The Mesa (Part 1 of 2)

I have a number of ideas for post apocalypse scenarios involving a small mesa-like formation, and set out to build such a critter.  I spent some time searching online photos and made notes about what features I needed to incorporate in the build.  After much scribbling of ideas and rough plans, I decided to build a piece that blended with my old terrain inspired by Goblin Valley in Utah.

I loosely settled on a very upright design roughly 16"L x 10"W x 14 high and cut rectangles of foam to fill out the shape with a hobby knife and steel straight edge.

 
In keeping with the style of my Goblin Valley terrain, the foam was glued up into blocks for shaping of each type of strata.  I glued the foam pieces together with 3M Styrofoam spray adhesive.  This sprays out in a relatively thick sort of figure-eight pattern and results in almost no over spray.  It is also much faster and/or less hassle, than any other method I know of for gluing foam.

Next stage was to begin shaping the foam.  I drew a 2 inch square grid on the top layer of foam to transfer the basic design shape onto the foam, then rough cut the profile with a hack saw blade.  I decided to rough out the shape, using a surform tool and my old metal sanding sticks.

 

 

 

 

With the top layer roughed into shape, I transferred a profile of the top onto the next layer, and roughed out that shape using the same tools as above.  This was repeated for the lower two layers as well.

 

 

I now came back to the second layer and began shaping it.  This layer took some time to shape, as it involved the most detail.  Rough removal of foam was done with the surform tool, while finer removal was completed with the sanding sticks.  Additionally, crevices were cut into the layers using an older Foam Factory "pen".

As I was shaping the second layer, I started to consider if the standing height of the Mesa was too upright for the table top.  I decided for the time being to continue the detailing of the second layer, and let the piece take a little more shape, but was considering removing as much as three inches of foam layers from the second and third layers.

Shaping the third layer mostly involved using curved sanding sticks and the Foam Factory stylus/pen to add a little more texture to it's contrasting shape.

The last or bottom layer was essentially a sloped "moat" of eroded and pulverized rubble that had fallen from the mesa over the centuries.  This was mostly shaped with the hacksaw blade and surform tool.

Once the general shaping of the layers was complete, it was time to clean up and add extra details to the layers.  This was accomplished with a little bit of milling with a Dremel, and a lot of sanding with 150-180 grit paper (and small orbital sander where possible), and a coarse Squadron sanding stick.  I added a little more crevice detail with the Foam Factory tool, and cleaned it up with a little sanding.

The last stage of foam-work was to create the rocky "goblins" for the top of the formation.  These were cut from scraps of foam, and shaped with the various tools described above. 

 The top layer was conceived to be favorable for a defensible position or residence for a small group or even single individual.  So the rock formations were shaped with this in mind.  Joints in the foam, divots, and other blemishes were filled with one-step or light weight spackle.

 

 

 

All of these layers were designed with the idea that they can be separated and used independently or with the deletion of a layer if need be.  Again, this is in keeping with my older terrain pieces.

Once all of the remaining stone work was shaped, it was time to prime and paint.  Primer is more of just adding a protective layer to the foam, using a thick artists acrylic paste; it this case from Golden.  Then paint with artists acrylic colors to match my old terrain pieces.  The color ended up a touch off, but there is 14 years between the first pieces and the last, so I'm not too unhappy with the results.

 

 

 

Below you can see each of the modules separated from one another.  This allows some variation in how the terrain can be used on the tabletop, as well as, a little more ease of handling for storage.

Below you can see two of the new pieces flanking one of the original goblin valley pieces. Despite the differences in the paint, the final products are very similar.

Part 2 of the Mesa will deal with the post-apocalypse residence and adaptations to the mesa.

The Valley of the Goblins

This is a re-post of a page from my old website.  A couple of people have asked where I've moved my site to, and the problem is that I haven't gotten around to it yet, thus my re-posting of the pics.

