This series of articles is about the journey towards recreating a Classic Warhammer Fantasy gaming table to experience peak nostalgia on the kitchen table at home.
The best way to experience a game of Warhammer is by playing on a nice looking battlefield. Having started my Warhammer career in the late nineties, to me that means a flat, bright green surface, dotted with stepped-hills, cardboard buildings, and trees shaped like small toilet brushes (something like the image below).
The Essence of a Classic Battlefield
At first glance, looking back at these images, it all may look a little silly. But, upon closer inspection these cartoony looking battlefields that decorated the pages of White Dwarf and the 4th and 5th edition books actually contain an impressive amount of detail. See for example the scene below from the 5th Edition “Battle Book” (1996, pp. 30). There’s still loads of green flock and toilet-brush trees, but the little shed and stone walls are beautifully crafted and packed with little details.
So if we look at these awesome nostalgic images, what should we pay attention to if we want to recreate these scenes in our own games of Warhammer? In my view, these are the primary elements of a classic Warhammer Fantasy Battle tabletop: (1) lots of green, (2) silly looking stepped hills, (3) cheap cardboard buildings, (4) toilet-brush trees, and (5) surprising little fine details everywhere.
Five rules for of a Classic WHFB Table: (1) Plenty of Green, (2) Stepped Hills, (3) Cardboard Buildings (4) Toilet-Brush Trees, (5) Fine Details.
My Experience so far…
With these principles in mind, I wanted to see if I can recreate my own Classic Warhammer gaming table. The problem is, although I have quite some experience painting miniatures, I never really made any serious attempt at making terrain.
Well, maybe that’s not entirely true. Over the past years I did take some first steps into this part of the hobby, by making some simple hills, glueing some K & M Trees onto bases, and assembling the Warhammer building from White Dwarf Issue #155’s “Modelling Workshop” article by Adrian Wild (pictured below).
White Dwarf #155 also contained the “Battle of Red Axe Pass” battle report, that was recently lovingly recreated and featured on the Crown of Command YouTube channel, good stuff!
So, I do have a little bit of experience in making terrain. I also managed to find some essential materials like XPS foam, and foamcore, and I got some toilet-brush trees shipped in from the U.K. from the aforementioned K & M Trees (check their shop for “deciduous green”, and you will find some authentic, handcrafted trees that look straight out of a 1990s White Dwarf magazine).
Besides tracking down those trees, I also did some experimentation with different types of flocks to find the perfect “Warhammer Fantasy Look & Feel”. After trying out a few products from the local hobby stores, I settled on Woodland Scenics Green Blend Turf, which is a mixture of green and yellow particles that results in a nice and bright green finish.
I figured that, with this basic level of experience in terrain building, and with the help of the many talented crafters that explain their builds on YouTube (e.g. Eric’s Hobby Workshop or Black Magic Craft), I might as well give this a try…
The Classic Warhammer Fantasy Terrain Series
So this series of articles will be a little different from my regular Painting Tutorials. Not just because they are about terrain rather than miniatures, but also because I’m in no position to “tutor” anyone on how to make terrain. This series is more of a travel blog, where I document my journey towards creating a Classic Warhammer Fantasy gaming table, and hopefully learn a thing or two along the way. Maybe you can learn from the mistakes I will inevitably make, or get inspired to start building some terrain yourself. And if you ever see me make mistakes, please feel free to point it out in the comments!
Closing Words…
If you have any question, feel free to leave a comment below, or drop me an email at harm@harmsworkshop.com. If you found this very useful and want to show some support, you can do so via my Ko-Fi page.
Great stuff, a great part of the appeal of the ‘oldhammer’ way of doing things is to make stuff yourself.
Creating your own things is a great part of the hobby that I fear may be lost in this world of 3d printing.
I am currently making my way through the old Townscape buildings from the 80’s and making them from wood and foam and other materials.
Off to see what the Crumbled Ruin is like.
😀
Well put Michael! I am about to start a similar project, all the best!