Getting the most out of your Warhammer Terrain

Building terrain is a great way to add character and variety to your battlefield. The new Warhammer Terrain kits offer a
great starting point for you to build some great looking terrain. Right out of the box these can be put together and
painted and are ready for your next game. Or you can mix them together add other terrain bits and create something
truly unique. On the next few pages you will find some examples of terrain that has been made using the Warhammer
Arcane Ruins, Chapel, and Watchtower kits. Getting the most out of your terrain is all about using the terrain kits to
their full potential. Be that straight out of the box or with an elaborate conversion.

Chaos Ruins
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Chaos Ruins
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John Shaffer (US White Dwarf Team): To prepare for the upcoming Nemesis Crown campaign, I decided to put a bit
of a twist on the existing Arcane Ruins scenery piece so that it fit the theme of the campaign. As you probably know,
the Nemesis Crown campaign is divided up thematically by geographical regions. Here in the US, most of the
Nemesis Crown is focused on the Talabec Borders, where the forests are overrun with Beastmen and other foul
minions of Chaos. The idea behind my ruins is that the forces of Chaos are using their malign powers to excavate
ancient buried structures in their search for the Dwarfen artifact. The end result is designed to look as if the pieces of
the Arcane Ruins are bursting from a bleeding earth, called forth by the magical coaxing of Chaos Sorcerers.

To achieve the look of the broken ground, I used two-part modeling putty applied over a hardboard base. I started by
mashing a rope of putty around the perimeter of each of the columns and also around the central ruin. Then, I
smoothed out the putty with my thumb until it was flush with the base as it moved away from the ruin pieces. A little
reworking with my sculpting tool was necessary to achieve the look of the cracks and fissures. When the putty was
dry, I glued down some sand over the surface. The central ruin was purposefully glued down slightly askew to further
strengthen the "rising from the earth" look. I glued down a wedge of foam underneath the ruin's base to support it. To
make the ruins look more aligned with Chaos, I found a four-part metal Chaos Star from the Warhammer Siege range
and glued it down in the center of the ruin. Because the tips of the star hung over the stairways, I cut them down and
resculpted the star points with putty to look as if the they were descending the stairs. I added three boiling oil
cauldrons (also from the Warhammer Siege line) to the ruin -- two near the front of the ruin and one at the top of the
obelisk. I filled the one at the top of the obelisk with skulls, and I modeled some flames out of green stuff crackling
around the perimeter. To finish off the brazier in typical Chaos fashion, I glued down a ring of spikes taken from the
Warhammer 40,000 Chaos Vehicle Accessory sprue. As a final step, I glued down eight crystals made from dried and
shaved-down putty in a circle around the ruin.

When it came time to paint the ruins, I basecoated the stone with Roughcoat spray and painted the base with
Scorched Brown. After drybrushing the base with Bestial Brown and Bleached Bone, I painted the areas inside the
cracks and around the ruins with Scab Red. I washed the stone with Camo Green, Vermin Brown and Liche Purple.
For the washes, I apply a little of the color, rinse my brush, and then feather out the edges of the color to make for a
smooth blend. I let the surface dry between colors and purposefully overlap colors to get a nice mottled effect. To
bring all those disparate colors together, I applied a light drybrush of Fortress Grey. To wrap things up, I carefully
glued down static grass around the base. I made sure to keep the glue and grass out of the fissures.

For the blood around the base of the ruins, I mixed Water Effects, Brown Ink, and Red Ink. I mixed it up in a cup and
used a straw and spoon to carefully apply the bloody mixture to the interior of the cracks. Before I applied the glossy
substance, I made sure to spray-varnish the rest of the ruins so I didn't dull the wet look of the blood with the matte
spray.
Bridge Tower

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Mechanical Blacksmith Shoppe

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Nathan Bishop (Studio Web Team): I've always been intrigued by the fact that the Empire has harnessed
mechanical technology. Thus, I thought I would try my had at building a Mechanical Blacksmith Shoppe
where such wondrous items would be manufactured.

The terrain piece shown above is a fairly intensive conversion that uses parts from both the Watchtower and
the Chapel. With just a little bit of work, the pieces from both kits can be used in conjunction to expand your
terrain options.

