Etsy Wargaming Terrain for D&D, 40k, Warhammer, & More

January 16, 2021January 16, 2021 wilburLeave a comment

The well of Etsy wargaming terrain is a bottomless one. You can get lost on there pouring over the various offerings, from Dwarven mines, to scorched gothic ruins. On Etsy, you’ll spot companies and manufacturers you’re familiar with, and many more that you’re not. It’s an abundance of talent and beautiful products all in one place.

After spending way too much time on there (yet again), I thought it’d be useful to pull together some of the best stuff I’ve found so far in one handy roundup.

So whether your jam is leading a small party of adventurers through dark and narrow dungeon corridors, or leading huge regiments of troops into an epic conflict, you’ll find something to suit your needs right here.

To be up-front, I do use affiliate links here, which means I may earn a commission if you were to buy through them. This is at no extra cost to yourself, and helps support the running costs of this humble blog. If you don’t want to use my affiliates though, then here’s a straight-up link to the Etsy marketplace 🙂

D&D adventures often start in the tavern. Etsy miniature wargaming terrain.

Etsy D&D Terrain

There’s a lot of terrain on Etsy that’s perfect for your D&D adventures. Perhaps your adventure begins (as it does for many) in the tavern bar (or even kitchen?). Or maybe your party has just escaped from prison? In any case, once your quest is underway, what kind of dungeon would you like to explore? Will you pave the way with some dungeon tiles and doors, or will you opt for the full immersion of a cavern/dungeon set? A cheaper “all in one” option is this MDF Deep Dark Dungeon kit, but that’ll require a bit more work on the building and painting side of things.

Fight your 40k battles over these blasted ruins

Etsy 40k Terrain

More of a Warhammer 40k player? Prefer to lead squads of Space Marines across shell blasted battlefields on ruined worlds? Ruins are ubiquitous in any game of 40k, whilst some industrial-looking scatter terrain will never go amiss either. Ammunition dumps, Sci-fi walkways, and jutting rocks paint a realistic picture of a futuristic warzone. This two-level gothic tower makes for an ideal centrepiece or scenario objective, too.

Etsy Warhammer Fantasy Terrain

Are you a bit of a rank and flanker? Whether you’re playing in the Warhammer Old World sandbox, or in Mantic’s Kings of War, there’s a lot of great fantasy terrain on Etsy that’ll make your table look stunning. You can never go wrong with some houses, and this fishing village set is perfect for your Empire army to defend against the tides of Chaos. No settlement is complete without a blacksmith’s forge, and as ever, some scatter terrain adds an extra dimension to your setup. Heading out into the wilderness, you might choose to fight over some ruins, or even a crumbling castle. These dead forest and goblin outpost sets are well worth a look, too.

Summary: Buying Etsy Wargaming Terrain

The thing I love most about the Etsy wargaming terrain offerings, is the individuality. If you’re buying buildings or scenery from one individual company, then there’s always going to be a particular look or “theme”. But because the creators and sellers on Etsy are all independent of one another, it’s akin to walking round a boutique market.

The sheer variety of Etsy wargaming terrain also means you’re more likely to find the exact piece you had in mind to bring your table to life. This is opposed to when buying from companies with a limited range, where you’ll often get something on the basis that it isn’t quite 100%, but “it’ll do”.

With that said, Etsy is far from the only place to pick up buildings, scenery, and furniture for your miniature adventures. Check out my roundup on the best places to buy miniature wargame terrain for even more options.

The Beastie Boys: A Knightmare of Chaos Beastmen

January 14, 2021October 18, 2024 wilburLeave a comment

The excellent Knightmare Miniatures make up the spine of my Oldhammer Chaos Warrior Warband. I’ve also put together a small unit of goblin archers from their range.

This time around, it was time to build a Chaos Beastmen Herd. There’s a lot of great beastmen miniatures in the Knightmare catalogue, so I picked out my favourite 10, along with a Greater Daemon to lead them.

