Right now there is nothing to see, but as time goes, there will hopefully be pictures of painted miniatures and an arena.

What i have ordered is the Beastman, the barbarian and the dark elf sorceress. My necromancer will be the "Gravedigger of Salauel" from another company and then i will go for some fighters again to have a balanced group. Might be the Orc Warlord, Dark Elf Prince and/or Dwarf Berserker since that are miniatures i like.

As for a the arena i will first build a circular one, made of two parts, so that in the future i can build an addition, that i can put in between. The arena will have a diameter of 50cm(~20"). There will be build in real pits wich can be closed like in tigers one, but right now i´m not sure, if they will be circular or rectangular.
The walls will be no more than 5cm(2") tall for ease of play. There will be a circle that will be 1cm(1/2") higher than the rest of the arena. Right now i think it will be 10cm(4") wide.
On top of the wall there will be a crowd meter, where you can show the crowd mood.
In the middle of the arena might be a big statue that can be removed for another pit, but that´s an idea i´m not yet sure about.
The coloring will be dark since my team will be dark and chaotic too.
I´m not sure if the entry stairs will come from above or below the arena floor like the once in tigers arena.

That´s what has been planned so far. Since this is a side project it might take some time, since i have some inifinity minitures to paint too.

[EDIT]Due to some miscalculation my arena will now be 60cm(24") wide and i have bought enough material today, to build the 60x30 addition, which can be put in between the two halves.

After our first testgame on friday i started to build my own arena. When i had cut the two circle halves i realized that 60cm diameter is pretty small, so i will build the extension right from the start. To glue on the whole floor coverings i used some special styrofoam glue i got at a bargain price to keep the arena from warping like it could happen with wood glue.


This is the arena with the 4cm styrodur or pink foam floor and the step made of 1cm ordinary styrofoam.


These are the finished two halves of the arena, so far. The pits will get some floor and i keept the cut out pieces to make some fitting covering for the pits. The entry stairs will get a covering with the green foam, too.


So, this is the status of the project this morning. As you can see i made some wooden covering for the entries from mcdonalds coffee stirer. Where the green parts are i will cut out additional pits an entries.

Today i will cut out the pits and entries of the middle part and cover it with the green foam. When everything is covered in greenfoam i will start carving the stone plates into the floor. I want to do it wholly in a day so that it will have the same structure and size in the whole arena.
Once the arena is ready i will build some scenery elements like columns and statues.
At last i will put some walls to the arena, but i will only make them about an inch high maximum, so that you can move the miniatures easily while sitting down at the table.

[EDIT]Today i finished the base work for the arena floor and entry stairs. It has to dry now before i can cut in the stone structure.

Cutting the 8cm(3") round pits has been a hell of a work. If i´m to build another arena i don´t know if would do it again, but luckily you only need one.

Although nobody seems to like my arena i will keep posting wip photos as i go on.


Today i just put in the fixings for the pit coverings. Since there are 6 sticks to the pit and i made 12 pits it was ... a whole lot of sticks to put in and glue in place. Took me some time. In the rectangular wholes of the round stones i will put some metal hooks so that you can easily remove them.
The columns are rough cuts which need some sanding and a column base to stand on. I realized, that i don´t have any fancy statues like Schlunz so i have to go with what i´ve got.


Here is some detail on the fixing. They will be painted metal later on, and are not pointy for obvious reasons.

Next: Stone structure. Got to love it.

No answers doesn't necessarily mean that we don't like it. But as this ain't exactly the most active forum around... well you have to be prepared to wait for feedback.

I can tell you that it's looking good so far. But I like the circular version better than the oval one.

Wow! I am totally amazed! It is looking like it will be a really impressive arena! I personally love the oval shape (had never thought of that option, and it looks very realistic, very arenish Also really like the real pits!

Also, I very much like the techniques you are using to build it, and the fact of being able to have a circular and oval arena at the same time it is just genius! Two-in one arena!

What I would not do is fixing the hooks though. Won't they look quite weird when you have some pits covered?

Really looking forward to see this project advancing!

BTW, would you be willing to write a quick step by step guide on building this arena? It would be agreat addition to the "Hobby corner". If you were emailing me the text and pics I would make myself the layout and PDF and upload the file to the website.

Great stuff!

I too have been following this thread. I love the arena and have been copying the pics to a folder on my computer for future use. Thanks for the heads up on possible bad adhesives. Can't wait to see where you go next!!!

The hooks will be nearly invisible with diameter of only about 5mm, so that they will vanish in the wholes.

@bad adhesives You could be lucky, or not. Schlunz´s Arena warped a little, although he mixed only a little glue with his color. In past projects where i used wood glue the things i build warped more then not. If you put something heavy on your project while it dries it often turned out staight.

So i went for the stone slabs. While Schlunz´s floor has a savage touch to it, that i really like, i wanted something more orderly. So i grabbed a not really sharp pencil and went wild. In an orderly fashion.


Halfway through


Finally done! It took a hell of lot of time. About 2-3hours. So my advice if you want to go the same way: put on some real good music and let it flow! Don´t ever try to think of what you are doing!

Next up: THE PAINt

@Gaelion I could do a write up. Once i´m finished with the arena i will send you the whole lot.

Looks good so far.

Yeppa, real nice so far! I also like the more ordered stone floor. Nice idea to make something different, so our arenas both look different will give play an extra touch of alternation.
Looking forward to play on it next week.... (if you re finished by then )

... and yes scratching those patterns is a pain in the a**. Never ever think of the work when you re doing this is a real good advice

Wow! Looking awesome! Would just love having a game there!

Won't you give tiled texture to the pit covers as well? Sorry to be so repeated with questions regarding the pit covers

Great!! Thanks SO much for that! Will be agreat addition to the "Hobby corner"!

I think of the pit covers as big stone slabs, so i won´t put texture on them. If it doesn´t turn out, i will try them with texture. I have matierial here to make hundreds of them and they are easy to make, so i will be a little experimental on them.


Since i couldn´t wait for tomorrow, i started with the priming in a dark brown. I used a mixutre of wood glue and colour. I added water and table-ware detergent to make it thinner and so that it will run into all the cracks.
The white spots are the light reflecting in the still wet paint. The pits are painted as well by now.

Next: Giving my girlfriend a massage and tomorrow will follow the dry brushing in light brown and white

So how went the massage?

Must have been a hell of a massage!!!

Since i ruined the paint job i got a little depressed with my arena and hadn´t done anything since then. I will give it another try today and hope that there is something to rescue.

Yesterday i started painting my first AoW figure, the barbarian. Nothing much to see right now, so no pictures.

No comment on the massage, though.