I decided to use the walls of the Watchtower set for the side walls of this building. In order to have a door on
groMechanical Blacksmith Shoppeund level, I used the front door of the Chapel set and the rear wall from
the Chapel set for the back of this building. Next, I needed to add something to the top of the front and rear
walls so that they would be the same height as the walls from the Watchtower. To do this extension, I took
the top side windows piece from the Chapel set and cut off the sides to make it the same width as the Chapel
front and rear wall. I cut these at a slight angle so that the top part of the front and rear wall would be
slightly angled as well. Then, I shaved down the top of the front and rear walls so that the top of the door
would be flush with the molding beneath the side window piece. I then took the front and back top part of
the wall and cut off the bottom molding.

Next, I took the small building that comes with the Watchtower set and assembled three of the walls while
leaving the other side open. I also attached the roof pieces. Then, very carefully, I shaved away at the small
building's open end to make it fit snuggly against the back wall of the main building. Don't worry if there are
some slight gaps -- these can easily be filled in with some modeling putty. Then, I used plastic glue to attach
the small building.

Once that dried, I trimmed the side chimney from the Watchtower kit so that it would fit against the back of
the small building and glued it in place. I used the roof from the Chapel set so that this building would have
slight overhangs. To make it fit snugly, I had to carefully cut some grooves into the bottom of the roof while
making sure to dry fit the pieces. Once I was satisfied with the look, I glued the roof in place.

Lastly, I took the chimney from the Chapel set and trimmed off the bottom edge and glued it it into the hole
in the roof.

Painting Warhammer Buildings

The new plastic Warhammer building sets are perfect for adding realism to your tabletop battles with a
minimal amount of effort. Each building is simple to assemble, is chock full of easy-to-paint details, and
looks as good as all of the other Games Workshop models in the Warhammer range.

This process is made even easier with the recently released Citadel Foundation Paints. These paints were
specially designed to achieve a high degree of coverage. Their elevated levels of pigment make them ideal
for covering large areas (like Warhammer building surfaces), and they are particularly good for drybrushing.
With Citadel Foundation Paints, you can paint your Warhammer buildings up to a high standard in fewer
coats.

All of this means that you don't have to be a terrain guru to have awesome-looking Warhammer scenery any
more. Cool plastic buildings are no longer just for Warhammer 40,000 players!

Over the next few pages, we'll look at how the Citadel Foundation Paints and Citadel Colours can be used to
paint the awesome new Warhammer plastic buildings.

Walls

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The walls on the Warhammer buildings look like either stucco or plaster, and they can be painted in either
fashion with just a slight alteration in color. For the example above, we painted it like stucco. Start with a
basecoat of Iyanden Darksun Citadel Foundation Paint (which covers the Chaos Black undercoat in one
application). Next, stipple on a 2:3 mix of Iyanden Darksun to Bleached Bone, but make sure to leave the
yellow showing along the edges of the walls for shading. Finish by stippling straight Bleached Bone over the
areas you stippled before, with the brightest patches being in the centers of each surface. If you want to
continue from stucco to plaster (as Dave Taylor did with his building on the gallery page), then keep
stippling; first with Bleached Bone mixed with Skull White, and then stipple with straight Skull White.

Stonework

For the stonework on the tower, carefully drybrush Adeptus Battlegrey Citadel Foundation Paint over your
Chaos Black undercoat. Make sure you get some of the grey in the recesses between the bricks. Next,
drybrush Codex Grey over the stonework for your first highlight. Finally, drybrush Astronomicon Grey
Citadel Foundation Paint for your final edging. It's amazing how well the Foundation Paints drybrush
surfaces like this stone.
 Details and Completion

Part of what makes the Warhammer buildings so cool are all of the little details on each surface. Of course,
these details need painting. For the wood areas, a simple drybrush Calthan Brown Citadel Foundation Paint
over the Chaos Black undercoat will do. For the metal areas, drybrush Tin Bitz over the black, followed by
Boltgun Metal over the rivets and other raised surfaces. For the roof tiles, drybrush Scab Red over the black
undercoat, and then highlight with Mechrite Red Citadel Foundation Paint. Finally, if you want to give your
building a more aged appearance, go back and add stains and shadows in the cracks in the walls with a
heavily watered-down wash of Snakebite Leather.

Building Gallery

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Above, we have a gallery of Dave Taylor's Warhammer Watchtower. He painted this plastic building using
the combinations of Citadel Foundation Paints and Citadel Colours mentioned on the previous page. Click
the images to see larger versions of each.