Temple of Death: Part 1

Temple of Death: Part 1 - The Build

I have built a new board for Into the Dungeon Fest, which is going to be happening in just over a week from today! I wanted to contribute to the Mordheim event and put something together that would be interesting for players. I had some styrofoam, so the initial plan was just for some ruined walls - the temple idea came later. I put this board together in just over a week, which is standard for me - I go from no hobby effort at all, to 3 or 4 manic hours a day until the project is done.

I don't want to be too granular about my process, but the styrofoam was actually pretty soft and flimsy, so it required a lot of supporting. Luckily, it didn't melt when I hit it with hot glue, so I was able to mount it onto the table. I also spent several hours chopping and gluing floor planks into place. I watched the entire first season of True Detective during this build - strangely, it helped keep me sane. This all went around the statue, which was made of a Buddha who's head was sawed off (sorry, Buddha!) and replaced with a plastic Halloween skull.

I used pre-mixed grout around the bases of most of the styrofoam pieces to keep them firmly in place and provide some rigidity. I went over the entire board at this point with a mixture of wood glue, matte medium, water, and sand (not very much sand at all). This provided a bit of durability, and texture for paint to grip. Then I did a second round with a lot less water, and a lot more sand. This mostly went on the flat areas of the board to build some ground texture, but I also used it on the walls to cover some of the styrofoam edges and provide more durability.

Next came painting. I grabbed all of my old acrylic paints that come in those cheap 'starter kits' for kids. I have a whole bin of those from every time someone gives up on painting and gives me their old stuff. I squeezed out 6 or 7 greens, browns, and ochres onto a big pallete and started blending them in patches across the table. I like really colourful tables, and I don't always stick to realistic colour palettes. My home Mordheim setup is all purple and blue. (Of course I did not take pictures of most of the middle phases - classic).

I painted the whole table using cheap acrylics, including the wood beams (light brown), the walls (grey), and the statue (several shades of teal and green). I drybrushed some metallics of the statue which gave it that good old patina look. I also drybrush the rest of the table with a cheap off-white acrylic for highlighting - nice and simple.

Next came oil washes. I didn't want to cover the entire table - I used to have a massive jar of black acrylic ink wash that I just doused my terrain with, but I found it left a shiny texture no matter how much matte medium I stirred in. So I was satisfied by blobbing purple into every nook and cranny on the board (washing the whole statue purple), and then following up with brown, ochre, and green washes to temper the purple shadows and add grime and colour.

Once the oil washes were dry, it was time to flock! This is always the scariest step for me. I mix wood glue, isopropyl alcohol, and water together (very thick for this part) and slop it all over the nice painting I just did. I come behind it by sprinkling on a dark green, and then a lighter shade in turn, until the board no longer looks wet. I like to add more than needed, as the glue will saturate up into the flocking as it sits. After doing the whole board and giving it an hour to try in the very hot sun during a heat wave, I flip the table sideways and blow off all the excess flock that is sitting on top that didn't stick.

I mix up some more glue, this time way thinner - using mostly just isopropyl and wood glue. I strain out all the chunks of glue that don't dissolve, and I add the nice thin mix to a spray bottle. This coats all of the flocking on the board, saturating it from the top. At this point, the flocking is solidly adhered.

This is the majority of the board done, and the last steps are just adding little details, like grass tufts, flowers, moss, and painting the skulls around the statue base. As you can see, non of these were particularly advanced techniques. I used styrofoam, stir sticks, and an old coffee can for the tower. I painted with cheap acrylics and oils, using thinner from the craft store for washes. The most advance technique would probably be purchasing flocking and tufts, and spritzing isopropyl and glue over the flock - but I wouldn't describe that step as very hard.

So, this is a super affordable and accessible build for anyone in the hobby, and it's the way I make pretty much all of my boards.

The one negative thing about this board that I have to say, is that there is almost no verticality. For most games that's fine, but for Mordheim I like a bit of climbing. I think it's still super playable, due to the way that the pivoted temple helps to block line of sight, and I will be adding scatter to the board like trees, fences, and bushes to creat more obstacles.

The board is also roughly 4'x2' because that's the size of board I had to work with. Not a standard Mordheim size, but who cares!

In the next post, I'll talk a bit about the lore, ideas, and mechanics that I have in store for this board - I also want to follow up after the event to show off some of the games that take place on it over the weekend.