Hexton Hills - Kingdom of Aglarion - Ulden Mountains

 

It's been awhile since posting as the end of spring led into all sorts of activities from my youngest son's high school graduation to our Aglarion campaign slowly getting put on ice and myself getting more and more into the ShadowDark RPG (which is fantastic). However, I did have one more post to make on the Kingdom of Aglarion map - the Ulden Mountains which make up the edge of the map to the south at the edge of the Ulden Forest.

These were a blast to not only print but also to paint with the airbrush. These were completed back at the end of March so the details may be a bit foggy but I believe that the mountains introduced a new color schema to the board of Vallejo Sombre Grey, followed by Wolf Grey and capped off in Dead White.

At the time I took some additional photos comparing the 50% reduction of the mountains to the original sample trial at 100% scale.

Here's a look at the backside with the individual magnets on each hex - which then lock together and onto the whiteboard.

Final view here of bringing the camera in for a birds eye view of the place.

Hexton Hills - Kingdom of Aglarion - Ulden Forest

 

I printed off bunches of forest hex tokens - so this hex was pretty easy to get painted up and ready to go on the board. I actually expanded a bit more southwest than originally planned as that hex is the Ulden Forest and didn't need anything more than trees.

If you're following along on my Hexton Hills printing of the Kingdom of Aglarion, then this hex starts the fourth ring around the city of Onadbyr to the southwest...

Hexton Hills - Kingdom of Aglarion - Vaddon's Abode

 

On the edge of the swamp is Vaddon's Abode. A rumored hermit living at the edge of the Ulden Swamps who talks to and understand plants and swamp creatures better than people. This was a fun hex to build as it transitions from the swamp to the forest and there was a perfect Hexton Hills hex token with a little cabin on the edge of the swamp but also embedded in the forest.

If you're following along on my Hexton Hills printing of the Kingdom of Aglarion, then this hex starts the third ring around the city of Onadbyr to the southwest...

Hexton Hills - Kingdom of Aglarion - Ronul's End

 

Now that I've completed a couple more minis and projects off my desk it is back to the Hexton Hills project with Ronul's End. This extends the North Bay into the main continental land mass with the town of Ronul's End as the showcase of the area. This also will complete the peninsula of the North Bay Lighthouse.

The only bit missing for Ronul's End is a ship - I think the rumor is that Ronul was a pirate that retired in Aglarion and married a mermaid. His own ship was run aground at the end of the pier so that half of it is in the water in order for his wife to have a method of discreetly socializing with her mermaid relatives. I'm going to need to fire up the 3D printer and see how tiny of a ship I can create.

If you're following along on my Hexton Hills printing of the Kingdom of Aglarion, then this hex completes the northern gap in the second ring around the city of Onadbyr - it's just to the north of the city in the North Bay just past the Tomb of the Constructor and its southeast hex token completes the Lighthouse...

Hexton Hills - Kingdom of Aglarion - Eastern Length

 

The eastern length of the map uses individual pieces of border which is perhaps my only unfavorite/disappointment to date with the Hexton Hills hex tokens. Each bit of border and each half-hex are unique. Ideally, you'd want a single piece that incorporates 2 or 3 combinations of the border piece with the half-hex. The individual pieces are not only more difficult to work with but they aren't as sturdy when snapped together - they really just want to fall apart - if it wasn't for the magnets on the magnetic whiteboard it would just fall apart.

If you're following along on my Hexton Hills printing of the Kingdom of Aglarion, then the combination of these hex tokens generate the eastern border of the map from the corner up to the North Bay...

Hexton Hills - Kingdom of Aglarion - Point of No Return

Let's all sing together - how long to the point of no return! We finally got there - the southeast corner of the map.  I wanted to have a bit of fun here and mimic the idea of many historical mapmakers (and the Kansas album I grew up with as a kid) when the world was thought to be flat and make the edge a ship falling off. I found a really well done 3D print of a ship that is supposed to be a game token and scaled it down to fit on a hex.

The falling off was the hard part as the water token is the lowest point of all the hex tokens so it's not possible to physically change the hex tokens. Using some blu-tac I set the ship at about a 35 degree angle. I need to think more about it before permanently using superglue to lock it in place. Maybe painting a bit of a white water edge where the ship is angled and then using a dark blue on the other side of that edge to represent the ship falling into the abyss? I can come back to this at a later date.

If you're following along on my Hexton Hills printing of the Kingdom of Aglarion, then this set of hex tokens represents the southeast corner of the map...

