Chris: Building a direct model of Saruman's Mines would look impressive, but would be expensive to build and impractical as a gaming area. Therefore I decided to make several separate pieces of terrain that would represent features within the mines. This would also enable the layout of the mines to be altered from game to game. As well as the terrain pieces I decided to make some pieces of scenery that would represent the industrial activity going on within the mines.

My main source of inspiration for the forms the terrain and scenery took was the extended DVD of The Fellowship of The Ring. Not only did this allow me to go through the scenes featuring the mines frame by frame, but the appendices have a section of film and stills showing how the cinematic model was constructed.

MATERIALS

Insulation Foam Board. I purchased this from an insulation company, though it should be available from most builders merchants and large DIY stores. It is much denser than polystyrene and is easier to carve. You should only use PVA glue to stick the foam together, or to other materials, as stronger glues will melt the foam and produce toxic fumes, as will using spray paints. The board I used was 25mm thick and came in 60cm x 240cm sheets. All these terrain pieces were made from one sheet.

Balsa Wood. Most hobby/model shops sell a variety of balsa wood. In making these pieces I used lengths that were 5mm square, 5mm x 3mm and 10mm x 1mm.

Metal Bangles. These were bought from an accessory shop.

Superglue. This was used to glue the balsa wood sections together, and to glue the balsa wood to the metal bangles. I used PVA to glue balsa wood to the insulation foam.

Sand.

PVA Glue.

Mounting Card.

Paints. Black poster paint, Chaos Black Spray, Chaos Black, Dark Flesh, Codex Grey, Bleached Bone, Scorched Brown, Snakebite Leather and Tin Bitz.

CONSTRUCTING THE MINES

The different terrain pieces were all constructed in the same manner, and with the same considerations in mind, even though they vary in size and shape. To give the impression that the separate features are part of the same underground complex they were all built to the same height. The tops of the pieces were all left untextured and were painted black. This was to show that the mines would either carry on above this cut-off point or have a cavern roof above them.

The next consideration was to make the terrain pieces playable. I wanted games played within the mines to be three dimensional. To this end I decided that all the pieces should have platforms of some form that figures could stand on. I also wanted to be able to link them together with wooden walkways, so each piece would have to have long enough ledges to accommodate at least two walkways.

MAKING THE BASIC SHAPE

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The first terrain piece I made was H-shaped, consisting of a shelf spanning between two rock columns. First I cut out all the foam sections I needed. These were one 25cm x 7cm strip, four 10cm x 10cm squares and eight 7cm x 7cm squares. These were then glued together in an H shape, with the 10cm square pieces at the very top and bottom of the uprights and the long strip in the middle (fourth layer) of each stack. The picture opposite shows how stacking the insulation foam board makes quick foundations for the rock columns.

I placed almost all the ledges on the separate terrain pieces at this level for ease of game play. With the thickness of the foam (25mm) this would mean that the ledges and walkways were 10cm above the ground level, leaving room for figures to easily pass underneath (and also giving any model unlucky enough to fall off four Strength 3 hits).

DETAILING

After the glue set (I left it for 24 hours) the H-shape was then carved into shape. I first used a longer-bladed craft knife to produce the general shape I wanted, then a smaller blade to carve the detail in. Whilst digging the pits into the foam I tried to make as many as possible cross from one section of foam to another. This was to break up the lines created by the different sections of foam as much as possible.

The next step was to glue this piece onto a base of mounting card and add the scaffolding. The balsa wood was cut with a craft knife. I used a metal ruler to guide the blade so I would get a straight cut. For added stability where the larger lengths of balsa were connected to the foam a shallow (5-10mm) hole was burrowed into the foam, and the end of the balsa wood was shaped into a point before having PVA glue added and being pushed into the foam.

To blend the terrain feature into the base I glued many of the small pieces of foam carved out earlier around the feet of the columns and the base of the scaffolding (see picture 2).

SEALING THE FOAM, UNDERCOATING AND TEXTURING THE BASE

The terrain piece was sealed and undercoated in one stage . I made a mixture of PVA glue, black poster paint and a little water and painted this all over the piece, apart from the base. This required two coats with a tank brush and a third touch-up with a smaller brush to make sure that all the recesses had been filled and no blue remained on show. To texture and undercoat the base I simply added some modelling sand to this mix and painted it over the base (see picture 3).

