Mordheim Board - Garden of Morr Pt II (and Trees!!)

First post in a long while.  I'm still alive and well - just more time poor than usual.  It's very heartening to see there have been over 4,000 views of the blog!! I hope people are finding it inspiring and/or instructional!

Unfortunately, the durability of my last build, the Garden of Morr, has left a lot to be desired.  The fences and stonework around the edges were prone to breaking or coming off the poster frame with any form of handling.  That has meant I needed to mount it on something a little more sturdy to ensure it can handle gaming (and storage) a little better.

The board is much easier to handle now that it is mounted on a larger canvas.  It is the same dimensions as my docks board, so the two will be able to be joined together for bigger games. You can see I've made a start on the paving process.

I've got my hands of a 3' x 4' canvas frame that will align perfectly with my Mordheim Docks board, and my plan is to add roadways and paving in a similar style before painting the whole lot up ahead of my next campaign (hopefully next year).

Unlike the docks board, I don't plan on having any raised areas so it will lose the benefit of the foam sheets and resin pour to stabilize the canvas surface.  To combat this, I've glued corrugated cardboard inside the canvas, and also added some wooden pieces so I can screw the poster frame on from the underside.  This seems to have made it far more sturdy.  Now to add the paving!

The underside of the canvas has been reinforced with corrugated cardboard, and the poster frame has been screwed on from below through some offcuts of pine.  Hopefully this will hold it all together.

Nothing too complex for the paving - a roadway that links to the docks and wraps around one side of the graveyard.  I'll also add some cork stairways at the various entry points to the graveyard.  The method is the same as the docks board and has been covered in detail in prior posts, so I won't repeat here, but I will post again once it is all done.

Paving is a slow, but ultimately very rewarding process.  Thankfully, this time around I have quite a lot of road, which is much quicker given it uses thinner cork and card.

Another task I've been meaning to do is create some tree scatter terrain that can be used on either board.  The 3D-printed trees I used for the graveyard are fantastic, and with some manipulation in slicer software, you can get varied sizes and silhouettes. Shout out to My Dungeon (My Dungeon — 3D terrain for wargames and RPGs) who had posted it for free on Reddit a while back to support one of their Kickstarter campaigns.

However, to look good on my paved boards, the trees will need to be in garden beds.  Thankfully, it literally only took me 30 minutes to build some out of cork this afternoon - I love cork as a crafting material so much!  Steps outlined below:

First I cut large squares of cork as the bases.  I glued the trees to this with construction adhesive, after first trimming off any excess to ensure it would fit.  I then cut a number of cork pieces for the garden edging.  On the larger pieces, I cut in to the cork to create the illusion of a smaller piece on the end.  This was done for durability.

Next, I bevelled the edges of each piece with sandpaper and then glued them to the base ensuring there was an overhang.  I used superglue for this to get a quick bond. 

Finally, I mixed up some PVA, sand, small gravel and the sanded cork dust to create an earthy mixture for the garden beds.  I carefully pushed this into the gaps using a coffee stir stick and set them aside to dry.

All they need now is some paint and a heap of miniature leaves around the bases. 

Separately, I have been working on an Undead Mordheim warband (inspired by the truly excellent miniatures from Moshartz) and this has now morphed into a fully-fledged Vampire County army for Warhammer Fantasy.  I've got quite a few units built at this stage and I am hoping it is a project that will get me back into enjoying miniature painting.  I think this Garden of Morr table will also be great as a display board for the Army once it is done.  Stay tuned for progress over the coming months...