Hexton Hills - Kingdom of Aglarion - Sea Horse Cove

 

Fun with a seahorse! The seahorse represents a section of the map called Sea Horse Cove - a bit of a play on words with it representing a difference from the Calhay Sea. This tile is actually a tile and a half-tile along with the first piece of border on the map.

The borders were airbrushed Black and then, maybe regretfully because it's a lot of work to handpaint and then fix any mistakes, I decided to paint Vallejo's new Stonewall Grey on the indentions (I mention  "new" because the latest version of Stonewall Grey is more grey than the old version which matched up with Games Workshop's Fortress Grey which had more white in it). Each bump and each indention represents individually approximately 2 miles of scale on the map.

The width borders from Hexton Hills are actually quite nice. Not only do they have longer pieces but those pieces include the top piece of hex integrated into the 3D print making a really tight and nice solid piece to interlock the other hex tokens together. The length tokens, that's another subject coming up in another post - let's just say they're a real pain.

If you're following along on my Hexton Hills printing of the Kingdom of Aglarion, then this hex starts the completion of the sea to the borders. I want to get all the sea complete as it represents the southeast corner of the map and then I can use that point as the starting point on the magnetic whiteboard and work in the -x and -y directions...

Hexton Hills - Kingdom of Aglarion - North Bay Lighthouse

 

Okay - a freakin' lighthouse - how cool is that! Even though I don't have a use for it, I'm very tempted to print out the full size piece and give it an amazing paint job - I can add it to my sample Hexton Hill pieces which I've placed into the display case for now.

To make it jump out a bit dramatic, I painted the lighthouse, it's foundation, and the bridge with a stone grey. I washed the foundation and bridge with a black wash to darken it up a bit. I had painted Dead White on the lighthouse tower and then Scarlett Blood on the tower's mid parapet and roof. The remainder of the hex is the same of what's been printed and airbrushed previously.

If you're following along on my Hexton Hills printing of the Kingdom of Aglarion, then this hex continues the second ring around the city of Onadbyr just to the northeast of the city along the coast and just past the Tomb of the Constructor...

Hexton Hills - Kingdom of Aglarion - Ethereal Cloister

 

This was a fun hex to airbrush and paint - it's the Ethereal Cloister. Now in the book it's supposed to be a sunken temple located just beneath the waves in the middle of the ocean. I've taken the creative liberty to modify it just a bit to be this island in the middle of the ocean with a ruined stone circle of the ancients and I'll probably add an undead or ghostly encounter of some type within the central ruin - or I might make it a beach with a bit of a jungle infested with killer apes which they'll need to encounter before getting to the overgrown stone circle - either way, it's going to be fun!

If you're following along on my Hexton Hills printing of the Kingdom of Aglarion, then this hex continues the second ring around the city of Onadbyr to the east in the Sea of Calhay just past the maelstrom...

Hexton Hills - Kingdom of Aglarion - Compass Rose

Continuing around the Calhay Sea we get to the Compass Rose. This was actually a tough little piece to paint as it was so tiny and the compass wasn't flat - the 3D design has the lines of the compass on the texture of the sea.

If you're following along on my Hexton Hills printing of the Kingdom of Aglarion, then this hex continues the second ring around the city of Onadbyr to the southeast in the Sea of Calhay...

Hexton Hills - Kingdom of Aglarion - Calhay Sea II

This tile isn't all that exciting on it's own, but I needed to figure out where the corner edge of the map was going to be in relationship to the edges of the magnetic whiteboard and this piece gets me there. I need to make sure I'm utilizing the full space as this is going to be a huge map and all the individual hex token magnets are making it difficult to move the map around on the whiteboard.

It does continue the second circle around Onadbyr and I'll come back to the land side after completion of the sea. I think right now I need to get the corner completed.

Here it is with the edge of the world piece - not quite done, but I was able to attach it and this drives to the corner of the whiteboard. If my math is correct, I need 2" on the bottom and up to the very edge on the right side. This piece lets me measure that and I'm barely able to move all the other pieces into the right spot.

Hexton Hills - Kingdom of Aglarion - East Ulden Swamp

 

This is the eastern half of the Ulden Swamps - represents basically 25 miles of harsh conditions and monstrous critters - but who knows what secrets may lie in the swamps - just trolls and donkeys, eh? This is just half of it - more to come.

If you're following along on my Hexton Hills printing of the Kingdom of Aglarion, then this hex is going to sit west of Sobruz Quarry and Penitentiary and south of the Mud Funnels - this continues the second hex ring around Onadbyr like so...

