Putting the 'Inspiration' back in 'Vacation': 'Vacinspiration'

So I haven't gotten around to posting in a while. I had a week of vacation at the end of June, and after that was a couple of weeks of apartment hunting that left me too drained to compose. But not to worry-- I've been working away on my little projects.

Even better, I've returned with a head-full of inspiration! My vacation took the form of a week-long group camping trip to the southwest U.S. I had never been there before and the scenery blew me away. I says to myself 'now this, THIS must be what another planet looks like...' and that got me thinking...

I briefly discussed the idea of a Stardred Martian setting in my grass flock tutorial. Now I'm starting to take it seriously as a narrative setting for Stardred/ Necromunda/ Rogue Trader/ Red Sand Black Moon/ Red Sand Brown Sky. It would be a primitive Martian Colony abandoned for a century after Earth plunges into civil war. Since the planet is only partially terraformed, life is pretty hard for those left to eke out a living, let alone those security forces cut off from authority, attempting to seize military resources, gangs jockeying for power, Squat miners attempting to horde resources in the absence of government tithes, and perhaps ancient alien natives seeking to regain their land... and eventually, those forces from Earth have to show up, right? Will they be rebels or the forces of Hegemony?

Anyway, I picture it something like this:

What is a desert wasteland without a rusted-out windmill or 2?

There may not be any forests in the desert, but what about cities of rocks?

Reminds me of this.

I think 3-5 CD's with this style of rock sculpted on would make excellent terrain for skirmish wargaming.

I wasn't just looking at terrain. Saw this guy at the Sonoran Desert Museum. Now imagine him with 2 or 3 martial warriors mounted on his back. Now THAT's a monstrous mount.

Stands of Saguaro Cactii for some flavor.

Giant martian condors for random encounters? Hell Yeah.

These rock formations from Bryce canyon were my absolute favorites. They are actually called 'Hoodoos'. How kick-ass is that?

 

 So that's what I want the general flavor of the terrain set to look like. Except that it's on Mars, so the sand and grass must be read, the tree foliage purple, and the scrub-brush a nice bright orange.

I also have some great ideas for the martian derelict structures I want to build. There must be a spaceport and a small town, an observatory with a high-powered telescope, a mining site (for the Squats), a hill capped with a water tower, etc.

But I was also thinking that instead of trying to build a modular river, which wouldn't work with the kind of portable layout I intend to use, why not make a post-apocalypse style aqueduct? It could run over trestle spans and hills thus remaining modular, but also solving the problem of realism by literally placing the river above the playing surface!

Anyway. As exciting as this stuff is, I probably won't be able to work on it for a while. I don't even have a single Skulldred warband yet, let alone all of the Bloodbowl figures I need to convert/paint/sculpt. Oh yeah, can't forget finding an apartment. Still, don't be surprised if I come up with some fluff over the next couple of weeks.

Peace!

DIY Grass Flock: A Tutorial

So here's a useful thing that I haven't been able to find much information on: making your own static grass!

Well. A substitute anyway.

It is not actually static grass since it doesn't stand on end due to static electricity the way the genuine article does. But it does produce quite a realistic look-- waaaayyy better than painted-then-drybrushed sand. And the best part? It costs under 3 bucks (USD) for as much as you could care for.

It is a little labor intensive as you'll see in the how-to, but for those of you who, like me, have more time than anything else, it might be worth it.

*UPDATE*: Since posting this tutorial, I've refined my method somewhat. You can see the updated version with some more helpful tips here.

How to Make Your Own Grass Flock:

Materials:

-Gardening Twine (about 2 USD from the local hardware store for a small spool-- which is all you'll need.)

-Scissors (Make sure they're comfortable!)

-Crappy acrylic paints (I used some tiny tubes of Basic I had lying around.)

-'Pledge Acrylic Floor Polish with Future Shine' for thinning (optional.)

-Paper towels or an old rag.

-A small jar or other container in which to dye and collect your new grass.

Procedure:

 1) Use your crappy paints in your jar to mix up a color of green for your grass. As you can see, my first green was rather teal, but don't worry too much if your color looks a little unnatural. The color of acrylic paints are usually brighter when they're wet than when they're dry, but more importantly, gardening twine is made up of brown natural fibers, so the color of the twine will wind up darkening the color of the grass and giving it an earthier feel.

