TerraScapes: Caves and Grottos - Redux - Tabletop Terrain
Created by David M. Higgins
TerraScapes is a Modular, Dynamic and Realistic Natural 3D Terrain System. They are Double-Sided tile pieces that are made to be stacked up perfectly. This gives your scenarios real depth and dimension, and it is done so almost effortlessly. Being large tile pieces, allows them to be setup quickly, and their nondescript forms allow them to be placed in orientation. These durable resin pieces are also Made in America!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
March Update
about 6 years ago
– Wed, Mar 18, 2020 at 02:15:59 PM
Hope you are all well!
I am elated to see the responses of those who have received their FULL Set Rewards! I have found it difficult to juggle my monthly obligations and my obligations to you all this year. 2020 hasn't pulled any punches for sure! Without getting into the gritty details, I can assuredly say everything is moving forward albeit at a slow pace at this time. I am now working on setting up a good workflow for the painted pieces. I even have one of my hobby students committed to helping me paint up this mountain of work! My goal is to get the first painted rewards out to backers within the next 2 weeks. We are still in the remold phase as well. I expect more full sets from those remolds will get churned out sometime April and as such more unpainted Full Sets will reach your hands. Lastly, my goal is to have all the pewter pieces spun out by the end of April. If you get your rewards prior to this, you can expect a second package to arrive in May with all the pewter pieces.
For those of you who received your unpainted tiles. I must apologize for some of those pieces not being washed up as intended. As I was working on cleaning them I realized it was a fruitless effort to both mail rewards and pre-clean the pieces. I felt an inner pressure to mail packages instead of pre-cleaning the tiles. I have found that the best way to clean these pieces is to soak them in a powerful de-greaser. You can usually find these in kitchen supplies or automotive cleaning supplies. I have been letting batches soak for up to 4 days in straight undiluted de-greaser to pull the greasy mold release off the pieces. Scrubbing each piece is of course faster but more labor intensive!
I've seen a number of comments about how dense my packing job is on Full Set rewards. I gotta say, it felt good for you all to notice! I took a fair amount of time figuring out the most compact way to package the Full Set rewards so that the entire Set fits inside a Large Flat-rate Priority box. I then documented it with pictures in hopes that I can recreate that same configuration for future shipments. I've heard that some stalagmites broke in transit and were easily glued back on with superglue. If for whatever reason any pieces arrive in a manner which requires replacement, I need you to send pics of the box if damaged from shipping and pics of the broken piece and then email them to [email protected]. ALL replacement pieces will be handled after this project is 100% fulfilled.
I also wanted to assure everyone that I have taken precautions as all of you have to protect my family and community from transmitting the Coronavirus by social distancing. At the time of writing this there are currently no confirmed cases in my county. It is my hopes that it stays that way, but if things should go awry I am prepared to make sure every piece is disinfected and free of contagion before it reaches the Post Office!
In closing I just wanted to show you all what one of the backers did with his rewards. Simply stunning!
January Update
about 6 years ago
– Mon, Jan 06, 2020 at 11:10:06 AM
!Ahoy!
So I did the thing where I wrote a whole update and then closed the tab! argh! lol
Ok so the Holidays are over and life is finally getting back to normal here. Soon after the last update I realized the scope of the project. I simply could not streamline fulfillment in my dining room. This meant moving the entire project into my studio space in the "dungeon". I finished reorganizing what seems like my entire home to give the project a dedicated and workable space. This means the first packages WILL go out this week!
Every reward fulfilled is going to get a bath in a powerful degreaser to remove as much of the mold release agent as possible before it even gets to you! I experienced some minor difficulties in getting primer to stick well after washing the pieces with dish detergent and felt it a necessary step to add to the workflow. I just want to make sure you folks get a good project with that particular hassle mitigated to the best of my ability.
In other news, the production team has reported a standstill! Gasps! Good news is, they are done with production with all the first run molds! They are now in the process of remolding the final molds necessary to complete the project!
Things are looking brighter and brighter here. I can't wait to get this project behind all of us! Keep an eye on your inbox for a notification of fulfillment!
-David H.
Flowstones and Pitfalls have arrived!
over 6 years ago
– Mon, Dec 09, 2019 at 05:50:36 PM
I was hoping Santa was going to be able to come through for some of you! This batch should take us from 45% to 75% Fulfilled!
First off, these pieces were a complete horror to both mold and cast. My hats go off to the production team. When you finally hold these in your hands, go ahead and ask yourself how in the heck they did it! That all said, we still got some minor imperfections. Many of these I will deal with here before shipping them out.
