ACME Terrain

New 6mm Stone Walls Set

2008-10-02T13:23:00.001-04:00

"What do you want to do on your birthday this year?" the wife asks... My immediate response was "give me 3 hours to make my new 6mm stone walls!" Yes, it's the small things in life that make us the happiest. Based on my previous experiences with the other walls and fences, I added a larger base with green stuff modeled to be the grassy turf surrounding the wall. This makes casting much easier and is a feature that I will use for the 10mm-15mm Snake-Rail Fence Set project.

New 6mm Snake-Rail Fence Set

2008-10-02T13:13:00.002-04:00

A customer from the Cleveland area sent two out of print snake-rail fence pieces with the request that I cast some more for his gaming board. These are 6mm in scale and look pretty good for the size and period. I patched some things on the casts that he sent and made a mold. I am very pleased with the results and have already sent several sets out from eBay sales... Now I have to create a complimentary stone wall set for the same scale!

Shelob Warmaster Unit

2008-10-02T12:42:00.001-04:00

It's been ages since the last post but I have been quite busy with ACME Terrain development and sales. After watching the Lord of the Rings Trilogy marathon, I decided that a Shelob command/artillery unit would be great to have along with the Spiders of Mirkwood units. I checked on line for some plastic spiders and wasn't really successful with what I found. So, with serendipity being the mother of opportunity, I stumbled across a spiders earring set in an early halloween dsiplay at the local party store. They were perfect in size and just needed a little modification to work for my needs. A little green stuff and modeling clay later, I was making the mold for what has become my new addition to the ACME Terrain family... Shelob!

Spiders of Mirkwood Units

2008-07-01T18:43:00.001-04:00

I managed to create three units of Mirkwood Spiders painted and mounted them on magnetic bases. The casts are from the out of print "Battle of Five Armies" series from Games Workshop. I have these on eBay now and will cast more once I am back from San Antonio. I checked out the Alamo today - very cool. Other than seeing the actual Alamo, the next best thing was checking out all of the dioramas that depicted various stages of the mission and fortifications. I wish I could do that for a living!

Log Fence Set

2008-06-23T23:24:00.001-04:00

I have finished the Log Fence Set and have posted the first one on eBay. I had finished the masters and created the RTV molds over the weekend. I quickly casted a set and painted them up last night. I have added some clump foliage from Woodland Scenics to add a little more realism. The intent is to capture a fairly new fence with the bark still on the logs. The cut portions are light tan and haven't grayed under the sun yet. I liked this look better as it allows the highlights to be better and creates a nice contrast to the ground terrain and fields.

ACME Terrain Action Photo Studio

2008-06-22T19:27:00.002-04:00

So I have been noticing how great some of the pics are of miniatures and gaming boards on eBay, TMP and Yahoo Groups. I have also noticed that some of them are really bad.

So... I started looking around for tips and ideas on how to take better photos of the minis. There are some great web sites out there but believe it or not, the best resource was the DIGITAL CONCEPTS PORTABLE LIGHTING STUDIO FOR DUMMIES set at OfficeMax. It's basically a light box system and instructions for setting up your camera. The whole premise is to take better pictures of your merchandise so that it will sell better on eBay. Hmmm... what a novel idea.

Rather than buy the kit for $40, I figured that I had most of the equipment necessary so enter the ACME Terrain Action Photo Studio. The stands are from my PA speakers and the table is actually Lucy's dog crate. The lights are all utility lights with a mix of fluorescent and incandescent bulbs. I just rolled out my terrain mat and added the hill feature and some buildings. Getting the stone walls on eBay was top priority so that was the first shoot. I found a Barrow Mounds set amongst my supplies and put those along with some standing stones on eBay too. That was shoot number two.

I am really pleased with the results and will probably re-shoot the other sets that ACME offers with the new set up...

