Greetings all, I have a cheeky little terrain post to share with you today – I recently took delivery of a rather sexy little pre-painted tower thingy from a Kickstarter that I backed ages ago. When I first got it, it looked like this:
Not bad for a pre-painted piece, but I wanted to embellish it a bit & paint it up to match my Garden of Morr. A quick lick of paint, and I ended up with this:
Pretty cool, but ‘so far, so what’ right? I mean, it’s a nice enough tower and all that, but not really deserving of a post all to itself, is it? Well dear reader, this tower does tricks… check this out:
How mad is that! The tower is actually the ‘Dark Crypt fog machine’ from Real Game FX, and it houses a pump & ultrasonic transducer (a what now?!?)… The bottom of the tower is basically a reservoir, you turn on the gubbins and voila – instant cold fog comes pouring out of the door & windows. Here are a few examples of me playing around with the photographic possibilities:
How good is that eh?! As an added bonus, the guts of the machine come out, so with some clever modelling, I should be able to make other ‘cases’ for the worky-bitz to go in – a venting sci-fi tower, mysterious jungle ruins, whatever I fancy really! Now, I should point out that the fog is (duh) wet… Sounds obvious, but it really is very very wet, and this quickly makes everything around it wet as well. Also, the wires are a bit unsightly from anywhere other than a front-on view, so the tower will only look good around the edge of your board. Also it can be a bit splashy… The pump draws the water from the reservoir at the bottom of the tower, up an internal tube, and on to the sonic doo-dah – it is quite vigorous, and I did find that a bit of water came out of the windows & door. It’s also a pain in the arse to set up, difficult to fill once it is set up, it makes watery noises while running & makes me want to pee, and all the drying & faffing really adds to the packing away time, (I had to leave the models used in these photos out to dry after taking these pics for example). To be honest, it isn’t hugely practical for gaming… But I don’t care – it’s just so cool! I certainly won’t use it in every game, but I love this idea for marking cinematic moments in specific scenarios or for special occasions. It’s also great for the occasional photo shoot, where the impracticalities of the system are less of an issue. All in all, I’m really glad I backed the Kickstarter :-)
Anyway, that’s me for the next couple of weeks – I’m taking the kids hiking next week and I don’t plan to be on line at all while I’m away, so I’ll catch you all on the flip side. After that, I aim to add more Eru-Kin to my BOYL 2018 army, and I have a load of undead to get based & painted as well… Should be fun!
Leadballoony - It's a lead thing 
Hey. that is pretty cool!
Yup – a total pain in the arse to set up etc, but looks the business ;-)
Realy awsome, shame about the wetting… enjoy your time with the kids.
Thanks mate, I intend to! Looking forward to a week away :-) Yeah, it’s a shame about the water issues, but still worth the effort I think.
Despite being super wet, that fog is definitely cool!
Have fun on your hike, I hope to do more hiking this summer. :)
Cheers C&M, it certainly adds atmosphere, and yeah, I’m looking forward to a break with the kids! Fingers crossed for the good ol’ British weather – I reckon your summer plan is a better one ;-)
That is rather nifty, and very atmospheric. For all the hassle it could certainly add something to games involving the undead or deep in the bowels of industrial hives but personally I think it’ll come into its own with the idoneth deepkin, they probably perform better if they’re soaking wet…
Haha – good point mate! Soggy bottoms ahoy!
Oh coooooooooooool !!!! Great work on the painting you brought it to life a lot more. The fog is amazing. Now I’ve got smoke on the water in my head.
Cheers dude – a quick slap of paint definitely helped I think :-)
I wish I could achieve such greatness with quick slaps of paint
You can mate – I have seen your terrain first hand remember ;-)
Ah yes but I think you’re a bloody super star. Don’t be bashful. It’s good for me to aspire to be as good as you and our regular crew of hobbyists hehe
very cool indeed!
Cheers mate :-)
Looking awesome!
Cheers mate :-)
That’s terribly cool, specially after your repainting. How does humidity affect the paint on the minis -and on the very tower?
Cheers mate, acrylic paint is waterproof as far as I can tell, so there are no ill effects from the water (other than the ball-ache of drying stuff after). I think it would be a much bigger issue if you had card or mdf terrain around it though…
Oooh now that is cool. Shame about the water, but it’s still really nifty.
Hi Mikko, isn’t it just! I’m stupidly happy with my new toy :-)
Love the fog effect!
Thank you – me too! :-)
Spook-tacular!
I’ve wanted to say that for ages. Really fabulous and very effective, I’m wondering if the humidifier in my little one’s room could be requisitioned should the need for sinister scenes emerge.
Haha, cheers mate, I’m glad you got to use spooktacular ;-)
Tower looks phenom. Blows smoke as well? Truly killer! Wonder if you could get a less wet experience using dry ice?
Cheers mate – I bet you could, but no idea how you would go about getting the stuff :-/
I’m not sure either. There is a bar I went to, where the bartender was dropping something like dry ice to create a smoke effect on the ground as she made drinks. Next time I’m that way, I’ll have to ask her.
Great upgrade on the tower paint job, looking nice with the crypts. The fog is amazing, reminds me of that photo in Warhammer Siege with the smoke achieved by a cigar. I think I prefer the humidity. My special effects have been limited so far to some flickering tea lights in 4Ground houses and the lit up blast markers I bought from Bad Squiddo some Salutes ago.
Cheers dude & yeah, way better than chuffing a cigar :-) Oh, and plus one for flickering tea lights – they are the nuts!
Awesome pictures.
Cheers mate :-)
Wow!
:-D
Very atmospheric Jelly :)
Re, obtaining the dry ice, in aus you can get it from the butcher. Should be the same in the UK I’d imagine.
Oh, did you actually have to go pee? :D
I love a good atmosphere mate :-) Dry ice from a butcher you say?!? That’s about the last place I would think to ask… oh, and yeah, I actually did need to go pee… and yeah, that was probably more due to my age :-P
Very cool mate!
Cheers dude
Great looking tower, Alex – and a very cool effect. You mentioned wires – is the tower usable as “normal” terrain as well, or is there a lot of stuff sticking out of it’s back side?
Thanks mate, pretty sweet isn’t it? So the wires & attached gubbins come out with no fuss, so yeah – no issues using it as regular terrain is no issue :-)
Nice! Love the eerie fog, and your re-paint of it is great. :)
:-) Thanks IM