The big guy came with wings, but I didn’t stick them on in the end. Help keep his feet on the ground and all that…

This fellow is a sort of three-eyed Highland Cow. Udderly terrifying.

Also coming in threes was this beastman’s arms. He can dig the garden whilst making a sandwich at the same time.

This chap has the only pair of feet in the warband that aren’t cloven. Hoove had thought it?

I reckon the shaman is a bit bat-like. A bat with hooves, though.

The customary ‘three miniatures walking through a castle gate’ shot.

A beastman who’s gran is always asking him if he’s eating well.

More of the big lad.

The ‘get off my lawn’ beastman.

Spot the Nurgle worshipper. There’s always one…

Smug youngblood with golden earring and ideas way above his station.

I imagine this guy spends a lot of time thinking about where he should actually live. Under the sea? In the forest? Dry tentacles or wet fur? What’s the lesser of the two evils?

As usual, I stuck them on a Warbases tray so they’ll work equally as well in big rank and flank games as they will in small-scale skirmishes. Remember to also check out my Chaos Warrior Warband and Goblin Archer unit – both of which are made up heavily of Knightmare miniatures!

Thanks for reading 🙂

My Miniature Painting in 2020: An Improvement?

January 9, 2021January 9, 2021 wilburLeave a comment

You don’t need to look far (or hard) online to find a better miniature painter than yourself. That’s as relevant to the seasoned pros as it is to aspiring plodders like myself.

As I keep saying on this blog though, you can only really compare your work to your older work. That’s the only true barometer when it comes to miniature painting progress.

As it’s January 2021, I thought I’d take a look back at my progress this year. I’ve posted monthly hobby updates since I launched the site, so it was easy to skim through. I’ve picked out a few examples to post here.

Let’s kick off though, with my most recent work. This beast herd was finished up around the New Year period (full report coming soon), and I’m pretty chuffed with how they’ve turned out.

My Early Work in 2020

I was pleased with these paintjobs at the time (and I still think they’re acceptable), but I feel I’m capable of a lot better, one year on.

The Middle of the Year

Those heady days of spring and summer brought a bit of a step up in my techniques. To be honest, I probably got a bit better at taking pictures, too.

Into the Autumn…

Not too much of a difference between these guys and their spring/summer counterparts.

Knightmare Miniatures: Pantheon of Chaos Champion

Winter is Coming…

Perseverance, practice, curiosity, and an open mind led me to taking another baby step forwards.

So there we have it, a year in pictures. Is there an improvement there? I’d say so. If I can just keep practising and learning, then I’ll be able to kick on even more in 2021, too. The main thing above everything else, however, is to simply enjoy the process.

Once again, you can look over my full year’s worth of work in my monthly updates. As ever, thanks for taking the time to read this humble blog 🙂

What’s It Like Being a Colour Blind Miniature Painter?

December 25, 2020March 18, 2023 wilbur2 Comments

Imagine a tabletop where pink orcs battle green-skinned high elves. Where yellow dwarves hold out against hordes of blue-furred ratmen.

This is, of course, a highly exaggerated scenario of what it might be like to be a colour blind (or “colour deficient”, as my optician recently corrected) miniature painter.

I mean, for one, the colours of paints are written on the pots. So it’d be incredibly hard to get things so “wrong”.

I was first diagnosed with colour blindness at an early age, when a test was sprung upon me at primary school. You’ve probably had one yourself. You’re asked to pick out numbers or letters from these discs of coloured dots. It’s rare for me to find one I can spot.

I suppose the early signs were there – I thought grass was red for a brief period of my life. But as a fairly arty kid (I was decent at drawing) this wounded my pride a bit. You don’t want to be known as “bad” at anything when you’re young, so I’d sneakily check the names of colours written on pencils prior to using them. No more red grass and purple skies for me.

I started collecting and painting miniatures at primary school too – though I never gave the colour blindness thing a thought, in relation to it. At least as far as I can remember. As I say, the names of the colours were on the pots. Goblin Green was green for goblins, Sunburst Yellow was ideal for bits I thought should be yellow. And Blood Red was most definitely not for grass.

