Deathmatch Arena

It's very nearly time for our yearly trip to Ørnulv's summer house now, so I suppose it's about time I got the terrain piece I had planned to build for this year's 'in-between activity' done...

I cut out two quarter-circles with an outer radius twice that of the intended size of the outer wall from a sheet of Kapafix left over from last summer's game table project. The inner radius was 10 cm (4 & 3/8") smaller, allowing for a height of about 8,5 cm (3.4")These was then folded repeatedly over the edge of my work-table to allow the relatively rigid material to curve. The two piezes of Kapa was taped togeter and glued (with my recently rediscovered hot-glue gun) to a circular piece MDF I cut to a 24" diameter disc.

I then glued a layer of sand to what would be the arena floor, and added a vertical inner wall. At this point I was pretty much out of Kapa, but forged ahead anyway. The cardboard I used proved to be too thin, and ended up warping pretty badly. To remedy this I applied a generous amount of spackle and left the piece to dry for a few days. The proper thing to to would be to remove and replace the warped cardboard with a sturdier material, but the weekend was coming to an end and I knew I'd have to leave the arena alone for a few days anyway.

When the first thick layer of spackle was dry, I gave a quick sanding and brushed on another. This second layer would fill inn the worst humps and bumps in the first one. Using the paint brush would give it a little additional texture. I toyed around a bit with the idea of adding coctail-sticks around the top edge to make the arena a little more intimidating, but decided against adding details that don't add any functionality to the arena. I just might go back and add the stakes at a later date though - perhaps even adding a few heads based on how the test-tourney goes this coming weekend.

Last night I finally got around to tossing some paint on it. I dug out the paint we'd saved from last year's terrain project and applied a quick base coat. After allowing that to dry, I did a couple of light drybrush layers before thinning out the base colour and splashing it liberally everywhere to blend the highlights down a little again. To finish the job I splashed a little red here and there, and left the piece to dry overnight (and then some). The final 'product' is a little on the quick-and-dirty side, but I think that'll fit it's purpose just fine.

As this posts, we're at TSB's yearly get-together at Ørnulv's summer house. Tune in next week for whatever reports we manage to write up - and lots and lots of pictures!!!