Reign in Hell Battle Board (Complete)

Okay, so I likely should have posted a single entry that included my entire Battle Board - I get it - so here's the link to my previous post with WIP of the board. But I didn't because this is entirely a hobby for me and I don't really work to the beat of a drum. Even if those drums are being pounded by demonic entities using human skins and bones. The board has turned out really well - I've very happy with it. Now if we could only get an opportunity to play some games of Reign in Hell! 

I've avoided the temptation to do some additional highlights primarily because of the depth in colour that had been achieved. Much more and it would most certainly detract from the miniatures that are going to find their way onto this plane of hell before too long. Here's a short video of the board as well. I tried to catch the light bouncing off the various glosses I'd painted over the board (especially in the fissures). The translucent surface really adds to the sense of depth that's difficult to capture digitally.

The Reign in Hell game details a number of scenarios, including King of the Hill. From the rulebook:

Your cabals are battling over an important piece of terrain. Control of this terrain is essential - perhaps it contains ancient lore of the before times, perhaps it's a bastion of soul power, maybe even an extremely powerful weapon. Whichever cabal controls this terrain piece at the end of the scenario is the victor.

So I've got a board but I don't have a "bastion of soul power" - actually, I didn't have one, but now I do! A few months ago, while walking home, I noticed a neighbor had a pile of housing insulation foam offcuts lying in their front yard. I dropped them a note and they said I was welcome to it. Over the course of a couple of hours I sliced up a 6x6" piece using an old but sharp kitchen knife and roughed it up a bit using a ball of tinfoil - it gave it a nice, weathered texture. 

 

I liberally painted it all in black acrylic craft paints and then drybrushed it with some old off-white house paint with a drop of black to make a grey, stone-like surface.

 

Finally I mixed up some red acrylic ink into a small measure of clear, water-based, aqua coat (the sort of stuff you use on wood to protect it from wear) and injected it (yes, I used a syringe! How appropriate is that?!?) onto the piece. The result was rather gruesome i.e. perfect:

The 'blood' is really viscous with an authentic, fresh-looking shine to it. I love how it is seeping out of the stone and along the cracks. Disgusting!! I showed my daughter and she was horrified (but thought it was cool).

You know what? I needed something more. And borrowing an idea from a recent posting on a Facebook group of which I'm a member, I realised I needed to make an obelisk. But not your standard Egyptian fare, no no no, I wanted something that looked disturbing. Grabbing another piece of foam, I hacked and whittled at it with my carving knife, doused it in black craft paint and then PVA with acrylic red ink, and finished it off with a yellow drybrushing and edge lining. The end result was truly wicked-looking:

 

It is tough getting the light just right on my mobile phone's camera, but I was very happy with the end result regardless. The obelisk has a skewer in the end so it can be attacked and removed from the blood altar (?) without any fuss. As far as other scatter goes for this table, I might do a piece or two e.g., you can see some banksia in the background - I am thinking of giving them a try again - they'd make for a cool hellish forest. 

I'm going to call that a wrap. Now I just have to wait for the arrival of my Chaos Warriors order and get to painting. My order will have enough for my cabal as a whole, however, I'd like to do something that stands out some for my Leader and Devout Demon - if anyone has something Chaos Warrior-like that they might like to throw my way, let me know!