Then I did what most hobbyist kids do, and take a long break from around the age of 15. A break I never thought was “a break”, more of an “I’ve grown out of that”. But I came back to it all in my mid-30s – again – as many hobbyists do.

*“What colour is that banner? Wait… have we been shooting at our own guys?”*

It was only then that I started to think about the colour blindness thing. There’s so much content out there aimed at helping folks with their painting, whereas, back in the day, we were limited to segments of White Dwarf once a month.

I became aware of terms like “colour theory”, “colour palettes”, and “the colour wheel”, which enable painters to use colour in an almost scientific way. You don’t need to look far to see the effects of this. The standard of painting out there these days is truly exceptional.

It’d be wrong of me to say that I couldn’t make use of colour theory myself. I simply haven’t read enough into it yet. This is purely because I try to make sure that 90% of my painting improvement time comes through practice, which leaves only 10% for consuming content and tutorials. I might get to it at some point in the future, and only then will I be able to determine whether or not it’s accessible to me.

The thing I struggle with the most in my painting is the classic “you’ve missed a bit” syndrome. This is because, depending on the colours I’m using, a primed area often won’t stand out to me as much as it probably would for most other painters. Likewise, I can make a small mistake and it won’t stand out to me at all, whereas someone else might spot it right away. I’m not complaining about this. Everyone will have their own unique challenges in the hobby, and this just happens to be mines.

*Some of my latest work. I think they might be my best efforts to-date*

I mentioned the usefulness of having paint colours written on the pots. But come to think of it, that isn’t always true of the modern Citadel paints. For example, I briefly used Naggaroth Night on the premise that it was blue (which was a silly mistake on my part, considering I know my Old World lore). It isn’t hard to find out the colours of paints if I’m in any doubt though, so again, I’m not complaining. Just observing.

I regularly publish pictures of my own painting work on this blog. I accept that I’m nowhere near the standard of many other miniature painters out there, not because of any colour deficiency, but because those folks have put a lot more hours of hard work into honing their craft. For me, it isn’t about comparing my painting with anyone else’s. It’s about looking at what I’ve done this month, compared to what I did 6 months ago, and thinking “there’s a definite improvement here”.

I paint miniatures because it’s a cathartic analogue hobby with steep learning curves and a pursuit of mastery. I don’t see colour blindness as a disadvantage because I’ve never known any different. If I only have my own work to compare against, then it can’t hold me back. I might not ever win a Purple Demon award, but I’m having a lot of fun. And surely that’s all that matters?

Next up: 8 Tips to Rekindle Your Miniature Painting Motivation

December 2020: Hobby Productivity Blog #13

December 24, 2020December 24, 2020 wilburLeave a comment

It’s Christmas Eve, time of writing, and I’ve set aside some time to sit down with a beer and look over what I’ve been up to this month.

To be honest, I didn’t get a huge amount of actual painting done. I’d run up a massive queue of miniatures that needed a second coat of varnish, so that took up a lot of my hobby time. However, I still managed to do some painting. All of it Chaos-themed.

Work continued on my Oldhammer-esque Chaos Warrior warband. These Chaos Foot Knights are by Mirliton. I bought them via Campaign Game Miniatures.

My next project is imaginatively titled “The Beastie Boys”. These guys are exclusively from one of my favourite miniature companies, Knightmare.

This herd of Chaos Beastmen will ally with my Chaos Warriors in large-scale games, or fight against them in Real of Chaos-themed skirmish battles (using the Open Combat or Song of Blades & Heroes rulesets!)

I’d expect to have this lot finished in the next couple of weeks, so keep an eye out for a dedicated post about that. And if you’re reading this around the time of release, thanks for keeping up with my content on this humble blog. Wishing you all the very best for 2021!

November 2020: Hobby Productivity Blog #12

November 29, 2020November 29, 2020 wilburLeave a comment

This month has all been about Dungeon Saga, by Mantic Games.

I recently picked the game up (along with the Adventurers Companion expansion) and quickly burned through all of the miniatures in the box.

