The finished well.

I have recently been getting into a fantasy tabletop game called Frostgrave, and before you ask - yes, it’s about wizards. Think of two or more 10-character parties tactically fighting over treasure. The board is much smaller than wargames such as Warhammer, and typically features a lot more terrain elements which make the game very tactical.

There are certain scenarios in the book which introduce a bit of flavour to each game, and some require specific terrain features. This particular piece is for the scenario ‘The Well of Dreams and Sorrows’, where Wizards may gain additional experience points for drinking from the well - which is usually situated in the centre, the most contested area of the board.

The frostgrave board for 'the Well of Dreams & Sorrows'

In typical fashion I started the build the night before the game, so we actually played with the most basic foam creation. The upside to this was I decided to really take my time after that and just followed my gut with what felt good - and the final product is, well, pretty great I think!

The plucky archer defends the treasure

The Build

The well as used during the scenario

Initial Base

I wanted this well to sit on a base so I could integrate it more into the environment. I started by cutting out a rough wobbly shape from cardstock. I used a sharp knife to chamfer the edge of the carstock to give a smooth transition from the base to the tabletop.

I took some cork sheets a cut a few rough shapes, tearing the edges to give some rock-like texture. These were stacked up to create a raised centre for the well itself. I tore the edges further, roughly gauging with my knife to try to blend the layers a bit.

Bricks

The bricks were cut from XPS insulation foam. This was done on the fly with no real measuring - to introduce some natural variationm and because I’m lazy. These were textured with balled up tinfoil and hot glued into a a ring. I built up the layers using similar sized blocks, but would cut pieces of varying shapes to fill any gaps. This resulted in a more cobbled-together look to the piece, which I think makes it feel more realistic and adds to the grungy aeasthetic I wanted to go for. To expand on this I also glued a few pieces on the ground at different angles to look like the thing was literally falling apart - like some ancient tree roots had pushed the stones out of place over the centuries.

Wood

I don’t know what you call the wooden axel thing that holds the bucket and, honestly, for this build I wasn’t using reference images. I just went with what felt right. I carved up a disposable chopstick and melted two holes in the top layer of bricks to secure the two wooden posts. A third section connected the two and was secured with super glue.

At this stage, I was initially planning to just add some rocks and sand and call it a day, but something awoke within me… A voice whispering in the darkness. A little flame of inspiration. Sod it, let’s make this well “well good”. So I decided it needed a few extra details.

Smoothing out the cork

Next I took some milliput expoy putty and smoothed out the edges of the cork. I left a few gaps where the textured edges could poke through resulting in a more realistic and irregular surface.

Bucket

The bucket was kitbashed from old Ogre Kingdoms barrel bits. I don’t have any photos but it wasn’t particularly interesting or complicated. The handle is made from a bent paper clip superglued to the bucket.

Inside the well I glued a glass cabochon (a cool and very specific word - basically a glass lump with a flat back). I used these previously to make tokens for D&D, but here it just provided a bit of weight to the build, and let me glue the bucket down whilst having some of it visible over the edge of the well. I thought perhaps it could be used for a water effect but in the end it all just got sprayed over! You have to draw the line somewhere!

Chain

For some reason, this detail was probably the bit I was most excited about. I think it just sells the piece. I found the smallest hobby chain I could from the craft store; 1.5mm links. I carefully wrapped it about the wooden axel and left exactly the right amount of extra so the bucket looked like the chain was under tension. I think the weakest detail on this build is the ring attaching the chain to the bucket, as it just sort of touches the last link of the chain - but as I said previously, got to draw the line somewhere. It still looked awesome.

Serendipitous chemistry?

Next was one of those serendipitous events that occurs all the time in crafting with little to no planning - I used extra thin super glue to hold the chain in place on the axel, and some dropped down onto the foam walls of the well! This is bad, because CA glue (cyanoacrylate) ‘melts’ the XPS foam¹. But the effect was actually perfect as it just so happened to align with where I’d glued the fallen rocks, and it even created some rough texture. The resulting look was as if the wall had been smashed by an errant spell or the blow of a warhammer - awesome!

The basing materials start to tie the build together

The ‘mechanism’

I wanted to add some visual element that represented the way the bucket would be hauled from the dank depths of the well. I just played around with some small wooden dowels and bits of chopped up popsicle sticks to create a pretty janky looking handle. I added a small extra nubbin to the side of the vertical posts to look like the main axel runs all the way through and then glued on a drive chain

Rocks and Texture

The next step was to give the base some life. My basing rocks and sand all come from a tub that I grabbed once from a pile outside of a building site in Malta - I sifted them into size grades randing from sand to very small pebbles. My process is usually the same for most bases, first glueing a layer of the largest rocks, then successive finer layers. This just gives a nice variety and covers up the larger pieces so they don’t look like they’ve just been plonked there. At this stage I had also just covered any exposed foam with PVA glue to build up a protective layer before priming.

For this I included an extra step by also adding some small chunks of hardened milliput - this was just leftover stuff from another project that I had flattened out and cut into rough cubey shapes before it fully cured. They kind of look like smaller bricks and I think add a nice variety compared to the large chunky foam bricks.

