Mars is dying...

Mars is dying...

Not through fault or neglect or wicked reason, not even because of the Gods; though some would say this is so. Mars is dying because it is old.

For time beyond count, our world has floated with the orb of the sun god, basking in the everwarmth that it provides, the Martian brothers sailing around giving constant company.

The Ancients warned the death of Mars might be so. Long, long ago; before the Storm. It is said the Storm lasted for an age or more: I for one, do not believe this to be true even though the clan elders warn me against foolish words.

There are still some Ancient writings in the deep deserts for those who wish to learn and are willing to brave sandstorms and the creatures that live there. Most of our knowledge from before the Storm comes from stories told around the clan fires, told again and again, embellished ever so lightly with each clan teller so who knows what is true and what is not.

With each storm season, the Ancient houses and temples disappear and reappear so fast that is easy to loose them completely, Gods know how large their cites were or what final secrets they contain. Three whole clans have been lost searching for the chief city with no sign or call from them these long years past.

But now we have new troubles and concerns. The Earthers have come to Mars: to steal and pillage what they can and to take it away to their blue world. Curse them to the Gods! They have no right, no honour and no need to be here. Like parasites they come here destroying whatever they touch and leaving mayhem in their wake.

They must be sent back across the sky ocean to their blue world.

They must be stopped.

It must happen now!

Sunday 2 December 2018

Some generic Martian terrain

I have been working on some new terrain to fight over in our expanding Mars campaign. Just some simple mesa and a low level railway.

The mesa are quite simple builds. I started off by cutting up cork bark to the right sort of shape and filling in the small gaps with scraps and sticking the whole lot on a hardboard base. Ready mixed wall filler was applied to the bases and tops of the mesa to fill any remaining gaps and create a slightly uneven surface. Sand was applied to all the top surfaces of the mesa and base and once this was dry the whole thing was given a wash of watered down Windsor and Newton burnt sienna ink. After a day or so, I worked up through the Foundry ochre triad to get the desired reddish hue. This is the same process as shown for the temple earlier and pretty much for most of the Mars terrain.




The next bit of terrain was a low level railway (saves getting the viaduct out all the time). A very simple build which consists of a hardboard base, 5mm foamboard on top cut with a slight chamfer and then filler and sand applied on top but being careful to avoid the sleepers that are stuck on the foamboard. Same colours as before and a bit of ‘dry’ grass tufting here and there. I have a jig to lay the rails down and the rails are simple 'i' beam styrene extrusion that don't even need painting please excuse the feet in slippers).



I also got a small, simple derrick completed to add a bit of a different type of scatter terrain. After looking at some suitable railway model photos online the construction was begun with a simple balsa frame and mechanism. The arm of the crane also rotates. The balsa was given a watered down ink wash and brought up again with some subtle drybrushing. The base was completed in the usual way.






There will be some more terrain for Martians at some point in the near future so watch this space.

6 comments:

  1. Sharp looking terrain. Thanks for the hints/description of how it's made. I'm intrigued by the japanese (?) figure working the derrick....what's going on with the red mane/hair?

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    1. Thank you :-)

      He's a Japanese Boshin war officer from around 1868 available from Bac Ninh Miniatures. I thought it might be interesting to include him with my Japanese forces even though he's a couple of decades out of place.

      cheers

      James

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