DIY Cheap Baleful Realmgates (Prototype Phase) Tutorial

[iLumberjack1988]

Hi all Lumberjack here,

Do you like the Baleful Realmgates but despise spending so much money on scenery? Or is there something else that demands your cash first? Well I might have a solution for you!

Fresh off a whim of an idea (stolen from a plan for a Slann conversion later down the line) I have put together a nice cheep and cheerful Baleful Realmgate.

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Now it currently isn't anything flashy as I recently cleaned out my bit box to scraps so I had to resort to a Prototype build but you can apply the idea to existing scenery/doors easily. Skip image 2 and 3 if if you doing this.

1st Choose or build your Arch/Door/Gate and then add a clear bit of thin plastic (this holds the water effect in place).
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Here I added bricks to create a ruined effect.
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As you can see miniatures are visible to keep the effect its a portal. Also make sure at this stage everything is painted/based.
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Now the fun important part using Ink colours of your choice and Water effect.
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Add the water effect and make sure it covers the whole of the clear plastic don't worry if it gets on the edges of the door.
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Now drop in one of your ink colours onto the water effect.
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Now you can create your pattern (I went with swirls but you can keep it to the frame of the door or draw chaos markings and skulls etc).
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Do the same for any other colours your wanting to add.
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Now the boring part im currently doing, you let it dry (you then repeat the steps with the water effect and ink on the other side if desired, if you leave alot of clear space try different colours on each side to represent different realms).
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I hope to apply this to better things as it went really well on this first attempt piece.
Hopefully this will inspire some beautiful money friendly pieces.

Thanks for reading,
Lumberjack.

[Ben_S]

I don't particularly like the idea of paying so much for scenery, but I'm not sure it's over-priced. I looked into getting a cheap toy castle to convert, but I saw some Fisher Price princess castle thing, probably about the right size, but nowhere near as much detail and RRP was £50. (It did have some musical effects, which I wouldn't be using.)

Of course you can probably pick up second hand toys cheap, but that's also true of GW stuff. I suspect that spending many hours working on an alternative is a false economy really.

That said, did you build this entirely out of sprue bricks? That's pretty impressive.