Spooky Trees Work In Progress

These are my spider infested trees for Middle Earth Mirkwood and for Rangers of Shadow Deep. They are made from artificial Bonsai trees I bought from Wish.com. To make them all different I cut up the trees and restuck the branches in different positions with a hot glue gun. I then used more hot glue to fill in the gaps and to add more varied surface detail. I made bases using old CDs and bits of cork and bark, then sprayed and painted the whole thing. I am rather pleased with the outcome and have even ordered another eight!

These are work in progress so far as I am going to add cobwebs in the same style as the spider victims I have already shown of this blog. 

This is the start of my ranger and his band of followers. I am planning to theme my heroes so they can be use for Middle Earth as well as Shadow Deep (two birds with one stone, so to speak).

My ranger, Thorongil, is a warrior and a strategist. He understands the importance of coordinating attacks and leading from the front. His men are inspired by his presence.

Nori Ironaxe is a Dwarf guardsman, and a reliable and trustworthy member of the band. He is also the team's armourer.

Rolf Butterfield is a man-at arms, and is accompanied by his trusty hound Rufus.

Spider Victims!

Victims of my (not so) Giant Spiders!

The bodies were made with green stuff, and head off various plastic figures (cos I didn't want to have to sculpt faces). The webs are those ones you buy at halloween and stretch out to cover furniture etc. I soaked bits in watered down PVA and stretched it over the base.

'Giant' Spiders

The first mission for Rangers of Shadow Deep requires some Giant Spiders, but after splurging all my spare cash on rules, rangers and other goodies I needed a cheap solution. I bought some spider charms on ebay (£1.99 for 10) and mounted them on pennies. Quick paint job and a bit of flock and they are ready to go. Not the most detailed figures perhaps, and maybe a little smaller than I would have liked, but they will do for the mission. They would be excellent for 15mm games, so when I have finished with them for Shadow Deep I will add them to my Dragon Rampant 15mm goblin army.

Mind you, if I saw a spider the size of a small dog I would probably call it a Giant Spider. And aren't smaller spiders more poisonous than the giant ones?

Generic Scatter Terrain

I have been making some terrain, principally to play Rangers of Shadow Deap, but suitable for other fantasy settings too (Middle Earth and Age of Sigma spring to mind). I began with some scatter terrain suggested in the first Rangers of Shadow Deep mission. I needed some rocky outcrops and some patches of dense brambles.

These were made using old CDs as bases, following a tutorial by Mel the Terrain Tutor (LINK). the brambles were made from some dried plant stuff I bought from the flower arranging section of Hobbycraft. The rocks were made from...well rock actually. Just a few nice shapes stones and gravel from the garden. 

I suspect these pieces will see a lot of action as they are generic enough to be used everywhere from the steamy jungles of the Congo to the rural 'idle' of VBCW shropshire.