Termite mounds

Hi Folks,

Keeping with the recent rash of terrain projects I've got going, I figured I'd throw up the latest one. My wife and I made a killing the other day at our local Michaels store. Much of the stock was marked at a discount for the holidays plus they have their normal coupons in the local paper. So we headed over and I went on a walkabout. I picked up a number of craft paints for $.79 as well as some odds and ends.

Nurgledeathmonkey over on the Zombiesmith forum posted picuters of some awesome termite mounds he built for his table. Inspiring me, I thought I would give it a go. While I was at Michaels, I saw a number of foam cones in the florist section. They ranged in price from $2 - $4. But with the coupons and stuff I figured I would grab some.

These are the hard white foam with the course texture. They had the green florist foam, but I've never had luck with that stuff. So I grabed a zip knife and began cutting out chunks from the foam. Once I had a rough shape, I sanded down any rough edges left on the foam. Then I just gave it a quick brush off to get any pieces sticking to the cone. Note to self: This stuff is very staticy and will cling to everything......

Once the cones were shaped I took some drywall spackle I had and mixed it with water. I didn't thin it down to much as I needed it to stick to the cones. Think soft toothpaste..... Wearing latex gloves I grabbed a bunch of the spackle in my hand and coated the cone. I didn't try to remove all of the rough texture just coat it. Once the entire piece was coated I set it down to dry. Once they were dry, I did the same paint technique I used on the Jakdul piece. I started with a mustard acrylic paint I had. (similar to German Panzer Yellow.) I then used the Krylon textured paint and sprayed an uneven coat. Once that was dry I drybrushed some buff paint over the top. Here is what they look like with some figures.....

They were fun to make. Not a lot of difficult steps. I plan on making some more now that I have seen how they look. I may get a little more involved in the process as far as how they look. I will also look at smaller sizes as well. These are pretty big even for 28mm.

Hope you like,

Scott