Club Day : Terrain Building

Hey Everyone! This past weekend my club held a very important event in place of its standard gaming days.  We had determined at our Town Meeting that our terrain was in need of a facelift and we committed to repairing, repainting, and if needed replacing terrain from our club collection.  I also committed to painting up all of my terrain so when I am running Age of Sigmar events such as Coalescence I can also bring a few extra tables of quality terrain as well.

I went to this project with the mindset that if I am unwilling to paint my own terrain how could I possibly motivate others to fix up our community terrain?  While painting my own terrain was motivating for the club as we came up to the club terrain day it really began to stretch my endurance.  While some terrain like the new Games Workshop has a lot of fun little detail to spend some time on other proved to be monotonous with priming and dry brushing becoming the standard.  All that said it was educational going through the process on my own terrain.  

I also spent time using a hot foam wire cutter and some sharp knives creating hills along the way.  I cannot express how easy these were to create and very friendly on the wallet as well.  If you are needing some simple terrain to get on your or your clubs table I can honestly say you could have a table full of line of sight blocking hills done to a decent standard in an afternoon. 

Our local library which is our normal meeting location was completely booked through the month.  Thankfully we had another FLGS nearby with a lot of space who was willing to host us as we got to the task.  I picked up the clubs terrain early from our club FLGS and headed over to the hosting FLGS.  I arrived and one of our younger members Luke had already arrived and was eager to get going so we began unpacking and setting up shop.

Over the next hour or so more and more club members became coming in to help out.  It was great to see every rally around a single task to improve the club as a whole.  There was a wide variety of hobbyists as well.  The hardcore gamers, the high-level painters, and the casual group all joined it.  The time really passed quickly as we all chatted hobby and upcoming releases.  It was a real bonding experience for those who were able to attend.

I think the key detail of the day was who showed up to begin taking our club to the next level.  While it is worth noting that a few members who let me know there were schedule conflicts and they couldn't attend I noticed that those who showed up were the younger players.  I feel I was able to relay to them how important they are to the future of the club as it will be them leading it one day.  They are enthused about what I have been pushing with taking the club to a higher level and growing once again.  It wouldn't be possible without the support of the entire club, especially the younger players.

The fruits of our labor paid off as we managed to repair and repaint all of the club terrain in about six hours of hard work.  It was great seeing the looks of accomplishment on everyone's face and the care with which everyone put the terrain away in its boxes to be transported back to our FLGS.  The club showed up and took ownership and they will see the fruits of their labor during our next game day when we play with the terrain.

If your club is in needs to up their game tables I can recommend dedicating a single day to repairing and even building new terrain.  It is a great way for everyone to take ownership in the club as well as bond as a community.  If you do have a day like this coming up let me know as I would love to check out some pictures or offer any advice I can.  Follow me on Twitter if you would like to see pictures from the next club game day where we will begin using the freshly updated terrain.  Until next week Happy Hobbying!