There’s also plenty cool dungeon furniture included, so I’ve slapped some paint on those pieces too.

The standard of boxed game miniatures comes in for some (justified) criticism at times, but I was seriously impressed with these. They were a lot of fun to paint. Here’s my full write-up on working through them all.

The Adventurers Companion supplement gives you the freedom to create your own characters, parties, and stories.

For this, I decided to turn to the wonderful Oathsworn Miniatures range.

These minis are predominantly designed for Oathsworn’s Burrows & Badgers game.

They’re full of character, and a joy to paint.

I selected each of these anthropomorphic warriors to replace the four original heroes in the Dungeon Saga box. Here’s my full write-up on that.

So that’s the bulk of my work this month. I’m now looking to get back to finishing off my retro Chaos Warrior warband before the end of the year.

What about you? What have you been up to recently? As always, feel free to post your own links and updates in the comments section below. I’d love to take a look.

Dungeons & Badgers

November 18, 2020April 1, 2021 wilburLeave a comment

Alright so there are no badgers in my party, but I am of course making reference to Burrows & Badgers by Oathsworn Miniatures. They’re the company behind these lovely little furries.

Oathsworn miniatures making up a Dungeon Saga Heroes party

I recently wrote about buying Mantic’s Dungeon Saga, and painting up all the miniatures. The core heroes in the box were absolutely fine, but, ever the storyteller, I wanted to create something unique for my dungeon delves.

I’d been dying to buy more stuff from Oathsworn for a while now and this seemed like the ideal project. First up, I replaced the Human Barbarian with this hardy looking anthropomorphic rat. I’ve named him Stinky Bob – there’s a plant theme here, for some reason.

Sir Velburch (say it aloud) is a proud looking Squirrel Knight. He replaces the Dwarf Warrior.

Chickweed is my Mouse Ranger, replacing the Elf Ranger. He’s heard a rumour that the dungeons he’ll be looting are a lot like the ones found in Elder Scrolls: Oblivion – jam-packed with lots of cheese wheels.

Out goes the Human Mage, in comes the Hare Mage. Her name is Rosa Rugosa, and she’s a prickly one.

Godspeed my bold adventurers. Delve forth and kill skeleton minions and stuff. Perhaps I’ll find a vet miniature to act as an Apothecary if things get tough down there.

Thanks to Oathsworn for the fantastic miniatures. You can peruse more on my Dungeon Saga adventures right here, and I’ve also been working on some bad guys for the party to fight – check out populating a Lovecraftian dungeon for more on that!

Dungeon Saga, by Mantic Games

November 14, 2020May 6, 2021 wilburLeave a comment

My quest for a dungeon crawler miniatures game recently led me to pick up Dungeon Saga, by Mantic Games. I’m a big fan of Mantic’s rulesets, in particular, Kings of War. The clincher for me was seeing that it was written by Jake Thornton, a name I saw frequently as a kid leafing through the pages of White Dwarf.

Like anyone else of my generation, HeroQuest was one of the first games to really draw me into this hobby. Obviously, this is a heavy influence behind Dungeon Saga, but we have here a game in its own rights. I’ve played some of the early scenarios and it’s a lot of fun.

All the miniatures from the Dungeon Saga box

I also bought the Adventurers Companion expansion which lets you create your own heroes, design your own campaigns, and play co-op mode.

The miniatures look really good, especially for a boxed game. I painted them all up in a couple of weeks using a quick contrast, wash, and drybrush technique.

Some of the miniatures are an obvious homage to HeroQuest, whilst others – like the zombie trolls – are totally unique.

The heroes have been good to learn the ropes with, but I’m currently working on creating my own unique party. I’ll be talking about that in a future post.

I heard recently that HeroQuest was coming back. However, with Dungeon Saga and the Adventurers Companion I feel I’ve got all the tools I need to scratch those dungeon crawl itches.

I’ve put together a party of bold adventurers to delve some new dungeons, going forward. Dungeons populated by these Lovecraftian horrors.

