Scratchbuilt Frostgrave Terrain: Ruined Bridge
The next piece for my Frostgrave table is a ruined bridge. Built using the same materials and techniques as the 4 Door Crypt it was a surprisingly quick build and a useful addition to a multi-level game.
The Build
I started by squaring up some of the skip found, blue insulation boards and marking out the rough outline of the broken bridge sides.
I used the same arch template as I did for the crypt. It’s one of a few visual elements I’ll be re-using throughout the board to give the pieces some coherency.
I cut out some 3 inch wide strips for the roadway and started dry fit the pieces.
And once I was happy with the basic fit I began texturing the pieces. It’s much easier to texture these large flats when you can lay them flat on a table.
I cut the large stones using a scalpel and widened the joins with a pencil following the same edging patterns as the crypt. The areas of exposed brickwork were made by using the back of a retractable craft knife to flick out tiny horizontal chunks.
It didn’t take too long to get the other 1/2 textured.
The bridge felt very flimsy, so I strengthened the walkway with another arch.
I distressed the flat areas with a rolled up piece of tinfoil.
I strengthened the back legs with a piece of textured balsa wood.
At this point I decided I needed another arch. It’s a smaller piece than the two ends and again, didn’t take long to put together.
Happy with the look and size of the things, I committed and glued everything together with titebond.
Worried something might go wrong after progressing so quickly, I offered up a quick sacrifice to the gods of crafting…
… and called it a night while the glue dried.
The next day I superglued a few spare bits of balsa together to form a crude bridge to span a broken gap. I scribed the wood texture by dragging a razor saw across the wood. The broken plank was simple snapped in half and superglued in place.
Once final detail was to poke nail holes in the planks using a rounded off toothpick.
Whilst I had the balsa and glue out I knocked up a quick barricade.
The Paint
I started with a good covering of UMP black primer, making sure to get into all the nooks and crannies.
I left the whole thing to dry overnight. The next day I thought it’d be fun to try Facebook live. I’ve had a lot of people asking me how I paint my stuff and this seemed like a good opportunity to show them.
Unfortunately, the audio was just static, but I did manage to answer a few questions in the chat (when I remembered to look up from the bridge 😉 ) I’ll definitely be doing it again!
I gave the stonework a light, mottled airbrush with Tamya Dark Grey and the banding stones in tamita brown. I kept my focus on the centre of areas, letting the paint fade out towards the edges.
And then gave it a light drybrush of Light Grey.
After this had dried, I tinted the stonework with green and brown washes, applied randomly where staining would occur and vegetation would grown. It doesn’t come over too well in these photos…
I washed the broken stonework with Vallejo black brown to pick out the detail a bit and to give it some contrast against the rendered walls.
Once the washes were dry, I gave it another feint highlight of Light Grey (before: left, after: right).
While I waited for the washes to dry, I painted up the wooden ramp with Life Color weather wood colours.
Next was a bit of greenery. I started by PVAing some flat green flock to the stonework.
And once it was dry, I washed it with Tamiya Olive Drab. I focused the wash on the centres of the clumps and used a few drops of washing up liquid to help it flow.
Next, I attached static grass clumps along the areas where plants would be able to grow. I didn’t want to clutter the walkway too much as it would get in the way of placing figures.
Lastly, I tinted around the clumps with Vallejo earth pigment and took it outside to take some pictures.
The Result
Materials
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Great stuff. Where do you get the blue foam board from?
Hi Joshua, thanks!
I salvaged this stuff from a builders skip. I got a couple of broken sheets of 10mm and 6mm (this was made from 6mm). It’s perfect for this kind of project as it’s already been distressed. For neater builds I buy big sheets online. You usually have to buy in bulk, eBay is my goto – whichever seller is selling it cheapest atm.