This idea came about as the result of playing Dawn of War, and looking at the chaos terminator lord.

This project rquires:
-air-dry modelling clay
-crackle paste
-foam core
-basing material

Begin by drawing out roughly what you want. I was aiming for creating a an 8-pointed hole in the, pushing the dirt around it away.

I began by creating 8 triangular wedges from the modelling clay, I carved and modified the ramps to look like earth that had been broken up and moved. Roughen it up. Seriously, roughen it up. Make it look like rocks, dirt and everything has cracked apart.

Then, once these are dry, assemble them on foam-core, and trace out the shape you have, adding about an inch of space about the outer rim, and keep the inner hole more or less steep. Next, you will cut out the foam core, and carve the slope into the edges you have described.

For the next layer I took the cut out, traced it out on again. This time I continued the slope, creating a bowl in the middle, and extending the volcano's base around the outside.

You can keep going for as many layers as you please. My piece is three layers of foam core thick, and the clay ramps add about an inch. I firmly reccomend that at this stage you paint the ramps/mounds with whatever base color you will be using, as this will make it easier in the next stages.

As a disclaimer, you don't need a perfect bowl. How you finish this rift is up to you. It could be a daemon prince clawing out, chains whipping about with impaled guardsmen on them, tongues of flame licking out, or pikes of skull and blood leaking everywhere. This is your personalized hole to the aether!

Next, glue everything down and together. Once it sets, apply crackle paste, keeping it thin on the outer edge, thick in the middle sections, and thinning out again as it goes onto the ramps. You want the middle portion of the terrain to look cracked apart. I was aiming for a look which suggested the ramps in the middle to be more rock than earth, so how far you actually extend the crackle paste is entirely to your preference.

Give it a few days to set, and now add sand or coffee grinds, whatever your basing solution, around the edges of your volcano (this ground has not been quite as destroyed yet, and seams it in with your gaming board)

Finally, paint to your desire! I am not a great painter, But attached below are images of the WIP and finished product. This is just a general guide-line. You can make this any way you please. I've been looking to use crackle-paste in my terrain for a long time, and im glad I finally got a chance to do that, and hopefully give you guys some inspiration.

What can this be? Dangerous terrain, difficult terrain, a spawning point for daemons, whatever you please!




PS this is still a work in progress... I have no idea when I'll get around to actually finishing this! hopefully one of you will beat me =P

-PodaT