And most recently, I’ve added more minions to my dungeon saga from the old school Battlemasters game.

Spending Your Birthday Money in Games Workshop in the 90s

November 8, 2020November 8, 2020 wilburLeave a comment

Last year I set to working through a couple of boxes I found in my parents’ attic.

I’ve written about some of my hobby-related finds so far. I unearthed a Space Wolves force, a small Lizardemen army, and an Undead warband.

It’s taken me a while to get to some of the smaller, more esoteric stuff though. This time around, we’re taking a look at some Games Workshop receipts from 1995-1998.

I’d found an old wallet in one of the boxes, and these were tucked away inside. A bizarre thing to keep, I’ll admit. But quite a nostalgic find, and fun to look back at all the purchases, as well as the pricing.

In 1995 I was obsessed with Orcs & Goblins. By the 97/98 period though, I was putting some serious effort into collecting the shiny new Lizardmen forces.

I was still flighty with my buying, though. I can see I was picking up undead and Chaos Space Marine stuff too. I’ve always been more of a collector and (fledgling) painter than a gamer. If I liked the look of something, I always added it to my “to-buy” list.

Trips to GW as a kid were rare because there wasn’t one anywhere near where I lived. I’d usually get to go a day trip there after a birthday so I could spend the paper that fell out of the various cards I’d received. I’d have a list drawn up of what I was going to buy at least 6 months in advance. This was done by pouring over the pages of my White Dwarf collection. These lists probably changed on a weekly basis, too…

Again, if you fancy a look at some of the other stuff I’d recovered, check out my Space Wolves, my Lizardemen, and my Undead!

October 2020: Hobby Productivity Blog #11

October 31, 2020October 31, 2020 wilburLeave a comment

The end of October sees Bedroom Battlefields celebrate its first birthday. Who knew that one year ago, when this humble blog was launched, it’d go on to become one of the most influential voices in the tabletop miniature hobby?

I mean, I didn’t, because that hasn’t actually happened. But as one of the few folks who does read this thing, I salute you!

Anyway – what did I get done this month. A decent amount of stuff, as it happens.

Oh, and I also discovered a splendid new podcast you might enjoy. It’s called Precinct Omega: Weekly Wargaming Miniatures News & Discussion. Be sure to check it out.

So I’ve spent the past couple of months researching ‘dungeon crawler’ games, and finally settled on Mantic’s Dungeon Saga (and expansion pack, The Adventurers Companion). As you’ll see, I’ve tentatively started to splash some paint on the miniatures, too.

I started my project to build a retro-looking Chaos Warrior warband, because I’m a nostalgic bore who’s obsessed with the Oldhammer aesthetic.

A Ral Partha Chaos Warrior — *“Sorry pal, you can’t come in. You’re plastic, and you take yourself way too seriously…”*

River Horse Games: Terminator Genisys Endoskeletons

I’ve been working on creating my own sci-fi universe to use with some miniature agnostic rulesets. Here are some Terminator miniatures from River Horse. Very simple to paint, but I’m chuffed with the outcome.

I found an old Space Marine miniature from my recently unearthed childhood collection, and I gave him a lick of paint. I hadn’t painted a Space Marine since about 1997.

The Terminator minis will be up against these Soviet Heavies from Konflikt ’47. Again, I went for a quick and simple paintjob, but they’ve turned out alright.

I could never go a month without painting something by Knightmare Miniatures. This Chaos Champion has just eaten a very hot curry.

If that’s what his head looks like, can you imagine his… no, let’s not go there eh…

Another restored childhood mini was this GW Warhammer 40k Imperial Assassin. Just a guy, in Lycra, who likes to kill stuff from a great distance. Very impressive, mate.

Finally, I completed a warband of goblin archers (again, by Knightmare). These were good fun to paint, and relatively quick to get through.

So that’s the fruits of my labour for the month of October 2020. What about you? Painted more stuff? Possibly. Made a better job of it? Definitely. Stick your links and/or updates in the comments section below and give us a wee look.