I'm going to switch to filling out the sea to the southeast. All the tiny magnets on the bottom of each hex token individually isn't that great - but when you add 77 magnets together (11 hexes of 7 hex tokens each) the mass becomes difficult to move. If my calculations are correct - I need to have this map start at the very right edge and be about 2" from the bottom. I think I'm pretty close where I have the mass located on the magnetic whiteboard but it's best to get down to that corner point and build out from there as soon all those little magnets, might as well be superglue on the whiteboard.

Much more to come! I have them 3D printed - now they need painted and magnetized  - and I have a little surprise as well.

Hexton Hills - Kingdom of Aglarion - Willow Creek

 

The farming and woodcutter communities come together in the town of Willow Creek which sits in the heartland of the Onadbyr Plains and the Willow Creek Plains. While the hex token for Willow Creek sits in the upper corner of this hex, there will be plenty of farmland all around when all the hex pieces come together.

If you're following along on my Hexton Hills printing of the Kingdom of Aglarion, then this hex is going to sit northwest of the mountain Tomb of the Constructor and continues the second hex ring around Onadbyr like so...

Hexton Hills - Kingdom of Aglarion - The Mud Funnels

 

We start to head one more hex out in all directions from Onadbyr starting with a continuation of the River Nenock to the northwest.This is an interesting tile as you have the tip of the swamp to the south and to the northeast is the southern tip of the Onadbyr Plains which is like the breadbasket states in the US. The Nenock river divides the two feature sets. Technically the Kings Road runs along the northern side of the river. Due to the scale I'm working at with the limits of the Hexton Hills set (ie - there's no hex token with a river and a road running parallel to the river), I'm going to think about painting in the road at a later date. Also, my players have a map which has the road on it - these tiles provide additional feature/encounter detail and perhaps events that occur which they're not aware.

One of those events is the mud funnels - the title to this post - this event occurs on the very center hex token. As it's an event and not a terrain feature, I didn't paint it in - but I might run another 3D print of the center hex token and paint it up a bit differently. We'll see and I'll decide that later. Since the hex tokens are magnetized being careful of using the same polarity, I can snap another hex right on top and the magnets will hold it into place at the time the event occurs.

There are some new colors added to the palette here...

* the swamp hex token. I'm using the same Ultramarine base color but I'm mottling it with an old Reaper Master Series color called Clouded Sea (technically I think you can still order it but you have to purchase 12 bottles as a special order of 9194). I received this color long ago when I purchased some mini's direct - many times Reaper will throw an extra something in the package and this color quickly became one of my favorites. This hex is again interesting because the river hex token have the Ultramarine base highlighted with Electric blue and gives a very different look than the same Ultramarine base mottled with Clouded Sea which gives off a dark/mysterious atmosphere. 

* the farm fields - looking at overland maps of US agriculture there are golden yellow fields but also green fields and red/orange fields (I have no idea what crop that is but it looks cool). There's so much green already on all the various hex tokens so I wanted to limit the amount of additional green. The bright red is also unique and therefore limited as well. The red/orange is Vallejo's Hot Orange which is brush painted and the field green is Vallejo's Goblin Green base with a light coat of Escorpena Green - the reason for the mix is Goblin Green is too much like the Sick Green base and Escorpena Green is too close to Light Livery Green used as grassland highlights and on the deciduous trees - using Goblin/Escorpena Greens together gives a textured color that's easy to replicate across many hex tokens.

If you're following along on my Hexton Hills printing of the Kingdom of Aglarion, then this hex is going to sit northwest of Onadbyr and part of a second hex ring around Onadbyr like so...

Hexton Hills - Kingdom of Aglarion - Sobruz Quarry and Penitentiary

Nothing like the good old rock quarry for putting away the most hardened criminals - classic! I also was able to break out more of the river terrain with this hex. 

Additionally, I moved to hand painting the deciduous trees with the Light Livery Green. I had been airbrushing those but I realized after airbrushing the full size Hexton Hills hex tokens that I wasn't getting enough paint down on these smaller tokens - the bigger tokens had more "pop" when looking at them. I still did airbrush, but then hit the tops of the trees with hand painted - also, Vallejo Game Color has more saturation then Game Air.

I did the same with all the previous hex tokens with deciduous trees on the hex. The below picture now has much more pop with the forest now having that light, mid, and dark greens.

If you're following along on my Hexton Hills printing of the Kingdom of Aglarion, then this hex is going to sit west of Onadbyr and completes a one hex map around Onadbyr like so...