DrMathias's Arena of Blood

This forum seems like the ideal place to show the 3D Dark Eldar Arena of Blood board I built. I'm sure many of you are already aware of Arena of Blood , a mini-game found in White Dwarf #229 (1999) which introduced simple rules for Dark Eldar Wych gladiator fights. I really enjoy building 3D game boards and I've wanted to make one for this game for many years. I finally started it around January 2017 and just finished the last figures for it. All that remains is to finish the sheets for the characters.





I started off the project by casting hexes with 'Merlin's Magic' plaster, using a silicone mold I bought from Keebler Studios (now out of business). I had two issues with the mold- first off, the sides were not perfect 90 degrees from the base so they didn't nestle up precisely. I had to fill in the gaps later with joint compound. Second, the mold tore about half way through casting and I was able to limp it through. I'd never had a silicone mold tear, so I'm assuming Keebler used different rubber than Hirst Arts.

After casting I hand painted them all to look like marble, which actually wasn't as time consuming or tedious as it sounds. The hexes with a border have a washer imbedded in the cast (the murder stakes have a magnet in the bottom) and serve to break up the monotony a bit.



I designed the wall and blade shapes in Adobe Illustrator, tracing the edge of a Dark Eldar sword as a starting point. The plan was to send this file to a laser cutter. The blades are acrylic and the wall decor is thick card.





'Murder stakes' are cast resin with laser cut acrylic blades. I designed the shape in TinkerCad, a free 3D modeling program that is super easy to use. I had the shape 3D printed using Shapeways, after which I made a simple gravity drop silicone mold and cast them in resin. The six slots were just a little too narrow and the biggest pain of the entire build was having to go back through and sand them all a little wider so the acrylic blades would fit...





The last step was filling gaps in the assembled walls with Bondo, sanding the heck out of the top edge surface, and painting it black.



I am close to finishing the new character cards (which were originally on the printed map) and hope to get some games in soon

This looks so awesome and so full of details, I honestly surprised it's actually home made (and how easy it sounds when you talk about it :')) and seeing the pictures, I just wanna play with it

Excellent work, in everything. You can be proud, this really looks fantastic

Man this is just glorious. At first I wondered why you had chosen, not black onyx and ebon, but white and gold for the arena. It sort of brings thoughts to mind about Donald Drumpfs bathroom, ( not that there is anything wrong with that. I can't imagine a better arena for epic fights to the death ). But of course the dark eldar would want the maximum amount of contrast on the floors and walls, so the blood stains will show up better.
To top it off the models are beautifully painted and swapping the base for a clear acrylic one for this board is just a touch of genius.
GW should put this in white dwarf.

This is awesome, good work!

Thanks everyone, appreciated. I'm hoping to run this at some conventions soon.

Scrz wrote:

At first I wondered why you had chosen, not black onyx and ebon, but white and gold for the arena. It sort of brings thoughts to mind about Donald Drumpfs bathroom, ( not that there is anything wrong with that. I can't imagine a better arena for epic fights to the death ). But of course the dark eldar would want the maximum amount of contrast on the floors and walls, so the blood stains will show up better.

I did lean toward a dark arena early on, and even painted the wall shapes and blades black. I was having some doubts about that and talked it over with some friends, and finally decided on the gold. First off it would complement the purpleish marble, and second the gleaming marble and gold calls to mind an over-the-top opulence or decadence, like an Alma-Tadema painting depicting Rome, or the Emperor's mobile throne room in Dune. The bathroom you speak of is actually not a bad comparison

Thanks again all. I should be finishing up the character sheets soon.



I'm also hoping to add some Harlequins and some Tyranid beasts (relevant to the Seventh Woe Cult) as well as at least one other batch of witches- which cult should I do next?

This is amazing! And inspirational. I seriously can't gush enough about this, partly because of the craftmanship and partly because it's Arena of Blood!

I have questions. First, where can I see other things you've done, because you've clearly done other projects like. Blood Bowl? Super Dungeon Explore? I'm so curious.

Second, is Arena of Blood fun? I never got to actually play it.

Calyptra wrote:

This is amazing! And inspirational. I seriously can't gush enough about this, partly because of the craftmanship and partly because it's Arena of Blood!

I have questions. First, where can I see other things you've done, because you've clearly done other projects like. Blood Bowl? Super Dungeon Explore? I'm so curious.

Second, is Arena of Blood fun? I never got to actually play it.

Thank you, I appreciate the comments. I have made a 'low wall' 3D Space Hulk, a 3D Clue Board (interior details still in progress) and I made a game board for a wacky velociraptor game called 'Wagers of Sin'.

The Clue board and Space Hulk are on my blog, 'Dr. Mathias's Miniature Extravaganza'.
Miniature Extravaganza


Arena of Blood is simple fun, but not balanced really. The best gladiator game I've played is one that is in stalled development that I did some graphic work for, called 'Blood on the Sands'. I'll post some info about it at some point because I'm definitely going to convert some Wyches over the system.

Absolutely fantastic!

Having played Arena of Blood a number of times since the last posts, I recently painted up a second set of all the figures so that players can run matched teams (or in battles royale two can run the same Wych).









I've made quite a few adjustments to the game. For one, the last couple rounds would end up with two Wyches squared off, static, tanking each other. We decided to implement a rule that if a Wych attacks twice from the same hex, opponents get +1 to hit. This penalty stacks with each additional action from the same hex.

We also found that the Beastmaster's agonizer is really nasty and he ends up doing all the work, when it should be the beast's job to fight! I gave the beast a reaction attack, and more action points overall, and another wound. That seems to have evened things out a bit.

Overall it's a fun 'beer and pretzels' game and with a little tweaking it is more tactical and has a lot of movement and feels more 'fluffy'.

The next thing I may add is a 'crowd pleasure' mechanism for scoring. There's a few actions that don't get much play because they're 2 points or something, so we may introduce the idea that using a 'flair' move gets the crowd going, especially if it ends in a fatality.

This is a very cool looking project and your painting has that classic GW feel to it. Great stuff!

Here's my last painted miniature of 2018, Raging Heroes' 'Sephea'. As has been the tradition for the last couple years, I try to get everything I have primed finished up by the 1st. I painted quite a lot of terrain and miniatures over the last month to meet my self-imposed deadline.



Honestly I wasn't super excited to paint this one since I don't like the resin Raging Heroes uses, it doesn't accept primer easily and I've tried quite a few brands, washed the resin, let it 'de-gas' for weeks, etc. etc. She was originally just a test mini for priming.

Anyway about a quarter of the way in I really began to like where she was headed and I really like how it turned out. Not sure what I'll use her for, but I based her to match my Wyches for the Arena of Blood. She may come out when a Wych avoids combat for two rounds or something.

This all continues to look really, really nice.

Only just discovered this and wanted to say how awesome it looks.