Terrain Tutorial: How to make a backlit Realm Gate

This is a short hobby tutorial on how to make a backlit Realm Gate for Warhammer Age of Sigmar.  It was produced by Joel over at Measured Gaming, an Age of Sigmar club in central Victoria, Australia.  You can find Joel on Twitter here, Measured Gaming on Twitter here, and check out their soon to be launched YouTube channel.  Over to Joel…

Realm Gate Tutorial

Rightio this will be basic as, but hopefully it gives you an idea on what I did.  Before assembly, cut out all of the ‘magic’ bits.  If its assembled already its gonna be hard but doable.  Assemble and paint it up!

Grab some cling wrap and sticky tape and try to get it sitting about mid way on the inside of the gate.  This will act as an initial support for your water effects.  Make sure there are no folds in the cling wrap.  The flatter the better.  Start squeezing in water effects.

Use a brush to spread it out and give it a swirly, ‘portal’ like appearance.

Leave to dry overnight, it will stay white but will be hard to touch. This is when you remove the plastic and do the same on the other side.

Once you’ve done the other side, leave to dry for 24 hours.  After 24 hours you’ll notice it starting to go see-through.  This is when you can put a shade on it to make the gate a colour of your choice.  Do both sides.

Backlit with LEDs mounted in the supporting hill

Put a gloss varnish or ‘ardcoat over both sides. This helps refract the light a bit more.  I have an LED light behind mine to make it brighter.  I plan on mounting this one into a hill for one of my Cancon terrain pieces.

I hope this helps! 🙂

ED: If you are unsure how to mount LEDs in terrain, there are lots of great YouTube videos out there.  If I get a moment, I’ll add some suggestions here.