My Valley of the Goblins has no green-skins, or other fantastical critters.  It was inspired by the rock formations at Goblin Valley State Park in Utah.  The park may be overlooked due the number of amazing national parks in Utah, but is well worth the stop if you have opportunity.  The photos below may also seem familiar as it was the site of the not quite abandoned mining colony in the movie Galaxy Quest.

The goblins for my tabletop came in two phases.  The first was done as part of a contest for an online discussion group.  I used the photo below as inspiration for the project...

...and built the following.

The contest called for the construction of a religious site, so I added the walkway which lead to idols, including a "giant" birdlike idol that stood in the cave.

I always try to make terrain as flexible as possible, so the various parts of the terrain piece were made in a modular fashion , breaking down into the separate pieces shown below.

A couple of years after doing the original piece, my daughter (aged 9 at the time) and I sat down and added some more goblins to the valley.

The project isn't really done yet, as there are several other unique goblin formations that I still want to add, as well as some more of the lesser "troops".

All were constructed from  blue extruded polystyrene insulation foam.  Small pieces of foam were glued up into blocks with spray adhesive (3M Styrofoam adhesive, or Florabond brand), then cut to rough shape with a hack saw blade, further shaped with a surform tool and coarse sanding block.  Deep cracks were added with the Foam Factory stylus, and the final shapes were sanded relatively smooth with a small orbital sander (Minicraft, old Black and Decker mini sander, Mouse sander, etc will work). 

They were then "primed" with an artist's acrylic paste, and painted with acrylic artist's paints, and then coated with Testor's Dullcoat.

The Goblins have served well in 28mm near future, alien world, and fantasy games in both desert and jungle settings.

After: The First Encounter

This is the first "battle" in my post-apoc world.  Basically, just a small, simple encounter to allow a run through of the rules, yet another of my home-brew things.

The scenario was a brief skirmish where a couple of "scavs" were baby-sitting a few boxes of loot, until more help could get there to move them, and were happened upon, by three "salvagers".

The set-up was that two scavs were in the gas station, with three boxes of goods in the service bay.  Assistance would enter the board on turn 8 from the far end of the table.  The three salvagers entered from the left in the photo below, roughly to the rear of the gas station.

View of the table game at start.  The Salvagers

enter at the rocks clipped off on the left edge.

 

The scav in the front of the building was spotted after

moving to the window at the left.

 

Quickly, the leader of the salvagers spotted a scav as he peered out of the window of the station, and his two associates moved near the board edge to get more out of sight of any other occupants of the gas station.

The associates advance, while their boss covers them from

 just out of the view to the right.

As the two associates advanced towards the building, the scav in the service bay saw them through the rear door, and fired at the fig in the black coat, causing two wounds, and  taking him out of the game.

As the associate was hit, their leader fired at the scav in the window, missing completely, and giving away his position.

The salvager leader, preparing to shoot.

 

The target returning fire.

 

The scav, annoyed by being shot at, returned fire, causing a light wound.  The leader hit, with a man down, called off the "operation".

Help arrives (between the building the table edge).

 

Just as the salvagers exited the board, leaving their associate to bleed out, help arrived for the scavs (not that they needed it).  Now the scavs could be on their way with their three boxes of loot.

_____

Like I said, just a very simple run through of the rules.  No obvious bugs; moving, sighting, shooting and modifiers seemed to work fine.  I went on with a second encounter, to test some of the non-shooting stuff and will share that in a day or so.

About the only thing that went wrong, is that you will notice the difference in color of my highway terrain pieces, as compared to the surrounding pieces.  It seems that my newer batch of Woodland Scenics flock is a lot lighter than some of my older stuff.  I've been using the same mixture for roughly 29 years, and have noticed variations over the years, but not like this.  Guess I'm going to be adding another layer of flock as soon as I buy some brown stuff to darken up my terrain. 

I also realized that I need to make some additional terrain pieces. Just some rises, maybe with a few rocky crags sticking out here and there,  something besides my "Goblin Valley" pieces.