PAINTING

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I found this by far the most enjoyable part of the process as it provided a real payback for all the previous work. The first stage was to apply a very heavy drybrush (sometimes called a wetbrush) of Dark Flesh to the whole piece. This gives a more natural feel to the finished piece than just using greys, and helps give the feeling of the flickering torch light in the mines. When this was dry a I drybrushed a mixture of Codex Grey and Chaos Black over the piece, followed by a lighter drybrush of Codex Grey. The final stage for the stone was a very light drybrush of Bleached Bone across the parts I wanted to highlight (not applying this final drybrush to some areas really helps give a sense depth to the feature).

To finish the piece I painted the wood. First I had to re-undercoat these parts in black after the enthusiastic drybrushing. After this dried I applied a drybrush of Scorched Brown, followed by Snakebite Leather, and again to finish a very light drybrush of Bleached Bone to selected parts.

OTHER TERRAIN FEATURES

The other terrain pieces were all made using the same techniques as described above. Once you have built one basic piece of scenery you should be able to let your imagination run riot and create several different features. If you get stuck for ideas you could always watch The Fellowship of The Ring again (I know its hard but sometimes you've got to make these sacrifices).

Mining wheel. Click to enlarge	Ramp to the surface. Click to enlarge
Ledge supported by scaffolding. Click to enlarge	Stone stairs. Click to enlarge

MINE SCENERY

WALKWAYS

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The most important pieces to build to make the mines playable were the walkways. These were very simple to make. First I cut pairs of rails of 25-30cm length from the 5mm x 5mm or 5mm x 3mm lengths of balsa wood. On top of these I superglued planks of 1mm thick balsa. With these I made the walkways either 4, 5 or 6cm wide. This made the walkways look more varied and also meant that they either one or two figures could walk abreast. I also used a craft knife to make the wood look worn and rough by adding nicks to some parts.

As there was no foam used in their construction I could use Chaos Black spray to undercoat the walkways. They were then drybrushed Scorched Brown followed by Snakebite Leather, with a very light drybrush of Bleached Bone over areas I wished to highlight. The final stage was to drybrush Bleached Bone along the grain of a few planks to make them appear lighter.

When painting scenery always remember the distance it will be seen from and keep checking your progress from this distance.

THE FURNACE

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The furnace was made in almost exactly the same way as the stone terrain features. The main difference was that instead of being irregularly hewn and pitted it was carved into a pattern of crude stone blocks. The original shape was made from three 4cm square pieces of insulation foam, two 6cm square pieces and one 6cm square piece with a 2cm x 4cm section cut out of it, leaving a C-shape. These were PVA glued together with the three smaller sections on top to make the chimney and the larger sections at the bottom, the cut-out section lowest, to make the furnace. The chimney section was glued so that its back was in line with the back of the furnace, leaving a 2cm gap above the furnace mouth and 1cm gaps along the sides.

When the glue had dried (again I left it 24 hours) I carved the stone pattern into the foam. I cut the horizontal lines first, then the vertical, remembering that no vertical line should be directly above another. At this stage I also rounded off the mouth of the furnace and dug a square hole into the top of the chimney. The furnace was painted the same way as the stone terrain features.

WHEELS

"He has a mind of metal and wheels"
Treebeard speaking of Saruman - The Two Towers

I knew I had to include some wheels in the scenery I made, but how to make them initially stumped me. The solution I hit upon was to make them out of balsa wood planking and use plain bangles as hoops to hold the planks together. This worked well as superglue bonded the balsa wood to the metal instantly, enabling me to make the wheels quickly without holding each part together as it dried.

Stage 1 Click to enlarge	Stage 2 Click to enlarge	Stage 3 Click to enlarge

Working one at a time I glued four or five planks to one bangle before gluing the second bangle to the other end of these planks. I then added more planks to finish the wheel. I then glued planks across the diameter of the wheel to function as spokes. I decided against adding an axle as the wheel would have been used as a treadmill by some unfortunate minion.

Stage 4 Click to enlarge	Finished mining wheel Click to enlarge	An alternative wheel set into the rockface of the mines Click to enlarge

These wheels were then mounted into wooden frames made from the 5mm square lengths of balsa wood. The first I made as a free-standing crane. This was painted the same way as the walkways. The second wheel I built was mounted into a frame jutting out from one of the terrain pieces.

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