Board nearly finished

Finally a pic again. The board is nearly finished. There's some paint cleanup to be done and I'm not sure I like the color around the grate. Also a bunch of details need to be added: some blood spots, painting the pit, etc.

It's really nice to see it starting to come together though.

Plaster!

50 lbs of plaster on the doorstep today. I'm going down to the basement now to start casting and gluing. I'll probably work on some of the basecoating as well.

Shouldn't be long now. I'll throw some basecoating pictures up shortly.

Base coating

No pics this time, but I broke out the airbrush and started base coating the two sections I have while I wait for the new box of plaster to arrive.

I use an airbrush because the propellant in a regular can of black primer will melt the foam. I'm not 100% sure it's faster than using a brush, but the airbrush is still new to me so I'm experimenting.

And more casting

As of last count I have 230 tiles done for the middle tier so I'm past the halfway point... give or take...

It looks like I have maybe 10 more molds worth of plaster before I run out so no need to rush since I don't have my new box yet.

I do have some tiles set aside for some color experiments so that should be done shortly. Hopefully I'll get some time Sunday for that. Saturday we're having a party during the day and returning to KotS at night.

Casting, casting, casting

Not much to add, been casting molds, but not at the rate I would like. I think I need somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 tiles for the center section and I've only cast 150.

Of course speed isn't a big deal yet since I'm going to run out of plaster. I've contacted the nice people at Clint Sales and should be able to order my new box shortly.

I've started the statue, I should be posting about that process within a day or two.

Altar floor finished

The altar floor is finished. This one was really easy, just a straight tile job over the foam. My supply of Merlin's Magic is running low so I'm going to order a 50lb. box on Monday. Hopefully it'll get here before I run out. Even if it doesn't I need to do a couple of casts with Plaster of Paris to experiment with color schemes.

Tiling the pit

First up, the pit end. Tiling this end of the room is slightly more complicated than the other two sections. Mainly because of the way the stair wrap around. When working with a piece of this size doing a dry fit before gluing is essential. Make sure you know which size bricks go where and that they'll all fit. The bricks will sometimes not fit quite right. If you can't force the brick into place, try tapping on it with something. If all else fails, sand the edges a bit to get it to fit.





This section is done and ready for paint. You might see that I took a slight bit of liberty with the stairs. In order to make things fit nicely I made the top stair a full square level with the elevated portion. This change is purely aesthetic and it won't affect game play at all.

While we're on the subject of paint, I should note I'm not sure how I'm going to paint this yet. The map of the room provided with the module has brownish floor tiles. I think I'm going to go with that. Some tiles have a small patter on them. I have some ideas to try out for that, though I may skip it and just make all the tiles plain.

Prepping the floor materials

I was originally going to use EPS foam for the entire structure including the floor. In the end I decided I could get better looking, sturdier results from using plaster. It will be heavier but the end result should be well worth it.



Casting takes time and I only have one of this particular mold (#203 from www.hirstarts.com). I should probably pick up another but I'm nearly done. I use Merlin's Magic dental plaster for my casting. It's @14000 PSI and is much more durable than plaster of paris. In order to speed up drying time I stick the bricks into a food dehydrator for a few hours before use.

At this point I need to cast more bricks.. a lot more and my supply of Merlin's Magic is dangerously low. I've started tiling the altar section and should be able to finish that quickly. The middle section is going to require somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 bricks so it's likely that that one will be awhile.

While I'm casting bricks for the middle section, I'll probably tackle the portal and the statue.

Gluing the bases

I need to glue the foam to the MDF bases. For this I used a glue marketed specifically for foam but any PVA glue should do fine. I generally use Elmer's Wood Glue for all my terrain gluing.

On the larger piece I made sure to put some heavy objects all over so as to make sure it glued up flat.

I don't have a picture of it, but for the altar end I glued one piece of foam to the MDF, then when that dried the other piece of foam on top. This gave me the high elevation I needed.

You'll also note the use of parchment paper. I lay this down so if there are glue drips they are easy to remove.

Making the base...

To start off I needed a good strong base for my model. For those that have seen the module it has three distinct elevations. With the construction methods I intend on using I decided to create the room in three parts that I can push together. This will make it easier to store, and make the weight more manageable.

I decided to base the model with MDF. I have plenty and it makes for a good strong foundation. In order to get the elevations needed I'm using EPS insulation foam. I'll refer to the sections of the model as the "altar" section which is the highest, the "pool" section" which is the middle (both in height and position), and the pit section.

The altar section is 5 squares by 21 squares (every square is an inch on a side so I'll probably switch back and forth with my units). It's two levels above the lowest section (the pit). Each elevation is 1" which is a convenient choice when using 1" blue foam.

The middle section is 19x21 and is one elevation above the lowest section.

The pit section is the lowest section. It's 6x21. On either edge is an area that is the level of the middle section. These are 3x6.

So the parts list is:

• Altar
  
  • 1 piece of MDF 5" x 21".
    
  • 2 pieces of foam 5" x 21".
    
  
  
• Middle
  
  
  
  • 1 piece of MDF 19" x 21".
  • 1 piece of foam 19" x 21".
    
  
  
• Pit
  
  
  
  • 1 piece of MDF 6" x 21"
    
  • 2 pieces of foam 3" x 6"

A table saw made quick work of all but the small pieces for the pit:

And the foam cutter easily handled the smaller pieces:

So here we go...

Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition came out a little bit ago. They've really embraced tactical combat, which is the way I've always played and it's brought me back into the RPG scene.

4e is playable without minis and battlemats just like it's always been, but the emphasis on using those tools is clearly there this time around. For someone that also loves miniature gaming, and modeling it's no surprise that the first thing I thought when I read Keep on the Shadowfell was "I need to model some of these encounters".

With a new baby I couldn't be too ambitious. I decided to pick one encounter to bring to life. I could have done the outdoor encounters, they would be fairly straightforward and I've modeled the outdoors over and over. Instead though, I decided to make a 3D version of the very last room of the adventure. Something to put out on the table when my group gets there to really put a cap on the module.

I decided to keep a blog of my progress so I can keep motivated. Plus it's hard to not want to share the project as it's going with others and I can't share it with my group.. I want it to be a total surprise for them... assuming they don't stumble across this (which is unlikely).

Once I'm done, I'll probably put everything into a pdf and push it up somewhere... I'm also thinking I might bring it with me to Gencon if it's done in time. Most likely it won't be 100% complete by them but you never know.

I also should note that if you're running through KotS as a player this blog could have minor spoilers. You've been warned.

Without further prattling here we go.