Emplacement Build Guide

 Hello folks, Today I'll be delivering to your eyes an in-depth guide on my emplacements, as promised previously.

These were simple to make, and quick to build. Not including drying time, I think the set of 4 emplacements only took about one hour to make in total. These are an easy way to add to your gaming table or diorama, or to fill out your terrain collection. 

Now, let's get started on the build.

Step 1: Measure and Cut Out Parts.

The cardboard base.

The first thing you need to do is to measure a 5 by 20 centimetre rectangle out of a material of your choice. Cardboard, MDF, and foamcore are all great options. Cut this out, measure 32mm up from one of the long edges, then draw a line running through that point. This will act as a reference for later.

The foamcore wall.

Next, do the same on a piece of foamcore, except make it 1 inch long on the short side. This will allow your average infantry model to see over the wall, but still be in cover. As before, cut this out. Also, if at all possible, use a new blade on your knife for this. If the blade is dull, the foamcore could tear as you cut it.

Step 2: Prepare Foamcore. 

Just add water.

The next step is to peel the paper backing off of both sides of the foamcore. Depending on the brand, you could just peel it off with no extra effort. However, if your foamcore is like mine, the adhesive for the paper will make it hard to peel the paper off. If this is the case, you can simply run the foamcore under hot water so the adhesive weakens and allows you to peel the paper off. 

Texture time.

Next, add texture to both sides of the foamcore. This will add to the concrete wall look. I did this by stabbing at the foam with an old, gunked up, stiff brush, but you could use rocks or a ball of scrunched-up tin foil.

Step 3: Assemble the Parts.

Where to glue the foamcore.

The next step is to glue the two pieces together. Glue the foamcore so that it is in front of the line as shown in the picture. This will make sure there is enough space for a miniature with 32mm base to stand on the space comfortably.

Tile time.

Next, glue some cardstock rectangles to act as tiles for the larger section. These do not need to be perfect, so you can eyeball their size.

After this, add any damage to the wall you want. For mine, I added a hole in the wall, as if it was blown up. If you do this, don't forget to add rebar using paper clips.

Step 4: Basing.

Pointy.

To base the emplacements, start by gluing spikes onto the small side, at an angle pointing outward. These could be made of sprues, toothpicks, cocktail sticks, or really anything long and pointy. Next, use PVA glue to stick small pebbles, sand, and other small stones to the front of the base in a way that hides the spikes' connection to the ground. The aim is to make the spikes look as if they are embedded into the ground, so make sure to cover them in your basing material.

Step 5: Painting.

The paintjob on these is pretty simple, and requires only 4 colours and some gesso.

The first thing you need to do is give the whole emplacement a coat of gesso. Either white or black will work, but in this case I used white. Next, mix up a few shades of grey and coat the wall with a dark grey, hit the tiles and surface underneath them with a medium grey, and paint the spikes with a light grey. Then, mix black and burnt sienna to make a dark brown, and paint the sand and gravel on the front of the piece with it. once everything has dried, stipple the large rocks with medium grey to the point where only a little brown is showing in the recesses. After that is done, coat everything in very thinned black paint. This will go int the recesses and bring out a lot of detail. Lastly, drybrush everything with a very light grey. Oh, and dont forget to paint the rebar with some silver, if you chose to add it to the piece.

The finished emplacement.

And there you go! Now you know how to make easy emplacements for tabletop wargaming. Feel free to create variations and to experiment. These are fairly basic, so there is a lot of room to expand and improve upon the design. Now go and make yourself some terrain!

Happy painting,

FP01

Enplacement Overview

 Well, I'm back again for the third post today. I wonder if I'm going at this too hard?

This time i'll go over the build and paint of my emplacements, as shown in the previous post. You can expect an in-depth build guide whenever I get around to building some different shapes. 

My first step was to cut out some cardboard as a base. I tried to go for about 5 x 20cm, but ended up with bases that while close to the same size, were different enough that one could tell they were different. C'est la vie.

This one is my favourite. Warped to all heck but still the best.

I then cut out some foamboard to the same length as the base and peeled off the paper to reveal the foam underneath. It didn't come off perfectly, often tearing and leaving bits of paper on. The larger bits were peeled off, and the smaller bits were left on as extra texture. A side effect of this was the damaged looking tops of the wall, which I think is a plus. 

Rear view of one of the solid emplacements.

Next I hot glued the foamboard so the back edge of it was 32mm away from the back of the emplacement, leaving room for most basic infantry models, who usually are on a 25 or 32mm base. However, the space is large enough for models that have a larger base (like my deamon prince).

I then used a combination of PVA and hot glue to glue small pebbles and sand, along with spikes made out of sprues to the front of the emplacement, along with tiles made of cardstock on the rear.

Corner view of an emplacement. 

I painted the emplacements with various shades of grey, mixed from white, black, and burnt sienna in varying amounts. Medium grey for the gaps in between the tiles, light grey for the tiles and rocks, dark brown for the dirt, dark grey for the spikes.

All surfaces were then drybrushed with an even lighter grey, and I filled in any spots I missed in the previous steps. This brought out the details in the piece.

Some of my Iron Warriors manning the emplacements. Medrengard stands!

I will eventually glue some green flock onto the emplacements to represent grass, but that will come later, once I get a chance.

Happy painting, 

FP01

Paints For Terrain

 Well, first proper post, so lets get on with it.

Recently I have been building some emplacements for use in Warhammer 40000, and I ran into the decision on whether to use craft or miniature paints.

Miniature paints on the left, craft paints on the right.

While miniature paints generally have good coverage, pigmentation and mix well, they are expensive (around $7 a pot). This means that it can be prohibitively costly to use them on large terrain pieces. Therefore, I found it better to use the craft paints. These do not like to thin or mix well, but their pigmentation is above average, even compared to some miniature paints. 

Chaos Space Marine painted with miniature paints, emplacement painted with craft paints.

You can see what I mean in the picture above. The emplacement has patches of white where the paint didn't cover (note: I am only talking about the brown bit. The other parts are white because they haven't been painted yet). In contrast, the Chaos Space Marine is covered fine. No white spots there.

However, the craft paint has one huge advantage: its price. The whole box of 9 paints only cost about $4, while you'd be lucky to get one miniature paint at that price. While paying extra is a sacrifice I'm willing to make when it comes to miniatures, on terrain, craft paints are the way to go. Besides, when it comes to poorly covering paint, two thin coats is better than one thick coat. 

Because of this, I recommend using craft paints on terrain if at all possible. The inexpensiveness, high pigmentation, and ease of countering their downsides makes them a great option for your terrain painting needs.

Happy painting,

FP01