When you have a color that you like, thin the paints down until they are the consistency of milk. I use a mixture of four parts water to one part future floor polish ('magic wash') for this, but just plain water will also do.

My color. I mixed the straight basic green with cadmium yellow and a little red. The ratio was about 4:2:1.

 2) Next, cut yourself a nice section of twine. I went with 4 six inch sections to start with. You'll then need to separate the twine into individual 'strands'. This is easy, just unwind the braid.

As you can see, 'individual strands' does not mean 'fibers' so don't panic. This is not where things get difficult.

3) Now, wrap your strands into a loose nest around your fingers...

My fingers look like little birds!

...and then submerge them in the thinned paint. Use an old brush or other pokey type device to make sure that the twine is thoroughly soaked.

 Let the twine sit in the paint for at least 20-30 minutes-- Long enough for the pigment to soak deep into the fibers, but not so long that it begins to dry.

4) Once that's done, spread out some newspaper or paper towels. Pick out your wet wad of twine and slap it on there.

Big ole wad o' green.

Separate those strands again and spread them out on the newspaper so that they won't wind up sticking together too much. Then take another sheet of newspaper or paper towel and gently pat the top of your grass. You want to press down just hard enough to wick off a little excess moisture, but not so hard that the pigment runs back out of the twine. If you leave too much pigment in the twine, the fibers will stick together, but if you lose too much pigment, your grass will just be brown. Though if this happens, don't worry. Just dunk the twine back into the paint for another go. Also note that a few brown areas are okay-- they make for an excellent natural variation in the color of your grass.

Set these guys aside and let them dry completely. Go clean and dry your jar so it will be ready for the harvest. The strands should have a kind of 'crunchy' feel to them when you come back.

5) Now comes the most trying part: turning your 6" lengths of dyed twine into tiny tiny blades of grass for tiny creatures to stand on.

Once your strands of dyed twine are dry, hold them one at a time with one end over the mouth of the jar, and begin snipping with your scissors. As you clip the strands down into grass-sized chunks, the fibers should mostly separate and collect in the jar. You're aiming for blades of grass in the .5 to 2mm range, though it depends on your scale.

This can take a while. I suggest putting on a T.V. show or podcast to while away the time. I used Doctor Who:

Don't know who painted this, but it's 'Fantastic.'

This is why it's important to have comfortable scissors. The ones I used for this batch were junk and gave me calluses, so I ditched them and got myself a $2 pair with a rubberized grip. It went so much faster.

The first trimmings!

 You should note that you won't get uniform lengths with this method, which for me is good-- I dislike the idea of my warriors dismembering each other on perfectly manicured lawns.

You should also note that despite your best efforts, there will be some longer fibers mixed in when your done. This is not so bad as A) they can be trimmed with scissors or picked off after the grass is applied to a base and B) these fibers cause the grass to gather in clumps in the jar. These clumps can then be taken in fingers at application time and gently squeezed and teased to produce an even sprinkling of tiny grass fibers.

 Above is about half way through the trimming process. It yielded a decent amount of grass. But it was all the same color. The beauty of this method is that you can create whatever blend of colors you want. So I went on to mix up a yellower green, a redder green, and a blacker green, dyed some more twine, and chopped it up too!

The result was a full half-jar of grass flock with natural color variation between shade and highlight, absolutely bristling (*headslap*) with verisimilitude! And this method doesn't only apply for green grass either. Why not dark purple if you happen to be in the realms of chaos? Or perhaps a nice crimson if you plan on staging the time war on Galifrey?

Actually, if Stardred ever comes out, I might use it to make red grass for a partially teraformed Martian setting. Might also make it my Red Sand Black Moon setting, a la Carmen's Fun Apocalypse Time.

So that's it! Not too bad, right? And nice and cheap, huh? Good! Here are some pics of what it looks like on the base of the tree I'm working on. (What's that? Another tutorial? Yes, provided the tea-leaf foliage works well.)

So until then, Peace!