation seemed to be whether to use a base material or simply use the caulk itself as the terrain piece. One tutorial advised using a fabric base and to spread the caulk atop it. Another advised using a plastic mesh (called “granny grate”) — similar to what I used as my window panes on my Saxon church. Still another advised using it without any base material. I decided to go with a felt base because I was worried about the latex sticking to flocking and picking it up off other pieces. I would doubtless end up stacking them up and I didn’t want the flock I was going to put on the pathway surface to be pulled off by the bottoms of the pieces piled on top of them.

    Various shapes for path sections drawn on white paper, cut out and traced onto the felt

With that decided, I drew out the shapes I wanted for my pathways on a sheet of white paper. I cut it out and traced it onto a piece of brown felt with permanent marker. This was cut out with fabric scissors — sharp scissors are a must, I’ve found, if cutting a lot of felt. I picked up a 5.5 ounce (162 ml) tube of “Premium All Purpose Elastomeric Sealant” in the cedar color. This is a medium tan which would be a good base for the pathway color. The brand name for mine was “White Lightning,” but what you are looking for is paintable acrylic caulk. Do NOT get silicone caulk — it repels water and you will hate yourself (I read) when you go to paint it.

    Paintable acrylic caulk in "cedar" color -- the material that would form the surface of my paths

The tutorials also recommended to cut a slice of cardboard to put inside of a large ziplock bag to use as your working surface. The caulk peels right up off of the ziplock bag once dry — and it IS quite messy. I squeezed out 5 lines of the caulk onto the first, 2-inch wide pathway. I then took a half inch wide strip of cardboard and smoothed it out. Don’t worry about overlapping the edges, as you’ll trim it up later. I found that using the cardboard in the opposite direction from which I went to squeeze the caulk onto the felt helped keep it from lifting the line of caulk off of the felt. I got better at it as I went on to other pieces. As the tutorial instructed, I gave it about 20 minutes to begin setting, and then took a wide, soft brush, wetted it with water, and smoothed out the caulk. If you are doing a road instead of a forest path, this would be where you would add in ruts and cart or wheel tracks. Since mine is a footpath, I went for a smoother surface. While it was wet, I sprinkled on a number of smaller pebbles to represent rocks buried in the path surface. I pressed them down slightly into the caulk with the other end of the paint brush. I would add smaller gravel at a later stage. These were the big stones that I wanted partially buried in the path’s surface.

    Lines of caulk squeezed out onto the felt base, which itself sits atop a ziplock bag with a piece of cardboard inside to stiffen it as a working surface

I let it dry about six hours (as the tutorials recommended). Then I peeled it up off of the ziplock bag and was pleased to see it worked to perfection as a surface. I took my sharp fabric scissors and trimmed up the edges, eliminating any rough edges. Then I took my reddish-brown earth color that I use on bases and watered it down so it was only about 1/4 to 1/3 paint. I painted this over the tan surface of the road. While it was wet, I sprinkled on Woodland Scenics coarse and medium ballast — hoping the mixture would “grab” it, and affix it into place. The wash of reddish brown settled into the lower places of the road nicely. It was at this point that I “fell down on the job” and forgot to keep taking photos. My apologies. Once it was dry, I did a very light dry brush of khaki over the surface of the road and ballast. I hit the embedded stones a bit heavier with the dry brush to make them pop out more, visually. Then, I took my normal ink wash and diluted it by half with distilled water. I painted this over the surface of the road — trying my best not to pull off the tiny pieces of ballast that would represent scattered pebbles or gravel on the surface of the path.

    A wet paint brush smoothes out the caulk. This is where you would add any other embellishments, like wheel ruts, potholes, etc., if you wanted.

Once it was dry, I took straight white glue and applied it to patches here and there, mostly along the edges of the pathway. I then sprinkled the glue with Woodland Scenics blended green turf. I followed this up with beads of more white glue which would each receive a piece of Woodland Scenics clump foliage. I bought three different green tones awhile back, and mixed them here and there on the path surface. Once the white glue was dry, I mixed up a batch of 50/50 white glue and water and painted it over the entire road surface. This is to “cement” down the flocking. A light coating of dullcoate spray followed to take off any sheen, but not so heavy as to give it a thick enamel surface. I wanted the pathway to be flexible and be able to be take handling without cracking. I’m not sure if that would make it crack, but since the white glue would provide the primary coating on it — and white glue is slightly flexible — I needed the spray only to give it a nice matte appearance.

    The pathway pieces, dried and with edges trimmed up. Note also the stones embedded in the surface of the road.

"I Predict a Riot...!"

     Keith discusses the action in the game with Allen and Mike S. His ancient city tabletop is in the foregound.

My friend Keith was interested in another variant of the "Song of Blades and Heroes" engine from Ganesha Games that we use for many of our skirmish games. It is set in the ancient world and focuses on rioting in cities. So, he assembled a layout of a Mediterranean city from paper mache boxes and various other pieces. Since his ancient figures are still unfinished, Keith dusted off his 1/72 scale plastic medieval ones. Our riot was set in the Outremer -- the Crusader kingdom of the Middle East. A Byzantine tribune is visiting a city to woo the town elders over to supporting them. The Templars and the Normans of Tancred are not happy with this, and would like to capture the tribune -- or at worst, kill him.

There would be four players. Mike S controlled the tribune and his three bodyguards, Joel controlled the town militia, Allen the Templars, and I had the forces of Tancred. The victory conditions hinged on whether the Byzantine tribune made it through the city streets safely to his ship waiting to take him back to Constantinople. Unfortunately for the crusaders, the town militia was on his side, and we lost victory points for killing them. We also hated each other, and I got points for killing Templars, and vice versa. All of us controlled fairly small forces, and the table was also covered in ordinary citizens (who could be drawn into the fight), and a handful of stubborn, vicious mules.

