With the Dwarfs all balancing on their wire stilts & corks for painting (extreme measures to avoid being called short) I could for once create the basing for my team separately. Being Dwarfs there is only one suitable surface for them to play on: stone paving. This can however fall into the category of quite dull so I thought a while about how to liven it up a little. 

First things first. Yes they're square. Now we've dealt with that;

On a previous abandoned project to create my ownNecromunda bulkheads I visited a local model making shop and came across an interesting product calledPalight. This foamed PVC is an interesting midpoint between plasticard and foamboard and has a widevariety of uses in model making. In this instance the ability to be easily carved, sanded and embossed meant I could create a paving pattern quite easily on a sheet and then cut the bases from that.

At this point I was also inspired by a fellow club member’s display board they created and decided to turn this into one too. The bases were spaced out and marked on the palight. I then carved a mini-pitch onto the surface with a LoS and differently patterned wide zones.

Not having thought the project through properly to begin I then had to cut out a second layer for the bases to fit in through the initial cuts. This left loads of sanding in order to make the bases fit neatly. Measure twice cut once in future!

Re-roll Tokens

I’m a bit waste not want not person when it comes to miniature bits. For re-rolls I decided to re-purpose the shields from the Dwarf command pack as re-roll tokens. To make them a little more interesting on the display I added some magnets into the tokens and a small display base for them to stand up on.

Poor planning again struck and the pull of the magnets wasn't quite strong enough to hold them steady. A small rack was built from coffee stirrers in order to hold them in place. Who knew my tiny joinery skills were so good.

The turn marker was repurposed from the banner, again from the command pack. The final base spot was also cut out and prepared. Can you possibly guess what the big base marked DR is foreshadowing? With that the layout of the board was done and ready to be painted.

Final Tweaks

Shortly before painting I laid my hands on a 9x6” photo frame to be a neat edge. Third strike of disorganisation struck and there was a small gap at the back edge of the board as I didn’t measure properly. The spare base off-cuts were trimmed slightly and glued to create a paving slab style advertising hoarding at the back of the base.

Painting

The finished base was then painted with some craft acrylics. No use wasting pricey Vallejo on a big base! A mid grey basecoat was followed by a couple of black washes. The widezones then had a filter of blue applied and a final pin wash of black was applied to the gaps only. Copious drybrushing with increasingly light greys finished the bases and wide zones of the board.

This image has the very rough first application of lines with an offwhite. These will be neatened, more drybrushing applied to the board to smooth the wash pooling and then lots of varnish to finish. The back board I have not yet decided whether to apply some Bloodbowl advertisements or the team name (also yet to be decided).