I followed up with some texture paste to cover up any exposed cardstock, and to add a bit of grit to the edge of the well. Now, we’re ready to paint.

Painting

White cracks appeared where the spray primer went on too thick

Priming - More serendipity?

The day I was working on this was very cold and a bit windy, but I was so desperate to get this build painted that I couldn’t wait. You can see here that effects of black spray primer being applied too liberally around the top of the well - likely due to me trying to get the entire inside covered. Where the spray paint goes on too thick it has cracked and turned a whiteish colour. Fortunately, we’re optimists here and I decided this only adds to the overall effect. This is an ancient well, frozen in place for centuries, before the thawing of Felstadt uncovered it once more to the ravages of time.

Ah, the wonders of a simple drybrush

This recipe is now the standard stone recipe I have been following for my terrain. A full post on that is in the works… Recently I have been avoiding the sepia wash to lean more into the green-blue vibe, but it worked really, ahem, well here. The steps are:

• White drybrush

• Sepia wash

• Stipple colours on the well:

  • Thicket (green-grey)

  • Teal

  • Winter blue

• Stippled colours of the base:

  • Khaki

  • Brown

• Burnt umber / Black oil wash

• Winter blue drybrush

The painted well, before the oil wash

The wooden pieces were left simply with the sepia wash. The real magic of this recipe I think is the mix of cold and warm colours. The final drybrush of winter blue over everything really sets the piece in a cold environment, but the warmer colours of the base just give a bit of depth and ensure the greens and blues are not overpowering.

The oil wash was quite a bit darker than I’d have liked so I ended up wiping away quite a lot from the surface. On my other stone pieces I actually left it quite late so the oil paint had mostly dried, and the final effect is very dark. On the well I really wanted some of the blues and greens to shine through and give character to the stone, as this was more of a statement piece.

Finishing touches

A wet oil wash with the pigment powder applied to the base

A great way to add some realism and life to a base is pigment powders. I liberally applied Vallejo Green Earth pigment powder to patches of the base - this gives a super matte and dusty finish, and the colour is just right here: pale, cooler tones.

The next bit of detail was to add a few grass tufts, and the moss. The tufts are a mixture of cold wintery tufts, dry yellowish tufts and some darker burnt grass tufts. I think a mix of tufts really helps sell that this piece is in a real environment where a variety of vegetation would be present.

The finished well in all it's grimy glory

This is one of the first times playing with Dirty Down moss effect for me, so I was still getting used to it. But my golly it does the job I think. A lot of people seem to have problems with this effect, saying it didn’t work or would be very dark. I found that the generally accepted wisdom of shaking the absolute shite out of the bottle, until the mixing ball can be heard rattling and then some more, was absolutely neccessary. This is very thick gloopy stuff. I also mixed it up in the bottle with my brush every time before applying - but the trick I found was not to simply glob on the stuff attached to the brush, but wipe a lot of it off first. So the mixture was homogenous on the brush, but it wasn’t overloaded. Then I think applying over brighter surfaces gave a better effect; here that was the drybrushed edges of all the rocks. I tried to get a nice balance without going overboard. Usually if there’s moss though, there’s quite a lot! The final effect is a super bright and matt mossy effect which I am absolutely in love with.

So there you have it. The well good well. A simple throwaway project that turned into probably my favourite terrain build to date.

Pub chemistry ¹

Caveat - “Pub chemistry” implies this is the rubbish I would be happy (and likely) to spew forth excitedly over a pint of ale, and should be taken as such. I ‘cite’ Wikipedia and other pages as general and digestible references for particular concepts. Most scientific papers are sadly hidden behind paywalls anyway. Do not quote this as it simply represents my intuition. After all I am building a well out of chopsticks for my plastic wizards… That being said, fire me an email if you have a better explanation and I’ll happily quote and credit you!

As far as chemistry goes it is interesting to me that this reaction between the CA superglue and the XPS foam occurs, because we can use CA superglue on plastic minis no problem. Plastic minis are typically made from HIPS (high-impact polystyrene) and XPS foam is extruded polystyrene. Polystyrene does chemically break down in the presence of a solvent such as acetone, but the CA glue is solventless. CA glue simply reacts with moisture which causes the cyanoacrylate molecules to polymerise forming long chains. These chains are internally quite strong, and adhere to surfaces resulting in the ‘glueing’ action.

So why does CA glue melt XPS foam? It would appear that it may be due to the heat given off by the CA polymerisation, rather than chemically reacting. XPS foam is much less dense that HIPS, which reduces the ‘melting point’ roughly to 75 - 100 °C. ‘Melting’ is not strictly accurate here as PS is a thermoplastic meaning it will not melt and reform, but this temperature is sort of where XPS may start to lose its structural integrity. HIPS on the other hand will be irrevocably decompose above 250 °C. The CA polymerisation is exothermic which means it gives off heat - potentially enough to even burn skin suggesting it could be enough to affect the XPS foam structurally.

Therefore my best interpretation is such: the thin CA glue seeps into the porous XPS foam, reacting with the moisture in the air within the pores. The water is consumed by the polymerisation process and thus causes a slight negatic pressure in the pores. This couples with the heat that is given off by the CA polymerisation to weaken and collapse the foam, reducing it to a blob of plastic strands which look ‘melty’.