3rd party Ossiarch Terrain

[Sception]

Probably my biggest and onlyest *major* disappointment with the OBR release was that the bone wall & gate terrain pieces heavily featured in the promotional material turned out to be studio display conversions and not an actual new model kit.  construction and fortification is a major theme of the Bonereapers lore, but there really isn't much in the way of first party terrain to reflect that.  yeah there's the nexus, but that's more a monument than a fortification, and none of the other AoS terrain remotely fits the bonereapers distinct style.

I've seen at least one conversion/build guide:

But it looked like a lot of effort for results that felt more orky or beastmannist to me than ossiarch.

So I've been looking for 3rd party alternatives, mostly 3d printed stuff on etsy.  Here's what I've found so far, though note that I havent purchased any of these so I can't vouch for the particular sellers linked:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/728009527/dnd-necromancer-tower-warhammer-evil

Pobably the best I've found, looks like it would work well as a watchtower.  Not really an ossiarch aesthetic, but at least it feels like it's made of bones.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/773082178/

Not a fortification, but these columns/pylons/obelisks have a pretty ossiarch aestheric to them.  could probably do something with that.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/773078712

Again more monument rather than fortification, but there's a bonereapery feel to it.

 

Honestly no amazing options so far.  i would have figured 3d printer types would have a bunch of knock offs up after the teased terrain was so widely desired and then not sold, but maybe i was reading too much into my own desire to buy that kit, and there hasn't been the big demand from elsewhere?

 

Anyway, has anybody seen any of these in person to vouch for how they turn out?  or do you have alternative bonereaper terrain suggestions, whether purchasable or hobby tutorials?

[N@g@sh]

I am actually making a diorama at the moment, that is an ossiarch fortress, and I am basing it on the descriptions in the bonereapers book, so I found some good supplies to make the bookshelves, and bottles for some workshops and laboratories, here. It also has all sorts of other things to make scenery out of. I know it is not ideal, but I too have been scouring the web for ossiarch terrain, and have realised that unless I spend many, many hours online, I have to take matters into my own hands and build some terrain.

I too have been very disappointed that they didn't release some scenery with the bonereapers, they probably made those battlements out of green stuff or something, then made a mould to make the impression that because of the uniformity it was going to be a set.

I hope other people have better suggestions than me.

[Sception]

Despairing of alternatives, I'm also starting to look more at scratch built hobby stuff.  Based on both pictures in the OBR book, like this one from your sig:

As well as the unreleased studio terrain featured in the release materials as seen here:

OBR fortifications seem to be fairly standard stone block castles and battlements, with the shaped bone layered overtop as decoration/reinforcement.

So aiming for that aesthetic, the first step would be making basic stone block walls, and there are plenty of good tutorials available for scratch building those, including this one from the same youtube channel that made the previously linked OBR terrain tutorial:

While I found their OBR tutorial to be a lot of work for an aesthetic I didn't particularly care for, the process for this basic stone wall seems pretty quick and easy for a result that IMO looks pretty darn good, and that looks pretty easy to adapt from walls to towers & gatehouses & such.  Also should be pretty low cost, which lets it scale up easily.

Of course, the hard part is the part that actually makes it distinctly OBR - the bone molding.  For walls, the main elements seem to be:

1.  replacing the castle crenulations with railings/fences made from rib bones.  Granted, these would be dramatically less effective protection for defenders on the battlements than actual crenulations, but then again the crenulations on most wargame terrain castles are already way too small for the purpose regardless, so aesthetics over functionality is already kind of the precedent.  as a variant, you could use these overtop of or covering the gaps inbetween regular stone crenulations.  As for how to make it... this part doesn't actually seem all that hard.  Making a bunch of individual ribs, whether via molding or just individually carving a bunch shouldn't be too tricky, they're not all that difficult a shape and uniformity in anything other than length isn't that important.  If you're making them out of greenstuff or the like you'd need reinforcement from something sturdier every couple inches.  Placing these over/between regular crenulations would more or less cover, here.

2.  large, archeway-shaped vaguely pelvis-like flatish bone reinforcements over the stone walls, seen most clearly in the studio terrain but also seen on the walls in the artwork.  This looks harder to manage.  Scultping with some sort of air-drying modeling clay is an option, I suppose, if you've got reasonable sculpting skills.  I'm not sure mine are up to the task.  Uniformity would also be an issue.  3d modeling & printing could easily cover both issues, but I personally lack the experience or equipment to consider that option.  Alternatively, maybe start with stencilled shapes from thick plasticard or thin foam, and carve / build up modeling clay or putty over that?

3.  Seen on the artwork but not the studio terrain, you could also have a lone of ossiarch banners adorning the walls.  They look close enough to the mortek banners that you could use those if you have some spare.  May also be able to bits order some.

That's just for plain wall segments - gates & towers seem to have other, more intricate and distinguishing aesthetic features, including the more elaborate large skull, pelvis, & spine bits.  But the walls seem like the first thing you'd want or need, so anyone tackling this sort of project should probably start there.

In terms of painting - though that really is putting the cart before the horse, since a lot of this hypothetical terrain would be plain stone bricks or blocks, you might want to do something different with the stone.  This tutorial on painting  ghostly green terrain may prove useful there, particularly if your method for painting bone is darker than that used by GW:

 

Edited June 15, 2020 by Sception