    My Normans belonging to Tancred move towards the piers, hoping to reach the docks before the Byzantine tribune escapes

My sergeant and his four men-at-arms left our headquarters and raced to the piers to cut off the tribune from his escape. When we arrived their, the Templars had split their forces to flank the tribune. A couple militia archers had taken pot shots at the Templars. My archer thought it'd be funny to take a shot at the mule and spook him towards the militia, which actually worked to perfection (except that the militia man promptly brained the mule with his bowstave). A couple townsman began to mob the Templar, and one of my men went over to discomfort our rival (not attacking, but giving the Templar a negative modifier in his fight with the townsfolk). The Templar sergeant raced over to help his brother, and they both dispatched the rabble. Unfortunately, they did not see the humor in my ploy and promptly slew my man-at-arms. My archer took offense, and put an arrow in the eye slit of the Templar sergeant, which caused a momentary leaderless panic in the knights. My archer would prove to be my killer in this game, as he racked up several bullseyes on the enemy.

    My forces block off the alley leading to the piers. We find a Templar bowman and a militia archer engaged in an archery duel when we arrive.

With Allen's leader out of the fight, I had to step in and press an attack against the Byzantines and militia, or they'd overwhelm him and turn on me. The battle swelled to a four-way scrum in the center of the town. Things began to get hot for the tribune -- so much so he fled to the other side of the board to circle around behind us. When his bodyguards succumbed, the tribune fortunately failed a morale check which gave him a two-move scamper towards the boat. We all raced to the pier, where a lone mule blocked the tribune's path to the pier. With a flurry of blows and curses, the tribune recoiled the mule, opening his path. A templar raced towards him, coming up just short. My sergeant did the same, and also just missed engaging the tribune in combat. On Mike's next move, his tribune activated enough to run down the pier (screaming like a girl, I conjectured) and into the boat. We just missed bagging the bastard, and Mike was the clear winner of the game.

    All four players have forces converging on the main square of the city, as things get a bit hot for the Byzantine tribune's bodyguards

It was a fast-moving and fun variant of the system. "Rabble" types are dispatched when beaten in combat, and the modifiers make the archers a bit deadlier in this game. Either way, it'll be worthwhile entertainment to enter the world of riotous cities again, some evening...

    This little Byzantine piggy goes to the docks screaming "Weee, weee, weee" all the way home. Templars and Tancredis come up just short in their efforts to snag the tribune.

Cliff Sections, "step-down" pieces

    The large "step down" piece created to give an entrance or exit from the biggest of the cliff pieces

So, I needed more entrances and exits to my three cliff sections I'd built for my French & Indian War games. Originally, I'd made only two. I wanted the pieces to be more versatile, though, and that meant having more places for figures to climb up or down onto them. This became especially important as the cliffs are seeing double duty in my 28mm Pulp games, too.

I used the same method as I did for the cliffs. Black styrene plastic served as the base. The boulder or rock sections were recreated using pine bark. When I'd created the cliff sections this summer, I'd dried them out in the sun, first. The bark pieces that I didn't use I bagged up and put in the garage. I simply pulled this bag back out, and sorted through it to find flatter pieces that stacked up well. This became quite a challenge on the large piece. The very reason pine bark works so well as a stand-in for boulders is its irregular surface. So, it was kind of a three dimensional jigsaw puzzle to assemble the largest piece.

    The medium sized section...you can see one of the wire trees fairly well in the foreground of the image

The pieces were glued down onto the styrene or on top of each other using Aleene's Tacky glue. Just a few days after finishing these, I finally broke down and bought a hot glue gun (needed it for another project). In the future, I'll probably use this as it dries much quicker and doesn't drip as much. However, Tacky glue served me well on these -- and on the cliffs themselves. Once the glue was dry, I took them outsides and spray painted them with flat, black acrylic paint. As I sit here with the temperature well below freezing, it is hard to imagine that less than a week ago it was warm enough to go out and spray paint these in the corner of the yard! Ohio weather...don't like it? Wait a bit, it'll change...!

After the paint was dry, I squirted white glue everywhere that bare black styrene was visible. I poured over Woodland Scenics coarse ballast to start the ground surface up. After this dried, I watered down a large batch of Ceramcoat acrylic black paint (a bit stronger than 50/50). I painted this over all of the pine bark pieces and the ballast. I let the pieces dry overnight. Then I put a base coat of either dark gray or medium brown over the pine bark pieces. Like on the cliffs, I wanted some rock faces to be gray, and others to be more brownish (like they are here in Ohio). This was followed up by a light gray or khaki dry brush.

    The smallest of the three pieces I created to give miniatures access to the cliffs. Note the two-color rock tone of gray and brown, as you can find here in Ohio.

And here's where the hot glue gun comes in. A friend of mine had given me a bunch of small wire trees, bushes and flowers made for model railroad terrain. I put one of the trees on each of the medium and larger sized step down pieces. I also put on one of the flowers. The hot glue gun worked great to hold them into place. With only a thin wire stem, I knew I'd need something strong to keep them in place. I followed this up with my normal flocking procedure, and was very happy with how the pieces came out. They look nice and should add a lot of options to how I use the cliff pieces, now.

Speaking of which, the cliffs (and these step down pieces) will see action this weekend in my third Pulp scenario, which I am hosting at my place. So, you should see more pics of them soon on this blog. In the meantime, it was fun to get my 28mm Conquest Miniatures out and photograph them scrambling up and down the cliffsides on them...!