Stone Wall Set

2008-06-22T19:15:00.001-04:00

It has been awhile since my last posting. Of course it's the normal excuse of family, business travel and a completely different hobby (writing and recording rock music) getting in the way of some serious terrain making. I have had the stone wall molds finished for some time and I have cranked out 4 sets since the beginning of the month. I just now got time to post on eBay and so far they are going well. I think they go well with the 10mm-15mm scale and can be used on just about any period wargame table and could be flocked for different climates.

ACME Terrain.com goes live!

2008-06-01T20:34:00.001-04:00

The ACME Terrain website is now live with most of the content uploaded. I still need to add the PayPal cart system for web transactions. Rather than using a template, I designed the page from the ground up using the table layout feature in FrontPage 2003. The celtic buttons were built into FP and were a nice addition. I linked the the "News" button to this blogsite and will continue with updates...

Stone Circle and Barrow Mounds

2008-05-26T23:19:00.001-04:00

Memorial Day weekend was a blast. Finished it off by completing the Stone Circle and Barrow Mounds. I have also finished casting a set of the stone fences and am in the process of finishing those...

Stone Circle

2008-05-17T22:39:00.002-04:00

I got distracted last night from the Dark Ages village project while working with Sculpy. While surfing Dark Ages sites I ran across a bunch of great photos of stone circles and barrows in the UK and I just had to try one out. Here is the sculpt and mold... Next step - cast it in resin.

Dark Ages Hall cast and painted

2008-05-16T10:42:00.001-04:00

Here is the painted casting of the Hall. The master and the casting are side by side. You can also see the stone fences that I soon will be casting. I added a mix of Elmer's, sand and light ballast to the bottom flange for soil. I will be creating the mold for those pieces next...

The next project: stone fences

2008-05-14T22:28:00.001-04:00

I have started the masters for stone fences that can be used in a wide range of periods. I have 3 straight pieces and a corner piece almost finished. I want to use some sand and ballast for the bases. I will add flock and static grass to the castings during painting. After casting some of the straight pieces, I will modify some to create gates and other entrances that are more period-specific.

Mold and Casting of the Dark Ages Hall

2008-05-14T22:19:00.002-04:00

I finished the details on the master and created a mold using RTV silicone. I cleaned the mold and completed a test cast. In the haste to get a casting, I poured the resin a little too quickly resulting in more air pockets than normal (I need a pressure tank!). I can fix the spots with putty during the painting process. I also need to do a few repairs on the master.

Production Plant Grand Opening

2008-05-14T18:45:00.001-04:00

We here at ACME Terrain are pleased to announced to grand opening of our new production factory located in the southwestern United States. This photo was taken from the rail yards and reveals the magnitude of the facility. Many thanks to all of our loyal customers who made this expansion possible.

Finished the wooden shingles

2008-05-12T20:09:00.001-04:00

I have added a few more details since the last post. I had to do some research to determine how to do the chimney which really amounts to a hole in the roof. I have also placed my scale reference piece which demonstrates 6mm, 10mm and 15mm miniatures.

Dark Ages Hall

2008-05-12T16:25:00.001-04:00

To augment the Dark Ages series of buildings, I started work on a master for a minor hall that would have been used by the local village chieftain or warlord. Keeping consistent with the 12mm range that JR uses for its Dark Ages pieces, this can be used for either 10mm or 15mm miniatures. As a primary building in a village or hill fort, the hall was often roofed with wooden shingles rather than the thatch utilized on the other dwellings. The walls are contructed of waddle and daub dried between posts of wooden beams.

Covered Bridge

2008-05-07T14:05:00.001-04:00

Here is the covered bridge I just finished. This was cast from an OOP Stonewyrks 10mm piece made in the 90's.

More Village Pics

2008-05-07T13:57:00.002-04:00

Medieval Village Photos

2008-05-07T13:38:00.001-04:00

I have completed painting the first set of buildings. These are JRR Miniatures 10mm structures from their Ancients line.