Having decided to embark on an undersea project, I realized the first thing I was going to need was a good set of modular terrain that I could use to fill up most of a small table. I figure most of my scenarios will have some kind of centrepiece model, but that still leaves a lot of table to cover.
As you can see from the photographs here, I decided to focus on two elements: aquarium plants and seashells. Most of the seashells I was able to gather from the family collection. Some come from the beach near where I live, though most of the ones seen here actually come from Edisto Island, S.C., where my family often holidays. It's a great beach for finding shells. A few of the more colourful shells were actually bought for my kids at sometime in the past. Shells work great because not only are the generally free, but they also immediately set the scene as underwater in a way nothing else really does on the table.
Along with the shells I bought an assortment of small aquarium plants. I based each of these individually on a small metal base. This gives them enough weight to generally keep them in place, but gives me a huge amount of freedom on how I arrange them around the table. I can cluster them together to create dense patches of foliage, or I can spread them out. I can even build walls and other kinds of structures out of them. I've got a dozen of these at the moment. I could probably use another dozen to really fill up the table.
So, things are coming along!
I made a bunch of line of sight blocking terrain some years (decades?) ago, by gluing large shells some linear bases and then painting over them. The result was quite characterful.
ReplyDeleteI’m doing a Savage Worlds 50 Fathoms campaign right now specifically so I can do undersea scenarios.
ReplyDeleteI find aquarium plants look less artificial if you doctor them a bit. If you soak them in a degreaser like simple green for a while and scrub them off, paint should stick to them. A quick dry brush and a wash or two does wonders.
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