Mapping the Redbrand Hideout Area 1 and 2 part 1

I thought my first Article would have been a review but the only thing I can review at the moment would be the 5E starter set adventure and its been how many months since its release and I'm pretty sure there are tons of reviews and play reports piled up all over the internet. However what I haven't seen are 3d mapping tips so I'll be posting a series of short part by part posts on making my own.

I've been inspired by terrain building videos and channels on yYouTubechannels mainly The GM's Craft, The DMinfo and this particular video by Epicfantasy

So lets begin. Chose Area 1 since its one of the likely entrances my players would enter first aside from area 8; but area 8 requires more work since its more of a natural cavern than a ruin type.

First get some tools; card board is easier to work with but this time i chose Styrofoam packaging mainly because it was easier to get(got it free at the office right before our IT guy nearly threw them out after opening new monitors.).

Like every map making video step 1 is draw your grid or planned grid. Area 1 is about 8 squares wide by 6 squares long; however its odd shape lets you chop it off into 2 3x6 pieces and a single 2x4 piece. And area 2 is a simple 3x4 room with a 1 tile extension for the entryway.

forgot to take a picture of the 2x4

Seen above are the various segments and the final layout of areas 1 and 2  I couldn't take a photo of making the stairway mezzanine and upper level of the entryway mainly because I'm not sure how well it would look once painted mainly because it was my first time making stairs and upper levels.

I wanted to paint these immediately but i realized i had a few things missing from my modeling and painting kits mainly because this was a spur of the moment decision seeing as I just had a holiday(thanks pope!).

My first problem was priming. I  did have a matte black spray paint but im unsure of how spray paint interacts with polystyrene and I'm afraid there's a chance the paint might melt it off, I could have tested it on a scrap piece but looking out side the weather suddenly turned cloudy and from my experiences in painting war-gaming miniatures cloudy days are bad for priming. And aside from my ancient GW Chaos Black pot I probably don't have enough plain black acrylic paint to cover most of the pieces.

Second problem was since I've been painting mostly Dwarfs, Spacemarines and Soviets(dust and bolt action) I dont have a collection of gray paints to paint the stone tiles and walls of the dungeons so even if I did manage to prime them I'd have ended up with several black pieces of styro.

However I now have 4 interchangeable and likely reusable tile pieces which is nice.

Ill be back by sunday for part 1.5 and 2 of this series; stay tuned or as the japanese say it つづく!