FP-2
This piece is pretty much the only one with any major alterations and imperfections. Due to the shape, air was getting trapped along the rim of the pitfall and blowing the whole thing out. They had to add a stone in there to create a pathway for the air to travel. The result still ended up with some bubbles, but these ones are manageable! I will fill the holes with an epoxy putty before shipping them
Now on to the fulfillment side of things. I've got a ton on my plate as we speak. During this time of year I AM Santa!
Santagrinder
So you can imagine I'm pretty busy. Alas, I will do my best to get some rewards fulfilled before my big night! I will be processing all small partial orders first and then working on processing all the full set orders painted or unpainted. When I get to the full sets I will go in order of Backer number. In the meantime, please be as awesome and patient as you all have been! You guys rock!
October Production Update
over 6 years ago
– Tue, Oct 08, 2019 at 01:25:34 AM
I apologize for the lack of oversight this past month on this project. Without getting into any details, my own personal life has been in somewhat of a state of flux and so my attention has been both diverted and distracted. Things have been moving forward albeit at a less than favorable pace. This is typical and expected at this point for me. Regardless of the pace, I am, as I have always been, committed to fully fulfilling this project. There is an enormous weight upon my shoulders to do so. I carry with me the expectations of all you awesome folks still diligently waiting for your rewards.
So I was admittedly a little dismayed after my last visit with the production team. I was expecting to be able to starting shipping out some full sets this month and production fell short of that goal. While I did pick up roughly $8,000 in backer rewards, we are still missing the 2 largest Flowstone pieces from the full sets unfortunately. They are trodding on as they have been, but at this point we may be looking at an early XMAS delivery based on their recent level of productivity.
On a very positive note, it looks as though we are only going to have to remold 10 or so molds when we remold! If you recall, there are 33 distinct pieces to the full set, so this was definitely the best news I received during the visit. This means there should be less time waiting for the second run to churn out for production to finally wrap up. However due to the pace of the production team, I do not expect production to wrap up before the new year. Also this means that I may not have any full sets available for sale after this project totally fulfills.
Things are getting closer and closer and so I have been putting more attention to prepping the pieces for shipping the full sets. I have been bathing each piece in a degreaser to remove the mold release. However I highly reccomend a second thorough cleaning for those of you who'll receive unpainted rewards. Painted rewards are obviously getting the same treatment, but due to space constraints I am limited in how much I can have ready and painted for when I receive the final 2 flowstone pieces. The bulk of the painted stuff will be painted after I receive the final 2 pieces. I do plan to ship rewards based on backer number so I will make sure that both the unpainted and painted rewards are represented in the first wave of full set shipments.
Again, I very much appreciate your enduring patience with this project. It may have taken a long time, but I am confident that when you unbox your rewards you'll as happy as I was getting it out of my dining room!
Until the next update I wish you all the very best!
David H.
July Production/Fulfillment Update
over 6 years ago
– Tue, Aug 06, 2019 at 08:10:01 PM
It's taken some time to get in touch with the head of Production. Finally had a good talk with him today. He has assured me that production is still ongoing, though without his direct oversight. This is to be expected. The Head honcho of the production house also runs a seasonal, waterfront restaurant during the summer. That business has been plagued with numerous floods and shortfalls this summer. Luckily this summer he's got the Don still cranking out the casts. He also invested in a mounted grinder tool with a foot pedal so the Don can clean up the sprue-like connections to the pieces lickety split! Once the Flowstones molds have been blown out we will move onward towards the remolding process. A delay in production should be expected for the final 25-30% of production. This delay will come from the fact that they will work on a few molds at a time to fill the remaining counts of the KS order. Since mostly Full Sets are left, it may take some time before I can have more full Sets ready to ship as a result of the production process. I will attempt to process orders based on your backer number.
At this time I estimate we are about 65-70% the way through production! I am hoping that I will have some Full Sets available within a months time! I will be teaching at Reapercon this year down in Texas during the Labor Day weekend. If you are planning on going, please let me know and I will bring your Rewards to the Con to hand to you personally. You'll also get a first hand look at my next TerraScapes project! Before many of you get your hopes up, the project is again geared towards 3D printing. Regardless it will be a sight to behold!
On a side note, I have been working on a Tabletop RPG over the last year and a half. At this time I have written almost 300 pages! At the moment, I have the beginnings of a Core Rule-book, Character Guide, and Fantasy Campaign Guide. I am designing the system so that it can handle any genre! If you would like to check out the very playable BETA version, you can download it for free from my website:
