Since returning from Adepticon 2022 I went a little crazy with some terrain inspired by the awesome Crocodile Games Olympus demo board. Seeing it for five days in the Croc booth sparked a plan to do something like it when I got home.
I thought this Xmas Village hill would be a good piece to put a temple or ruins of a temple on top. Sadly I greatly overestimated the size of the top of the hill. I planned to use some cake pillars but the size of them was definitely going to be way too big. Luckily I picked up a cheap box of Terrain Crate from the Mantic booth that had smaller pillars and even an altar. I decided to reserve the ruined pillars for later use.
The hill itself was the simplest part of the whole project. Simply layers of drybrush after a dark grey undercoat turned it from a wintry piece to a rather generic hill that can work with Olympus and Aegyptus (and sci-fi or pulp or...).
The plan changed to make a smaller Shrine that could be on the hill or at ground level. So I cut some rectangles of foam board and stacked them to give a nice set of steps up to the altar. For the altar itself, I wanted to put some relics on it representing a fallen hero that I took to calling "Genericus" - plastic bits from the old Wargames Factory Amazons kit were mounted onto the altar.
I used a pen and hobby knife to make lines and damage in the foam that turned out pretty effectively. I mixed up some texture paste (some watered down glue with baking soda and tiny scoops of various sized sand) and strategically slathered it onto the steps and around the pillars. The altar and shrine were pretty simple paintjobs with washes and drybrushing to get a nice effect.
Above we have the Seer and her Guardians at the Altar. Below we have Provocation between Demigoddesses of Hephaestus and Athena.
Months ago I picked up a Wonder Woman board game with miniatures for cheap from a local game store. I just wanted the miniatures even though I was pretty sure they'd be too large to use with 28mm miniatures. So I decided they should be some statues. Simple layers of drybrush. I think they both turned out well..
Here's a lineup to show how these figures size up next to Crocodile Games miniatures.
My original plan, before realizing the hilltop was smaller than I expected, was to finally base and paint these stelae to be used alongside the temple. When the plan changed I decided it was best to finish them up because more scatter terrain is better than less. The process was much the same as above with drybrushing and washes. I really like how these all turned out.
So there it is, about a week of work on this nice set of terrain inspired by the whole Adepticon experience. I still have those bigger pillars and a 'need' to do a bigger building. Not sure when, but I feel like soon is the correct answer...
